[SOLVED] Significant Air Bubbles in AIO?

[combs171]

I'm running a 980ti hybrid and recently traveled with my pc (200 miles) and was getting buzzing noises from the AIO. I mount my rad on the intake bottom of the case. After moving the radiator around and restarting the pump the sound went away. Is there leakage with closed loops like this? and if so how should I go about refilling?

 

[Phaaze88]

1)They permeate over time.
2)Depends on your model. The vast majority of them aren't intended to be refilled; you keep the fans(if they still work) and toss the rest out.
AIOs are a cheap and convenient alternative to custom liquid. The tradeoff is that they don't cool as effectively, nor can they run as quiet as the real deal.

 

[Karadjgne]

Air rises to the top of any liquid. With the pump higher than the tubing, any air in the system when its placed on its side will travel. There's always some amount of air in an aio, air will compress, liquids do not. So if there's any climate change, heat change or any temp change causing the liquid to expand or contract, the air acts as a buffer, preventing over pressurization of fittings or pump.

 

[combs171]

Air rises to the top of any liquid. With the pump higher than the tubing, any air in the system when its placed on its side will travel. There's always some amount of air in an aio, air will compress, liquids do not. So if there's any climate change, heat change or any temp change causing the liquid to expand or contract, the air acts as a buffer, preventing over pressurization of fittings or pump.

Yeah I didn't even think about the physics of it all, and the necessity of some air. Thanks for the info.

 

[combs171]

1)They permeate over time.
2)Depends on your model. The vast majority of them aren't intended to be refilled; you keep the fans(if they still work) and toss the rest out.
AIOs are a cheap and convenient alternative to custom liquid. The tradeoff is that they don't cool as effectively, nor can they run as quiet as the real deal.

Yeah, I've had this loop for 5 years, maybe time to upgrade to a custom.

 

[Phaaze88]

Yeah, I've had this loop for 5 years, maybe time to upgrade to a custom.

The downsides to custom liquid are why AIOs are so popular:
-expensive
-planning: radiator sizes and where they'll fit in the chassis, and the best fans for a particular rad's parameters
-probably the one that turns most people away, the maintenance: draining, cleaning, refilling, leak testing... 2x a year or more - even more frequent if one has a thing for those pastel coolants; they gunk up quickly, and the aftermath is rather nasty.
There's more, but that's what I remember off the top of my head.

 

[Karadjgne]

There are some few similarities between aio and custom loops, just as there are similarities between air and aio, but that's where that whole line of thought comes to a sudden stop. There's a ton of stuff where custom loops are totally dissimilar to either.

Price is the first one usually seen. A good loop including cpu/gpu will usually average around $700 or more, depending on how its plumbed. More care, research, decisions go into a loop than the entire rest of the pc combined. Ppl can throw together a relatively decent pc in a few minutes on pcpartpicker.com, a custom loop can easily take months of research and planning. Custom rads are not created equal, are not finned the same, are not the same depth or flow restrictive, what fans are appropriate for that particular rad etc. The last thing you want to do is throw a couple of high cfm, low speed, low sp, rgb case fans on a 60mm thick radiator.

Custom loops are an advanced science, even if some show people treat them as works of art and performance taking a back seat.

 

[combs171]

There are some few similarities between aio and custom loops, just as there are similarities between air and aio, but that's where that whole line of thought comes to a sudden stop. There's a ton of stuff where custom loops are totally dissimilar to either.

Price is the first one usually seen. A good loop including cpu/gpu will usually average around $700 or more, depending on how its plumbed. More care, research, decisions go into a loop than the entire rest of the pc combined. Ppl can throw together a relatively decent pc in a few minutes on pcpartpicker.com, a custom loop can easily take months of research and planning. Custom rads are not created equal, are not finned the same, are not the same depth or flow restrictive, what fans are appropriate for that particular rad etc. The last thing you want to do is throw a couple of high cfm, low speed, low sp, rgb case fans on a 60mm thick radiator.

Custom loops are an advanced science, even if some show people treat them as works of art and performance taking a back seat.

Yea, I would focus on soft tube for ease and performance. My computer is more of a workhorse than a piece of art.

 

[Karadjgne]

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