Getting the air out

[Zazuk]

The rest of my water cooling stuff is coming in this week.
Once I put it together and test for leaks what is the best way to get all the air out of the system?:beer:

[Zazuk]

Bump, my water block came in, my pump will here in two days.

[KILLorBE]

It depends
what kinda case do you have? mini, mid, full?
are you gonna use a radiator a bong or something else?
If you're gonna use a radiator will it be on the inside of your case?

Looking at your question I suppose your gonna use a radiator that's mounted inside your case. Right?

IMO it would be best to mount the radiator at the back top of your case and push/pull the air through the radiator out of the case.

But like I said it all depends, so a bit more info would be useful.

[Zazuk]

The case is a full tower, I'm going to use a radiator (heater core 2x6x9 copper) which will be mounted in the top of the case where there are 2 120mm blow holes. The pump (Danner 250 gph) will be in the base of the case.

Most likely I'm going to have the air flow in to the case pass the radiator and blown out by the fans. I know the air will be alittle warmer but it will keep my case temp down and my Gforce 3 happier.

Another question, the water block (Maze2) should the water flow from the pump to the radiator to the water block?

[GoldenTiger]

Having the radiator at the top will cause a lot of air bubbles. Why not put the pump and radiator on the bottom, with some neoprene underneath them to stop vibrations, and undervolt one 120mm fan to 7v? A pair of shrouded fans like that (one blowing into the core, one sucking out of the core) is enough to cool the entire setup. You should always have the radiator at the END of the loop (so the pump shoots water to a Y-splitter, each branch goes to the CPU/vidcard, recombines, goes to radiator, and back to pump again). That way, the vidcard doesn't roast the CPU, the CPU doesn't roast the videocard, the water moves fast through the blocks (which is the goal, to get heat out fast), and slowly though the radiator (which is the goal, as it lets the radiator absorb the heat well, then the fans cool it off). If you want, you can also 7v the PSU fan.

I'm personally going to line my case with Ester studio-acoustic foam (antistatic) to get ABSOLUTE silence :). Anyway, just some info and food for thought...

[Zazuk]

The only good place in the case for the radiator is in the top, it is 2"x6"x9".

[cmcquistion]

I've been using my radiator in the top of my case with the pump at the bottom and I've had no problem. Here is how I keep air out of my system. I can't take credit for the idea because I got it from an article on this site somewhere, but I don't know the name of the article now.

Anyway, here's what you do. Have a line going from your pump output to your radiator. The output of your radiator goes to your waterblock, or a splitter and two waterblocks, whatever. The outputs of your waterblocks tie together, then go into one straight end of a "T" connector. The other end of the "T" connector is attached to a line that feeds the input of your pump.

On the 't' part of that "T" connector, attach a piece of tubing that goes straight up to the top of your case. You will need to get a cap for it and a clamp. This is you fill tube. When you need to fill the system, uncap this tube, stick a funnel in it and fill the system (slowly and with the pump turned on). This is also your bleed system to get all the air out. You see, when air bubbles goes through the "T" connector (with the 't' facing up of sourse) the bubbles will goes up into the fill tube. They will stay in the fill tube and you will have a visual indicator of you water level.

Whenever I fill my system, I pour water into the fill tube slowly, with the pump on. I let the pump run as long as it takes to get all the air out. You will be able to tell if there is still air in the system, because the water will be milky looking. If there isn't enough water in your system, and the fill tube is empty, then the water will stay milky looking until you add more water to the system. The fill and bleed process takes hours, but it gives you time to see if you have leaks anywhere. If this is the first time you fill your system, you may want to let it run overnight and check it periodically for leaks.

Hope this helps. Pretty long winded. I wish I had a picture to show you instead. It's really quite simple.

[Diggrr]

Here's a quickie pic of what cmcquistion was talking about. (not butting in, just helping out).

I've used it on my first and second rigs. It works well, just a little slow removing all the bubbles...but it does work.

With your radiator laying flat like that, you may want to tip the case so the rad fittings are on top just to get some of the air that will be trapped in the end tanks out...not to leave it running that way...just while testing and setting up the system.