I also painted the other radiator. If you look back at the pictures this is the passive 240mm rad. It's a very light coat so it should not really effect thermal conductivity to a noticeable extent. What's annoying is dealing with the fins. They get damaged so easily, and I'm always going back in and modifying something, so the radiators have to go in and out all the time. Which is fine, because all of the radiators are completely tool less. They have a tension fit. Amazingly, I never planned for that, but every time I added a radiator, it just fit like a puzzle piece. Very surprised by this. So I can pull all 4 radiators in under one minute. I didn't plan this at all, they just worked together with my case perfectly. Not sure what the odds are for this happening, but it has never happened to me before! lol
Which surprisingly, dropped temps in my loop temps by about 2-3*F. So the passive 240mm is working, even though there are no fans.
I was talking to a tech who told me so long as it is out of the heat generated by the CPU and/or GPU, etc then it will help to some extent.
Edit: With this cooling system on full with fans and pumps on 100% full throttle I can run my 9900K @ 5.2GHz daily.
That comes out to about 2000 RPM on the fans and 3500 rpm on the pumps.
So it's really not that loud, but I only do that for a benchmark or something.
In reality, I simply have modified the turbo settings so it boosts to a higher clock speed. This way, I can run the fans at a very low RPM and slow down the pumps to the point where noise volume from the PC is almost imperceptible. And still score very high with the CPU on benchmarks.
2nd Edit:
I am preparing this PC to go to my brother. There is a very slight leak in the double 120mm rad, the threads stripped a slight amount, so there is still plenty of tension, but my brother has a bigger GPU that needs to go in this case, so I have to stop the leak completely. All I need is one G1/4" plug and some epoxy and let it sit overrnight and we should be good to go. So seal off the old inlet, and go to the alternate. When I say alternate, I am lucky enough to have up to two more plugs on that side of the radiator that you can tap into depending on where you want to route your tubing. So again, we will seal off the old port and just select one of the other two fully intact ports.
I also have to wire up power to the power button and reset button. Right now it's kind of only usable by someone who knows what they are doing. It has a power button on the motherboard.
I wouldn't run vinegar in a loop for multiple days. You might strip plating off of any nickle plated parts if you have any. You can use CLR or some watercooling oriented cleaning fluid combo. For waterblocks you can keep it pretty simple if you disassemble them. I like isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush to clean them.
Hi
Thanks for the information. I will pull the water block next week and use isopropyl alcohol to clean it, I also barrowed a pressure washer so I will be spraying it down with that as well, just to make it perfect for my brother so he doesn't complain about it down the road. Now the sucky part, I have to connect up the power LED and the reset LED. I always hate doing this.
3rd Edit:
As soon as I find my cell phone I will take pictures of the rig as it stands now with both radiators painted. Hate when I leave my cell phone somewhere and inadvertently don't remember where... but it Looks much better now! But it's still tacky so when you see the pictures you will see its partially removed from it's mount. This is okay. I have to leave it this way until the paint is completely dry. If I put it back early, it will just do a number on the top end tank because that is the tension fit area. But I really like it and I think with the 2nd loop cleaning and the addition of new coolant my brother will really like it 2. It's a pretty fast machine. I have DDR4 4200MHz 16GB kit. It's Patriot Viper model, originally a 4133 CL19 kit. I run it at 4200 MHz CL17-18, with no ill effects.
Quick add on question: plastidip? Is it more insulating or also negligible in thin coats?
I would think this would compromise the thermal conductivity, and therefore lead to an increase in loop temps, because you would be decreasing the thermal exchange between the air and the radiator due to plastic being an insulator. But take with a grain of salt, I don't know for certain, but it's likely not a good idea.
Thanks one and all for your support and assistance in getting this machine and the custom loop back in ship shape. Really, I'm in much better shape now than when I started this thread.
I'm certain I will have to do maintenance on it down the road but with the new coolant and leak fixed I think I can go for a year like this, although TBH I don't really know the exact timeframe between cleanings/flushes, I'm just estimating.
