TH Water Cooling Club and Picture Gallery

[4Ryan6]

It seems like my loop is filled with really tiny bubbles. Is this normal or bad? If bad, how do I fix it?

Also, Ry. If I add a GPU block to the loop, should I keep my rads setup the way they are now? Res > Pump > Rad > CPU > Rad > GPU > Res?

Regarding bubbles: As long as the res is sealed you can jostle it around and shake the bubbles loose, sometimes to remove trapped air you have to move the computer from side to side or front to rear to dislodge the air that additionally can get trapped in the radiator housing ends.

Regarding Adding a GPU: Overclocking the CPU is seriously affected when you add a GPU to the loop others will argue against my advice but a GPU cooled especially with a full coverage water block IMO, requires it's own loop, unless CPU overclocking is not critical, but 2 GPUs in SLI or Crossfire absolutely definitely on their own loop.

Overclocking the CPU has everything to do with how the water cooling is approached, what you can get away with a Sandy Bridge you already know cannot be the same with an Ivy Bridge that runs hotter, and Haswell too.

That heat from the overclocked CPU is a constant especially regarding the voltage it takes and how far the CPU is actually overclocked, then what may be an acceptable CPU load temperature at say 4.8ghz, goes out the window when GPU heat is added to the loop.

A GPU and CPU on the same loop under a gaming load limits the CPUs overclock, as the load temperature is higher because of the GPUs added heat to the loop, even when the GPU is idling like in a CPU stress test it is still adding heat.

You're in a learning process right now because you are an overclocker and your goals will eventually be similar or the same as mine, because you are stepping into new territory of cooling, but whether you'll be satisfied with your discoveries or not remain to be seen.

Just as with air cooling, water cooling with radiators, is subject to ambient room temperature.

 

[stickg1]

I'll post a video of the bubbles, they are tiny, almost microscopic. I got all the big bubbles out. I'm starting to think that maybe my pump and res combo generates a lot of turbulance.

I Gotta go to the island and put down some shoe molding, I'll make a video when I get home.

 

[4Ryan6]

What is your coolant?

 

[stickg1]

Distilled water

 

[4Ryan6]

Distilled water

They'll probably eventually disappear? Maybe?

To control algae and such as that the Watercool corporation that makes my radiator recommends adding a small amount of Citric Acid to the loop, so I added 1/8th level teaspoon to mine.

Picked it up from Wally World.

Caution: Do not use Citric Acid additive in conjunction with any type silver additive like a Silver Kill Coil, learned that one the hard way!

Until I got my radiator from Watercool, I had never heard of using citric acid, but it works fine so far and almost everywhere has a Wally World.

 

[Suferbus]

Here is some pics of my 1st Water Cooling Setup. Rig is as follows: Antec DF-85 Chassis-ASRock 990FX Extreme9, AMD FX 8350- 2 Sapphire 7970 3gb Vapor X in Xfire--8 GB GSkillz pc 12800 @ 1600MHz--2 Crucial 256 GB M4's--Antec 1000 PSU--XPSC 750 RX360--

 

[Proximon]

The pump might contribute a little heat, but I doubt it's a big deal. Seems to me there are some tests done somewhere, that might be linked?

 

[stickg1]

My loop has been running for 24 hours straight and now the entire res is clouded with micro-bubbles. What would be the cause and solution for this?



I ordered some angled adapters and I plan on flipping my res over, the single output will then be on the bottom directly above the pump, and I will have the input on top and use the three hole'd nozzle they gave me. Perhaps this will cut down on the turbulence and bubbling.

I think what is happening is that the the input from the bottom of the res shoots up through the silver tube directly at the top of the sealed res, there is a tiny pocket of air up there that I can't seem to get rid of and that little bit of air is being mixed in with the water. Hopefully I change it around so the water comes from the top and leaves through the bottom I can get rid of these bubbles.

 

[4Ryan6]

What pump speed are you running?

If you have that much flow rate able to create the bubbles as you are assuming, lower the pump speed.

I run both my loops on setting 3, with only one CPU water block you could drop to 2 or lower, well that's assuming you bought the variable speed model.

I see a problem in your picture of a partially crimped pump intake tube from the reservoir, use some nylon wire ties to get that crimp out, and you might want to consider getting some of the anti-crimping coiling, it's good stuff.

 

[4Ryan6]

Here is some pics of my 1st Water Cooling Setup. Rig is as follows: Antec DF-85 Chassis-ASRock 990FX Extreme9, AMD FX 8350- 2 Sapphire 7970 3gb Vapor X in Xfire--8 GB GSkillz pc 12800 @ 1600MHz--2 Crucial 256 GB M4's--Antec 1000 PSU--XPSC 750 RX360--

Nice, caused me to have a flashback to my early disco days!

If you hang a mirrored ball in it with a light shining on it don't forget to play Dance Fever in the background! :lol:

Looks good!

 

[stickg1]

I got the MCP655-B which apparently is fixed speed. I probably should have looked into that further before purchasing. It was $50, I'll keep an eye out for something with variable speed. Also I bought about 26 feet of tubing at Lowes and all of it was kind of flat like that. I tried bending it back into shape and after a few hours it goes flat again. It was towards the end of the spool so maybe I just need some fresh hose.

I ordering some angled adapters to make more direct routes and also the necessary fittings to incorporate my Maximus V Formula MOFSET waterblock into the loop. I will replace all the tubing I suppose. And if it goes flat again I will just order some Primochill or something of the sort.

 

[Suferbus]

Here is some pics of my 1st Water Cooling Setup. Rig is as follows: Antec DF-85 Chassis-ASRock 990FX Extreme9, AMD FX 8350- 2 Sapphire 7970 3gb Vapor X in Xfire--8 GB GSkillz pc 12800 @ 1600MHz--2 Crucial 256 GB M4's--Antec 1000 PSU--XPSC 750 RX360--

Nice, caused me to have a flashback to my early disco days!

If you hang a mirrored ball in it with a light shining on it don't forget to play Dance Fever in the background! :lol:

Looks good!

[

Thanks! I have to get a smaller northbridge/vrm fan solution, I just put that 80mm blue Antec fan there until I figure something else out, but my temps have been outstanding, 40c on prime 95 blend.

 

[manofchalk]

Your not supposed to fill the loop with Soda Water :lol:

Maybe your tubing is somewhat coarse on the inside, which is allowing whats called Nucleation to take place. Basically some gas (Hydrogen probably) that's in the water is building up in the little pockmarks and when they get big enough the flow of water pulls them out. Same thing that happens when you pour soft drink into a dry glass.

Most I can suggest is you open up the fill port on the reservoir and just run the loop for a while. The bubbles might be gathering there simply because there's nowhere else to go, so let them out. With that quantity of them, might want to have some more distilled nearby a you will have to top up the res.

 

[slicedtoad]

My loop has been running for 24 hours straight and now the entire res is clouded with micro-bubbles.

If bubbles didn't affect performance (and possibly accumulate in the res and blocks), it'd almost be cool to leave it that way, lol.

 

[stickg1]

Might be too early to say for sure, but I drained the loop and got rid of that silver tube in the reservoir and replaced it with the bitspower cyclone bit and the bubbles have dramatically increased. I don't think the silver tube was being used properly by me, or it just sucks. But since I'm new to WC I will assume I screwed it up somehow!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

 

[amuffin]

Cool! What kind of tubing did you get from Lowes? I bought Watts tubing from Home Depot about a year ago, and my tubing is now clouded with plasticizer 🙁

Pretty good for $15 of tubing!

It's time for some new tubing and water to go in.

 

[stickg1]

Loop update:

Added MVF MOFSET/VRM block to the loop. Re-routed some of the hoses to return to the top of the res instead of the bottom. Also beefed up my fan game. Added 4 Corsair SP120's to my Black Ice GT 240 and moved Thermalrights to my XSPC RS240.




@amuffin - not sure on the brand name, I had heard of it fogging on many accounts. I will replace it once I am done experimenting.

 

[4Ryan6]

Looks clean!

So what are your temps with adding the M/Bs V/R cooler to the mix?

 

[stickg1]

Looks clean!

So what are your temps with adding the M/Bs V/R cooler to the mix?

72C max core after 1 hour full load. Here is HWinfo64 w/ min and max. 3770K @ 4.5GHz 1.305v



Before adding VRMs the same stress test resulted in 77C max core. Margin of error +/- 1C ambient. However, I added/rearranged the fans too. I put push/pull Corsair SP120's on the Black Ice, and moved those Thermalrights to the XSPC. The XSPC had some really weak low RPM fans on it.

I have a few more fittings coming Friday. At that point I will redo it all again, put the rads in series before the CPU block, get rid of the reducers (the VRM block has fixed 3/8" barbs on it so I had to use inline reducers)

 

[4Ryan6]

Kinda hard to argue with temperatures like that!

73c same here!

At a 5300mhz 2700K 0verclock that is.

Well here's 4500mhz 2700K Overclock.

40c max core temp = 32c below yours with TEC cooling.

Not sure why the pictures won't expand whether it's Toms new software or Photobucket?

The top is actually 1920 x 1200 and the bottom 1920 x 1080, the bottom Crysis3 desktop is so cool.

Anyhoo, you'll never touch these temps with radiators, just rubbing salt in the wound. 😀

 

[stickg1]

LOL, my lowly water loop feels ever so inadequate now! Thanks a lot! :lol:

I Might have to look into this TEC cooling.

 

[manofchalk]

I Might have to look into this TEC cooling.

 

[4Ryan6]

Sorry, When I saw the 7Xc temperature range I couldn't resist, My Bad!

Just forget what you saw and continue.

 

[stickg1]

Sorry, When I saw the 7Xc temperature range I couldn't resist, My Bad!

Just forget what you saw and continue.

It's okay. I do have a few more things to try, after all my tweaks I'm hoping for another temp drop.

One flaw I noticed with my new layout is that it is not nearly as easy to drain. I might put in a drain line coming off the bottom of the res for convenience.

 

[toolmaker_03]

This is how I design the drain & fill ports for my loops.