Water Cooling Noob Question Again

[deaconzero]

Hey everyone. I put this over in Home Built systems, but this might be a bit better. New to the forums, but I've been a long time reader of TH. Hopefully someone out there can help me out.

I'm switching my system over to water cooling. I have everything installed, but when I switch on the computer, the coolant doesn't flow well. It doesn't even make it to the first water block. After some research I see that this is probably because of air in the tubing. My question is how do I remedy this? Hope you guys can help out a WC noob. Thanks a lot.

- Nick

 

[Shadow703793]

List full specs.

Also, how is every thing mounted. Pics would help.

 

[Conumdrum]

Can you tell us what is the parts of your watercooling system? And a PIC or three will be very helpful. Otherwise it's hard to help.

Have you read much about bleeding the system? It can take up to a day at times.

Did you power up the full PC or just the pump without leak testing for a day before even hooking up the mobo, hard drives etc?

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=312743

 

[Shadow703793]

One more thing OP: Read the WCing guide at the top of this section.

 

[deaconzero]

Ok guys, thanks for the initial replys. Here are the specs and some pics.

I bought the case, which came with the initial radiator/resevoir/cpu water block from Xoxide. It's the Thermaltake Armor LCS. Here's the link.

http://xoxide.com/thermaltake-armor-lcs-ve2000bws.html

I also bought the Thermaltake Aqua Brazing VGA Waterblock for my graphics card.

http://xoxide.com/thermaltake-aqua-brazing-vga.html

The rest of the computer I built in '08 and pretty much everything was from Newegg.

Mobo -
XFX MB-N780-ISH9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Intel Motherboard 3-Way SLI

Video Card -
EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

PSU -
Rosewill Xtreme Series RX950-D-B 950W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified

CPU -
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core

RAM -
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) x 2 for a total of 8GB

I have two DVD burners and 5 hard drives.

One 300GB Raptor w/ Vista64 on it. And then a 1TB, 2x500GB, and a 36GB Raptor.

Hope this helps.

 

[Shadow703793]

I'm sorry to tell you, but this is why we don't recommend Thermal Take cr@p. Thermal take liquid cooling products are prone to failure,etc, hence why you are having problems. My guess is bad pump.

 

[deaconzero]

Could there be nothing to do with air in the tubes, or did I miss the mark with that?

 

[Shadow703793]

Btw, by the looks of that pic, isn't the water level at "Low"? Also, WTF's up with the black tubing? By the looks of the pic of the black tubing near the GPU, it appears to be kinked.

Also, is it set up like this: res>pump>CPU>GPU>rad>back to res?

 

[Shadow703793]

Could there be nothing to do with air in the tubes, or did I miss the mark with that?

I can't tell if the fluid's in the lines or not from the pic, but I'm assuming there is fluid on the line. Have you read the guides?

 

[deaconzero]

Yeah, I've been reading up on the guides, There is barely any fluid flowing. The only tube that is flowing at all is the tube going from the pump to the cpu water block. But, it stops short of the water block, only going about half way.

So I guess what I'm looking at right now is either a bad pump or air in the tubes. I can buy another pump if I need to, which would suck, but that's my fault for not researching more before hand. But, if it's just air, then any advice on that would be great.

 

[Shadow703793]

Ok, try this: Remove the fill port cap on the res and fill the res to the MAX. Then run the pump. You indeed seem to have AIR in ALL your tubing and there is no way for the air to escape with the cap on the res.

 

[deaconzero]

No go. Powered off the fluid is still sitting in the tube a little under halfway to the water block. When I power on the fluid gets pushed about an inch, and then just sits there.

 

[deaconzero]

Ok. I'm still trying to see if it's possibly air in the tubes, but if not, could you recommend what pump to get. Also, I'm assuming I could just switch out the pump, and not have to replace the reservoir too, or is that incorrect?

 

[Shadow703793]

Probably will need a new res. I recommend the MCP655 and the Micro res combo (~$80-85).

 

[Conumdrum]

I'm gonna not say much about this major issue. Mostly a Thermaltake problem, I'd go direct to them for help.

I don't know anything about TT, which is a good thing.

 

[deaconzero]

Thanks guys. I'm going to call ThermalTake tomorrow and talk to them about this, and I'll post something when I find out.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Imo, sell that cr@ppy thing and do a real WCing loop.

 

[deaconzero]

So... I called TT, they said it sounds like I have air in the tubes. They said as along as the pump is vibrating it should be fine. So, I guess I'll try again with getting air out of the tubes. If you guys could suggest anything else to get air out, that'd be awesome. Thanks.

 

[Shadow703793]

Hmm... fill the tubes using a funnel and see?

 

[deaconzero]

Ok, so I'm giving up on the air theory for now. I'm going to RMA the pump, and in the mean time I'm going to buy a new pump to see if that works, and also bc I'm a bit pissed w/ TT. However, my question is, how can I tell if my reservoir will fit the new pump. This is what I'm looking at

Swiftech MCP350 12 VDC Pump - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835108063

and the reservoir came with this
http://xoxide.com/thermaltake-armor-lcs-ve2000bws.html
and is also a part of this
http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?S=1155&ID=1638
it's the 350cc tank

How would I hook these two things up together?

 

[strife_1980]

If you have not RMA'd the pump yet have you tried having the res open and gradually adding the coolant as it the pump is running? Isay this as your res has nowhere near enough coolant in it. I know having the top off the res results in massive pressure drop but the pump still have sufficient pressure to force the coolant through the tubes and force the air out.

And yes thermaltake was a bad idea. I had that very same set up a few years ago. I tolerated it two months before doing a whole custom setup. Also watch out for that cpu block as after time it may start to leak.

 

[deaconzero]

I haven't RMA'd it yet, but I did try that. Also, I'm not sure why, but in the pic, it looks like the coolant level is low, but it's definitely up to the high marker, so I'm not sure why it looks like that. Sorry for the misleading photo.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible for me to hook up the Swiftech mcp350 to my current pump? I'll order one today if I know I can.

 

[Shadow703793]

I'm not sure about the barb size,etc on the Thermal Take res, but it should fir assuming the TT res is 3/8" and has the right barbs,etc.

 

[rubix_1011]

Air in the tubes + crappy pump = TT

You really should do a little more research on priming and bleeding a loop before you just 'turn everything on'. Regardless of the loop you install, you will have the same problems with them if you don't bleed the air and correctly prime the system. I am sorry you got a TT kit...but this wouldn't happen if you had done more research than just reading a review on some site. All good WC components are completely tested and compared, scientifically, and given unbaised results by professionals well-versed in the industry.

 

[deaconzero]

You're very right rubix. Thank you for the scolding. I did a little more research than just reading reviews, but I definitely could have done more.