Order of components in water cooling system and liquid type?

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ddemaray

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Oct 2, 2006
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I cannot figure out this problem for the life of me...

When I first set up the system I used distilled water and got great temp readings, my idle was 37c. But the video cards were cooler because they were first in the loop from the radiator. Then after sleeping on it a night and worrying about the possibility of a leak and frying my system I decided to go to danger den mct5. I chose this because I read some websites that said it actually decreased the temperature over distilled water and that is is 100% non conductive.

I also changed the order in which the liquid travels and switched the component order. However I dont remember what order it was in the first time. Now my idle is 43c and load is 52c which is the exact same as the corsair. I did not pay $500 to get the exact same temps. My question is what order should the configuration be in? (radiator>pump>cpu>etc.) What else could be going on? Possibly the mct5? The most important think to me the safety of my system, which ever liquid I use I want to be certain that it is non-conductive. Thanks

Swiftech 655 pump, swiftech storm cpu block, (2) dangerden maze4 gpu blocks, swiftech 360 radiator, swiftech clear resevoir.

Right now it goes,

Pump>radiator>resevoir>cpu block>x1900>x1900>pump.

I have tried the pump on all settings.

AMD 4800+ @ 2.83ghz and crossfire cards not overclocked at all. The crossfire cards are fine in terms or temps. (39c idle) I am not terribly concerned with them.
 
You can do all kinds of setups.
You have a bad loop setup, its horrible way of doing it do it this way.....

Personally the loop would be for me:

swiftech clear resevoir>Pump>Radiator>CPU block>x1900>x1900>


With this setup the water gets to settle in the resevoir and relax for a sec, then gets pumped into radiator and when it comes out of it, it will be at its MAX coolness. Sense the cpu needs to be colder then the video cards it will get the newest water first, then hit which ever card runs hotter in your system. For example in my SLi setup my bottom card runs 2c hotter. So I WOULD hit my bottom first then the top card, then loop back to resevoir.

This is the IDEAL setup in my mind.
 
Non-conductive liquid may not be as good as distilled water but the difference is maybe 2-3 degrees celcius. Don't quote me on this but I have tried it with my first low-end water cooling kit. Right now I'm using the Innovatek non-conductive liquid and I get only few degrees higher than my room ambient temperature.

Well, cool the cpu first that way you have the lowest liquid temp flowing on it first. Also switch to the distilled water, I know it's a pain in the ass to do so and risks leakage and worst but that would get rid of the suspicion between the distilled water and your non-conductive's temp difference. I don't anything about that non-conductive liquid. I have used Fluid XP+(very expensive), PrimoChill ICE and currently Innovatek Protect.
 
I just changed my set up to pump>cpu>gpu>radiator>resevoir and it droped my temps 1c and I just feel like the flow and pressure is allot better now...thank you

However I am still 4c higher than I was yesterday when I was using distilled water.

Is distilled water really non conductive?

And out of fluid xp+, primo chill ice, and innovatek protect which of them did you get the lowest temps with?
 
Well distilled water is better than non-conductive. Maybe 2-5 degrees celcius difference. And distilled water is still electrical conductive.

Distilled water and 10% anti-freeze is common and high-performance low-cost cooling liquid. If you don't mind the possibility of leaks as it rarely happens.

As for the different non-conductive, I got the best cooling with the Fluid XP+, almost the same as water but one liter well set you $35! Yeah, it's very expensive and I would have get it again except Frozencpu.com was out of stock so I got the Innovatek Protect.

But right now your temps are alright, overclocked cpu and two powerful X1900XTX cards will not be easy to cool to low temps. :)
 
So the fluid XP is truly non conductive?

I am only paranoid about the conductivity because I cannot afford to replace my computer in the event of a leak and zap!

So distilled water will give you the best temps but IS electrically conductive?
 
I just changed my set up to pump>cpu>gpu>radiator>resevoir and it droped my temps 1c and I just feel like the flow and pressure is allot better now...thank you

However I am still 4c higher than I was yesterday when I was using distilled water.

Is distilled water really non conductive?

And out of fluid xp+, primo chill ice, and innovatek protect which of them did you get the lowest temps with?
Click to expand...

No problem, Well in theory that setup gives the water a sec to settle and relax and then the radiator brings it down to ambient again so the cpu gets best cooling, plus like you said pump should work better MAYBE pulling from the res.
 
Have you ever thought of using straight anitfreeze or hydraulic oil?

Hydraulic oil is pretty darn thin and should work well and won't hurt your system. In fact when I build my new system here soon I am just going to submerse the whole thing in hydraulic oil and pump it into a radiator from the case itself. This would eliminate corrosion completely (yes aluminum will corrode with time as with anything) and if it leaks you can just rinse your components off.

All sorts of liquids to use I suppose.

Worth a shot....lemme know how it goes if you use it.

And it's a hell of a lot cheaper, course I've never used the fluids you guys are talking about..
 
I have thought about both of those but I must admit that my paranoia would probally be the highest with both of those unless I read some studies on them. I just want my temps to be as low as possible and still maintain non conductive nature
 
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