Via Aqua 1300

So I have had my water cooling setup running for about 5 days straight for leak testing purposes. I was very happy with the lack of noise it was putting out, almost silent. So, I went to check on it last night and it sounded like the pump had turned into a piledriver. I thought to myself, oh crap, I should have went with another pump, I can't deal with this noise now. I looked up the silencer mod for the Via, and decided it's worth a shot. I don't have anything to lose at this point. If you haven't seen it here is the link:
http://wc101.com/guides/ViaAqua/

Got the pump apart and tried to superglue the two parts together that the guide showed. Well, there was no way that supergule was gonna hold these two parts together for me. Bye the way, my impeller was blue, not red like in the mod. The spacing between the impeller and the shaft was just too large. I ended up jamming two small pieces of plastic between the impeller and the shaft, one directly across from one another. Then I superglued those pieces in there, even though they didn't move without the superglue, just a little extra precaution. I let that dry and sanded everything smooth. Put everything back together and turned her on. It started making even a louder noise, Oh crap. I noticed on the forums that sometimes it would be loud until it started sucking in some water, so I waited..... After 5 min I noticed that there was no water even in the pump, so I took a straw and blew water into it. Then it started working!!! Well all I can say at this point is that if I didn't see water moving around I would think that the pump was off! This is an awsome mod and it saved me some cash. Hope this helps anyone else.

LOL....

I have a Via, too. Great bang for the buck, but you need a lot of luck or a patient, thoughtful mind to get any use from one.

It is of note that the Via REQUIRES water for cooling.

Mine's working well atm, but I've used half a tube of superglue on it, between the silence mod and leaks.

Note that if your plastic pieces are not balanced, the pump WILL self destruct.

Good bang for the buck, but when this fails, who knows when, I'll install the second Via I bought as a backup (heck, why not have a backup when they're were $12 shipped) Then maybe get one of the new D4s, the silent revision.

Glad to know everything worked out for you.

Where did you get it for $12 shipped?

drsfostersmith $12 each +$5off coupon+ about $5 shipping

maybe a few bucks more, prices may have changed from 3 months ago tho

Mine works rather well. What you can do to reduce the noise of the pump is to suspend it in the air. I simply have mine mounted on some acrylic... it vibrates, but the plastic absorbs most of it and it doesn't make a whisper. My 120mm fans at 7v are louder, though it does make the floor vibrate at lanparties .

I have a via too. Instead of supergluing on the side of the impellor. I superglued it from the top. I just brushed it on where the blue and white meets.

I did exactly what Nitro did; brushed on some superglue to the top where the "white meets the blue" For me, it lessened the vibration quite a bit but slightly increased the actual noise of the pump. Acceptable tradeoff for me, as most of my complaint was my cheap steel case was resonating to the vibration

I finally got it almost completely quiet by mounting it to some spare vinyl tubing. I used four little 1/2" long sections of 1/2" tubing, put a hole straight through the walls, and mounted screws through those holes. So the pump is fastened to the topside of the hose, and the case is mounted to the bottom side of the hose. Thus it sits about 1/4" off the ground (the hose kinda squishes down with the weight of the pump) and vibrates to itself

I am on my second Via 1300. The first one failed after about 8 months. At least it died slowly and loudly so that I didn't lose any equipment to a spectacular leak.

I got two more, one running now and another as a spare. Water cooling has been nice, but it is an additional headache at times. I modded my Via 1300s and it made them silent, but then they have trouble starting up. As far as sound dampening goes, I have mine sitting on a two in piece of foam rubber with no attachment to the case at all.



The current pump doesn't even start sometimes, it just sits there heating up. I found this out after a recent storm that knocked the power out just for a brief instant. Apparently the power drop out was long enough to shut off the pump but not the PC. (They are both plugged into the same small UPS.) Shortly after the power event the PC started booting itself every 5 minutes or so.

Turned out it was hitting the 60C shutdown temperature I had set. The pump is always so quiet that I can't tell if it is running or not, so I had to pull the case side off and fetl the pump. It was freakin warm and it wasnt vibrating at all. I had to let the pump cool down for an hour or so and then whack it with the handle of a big screw driver to get it moving again. It has been working ever since though. That was about 3 weeks ago.

However, when this Via fails I will probably get one of the new Dtek 12v pumps or just go back to air cooling.

I thought that this forum deserved a bump cause A lot of epopel try this and it was wuite frusteating for me, but this thread cleared a lot up. Defintly worht a read.

Or you can run submerged. My 1300 ran for 6 months submerged in a 2 quart tupperware container without being powered off. Ran like a champ and couldn't hear it at all.

Then I moved, and now I can't find it. Fate is cruel.

I got a Via Aqua 1300 aswell, so far its doing just fine not too loud, but then again my computer sounds like a jet so it's probably making a ton of noise I just can't notice it. No mods done yet, but after reading this thread I think it's just a matter of time untill I need to..

Just FYI... it is one month since my previous post and the Via mentioned above died just lasst night. I can almost get it to start by hitting it firmly with a heavy screwdriver handle (it was handy). I plan to install my last Via 1300 and see how long it lasts. After that... who knows. My system is quiet with water cooling, but it is a pain in the *** to maintain.

I need to give up on WC, or pay the price and buy a better pump. No more Via's for me.

I never turn mine off, I'm too scared. So far, so good.

Yep... mine run 24/7 unless I am going out of town for more than a couple days. The two that died were both killed by power failures/spikes in my neighborhood. I never bought a bigger UPS, so its mostly my fault that the second one died.

I've got a battery backup/surge protector. Back when I used to shop at Best Buy the floor guy con'ed me into buying one. It has become one of my best purchases though.

Mine is a little 350va, with (obviously) not enough battery reserve to handle both the load from the PC and the pump. OfficeDepot had a 550va "free after rebate" two weeks ago and I couldn't get my lazy a$$ over there to get one.

Have you tested the UPS to see if it holds up under a simulated failure (i.e. pull the plug from the wall outlet and see what happens)?

I tried flipping off the circuit breaker and it holds up for about 5min. I guess that's long enough for just a quick power outage. I only have the monitor, PC, and the pump plugged into it. The printer, speakers, etc. are on a different outlet.

5 mins sounds great and definitely more than enough for the typical spikes I encounter here in the midwest. What size is the UPS you are using? I may to get one for my system.

I have the APC Back-UPS 280. It's discontinued now, but I think the 350 is out there.

Thanks!