Help with cleaning fluid for first flush+how much fluid to use in the loop.

[Sylver123]

Hello.

I will be purchasing my water cooling kit soon for my very first water cooling setup and I am planning to
install it in my case ready for when I get the rest of the hardware for my new computer build.

I was wondering what is the best cleaning fluid to use at first to flush the loop with for the 24 hour test
run before using the loop for real with the Mayhems Watercooling Fluid?

Do OcUK sell any cleaning fluids specifically for this purpose?

Since the kit is brand new I take it a loop flush and obviously check for water leaks during the flush is
all that is needed to do then it is ready for use?

Also how do I fill the loop up with the fluid and how much do I need to use and how do I drain the loop
completely of the cleaning fluid after the flush ready for filling the loop with the Mayhems Watercooling Fluid?

I am sure the water cooling kit comes supplied with K2 Thermal Paste for the CPU Water Block. Would it be better
if I bought some quality Thermal Compound like Arctic Cooling MX-4 to use in replace of the supplied stuff?

The kit is a tube res / pump combo.

Thank you in advance for your help and feedback.

 

[malcolm]

Read this thread about the Mayhems Cleaning kit for extreme cleaning:http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18621622

For my new loop I used white vinegar then distilled water to clean the rads, then flushed the assembled loop with distilled water before filling with the Mayhems Pastel fluid.

To drain the loop I took the fill plug out of the Bay-Res, then lay the PC on its side so the water could drain into a bucket. It is hard to get all the water out of rads, takes a lot of heaving the case about!

 

[pastymuncher]

Flushing the rads is the most important thing. I always use white vinegar with boiled water that has cooled down. Pour it into the rad and leave for around 15 mins. Block the holes and give it a good shake and then drain. Repeat until the water runs clear. Give the rad a good flush out to remove any traces of vinegar and then install the loop in your system and do the leak test.

 

[Sylver123]

Flushing the rads is the most important thing. I always use white vinegar with boiled water that has cooled down. Pour it into the rad and leave for around 15 mins. Block the holes and give it a good shake and then drain. Repeat until the water runs clear. Give the rad a good flush out to remove any traces of vinegar and then install the loop in your system and do the leak test.

I take it you mean use the white vinegar at first then boiled water that has cooled down to clean the inside of the Radiator of the white vinegar then flush the loop with the cooled down boiled water?

Can I also use distilled water to clean the inside of the Radiator of the white vinegar and also to do the loop flush?

Then I can put the Mayhems Watercooling Fluid into the loop for real use?

 

[pastymuncher]

Sorry, what I meant was a mix of 15-20% white vinegar and water. Never put vinegar in by itself as it could eat away at the inside of the rad.

The way I usually flush the rad after it has been cleaned by the white vinegar/water mix is to stick one of the radiator outlets under the cold tap and let it run for a couple of minutes allowing the waste to come out the other outlet. After that 3/4 fill the rad with distilled water, place fingers over both outlets and give it a good shake. Drain it and fit to the loop.

 

[Sylver123]

I take in on a brand new water cooling kit it's only really the inside of the Radiator you are best cleaning?

 

[west1980]

Hello.

I will be purchasing my water cooling kit soon for my very first water cooling setup and I am planning to
install it in my case ready for when I get the rest of the hardware for my new computer build.

I was wondering what is the best cleaning fluid to use at first to flush the loop with for the 24 hour test
run before using the loop for real with the Mayhems Watercooling Fluid?

Do OcUK sell any cleaning fluids specifically for this purpose?

Since the kit is brand new I take it a loop flush and obviously check for water leaks during the flush is
all that is needed to do then it is ready for use?

Also how do I fill the loop up with the fluid and how much do I need to use and how do I drain the loop
completely of the cleaning fluid after the flush ready for filling the loop with the Mayhems Watercooling Fluid?

I am sure the water cooling kit comes supplied with K2 Thermal Paste for the CPU Water Block. Would it be better
if I bought some quality Thermal Compound like Arctic Cooling MX-4 to use in replace of the supplied stuff?

The kit is a tube res / pump combo.

Thank you in advance for your help and feedback.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOR7SFYbcZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_IBHnUc3PM

 

[pastymuncher]

I take in on a brand new water cooling kit it's only really the inside of the Radiator you are best cleaning?

Yes. The blocks should be fine inside, although I have had some swarf left over from the machining inside in the past.

 

[Sylver123]

What about the thermal paste part I mentioned in my original post above?

Also how much Mayhems Watercooling Fluid do I need to put into the loop?

Do I just need to fill the tube up until its completely full and that is it or do
I need to fill it a bit more that this for the loop?

Thank you guys for the response with help and suggestions.

 

[pastymuncher]

I fill my res to the top and then screw the lid on (not a bay res) and then top it back up as I am bleeding it. My loop is 2.5 litres so it takes a while to bleed. Yours will be a fraction of that so will be much easier. What kit are you going for?

Did a quick search for that K2 stuff and it doesn't appear to be very highly thought of. I would replace it for something of a known quality. All the top ones will be in the region of 1-2 degrees of each other. Personally I normally use MX-4 but have recently swapped to Gelid GC-4 Supreme.

 

[Sylver123]

I fill my res to the top and then screw the lid on (not a bay res) and then top it back up as I am bleeding it. My loop is 2.5 litres so it takes a while to bleed. Yours will be a fraction of that so will be much easier. What kit are you going for?

Did a quick search for that K2 stuff and it doesn't appear to be very highly thought of. I would replace it for something of a known quality. All the top ones will be in the region of 1-2 degrees of each other. Personally I normally use MX-4 but have recently swapped to Gelid GC-4 Supreme.

My Tower Case is very limited on what Water Cooling kits will fit. The maximum Radiator size that will fit on the top without modding the case is a 360 with 46-48mm in thickness.

I am planning to buy a XSPC RayStorm D5 Photon AX360 WaterCooling Kit.

 

[Sylver123]

Does a larger tube res make any difference on the cooling performance of your water cooling setup or is a larger tube res only necessary if you are connecting many things into the loop?

 

[pastymuncher]

A larger res means more water so the water would take a little longer to reach it's max temp. It will have little or no impact on component cooling. The only res I know of that aids cooling is the one I have, the 250mm XSPC passive res (it looks a bit like the original Zalman reserator). It has fins and externally (rev 1) and some also have internal fins (rev 2) to passively dissapate heat. It only makes a difference of a couple of degrees but I have been using it since I started watercooling around 8 years ago and I wouldn't be without it now just for the ease of filling the loop.

 

[Sylver123]

A larger res means more water so the water would take a little longer to reach it's max temp. It will have little or no impact on component cooling. The only res I know of that aids cooling is the one I have, the 250mm XSPC passive res (it looks a bit like the original Zalman reserator). It has fins and externally (rev 1) and some also have internal fins (rev 2) to passively dissapate heat. It only makes a difference of a couple of degrees but I have been using it since I started watercooling around 8 years ago and I wouldn't be without it now just for the ease of filling the loop.

Thanks mate for responding. I will check out the 250mm XSPC passive res.

Have I got this right. To properly fill the loop, I top up the tube res until it is full and let the water cooling fluid run
through the loop and then keep topping up the tube res until it stays full and the fluid level doesn't go down?

Is it correct that the location of the Intel CPU socket on motherboards are in the same location so I could an old
motherboard lying around just to place the water cooling kit components in the best place in my Tower Case and
get tubing installed, etc ready for when I get my new x99 Haswell-E platform hardware?

The reason why I am asking this is because if I wanted to setup the water cooling kit now in my new Tower Case ready
for when I get my new hardware, I would need to put in a motherboard in the case so I can get the proper measurement
for the water cooling tubing going to the CPU block and making sure the CPU block will reach the CPU socket.

I don't really want to take my current system in my sig apart just to get the motherboard from it for the measurements.

I am sure I have a old ASUS P5Q Deluxe P45 LGA775 Core 2 motherboard on
storage somewhere I could use for the measurements.

 

[pastymuncher]

Thanks mate for responding. I will check out the 250mm XSPC passive res.

If you decide to get one, keep in mind that it's anodised aluminium and you need to use a fluid with a good corrosion inhibitor due to having mixed metals in the loop. I used to use distilled water with Primochill Liquid Utopia added but it doesn't seem to be available any more so I now use a competitors anti corrosion/anti fungal additive. In the 8 years I have been watercooling I have used the same mix of metals in my loop, copper, brass and anodised aluminium and have never had any problems.

Have I got this right. To properly fill the loop, I top up the tube res until it is full and let the water cooling fluid run
through the loop and then keep topping up the tube res until it stays full and the fluid level doesn't go down?

Yes, don't forget to put the lid on between top ups though or you may get a bit wet. After you have filled it you will need to bleed it all by giving it a good shake while the pump is running. After that it will need topping up again.

Is it correct that the location of the Intel CPU socket on motherboards are in the same location so I could an old
motherboard lying around just to place the water cooling kit components in the best place in my Tower Case and
get tubing installed, etc ready for when I get my new x99 Haswell-E platform hardware?

The reason why I am asking this is because if I wanted to setup the water cooling kit now in my new Tower Case ready
for when I get my new hardware, I would need to put in a motherboard in the case so I can get the proper measurement
for the water cooling tubing going to the CPU block and making sure the CPU block will reach the CPU socket.

I don't really want to take my current system in my sig apart just to get the motherboard from it for the measurements.

I am sure I have a old ASUS P5Q Deluxe P45 LGA775 Core 2 motherboard on
storage somewhere I could use for the measurements.

When I upgraded from socket 775 to 1156 the socket was more or less in the same place so I didn't have to redo my loop. Hell, I didn't even drain it down. All I did was unmount the cpu block hang it and the graphics card over the side of the case, fit the cpu backplate and mounts to the new board, install the board and remount the block. I had the board and everything swapped over and back up and running in 30 mins or so. The longest bit was re-installing windows!!

X99 looks to be further to the right of centre to me though so it probably wouldn't work unless you leave some extra slack in your tubing.

 

[Sylver123]

If you decide to get one, keep in mind that it's anodised aluminium and you need to use a fluid with a good corrosion inhibitor due to having mixed metals in the loop. I used to use distilled water with Primochill Liquid Utopia added but it doesn't seem to be available any more so I now use a competitors anti corrosion/anti fungal additive. In the 8 years I have been watercooling I have used the same mix of metals in my loop, copper, brass and anodised aluminium and have never had any problems.




Yes, don't forget to put the lid on between top ups though or you may get a bit wet. After you have filled it you will need to bleed it all by giving it a good shake while the pump is running. After that it will need topping up again.




When I upgraded from socket 775 to 1156 the socket was more or less in the same place so I didn't have to redo my loop. Hell, I didn't even drain it down. All I did was unmount the cpu block hang it and the graphics card over the side of the case, fit the cpu backplate and mounts to the new board, install the board and remount the block. I had the board and everything swapped over and back up and running in 30 mins or so. The longest bit was re-installing windows!!

X99 looks to be further to the right of centre to me though so it probably wouldn't work unless you leave some extra slack in your tubing.

I assume when you said give it a good shake while the pump is running, you mean give the tube res a good shake?

You can't give the radiator a good shake if it is installed in the case.

 

[pastymuncher]

Yes you can and I meant the whole thing, case and all. Its the radiator that will have the air trapped in it.

 

[queeg]

rock the case side to side and back & forth

 

[Sylver123]

It will be just 1 bottle of Mayhems Watercooling Fluid I will need to fill the tube res and the complete loop, won't it or will I need more than 1 bottle?

 

[pastymuncher]

I am not sure how much you will need really. I would get 2 litres just to be safe and at least you will have some spare for future top ups or if you need to drain it down again for some reason. I know mine takes 2.5 litres but it's not the normal setup as it has 12 feet of copper tubing, around 6-8 feet of tubing and two 60mm thick triple rads. Surely you are not going to cool just the cpu with that kit? It could handle a gpu as well.