watercooling maintanence

PAULRYAN52

PAULRYAN52

PAULRYAN52

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Liverpool
hi i was wondering whats involved in maintaining watercooling, just next year im ordering a new pc off ocuk and was considering getting them to fit watercooling
 
Practical maintenance:
Clean radiator when it gets to dusty. Change water once a year or so remembering to top up if necessary.

Impractical maintenance:
See new toy, drain loop add toy. See new bling, drain loop add bling. Oo new tube, nice colour... Repeat as necessary :)
 
ecat said:
Practical maintenance:
Clean radiator when it gets to dusty. Change water once a year or so remembering to top up if necessary.

Impractical maintenance:
See new toy, drain loop add toy. See new bling, drain loop add bling. Oo new tube, nice colour... Repeat as necessary :)
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would you recommend wc for me, i've never had it before
 
ecat said:
Practical maintenance:Change water once a year or so remembering to top up if necessary.
Click to expand...

Why? I have had the same water and Zerex mix in mine for approaching 4 years now and have had no decrease in performance or sludge in the system. All i have done is to top the system up every now and then.
 
PAULRYAN52 said:
would you recommend wc for me, i've never had it before
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Don't know anything about you, but surely at some point everybody with watercooling hadn't had it before.

It takes time to set up. You have to leak test and bleed and clean and make sure there's no air... but after that you're set.

It's up to you.
 
DampCat said:
Don't know anything about you, but surely at some point everybody with watercooling hadn't had it before.

It takes time to set up. You have to leak test and bleed and clean and make sure there's no air... but after that you're set.

It's up to you.
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thanks think i'll stick to air, sounds to complicated
 
pastymuncher said:
Why? I have had the same water and Zerex mix in mine for approaching 4 years now and have had no decrease in performance or sludge in the system. All i have done is to top the system up every now and then.
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Same, excapt I'm using different coolant. :) I don't really see the need to change every year...
 
pastymuncher said:
Why? I have had the same water and Zerex mix in mine for approaching 4 years now and have had no decrease in performance or sludge in the system. All i have done is to top the system up every now and then.
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Indeed, but it would have been irresponsible of me to say 'And you will probably never have to change the water'. Better to err on the side of caution.

PAULRYAN52 said:
thanks think I'll stick to air, sounds to complicated
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:(
 
PAULRYAN52 said:
thanks think i'll stick to air, sounds to complicated
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It is. And dangerous. I borked my GTX280 last week with a coolant leak.

I only did it in the first place for the looks tbh. And it does look awesome. Just a shame about the financial implications.
 
reflux said:
It is. And dangerous. I borked my GTX280 last week with a coolant leak.
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This is why water cooling gets a bad reputation, a little caution is all that's required. In ten years I have never had a leak that I didn't provoke through unwise action and even then I have yet to have any hw fail as the result of getting a little damp - as the above shows, ymmv on this last point.
 
ecat said:
This is why water cooling gets a bad reputation, a little caution is all that's required. In ten years I have never had a leak that I didn't provoke through unwise action and even then I have yet to have any hw fail as the result of getting a little damp - as the above shows, ymmv on this last point.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was totally my fault. Pulled my res too far out of the drive bay, and it loosened the tubing over one of the CPU barbs. You just gotta be very careful.
 
air cooling is far far simpler and easier, if you're unsure, stick with air. :)

That said, I've had 5 watercooled rigs and never had any water related problems...
 
PAULRYAN52 said:
i would like wc but my physical disability wont allow me to maintain it
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I read this comment and did some serious thinking on the old air vs water debate but from an accessibility view point. My conclusion, a professionally built wc system is probably easier to maintain than an air cooled system <fire proof clothing at the ready>

First let's get the leak worries out the way. The only fragile part in a wc system is the radiator, thin wall tubes, delicate fins but how often do you need to poke the rad with a sharp hard object ? Never. The blocks are almost indestructible. The thing people worry about most is the tube fitting on the barbs, if done correctly the fitting should be strong enough to swing the case by, they do not spontaneously fail.

Talking about swinging the case brings us to the weight of the finished system. The rad 2Kg, add another 1Kg for a litre of water (I've never measured it). This is a bit of a hike from the 0.8Kg of modern performance coolers but it is not suspended from the motherboard and if necessary can be compensated for by using an aluminium case.

The size of performance air coolers make working on, or viewing, the motherboard difficult compared to an unobtrusive cpu block and a couple of flexible tubes.

Should the temptation arise to fiddle, renew the tim for example, something like the Fizion V2 is a pleasure to work with. The four finger nuts can be exchanged for butterfly nuts or something even more meaty and easy to handle. The fixing screws are held captive to the motherboard so they're not going anywhere and the block itself slides on these screws meaning it will not fall or flap around even when all four screws are removed. Indeed it is possible to wipe its bottom and the cpu without separating the block from these screws.

The radiator can be positioned wherever is most convenient. For a floor standing case this may be with the at the top, no guard required, left open to the surroundings with internal fans sucking air in. Like this cleaning any dust off the rad can be reduced to a simple wipe with a brush, a little more care would be required if using a vacuum cleaner, rad verses bristle or rad verses plastic pipe, the rad will win. No removing side panels, no poking and no prodding at awkward angles amongst delicate electronics required.

Filling the system, or topping up, remains a potentially accident prone process, but a front mounted reservoir gives a timely visual indication that maintenance is required. Water cooling is very forgiving, so long as some water is flowing around the loop it will do its job so if the level is looking low it will probably be a good few months before things become critical, leaving a lot of time to take remedial action.

Anyway, just my thoughts :)
 
ecat said:
I read this comment and did some serious thinking on the old air vs water debate but from an accessibility view point. My conclusion, a professionally built wc system is probably easier to maintain than an air cooled system <fire proof clothing at the ready>

First let's get the leak worries out the way. The only fragile part in a wc system is the radiator, thin wall tubes, delicate fins but how often do you need to poke the rad with a sharp hard object ? Never. The blocks are almost indestructible. The thing people worry about most is the tube fitting on the barbs, if done correctly the fitting should be strong enough to swing the case by, they do not spontaneously fail.

Talking about swinging the case brings us to the weight of the finished system. The rad 2Kg, add another 1Kg for a litre of water (I've never measured it). This is a bit of a hike from the 0.8Kg of modern performance coolers but it is not suspended from the motherboard and if necessary can be compensated for by using an aluminium case.

The size of performance air coolers make working on, or viewing, the motherboard difficult compared to an unobtrusive cpu block and a couple of flexible tubes.

Should the temptation arise to fiddle, renew the tim for example, something like the Fizion V2 is a pleasure to work with. The four finger nuts can be exchanged for butterfly nuts or something even more meaty and easy to handle. The fixing screws are held captive to the motherboard so they're not going anywhere and the block itself slides on these screws meaning it will not fall or flap around even when all four screws are removed. Indeed it is possible to wipe its bottom and the cpu without separating the block from these screws.

The radiator can be positioned wherever is most convenient. For a floor standing case this may be with the at the top, no guard required, left open to the surroundings with internal fans sucking air in. Like this cleaning any dust off the rad can be reduced to a simple wipe with a brush, a little more care would be required if using a vacuum cleaner, rad verses bristle or rad verses plastic pipe, the rad will win. No removing side panels, no poking and no prodding at awkward angles amongst delicate electronics required.

Filling the system, or topping up, remains a potentially accident prone process, but a front mounted reservoir gives a timely visual indication that maintenance is required. Water cooling is very forgiving, so long as some water is flowing around the loop it will do its job so if the level is looking low it will probably be a good few months before things become critical, leaving a lot of time to take remedial action.

Anyway, just my thoughts :)
Click to expand...
ok thanks didn't think of it that way
 
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