Done with Water Cooling

I am sure I will get flamed but over the weekend, I had another what I thought to be a pump failure (again). I have been playing around with water cooling for a couple of years now.

Over the couple of years, I used this forum for selecting the right additives, hoses, sizing, and so one. This is a wonderful forum for this information and a lot of knowledge here.

Over the same years, to me anyway, it seems to be a lot of work, care, and expense in maintaining a loop. Air cooled - just blow your rig out with compressed air once in a while. If you do have a fan failure, you can just run down to you favorite computer supply house, buy a new fan and you are back in business. (Hard to fine W/C parts around here. Mostly have to mail order.)

It is cool (no pun intended) to impress your guests when you show them your water cooled rig with a see through side panel, lots of lights, the water tubes with the glowing coolant, flow indicators, temperature monitoring, and other things that glow. Then you lie and tell them that it is the fastest computer on the planet and water cooling is a necessity, not a luxury. Seems that you friends always believe you.

Back to my problem.

During the night, the computer started beeping. It was a warning that the processor is getting too hot. Not to the shut down point, just at the warning point.

I looked at the flow indicator and it was just barely moving. I thought it was the pump (again). I shut down the rig and thought I would change out the pump the next morning (after some more sleep). I have always had a spare after the first failure.

Okay... Here we go. Drain the loop making sure nothing spills and you don't wreck anything inside the computer. Test the pump with just the flow indicator in the loop. Pump seems to be OK.

Take off a few more lines and blow through everything to find the restriction. This is good, that seems OK as well as the other thing.

Now the CPU water block.. Plugged up!! I have always made sure that I used distilled water and store bought additives. After removing the lines and looking inside as best as you can, it seems that the blue UV die I had running had crusted up in the CPU block. A tooth pick down the line connection ports yielded chunks of crust. After it dried, you could turn it into a powder if you crushed the dried chunk. IMHO it seems that the heat at the CPU block made the die crust up. Just like what you would find if you used regular water in your car radiator (not blue of course). After inspection of the rest of the components, being as how I had everything completely apart, it was only the CPU block that showed any signs of any type of buildup.

Anyway... I'm done. Put a fan driven CPU cooler on after having to tear down the whole rig to get the water cooled CPU mounting bracket out from under the MB and yes, It does run a few degrees warmer under load. To hot? No. Actually the PMW's are running cooler now because I have a CPU fan back in place.

Water cooling Vs. Air cooling?

Water cooling : Wow Factor, lots of work to maintain, big bucks to get into as well as maintain, better cooling over air (excluding PMW's) but not needed.

Air Cooling : Not as much Wow, no maintenance except for the occasional compressed air blow job, much less expensive that water, more reliable, does not perform like a water cooled setup but more than adequate.

I'll miss you guys.

I'm sorry about your experience. But wasn't there a warning in the stickies somewhere about UV Dyes?

I'm W/Cing because my SFF case does not allow for a huge air cooler, and there is no silent performance cooler for my video card.

As for bling factor, you could always add more lights, sound activated stuff, more lights.

Sorry you had a bad time with it bud. But yeah, it's been around the boards for a while not to use UV dye with narrow channeled block.
Personally I don't use any lights in my case, nor do I use any dye. My wow factor comes from my reservoir that's also zero maintenance.
I haven't had to do anything to my system really in a year now. Even changing cpu blocks doesn't require I add or drain anything.

Anyway, if your equipment is decent, you still might get some bucks back by selling it to a friend, or you can build a cool fountain!

Maviryk said:

I'm sorry about your experience. But wasn't there a warning in the stickies somewhere about UV Dyes?

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I'm sure there are. But there are also threads recommending dies.

I just got to thinking when I found what was wrong. I have spent HOURS, take that back, MONTHS on this rig. My wife wants to donate it to get it out of the house.

See... Here is how it all started: I got an e-mail from a computer supply company explaining their super sale on a processor and MB combo. I figured it was about time to upgrade and I had most of the rest of the parts I would need to build another rig around the house.

So.. I build the thing and found that the case I had laying around was completely inadequate for this machine. So.. I get a new case (with a clear side panel).

Then... I stumble into the world of overclocking. Processor was hitting the warning temps under load and OC'd.

So... I water cool. Then I find that the RAM is getting to hot. So.. I buy ram coolers. Now the PMW chips are getting too hot so I duct a rompen stompen high power, high CFM, REAL NOISY fan over the PMW's.

Then I find out that the MB fan header is not really capable of supporting this high power fan. So... I buy a fan controller.

Then the MB manufacturer comes out with a BIOS update and among other things, one of the fixes was the reporting of the CPU temperature. Turns out that the CPU was no where near warning temps under air cooling. It was a bug in the BIOS

That's OK cuz now I have a water cooled rig. In the mean time I find myself spending bucks on new hard drives so I can set up the raid which the board is capable. Then I had to buy new CD/DVD drives because now the case is black and the spare components I had around the house were white.

Now I got a water cooled rig, super fast, and all that is holding it back is a good video card.. You guessed it! Gota go and get a real good video card.

All is good until I had a pump failure. The pump was under warranty but it took 3 weeks to send my old pump in and get a replacement. The computer was down for this time. I could have air cooled the CPU but that would require taking out the MB to remove the water cooled mount just to have to do it all again when the replacement pump showed up. Naturally, I bought a replacement so I would always have a spare. This can't happen again (down for weeks).

So Saturday, after spending most of the morning working on this thing, and trying to figure out how to get the gunk out of the CPU block, I realized that even though water cooling is cool. it is not necessary and I look back on all the time and money I have spent water cooling when air cooling is cheaper and although does not perform like water cooling, is adequate.

I just figured enough is enough. It is still a pretty rig and I can run it just as fast on air as water. I'm done spending my time maintaining the loop. I suppose a couple of years ago when I got into this, I had the time. Now it seems like it is just a pain in the a$$.

Like I said.... I'll miss you guys.

Well there ya go, don't blame the addiction, blame the addict!
You didn't have to go out and get the latest/greatest stuff, and you didn't have to even overclock it. You could've just bought paint instead of new drives. one of the drives in my rig (further link) is a white faced one (betcha can't tell which one either).

I don't even overclock myself, but I'm a watercooler for life though.

You can donate everything to me.

But really, **** happens. I know it sucks, but its a part of what we are doing. Pretty much everthing we do on these forums include some type of risk. Which is a lot of the reason a lot of us are here. We read and read and read to prepare ourselves so we can do it with least amount of risk.

Me for example, I been sitting on the fence trying to decide if I should water cool. I think eventually I would do it, but for reasons like yours, I stop.

I'm sure if you do give it up, you'll be back. If not tommorow, some day down the road you will.

Once and overclocker always an overclocker.

--pak

Hehe. To each his own, you wont' get flamed here though.

Might I suggest the Noctua air cooler? You'll get temps close to water cooling, minus all that maintenance.

Us really addicted OCers never keep the same system for more than 3 months anyhow. I figure my sig will change completely when tax returns roll around.

Diggrr said:

Well there ya go, don't blame the addiction, blame the addict!

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Touché

Maviryk said:

Might I suggest the Noctua air cooler?

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I just checked it out... Kinda ugly

I need to find a balance of performance & looks (clear side and lots of lights)

yeah water can be a pain, but i disagree with you on WOW factor, i dont think anyone does WC'n for the wow factor, they do it for less noise or better temps for OC'n in most cases.

WC'n has its purpose in OC'in, and noise reduction hence why its popular even though it is difficult to install and depenging on gear can be a pain to maintain.

but i love WC'n even though it has cost me money and plenty of time.

Phrenetical said:

but i disagree with you on WOW factor, i dont think anyone does WC'n for the wow factor,

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I agree... Nobody water cools for a WOW factor. However, nothing is prettier than a nice, neat, clean, glowing system. It is certainly a part of it. Maybe not the main reason to take the plunge, but it is a perk.

How many WC'ers here post pics of their rigs? Of those posted pics, most of the reply's state something about how nice or cool it looks as well as a few critiques about the nuts and bolts of the system.

You have never shown off you WC system or bragged about it? I'll bet that everyone you show your system to who may not be familiar with WC'ing responds with a bunch of ooh's & aah's.

I'm not trying to start a fight or anything... But the WOW factor is a part, a big part of water cooling.

Cheers Mate

Watercooling can be a pain at times, although frankly to me it requires less maintenance than an air cooled system as I only have to blow out the dust about 1/3 as often, and waterchanges aren't that frequent. I went into watercooling for silence as air was driving me nuts. I must say however with the advent of the Thermalright HR-03 VGA cooler, I would even consider air as this is the first really good quiet VGA solution that I have seen, and I have yet to see another really quiet VGA solution. However, in order to get a quiet CPU cooler, you practically have to bolt a cinderblock onto your MB which leaves something to be desired.

I plan on sticking with watercooling for the foreseable future, but I could see myself maybe going back on air one of these days, particularly if I didn't use higher end components. But seeing as I am addicted to trying to have a decent, fairly updated computer, I will probably stick to water.

Personally I dropped out of the water cooling world for the same reason. I must say I miss it for my vid cards. I just didn't have the time/patients to deal with it. I am on air now and I love it. I just got my first ever aftermarket air cooler. Yes that is right I went from stock HSFs to water... I dunno I have changing tastes and I will probably be back to water. My next build will prob be a SFF with water cooling... (I am in a server case now)... I feel your frustration!

I love water cooling , and plan on using it for a long time . My next build will have a phase change + water , I dont do it for the wow factor I do it for the cooling and in the search of those extra few 100 mhz =)

I can say that I don't watercool for for Wow factor. In fact, I don't show it off nor do I have a side window. Guests don't even know my pc is even watercooled.

I WOULD go watercooling.....but yes, it takes a lot of money to put together a custom setup that cools substantially better than high end air cooling. Watercooling looks like fun, but its more complicated than air, and when things get complicated, things go wrong. Pump fails, something gets clogged, spills etc....is it all the money, worry, and possible problems worth that extra 200-400mhz? Even so, WC still gives better performance but yes, **** happens, way more than with air cooling.

I was trying to stay out of this thread, but.... Water cooling is just so much more fun whether or not you show it off. I'm not saying go experimental with your main rig but if you're at all interested in what the hardware (and you) can do, how can you not water cool at least once?

For me, it isn't so much "I can show off my 'water cooled' system" or "water cooling" is such a good way of keeping the computer quiet. The whole point is what can the machine do?!!! What "non-standard" configuration can I come up with and what will happen when I turn the power on?

And, for those of you who say "water cooling is too expensive" talk to any of your friends who golf. Water cooling every computer you've got is cheep compared to greens' fees--at least it is here in New York City. With all I spend on computer "stuff" I've got one of the less expensive hobbies compared to my friends/acquaintances/co-workers.

Sorry, but not water cooling at least one computer for people interested in pushing technology (and you wouldn't be here if you weren't) is sort of like a mountain climber turning down the opportunity to clime Mt. Everest.

Edit: Oh, and here's a pic of my current toy "bleeding". Once it looks stable I'll reconnect enough to see if the switch from the Danger Den (NV-68) "full card" block to the Swiftech (MCW60-B) GPU block solves some artificing problems I was having with the eVGA nVidia GT6800 GT. If it doesn't, it's time for a new video card. But, the whole point is that I'm having fun!!!!

Maintenance issues are what caused me to drop out of watercooling.

The loop itself was basically maintenance free, but having to drain/dissassemble everything any time I wanted to change anything was just too time-consuming.

The other issue was longevity of radiators in the salt air. After about 2 years they really start to corrode, and that's just one more round of draining and dissasembly I was too lazy to contend with.

I got out because my cases that I have are just not meant for watercooling. Plus, I could never get anything right. So, like hafa says, the time it took to take everything apart any time I wanted to mess with it was just too much. I honestly am getting better performance off of my lapped Ninja with a 120 on it that I was with my waterloop. I think it is a cool hobby if you have time and money for it. Sure, it's not as expensive as a bag of golf clubs, but at least with golf you can go outside and hang out with people and flip golf carts over (long story). But I just got out because it was easier, physically and mentally, to just slap a heatsink and fan on my cpu and totally forget it.

striker85 said:

I got out because my cases that I have are just not meant for watercooling. Plus, I could never get anything right. So, like hafa says, the time it took to take everything apart any time I wanted to mess with it was just too much. I honestly am getting better performance off of my lapped Ninja with a 120 on it that I was with my waterloop. I think it is a cool hobby if you have time and money for it. Sure, it's not as expensive as a bag of golf clubs, but at least with golf you can go outside and hang out with people and flip golf carts over (long story). But I just got out because it was easier, physically and mentally, to just slap a heatsink and fan on my cpu and totally forget it.

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I know the cases bit. I've water cooled systems in both a Lian Li V2100 and a V2000 and I'd never recommend anyone else ever do it!!!!! But, I did have fun figuring out it wasn't a good idea I'm thinking Lian LI 343B for my next project which hopefully will be a bit more "appropriate". We'll see.

If you don't like "playing" with your computer, or at least "a" computer, I think you're in the wrong forum. There are quite a few members with "normal" questions, but the _interesting_ posts are those where people push the limits--or at least do something new within established limits.

I think I'll be water colling until it becomes "normal", but hopefully by then I"ll have some new limit to play with