Need help with Water cooling :??:

[henry66]

this is a pre-built custom PC, I therefore don't know exactly how it was put together. The other day I noted that the reservoir (acrylic) has small cracks around entry points like power for the pump and tube entries. These cracks are small and only visible when light is directed at it from the side. I have fixed a light and took 3 pictures of the back of the reservoir, please have a look:

The system has been running for about 3 months now, no leaks or problems so far.

Please note on picture 2 the blue residue on the walls of the reservoir.
Feser One Blue UV is being used, the system does not run 24/7

Is any of the above something I should worry about? Please advice.

Thank you

 

[velosteraptor]

If you can i would definately RMA it to fix those cracks. To me at least thats unacceptable on a prebuilt system. The other thing i would recommend would be to drain the loop, and use plain old distilled water. Its better for the WC equipment. If you want it to appear to be blue, you can buy some UV blue (or whatever color) tubing you want and redo the hoses.

 

[henry66]

In order to clean the WC system out before replacing the Liquid, what do you suggest I should do?

Use hot distilled water in the loop, let it run for 30 min to clean it out? (hot I mean around 60c, surely cant use too hot water in there?)

Then, what actualy liquid should I use, Distilled with PT Nuke? Do I need an Anti Corrosive?

 

[manofchalk]

Yup, you will want to RMA the system or replace that reservoir. The cracks are only tiny now, but eventually they will get bigger and cause problems.

To drain the loop, an easy way to do it if you don't have a dedicated drain valve is to remove all the water-cooling equipment from the case (still connected to each other). Grab a bucket, pull off a fitting and let it drain. Blow down the tubing to make sure you get all the water out.
Might want to implement something like a T-Line into the loop to make it easier to drain in the future.

To properly clean the loop you literally have to get a toothbrush, disassemble the block and get scrubbing. Though you shouldn't have to go that far it if its only been running for 3 months.
Just disconnect the components you want clean (all of it it seems), hook up some tubing so you can pour a hot water/vinegar solution (1/5 vinegar) in there. Then just shake around a bit and drain, repeat a few times. When that's done rinse it with Distilled.

Distilled Water is best to use in a Water-Cooling loop.
You can use a Biocide like PT-Nuke, a silver Kill-Coil or some other method like UV lighting to kill bacteria/algae in a loop. I advise the kill-coil, as its as simple as dropping it in the loop and forgetting about it.
Distilled Water doesn't corrode metals, so you don't need an anti-corrosive.

EDIT: For advice on all things Water-Cooling, I suggest you read through this sticky.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky

 

[henry66]

Thank you manofchalk, very help helpful!

I got a small question though, since it has only been running for 3 months and I really do not want to make a big job out of it:

The tubes to the GPU are rather long, long enough for me to remove the card and hold it away from the case and easily remove one tube from it.

This would be the tube which I believe is coming out of the reservoir (pumping) into the gpu, then CPU, then radiator, then back to reservoir.

You think I can do what you told me to by just removing the gpu and leave the rest in place?

Once it is flushed with vinegar mixed solution (I would still do that with the 'old' pump+reservoir), I would obviously flush the system with distilled, then completely drain the loop (with one tube removed from the gpu), remove the reservoir, reattach the new reservoir, reattach the GPU, fill the reservoir with a proper mixture and let it run.


Another question I have is:

In order to do all that I obviously need to have the system off, with just the pump working. my motherboard has the 24pin connector obviously, which I will disconnect, but there also is a another power connection at the top left corner of the motherboard.

Do I need to disconnect that as well as ALL other components? Like HDDs, Fan Controllers, lighting etc?

I roughly understand how you jump the 24pin power connection to start the PSU without the motherboard.

You guys are really helping me out here, so thank you for that!

Have a look at how it is setup:

 

[manofchalk]

This is a pre-built system?
Wow, whoever designed the build must not have been thinking. Water-Cooling loops require a lot of maintenance.. Selling these systems to people who don't know how and think it will run forever (AKA, majority of pre-built buyers) is irresponsible.
When you bought the system was it stressed that it would have to be maintained?

You could do it that way to drain the system yes.

With the vinegar flushing, I advise you disconnect everything and do it by hand. I know it will take longer than just pouring it into the loop and turning on the pump, but its better to do it properly and with greater control. It will also teach you how to put together the loop, as without doubt you will have to at some point in the future.

Anything with an exposed PCB you don't want to have power running through. So disconnect the 24pin and 4/8pin ATX power cables. Also the graphics card (which you could remove entirely when leak testing). You could disconnect the other things as well, but I never bother.
If the PSU in the case has the fan facing upward, you may want to orient it so water cant get in that way if it does leak.

 

[henry66]

System specs:

Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard
Water cooled Intel Extreme Edition i7 3960X Hyperthreaded Hex Core
Water cooled Nvidia GTX 680
32GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance RAM
Asus Xonar D2X Sound Card
250GB Corsair SSD Force 3
2TB HDD

Corsair HX1050 1000Watt Power supply
XSPC 360RS Full Water Cooling system
Zalman ZM-MFC3 System monitor LCD

I do not want to remove more than the GPU to clean the loop out, Not because I am lazy of doing so, but simply because I am (even if not an amateur) not experienced for any of that.
I have never worked with WC before and am just about confident enough to remove the gpu, drain the system, and somehow disconnect the PSU from all components in the pc (I hope) :/

I will do all this as soon as I can get a replacement reservoir, distilled water and additives...







Just to make sure, the tube going into the GPU and THEN into the cpu comes from the lower left part of the XSPC water reservoir

Sorry for the small picture, can't find anything bigger as there seem to be many versions which have different outlets/connections at different locations on the reservoir.

I am not 100% which way the water is running actually...

 

[henry66]

Hello folks, think its time to update you on the status of this:

UKGC, which stands for United Kingdom Gaming Computer obviously failed to maintain a good customer relationship. Their incompetence at building computers is almost laughable.

The PC arrived back then with the Power Supply being upside down. it was taking air from outside and blowing hot air into the case. I obviously turned it around (even described in the MANUAL) so that it takes air from outside, and blows it out directly through the designed slot at the bottom.

Funnily, UKGC's Daman Curtis said its impossible to turn it around because "the CPU cable isn't long enough."

I have no idea what he meant by that,I guess he was just caught out and made something up.


Long story short, I ordered a new Reservoir, not acrylic !
Which means I can now start destroying their online reputation


I need your help with something though, please tell me which water and additives to get from this site (both for cleaning it out and then refilling with a mixture for long term use)

https://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk


Thanks

 

[velosteraptor]

In my loop i use distilled water and a silver killcoil.. you can get some kind of dropper additives if youd like, but i have no experience with them. The killcoil has worked fine for me so far.

Distilled water is definately the cheapest. they are ~50 Cents a gallon at walmart in the US, and a gallon will last for 2~3 refilles.