Guide: Water Cooling: The Basics

[nicoliani]

Since I got a leak, I have gotten super sensetive everything is 100% sealed.
What's wrong with teflon tape wrapped around a barb?
That was were I got my leak around the barbs.

 

[citronym]

Sounds to me like you perhaps covered up a problem with teflon tape. Teflon tape def wasn't intended to be used on barbs like that. Looks like you really caked that stuff on there, it's intended use was for a few layers (at most) on threads.

Maybe you stretched your hose out a little too much, or misused your hose clamps, because a tube with a ID that matches the OD of a barb should never leak under any circumstances, especially when it's clamped properly.

I wouldn't recommend anyone to use teflon tape over a barb.

But I suppose if that worked out for you then cheers.

 

[Silmatharien]

The Teflon tape is supposed to stop leaks from coming through the barbs ... anyway, what I used is hose clamps on the outside. I just made them really really really tight. It worked out for me fine and I have had zero problems with leaks.

 

[Silmatharien]

Great info!

I'm a noob to WC but intertested. Question - What kind of up-keep/maintenance is required when running a watercooling set-up? Thx

Like basically nothing. I first did watercooling a year and a half ago. In that time, I have not changed the tubing once (but I am planning on doing it soon!). You do need to add more water once in awhile though. Just check your water level in your t-line or rez. every so often.

 

[Wolverine690]

cool great read...

I've been looking at switching to Water cooling b/c while my current Fan cooling solution works really well when the weather gets warm fans really don't do a lot to help if the room is warm as well.

Anyhow I'm curious as to where to buy this stuff other then from the manufacturers? As they usually have higher prices then retailers.

I could of sites I frequent (newegg.com etc) have a few things but nothing really that is covered here. I'm just trying to put something together and see what I'm looking at price wise, want a CPU & GPU cooling system. Some suggestions on retailers would be great thanks.

Also you mention about mixing Anti-Freeze and Distilled water for the cooling solution, what about coolents made for liquid cooling such as this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835127015

Also what size tubing? 1/2 or 3/8 would you recommend?

 

[SemperFiGuy]

Building my second WC rig and I have just one final question.

--> Cooling Fluid. I'm looking for something as low-maintanence as possible. I go to a military college and don;t have time to mess with my rig for around 10 months of the year, so when I'm off of training (like now) I do a bit of amatuer engineering. Anywho, backstory behind us, back to the question of low-maintanence cooling fluid.

Basically, I want zero algae growth if possible, as well as a low evap rate.


9 parts Distilled water, 1 part Anti-freeze? maybe throw some water-wetter in there? What do you think, please try to speak from experience if possible. Theory is grand, but I'd rather go for tried-and-true on this one.

PLease post your "recipe" by parts .. aka 1 part this 4 parts that; so I can scale it to fit my rig. THANKS!

 

[g0dM@n]

Building my second WC rig and I have just one final question.

--> Cooling Fluid. I'm looking for something as low-maintanence as possible. I go to a military college and don;t have time to mess with my rig for around 10 months of the year, so when I'm off of training (like now) I do a bit of amatuer engineering. Anywho, backstory behind us, back to the question of low-maintanence cooling fluid.

Basically, I want zero algae growth if possible, as well as a low evap rate.


9 parts Distilled water, 1 part Anti-freeze? maybe throw some water-wetter in there? What do you think, please try to speak from experience if possible. Theory is grand, but I'd rather go for tried-and-true on this one.

PLease post your "recipe" by parts .. aka 1 part this 4 parts that; so I can scale it to fit my rig. THANKS!

I personally do 15% Anti-Freeze, and 85% distilled water. I'll be honest with you, you definitely need an additive, and I've been told that water wetter is definitely a good choice; in conjunction with anti-freeze, it should do well.

Also, you may want to try MCT-5. Dangerden sells it. That was the first liquid that I used about a year ago when I first built my watercooling system. That lasted 6 months EASY.

 

[Silmatharien]

Building my second WC rig and I have just one final question.

--> Cooling Fluid. I'm looking for something as low-maintanence as possible. I go to a military college and don;t have time to mess with my rig for around 10 months of the year, so when I'm off of training (like now) I do a bit of amatuer engineering. Anywho, backstory behind us, back to the question of low-maintanence cooling fluid.

Basically, I want zero algae growth if possible, as well as a low evap rate.


9 parts Distilled water, 1 part Anti-freeze? maybe throw some water-wetter in there? What do you think, please try to speak from experience if possible. Theory is grand, but I'd rather go for tried-and-true on this one.

PLease post your "recipe" by parts .. aka 1 part this 4 parts that; so I can scale it to fit my rig. THANKS!

I don't really have a recipe. I honestly did my first water cooling setup two Decembers ago. I am only now changing the water. I had about 10% antifreeze. I found I had to put a little water in maybe ... 5 times? It was virtually maintenance free.

I wouldn't mix water wetter in there 'cause it stinks (from what I hear). Antifreeze does the trick very well.

 

[Flamenco]

Most of the blocks mentioned are very very hard to get in Canada, so I guess I stay with air cooling for a while!

 

[0siris]

Hopefully this is an acceptable place for me to post a quick question.

I have recently been looking into purchasing a water cooling kit for my computer and this being my first time I will ever use one I would like your opinion. Is water cooling really better than fan cooling? Currently the fans I have installed generate about 50-60dBA of noise which can get pretty annoying at times, but hey I'll do just about anything to keep my baby cool

I have been doing some surfing and found what looks like a very nice, easy to install and most of all effective water cooling kit from Corsair. Check it out here. Here is also a review I found for it and from what I can tell it is a very reliable cooler.

Now here is what bothers me. For the benchmark the author is using an AMD 3500+ Winchester running 2.2 gigahertz stock. I on the other hand have an AMD 3000+ Barton running at 2.109 gigahertz stock and while my idle temperatures are somewhere in the neighborhood of 43-45 Celcius, his are 23 degrees. I have heard that barton cores run hotter than others, but it still bothers me to see the temperatures rise to the upper 50's while under a load.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this for me

thanks in advance

 

[50cent1228]

wow this really helped alot

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

They come in a bunch of sizes: 80mm (80.1), 92mm (92.1), 120mm (120.1), 240X120mm (120.3), and 360X120mm (120.3).

Shouldnt it be 120.2 not 120.3?

Nice guide. I'm thinking of getting into water cooling soon.

 

[Dual Core Joe]

Thank you for all the good information. Im just getting in to WCing. Can you give me a good place to buy all these parts?

 

[crumpet]

So I stumbled upon Danger Den's site and was looking at their wc inventory...

I'm a completely novice watercooler, so I naturally went for the kits first for a smaller probability of me screwing something up. I'm wondering if spending $170 for a kit would be worth it, or if perhaps getting a few higher quality components separately would be a better investment.

 

[Sam__]

is there anywhere i can get cheap watercooling bits in the UK?

 

[Sam__]

i found a really gd kit http://www.thecoolingshop.com/product_info.php/cPath/33_34/products_id/2157
its pretty cheap too, what do u guys think?

 

[Bageland2000]

i know it's late, but great article.

 

[kenshincruise]

i found a really gd kit http://www.thecoolingshop.com/product_info.php/cPath/33_34/products_id/2157
its pretty cheap too, what do u guys think?

yes, i'm using the old version of TT se, it give me 25-30c idle in core temp running 3.2Ghz 1.49V, i just changed the hose/tubing into 3/8 ID 1/2 OD.

 

[Imfrikkinawesom]

Ive been curious out how well a non conductive liquid like mineral oil would work as a cooling agent in a WC setup as opposed to the fiercly conductive water

 

[sreeja]

Is it occupy more space.Although it is costly also.Is it?