watercooling question

[dduummyy]

does anyone know if copper will effect my current all aluminum koolance system? Im going to make a custom radiator out of copper pipe and aluminum fins, so coming out of the video has a exchanger and out of the cpu has its own exchanger(radiator). I just wanted to know if the copper would react in some weird way to my current aluminum setup, thanks.

 

[wun911]

Yep they say dont mix, it gives potential boht metas have differnt charge ..... this reaction occurs very very slowly.... (I forgot the name of this chemical reaction) oc forums has tons of stuff on this....

Ive seen copper and aloy mixed in water cooling setups..... Just have to clean the water blocks every 6 months or so..... (you need to replace the water now and then anyway)

 

[NeonDeon]

copper and aluminum don't mix! Even when not tuching. Just stick with what you have man and leave good enough alone. You will regret the decission latter as you forget to change the water from time to time!

Besides what the point? Your not going to get anything out ouf it...

 

[dduummyy]

thanks for the replies, i was going to switch out the 3 80mm fans and mount 2 120 mm fans on the radiator first to see if that helps. The circuitry for the water system has four fan hookups, if the 120's dont help, theres a all aluminum transmission cooler at autozone which is low resistance on flow that is the same size as the one thats in there for $29 that i can mount 2 more 120mms on so they are controlled by the thermostat controller also. I would think it has to help cooling the hotter water coming from the cpu before it pumps into the vga waterblock would you?

 

[dduummyy]

i ended up getting a swiftec 80mm radiator so now it flows from the reservior to the processor to the 80mm rad to the video and to the 2x120mm rad and back to the reservior. Temps are 5C cooler to the video card and 4C cooler to the cpu! Not bad for $20. 😀

 

[phreejak]

Because waterblocks are usually copper and rads are typically made of aluminum, running pure water is not good. They will be corrosive on each other, it's like a battery. That's why there are specially formulated cooling liquids which prevent such things.

 

[dduummyy]

i hear ya, i do have a uv reactive additive that stops the corrosive stuff from going on. Ive never seen anything in the water, when it gets old does it change color or get darker? Maybe sediment somewhere perhaps? The koolance rad is aluminum, and the cpu block is 24k gold plated copper inside and out, and the swiftech is all brass inside, or at least thats whats written in the description at newegg.

 

[phreejak]

It takes a long time for properly balanced liquid coolant (either premixed or water-additive) to lose its effectiveness. There are a few signs of this but, the most common are sediment or growth (especially along the fins or grooves in a waterblock) or the liquid losing it's opacity (getting more cloudy).

 

[dduummyy]

ok thanks, ill look for that. 😀

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

DON'T MIX METALS

additives will only slow down galvanic errosion, it wont' STOP it.

its a time bomb waiting to blow if you are mixing metals in your loop