Fixing a Leaky AIO Liquid Cooler, Then Using Toothpaste For Thermal Paste

[judahg460]

Hello, I recently had a leaking AIO water cooler that was not keeping my temps. I had taken the water cooler off a couple of times so the theremal paste was not working, and on top of that it was leaking. I took this thing to my garage, cleaned it out with distilled water and then filled it with distilled water. Then I put the tubes back on the fittings, zip tied them up, applied toothpaste to the cpu and installed my cooler. It now runs at 4.4 Ghz with temps of 140 feriheight on prime 95. Your thouughts on this? (P.S. I am thirteen and this is my first time with water cooling)

 

[aldan]

not a smart move at all.even with temps like that (and i somehow doubt it) you are on your way to cooking your cpu,as soon as that toothpaste dries out.

 

[WildCard999]

This seems.... dangerous, at least for your other components. AIO's are not made to be tampered with and usually carry a decent warranty to have them fixed or replaced by the manufacturer. If your "fix" does ruin your other parts then the manufacturer will not cover those damaged parts as you messed with the AIO instead of RMA. Also why toothpaste? Any decent thermal paste only cost about $5.

While 140F (60C) appears to be good we have no idea as you never posted your specs.

 

[judahg460]

Well i have an fx 8150 on a 990 FXA-GD80 with 16 gb ddr3 ram and a hd 6970. Its old stuff and i have a spare mobo. Also how different is this from a custom loop? It has the same risks as a custom loop. when i gave yall 140 that was 1 minute on prime 95. After 10 minutes it got up to 150 and then came down to 148 and just stayed there. I was going to buy some Arctic Silver 5 because this toothpaste thing was not permanent.

 

[judahg460]

And so far there is no leaking and my loop seems fine. The pump sounds fine. I would rather try this out until it leaks than spend 30 bucks on a new cooler.

 

[ehmkec]

Past discussion on same topic:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/329905-28-easy-alternative-thermal-paste

 

[USAFRet]

Hello, I recently had a leaking AIO water cooler that was not keeping my temps. I had taken the water cooler off a couple of times so the theremal paste was not working, and on top of that it was leaking. I took this thing to my garage, cleaned it out with distilled water and then filled it with distilled water. Then I put the tubes back on the fittings, zip tied them up, applied toothpaste to the cpu and installed my cooler. It now runs at 4.4 Ghz with temps of 140 feriheight on prime 95. Your thouughts on this? (P.S. I am thirteen and this is my first time with water cooling)

Toothpaste = 1 day
Leaky AIO = 1 day

Kudos for working with what you have, though.

 

[DSzymborski]

And so far there is no leaking and my loop seems fine. The pump sounds fine. I would rather try this out until it leaks than spend 30 bucks on a new cooler.

Check engine light on my car? I would rather try this out until something happens rather than take 10 minutes to have a repair shop read the code.

 

[judahg460]

And so far there is no leaking and my loop seems fine. The pump sounds fine. I would rather try this out until it leaks than spend 30 bucks on a new cooler.

Check engine light on my car? I would rather try this out until something happens rather than take 10 minutes to have a repair shop read the code.

As i said before, How different is this from a closed custom loop?

 

[USAFRet]

As i said before, How different is this from a closed custom loop?

Did you get ALL the air out?
How did you verify this?

How are you ensuring the ziptie connections won't move a millimeter or so (vibration is a thing), leaking fluid all over your other parts?

 

[judahg460]

The zip ties are pretty tight and will it ruin the pump if air gets in it?

 

[judahg460]

I can make a reservoir if I need to or find another way to get the air out

 

[urbancamper]

Sorry can't help myself with this one. This is pure foolishness.

 

[bmockeg]

Is this a satire?

 

[WildCard999]

I kind of want to see pic's of this Frankin-AIO.

 

[Peter Martin]

Pics or it’s fake

 

[rubix_1011]

Many people have successfully drained and refilled AIOs, including me, but that was to test flow and coolant deltas. It isn't too difficult to do, but you do have to be patient and use a syringe to get both the pump and radiator+tubing as full as possible before sealing up.

Toothpaste as thermal compound...that's garbage and I wouldn't trust that. You can easily get cheap thermal paste on Amazon or Ebay for like $1. Heck, you can even get it at many local electronics stores.

 

[Peter Martin]

But the cpu needs clean teeth In order to achieve maximum performance

 

[judahg460]

I removed all the old fluid and tubes and put distilled water with food coloring and some clear tubing. I have also made a resevoir out of a mason jar. Took me about an hour in my garage to fill the loop and get both ends in the jar. I am running my computer right now with this setup.

https://imageshack.com/a/img921/9751/1ALc0V.jpg

https://imageshack.com/a/img922/7433/CCk9b6.jpg

https://imageshack.com/a/img921/3554/Z4h7aS.jpg

 

[WildCard999]

That is... unique.

 

[DSzymborski]

Sludge plus evaporation will have some interesting effects.

 

[The Paladin]

…. shall we call the troll patrol on this ?

 

[judahg460]

Oh i thought about the evaporation on this:

https://imageshack.com/a/img922/755/XsD21o.jpg

and i sealed around the hoses just in case

 

[judahg460]

As i have said for the tenth time, how different is this from a custom loop?

 

[USAFRet]

As i have said for the tenth time, how different is this from a custom loop?

Right.
Just taking what used to be an AIO CLC, and cutting it apart to make an open custom loop.

Completely different than the first post, which seemed to be refilling a CLC. (and using toothpaste?)

Again, kudos for doing it, and it looks mostly cool.