PC Water Cooling

[Beardroid91]

The new mono blocks look so damn nice

[MadManCK]

Paul did some maintenance on his Arctic Panther system. This shows why you should replace or flush at least once every 2 years. But also that the so called pastel colorants can clog your loop very easily. Even if this was just a beta fluid.

Considering this is an experienced system builder, you can see how easy it is to make mistakes with water loops. And maintenance is just as important as initial assembly.

[Beardroid91]

Yea i watched it last night, and called him a lazy dumbass for not cleaning the GPU blocks and radiators.

Also lemon juice ... WTF EK recommends soapy water, so this just Poul's Failware...

[MadManCK]

Lemonjuice removes grease. But i would stick to EK recommendations. And that block still looked bad after the toothbrush treatment.
Obviously watercooling is not his core business. But it gives a very good impression of what can happen if you leave your system running unattended. Watercooling means some additional maintenance. No matter if it is an AIO or custom loop.

A can of compressed air does miracles already. I still have a special kit for my vacuum cleaner as well.

The additives are also a concern. One of the reasons why i ordered EK premixed fluids. The chance of clogging will be a lot less with their own fluids. And i will pre flush all rads with destilled water.

PS Paul should have flushed the rads as well. Especially knowing that the used fluid was bad. He will most likely exchange the GFX soon®
2x GTX1080ti and a i7 6950 will most likely make their way into that system. And than he has to replace fluids again.

And maybe he is a bit lazy. Not tightening the reservoir top is an example of that. Reminds me of that BitWit buddy of him, who forgot a stop on his GFX when filling the system
Maybe they should do a build together

PS In one of the comments someone mentiones an Ultrasonic cleaner to clean the CPU block. I do have these. Might be a smart thing to do. But right now i'm just assembling stuff for my build.

[Beardroid91]

I'm thinking about getting a new copper base for my Supremacy Evo as min copper base looked nasty, but then again much nicer that the mishandled block Poul had after cleaning it.

Reminds me that i need/want to replace tubing and clean my own water loop, and when i get more money maybe get that EK waterblock for the GPU, but expensive, and EK have the MSI 1080 block on sale for 35% off so 85 euros for a EK block is a steal, but sadly nothing for the 1080 FTW block.

[MadManCK]

I still doubt nickel plated copper is better than pure copper. It does look nice for sure.

As i will also have nickel plated copper blocks in my loop, i will stick to EK recommendations, when it comes to cleaning and the use of coolants.

It is still very well possible to make your own fluids with destilled/demineralized/deinonized water, glycol, anti corrosives, anti bacteria, thermal conductivity enhancers and whatever the marketing divisions throw at you.
But most larger watercooling companies have used science to create the best possible solutions to work with their components.

At the same time you often see "Pro" solutions cause harm, due to clogging. Dye coloring and the new pastels as number one source.
So maybe some of these colorants are more suitable for demonstrations and show cases and less for 24/7 use in your own rig.

I the past i have used a mixture of glycol (1/3) and destilled water (2/3) and ran it for 4 years straight without issues. I also know people who only use destilled water and flush it every year.

But to fully customize your waterloop, coloring is a key ingredient. Better than using colored hoses.

In the case of Paul, he could have used white tubing for the same effect, lol

[Beardroid91]

Mad you need this EK-FC Terminal Rotary 90° - Black, the best 25 euros

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-fc-termina ... y-90-black

It looks so damn nice and you hardly noticed it in a build but it does make a difference

[MadManCK]

They look awesome. There is always the fact, that tubes do curve according to how they were rolled up in the box. This will somehow auto adjust some of that tension.

I will look into it later.

EDIT: it does look cool, but i won't need it. Problem with plexi tops is that once something has been screwed into it with self tapping screws, it is easy to destroy the taps when dismounting and exchanging.
Besides, the square black box on top is exact situated as i need.

I do admit the replacement looks better in many ways. For the complete look you would also need some of the 90 degree rotary fittings in other places of the build. But i tried to avoid having too many possible leak spot. These rotary fittings can be a cause of a leak.
But knowing EK quality, that chance is small.

Adding the rotary fittings in more places would look awesome...

For example, i could add 2x45 degree angle on the cpu block, making it more easy for the tubing. And maybe some 90 degree fittings on the pump top.
And getting them in black will look awesome. Chrome might look good too.

But i should be able to route everything by tubing alone. That is where test fitting comes in.

[MadManCK]

I have been thinking about a different loop layout.

I can loop the GPU and CPU block in a parallel configuration. This would feed both of them with the same intake water temp.
Only the water pressure would drop a little, as the stream is split. This would also decrease the resistance from the loop.

The GPU top has 4 x 1/4 intake/exhaust connectors. I can run 2x short tubes directly to the CPU block from them. The intake and exhaust on the GPU would than be from below. I can run one hose partially hidden to the radiator at the top and from there downwards to the reservoir.
It will reduce the amount of tubing dramatically and give a nice clean look.

In this scenario i will only use the 2x 240 radiators. And flip the rear exhaust fan to become an intake. This will provide plenty of cooling surface already.

Only real issue would occur if the resistance in one of the blocks is significantly different from the other. Ideal for parallel loops are 2 similar blocks like in an SLI configuration. In ths case it will be a GPU and a CPU block. But i'm convinced it will work and even reduces stress on the pump.

Water loop will be like; res/pump - 240/60 rad - gpu/cpu - 240/30 rad - res/pump.

[Beardroid91]

Mad did you seen EK launched their new improved EK CryoFuel coolants today?

https://www.ekwb.com/news/ek-introduces ... -coolants/

They say it have a better life spand and keeps its color better than the old coolants, infact EK have discontinued their old Ekoolant Evo coolants, so they must be believing in the new CryoFuel coolant.

Hopefully JayzTwoCents will have a review of it soon.