1 year tear-down pics! Goodbye, WC!

[\dev\goat]

I decided to tear down my WC build today, for the first time in a year. (first time ever, really). I have been letting the build deteriorate over time, and it's been making me sad.

While I was at it, I decided instead of cleaning it all and putting it back together correctly, I'd just leave it all off. I'm tired of thinking about it sitting there, and I never even go in the room it exists in anyways. I also miss the simplicity and elegance of regular ol' air cooling.

All these components are gonna be for sale as-is in the classifieds section soon, so keep your eyes peeled if you're looking for some hella good prices on some good stuff.

Go ahead and shoot me a PM now if you have any questions or whatever.

It started as a huge mess. Had my girlfriend carry the radiator, I carried the computer, and we drug it all to the kitchen sink.









There were white flakes floating in the water...



The heatsinks did NOT want to come loose.



They held on to each other for dear life when I finally pried them off.



Here she is disemboweled, her guts all spilling out.



GPU block was growing crops inside it.





CPU block was making rock candy, looks like.



The inside of the tubing was completely covered in a thick green coating.



.......but the killcoil looks pretty damn good !



Can't say the same for the filters, though.... Some alien lifeforms spotted





And here she is completely free of all that extra baggage !!



Ready to be cooled by gentle, maintenance free breezes once again !

 

[Ajay57]

Its looks kinda sad and unloved in a way, OK on the green stuff inside the loop it shows that the 1 year shake down was the correct decision.

AJ.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Wow that's brutal. Can I ask what H20 parts were used in this loop. I am not sure if EK flaking issues would cause growth if there was other than corrosion. That poor silver strip looks copper.

This makes me motivated to check my loop weekly and drain it every 6 months for new fluid with its annual tear down.

Really curious to see and know what could have caused all of this.

 

[TransformedBG]

Thats what happens when you let it sit for to long.. grows mold..

 

[\dev\goat]

Both GPU blocks and the CPU block were EK supremes.

The radiator was a Mora3 Pro.

Pump was a swiftech mcp-35x, with swiftech res top.

Barbs were all expensive bitspower ones.

More info here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=719638

 

[ShrimpBrime]

Ready to be cooled by gentle, maintenance free breezes once again !

That means going air cooling?

Uhg, wish mine was maintenance free. Gotta blow the heat sinks and case out about every two months or the heat starts to rise!

Nice build though. Doesn't look too bad for a years worth of use!

 

[3Dgeo]

Did you paint rad fans? Cos I have exactly same but white, didn't find them in black. A bit too late, already have fans and rad, would buy them if I didn't have mine already

 

[skorpien]

Did you paint rad fans? Cos I have exactly same but white, didn't find them in black. A bit too late, already have fans and rad, would buy them if I didn't have mine already

If you know how to disassemble them, you can use black vinyl dye to make the blades black. Or any color really. You can always go from light to dark, and white plastic is the easiest to dye and better than spray paint as it adds next to no extra weight (won't disturb the balance of the blades). Just remember there's no going back to white or any other color if you do that.

 

[\dev\goat]

Did you paint rad fans? Cos I have exactly same but white, didn't find them in black. A bit too late, already have fans and rad, would buy them if I didn't have mine already

Didn't know they even made white ones, they are the Silverstone 180mm Penetrators here:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...r_AP181_180_x_180_x_32mm_Fan_-_SST-AP181.html

 

[JaY_III]

Shame to see you giving up so easily.
This is your first WC build?

Order some new tubes, flush out your old gear and it should be good to go again.

The kill coil you have does not look like silver at all to me.
It could be just the img you uploaded. But either way, from what i am seeing, I would suspect your Kill Coil failed you.

I have been a big Fan of PT Nuke. A few drops in your loop is all it takes.

Best advice I could give you, is give it a few days and dont sell anything in a frustrated state. You good some high end gear, and I know your system wants it back.

 

[\dev\goat]

This is your first WC build?

You good some high end gear

That was exactly the problem. I jumped in head first and bought $800 worth of crap that was waaaay too much for me.

The radiator is as big as my case. I should have bought some small 3x120s and stayed inside the case.

Universal GPU blocks were a really dumb idea, too. I lost two GTX 570s to mosfet failure (bad card design, but still could have probably avoided it if i had full cover blocks). Ended up with a single 570 left and a stupid fan hanging off of it with a trashbag tie.

4x 180mm fans ?

I ended up running 24/7 @ 5ghz with ONE of the fans on, pump @ 35%, and everything else turned off. I could have run 5ghz passively probably... And not bought $100 worth of fans.

The pump was intermittently not turning on with the computer. I suspect a crappy header on the motherboard, but who knows. It would randomly kick in and work fine after 5 mins of the computer being on and cpu @ 90c. Regular cpu fan works just fine on the header.

The whole build was just a hard lesson learned, really. I had a ton of fun with it, but it ended up costing way too much.

I'm having an equal amount of fun in the living room with my little htpc running stock intel/nvidia coolers

I may hold on to it and do something with it, but you're right about me being frustrated with it overall, haha

 

[sobe]

Good majority probably caused by the Primo Pro LRT, it's plasticiser and it is a problem with certain tubing such as yours. Pick up some Primo Advanced LRT that doesnt have that plasti issue or something like XSPC HighFlex.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

There's quite a few things I suspect were the issues and some were stated before. Don't take it personal Dev.

For one the EK could have flaked and exposed some bare aluminum. It looks very visible even as you stated it as well that flakes are floating around in the reservoir. Than it's possible once the loop was exposed of aluminum, the silver kill coil was compromised which than left your loop defenseless from growth or its very possible that it's not .99% silver. That's just my speculation.

Secondly, I believe your older generation and possibly problematic Primochill Pro tubing could have played a roll as well but I can't tell if there's much clogging going on. I can't recall but might have heard of the bad batch of issues they had that might have caused growth in peoples loops.

Lessons surely have been learned unfortunately at a high cost but a lesson for others to READ when jumping into watercooling and what to look for. A 6 month drain and refill might have caught or slowed this process down.

Good luck and hope you get some funds back.

 

[Robert17]

Like JaY_III says, don't be impulsive and trash the whole bag 'o parts while you're in a Mood. Give it a couple of days. Also, take your car in for an oil change and radiator flush.

 

[Supertrucker]

i would also heavily suspect that killcoil. Mine is about 2 years old, has only seen two water flushes with no full teardowns, and is still shiny. It looks almost like yours was oxidized before it went in so it had a nice protective layer to stop it from working on the water.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

i would also heavily suspect that killcoil. Mine is about 2 years old, has only seen two water flushes with no full teardowns, and is still shiny. It looks almost like yours was oxidized before it went in so it had a nice protective layer to stop it from working on the water.

That's what I am thinking in some way or another and my Silver Kill Coil after 2+ years is still clean and shiny. Just maybe it wasn't a high quality piece of silver.

 

[Bijiont]

i would also heavily suspect that killcoil. Mine is about 2 years old, has only seen two water flushes with no full teardowns, and is still shiny. It looks almost like yours was oxidized before it went in so it had a nice protective layer to stop it from working on the water.

That is what I think as well because I have a torture loop going right now with a killcoil and 2 drops of PT Nuke and hasn't been cleaned or serviced in about 3~4 years. Water is still crystal clear as the day I put it all together.

Either way water or air I hope you have fun with it because isn't that what we are here to do?

If you stick with water I would seriously get a new coil and also PT Nuke. Always a little room for PT Nuke

 

[gsrcrxsi]

Distilled water + PTnuke. Went 2 years without any buildup. No cleaning or teardowns in that time either.

 

[Rotary]

i dont blame him, im getting tired of this too, im never at my pc anymore and its been pumping away for a year lol

 

[RGE]

T

The radiator is as big as my case. I should have bought some small 3x120s and stayed inside the case.

I lost two GTX 570s to mosfet failure (bad card design, but still could have probably avoided it if i had full cover blocks).

4x 180mm fans ?

I think the biggest issue, like you said, you made watercooling very inconvenient, especially with the huge rad outside the case, plus your particular cpu benefits little from water, though components change.

Why I build in a case where everything is easy to get too, case is easy to carry (aluminum cases only) and I always let mine go for 1-3 years until I am ready to upgrade something just as I do my wifes who is on air. And really it doesnt take much longer to upgrade my water cooled vs upgrading wifes air cooled, and water is more fun to work on.

But yeah an external rad that requires two people to carry a computer would get old quickly.