Attempting to water cool again after 20 year gap - needing some advice please

It's possible to diy a leak tester
Not sure how much you would save though

It's also possible to diy a vacuum pump
Both fill and empty using it
Think the leakshield can do similar
Though those aren't cheap
and the standalone version thats not on their reservoir
has caveats where and how you fit it
and calibrate it

But yeah for donkeys years
Just did the power the pump from psu
With nothing else connected
And little bit of washing up liquid around where fittings
Meet tubing etc
 
I got pressure pump for checking. Saving loads of time when redo the loop. Its a corsair one which was 30something quid. Even if used twice still a good investment (always can be resold)
 
I use the old "blow into a tube with my gob" trick to test for any obvious leaks on an assembled loop. Any big leaks will be obvious, but you can usually feel small leaks if you hold it long enough. Or suck instead and block the end of the tube with your tongue end to seal it while any leaks present themselves. You can definitely feel the pressure drop then if there is any leak.
 
You would do it with a fresh bit of temporary tube screwed in to a spare port on your rez, if you have one.
 
Just a little update -

I now have (or are on their way) the following parts :

- 2m 13/10 xspc black tubing
- 1x Barrow (2-pin) Temperature sensor
- Various EK compression fittings (connectors, elbows etc)
- 750watt Corsair PSU (was from a build I had a couple of years ago and have kept since as a spare)
- 63mm EK reservoir
- D5 vario pump with 170 reservoir
- psu bridge thingy
- Filler bottle
- 240mm EK SE Radiator
- 240mm Alhpacool Radiator
- 2 x 120mm P12 Arctic fans
- 2 x 1L Clear DP Ultra coolant
- Thing of Distilled Water
- EVGA 1080ti gpu with EK waterblock (won on Ebay tonight £112 - hope it is working fine)

I have quite a bit left to buy, but I think I have done quite well in just a few days. Believe I got some good deals. I shall probably be requesting more advice as time goes on, and definitely when finally building the thing.
 
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Do you have something to plug
a temperature sensor into?
not all motherboard have the required 2 pin connection
for one

Radiators did you get /or already have the required screws?
sadly there's more than 1 type of radiator
Screw thread
and some screws are slightly longer than others
 
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loonyk said:
Good luck with a build! Did you order drain valve?
Click to expand...
No, but I have a double-ended connector with the tap valve in the middle - could I somehow use this?


Mcnumpty2323 - I was bidding on a Z370-i Asus strix m/board/i7 8700k with 16gb ram tonight which I checked had the 2-pin temp sensor pin but was outbid, and it went for £145 in the end. I have a feeling this is going to be the hardest and possibly the most expensive part of the build. Nobody has yet unfortunately offered anything in the MM 'Wanted' section of the forum that I posted, so will have to keep scanning Ebay.

I have received the alphacool radiator so far, which came with a number of screws both long and short.
 
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malccy said:
No, but I have a double-ended connector with the tap valve in the middle - could I somehow use this?


Mcnumpty2323 - I was bidding on a Z370-i Asus strix m/board/i7 8700k with 16gb ram tonight which I checked had the 2-pin temp sensor pin but was outbid, and it went for £145 in the end. I have a feeling this is going to be the hardest and possibly the most expensive part of the build. Nobody has yet unfortunately offered anything in the MM 'Wanted' section of the forum that I posted, so will have to keep scanning Ebay.

I have received the alphacool radiator so far, which came with a number of screws both long and short.
Click to expand...
that's essentially is you drain plug. dont forget to end cap it after system is filled, to avoid accident :)
 
How do I actually use the valve connector when wanting to drain the loop (probably a stupid question)?

Also, another question which may seem a bit stupid and have so far put off asking but feel this might be a good time is - the last time that I did watercooling 20 years ago ptfe tape was the order of the day for every connection, apart from a brief dip in coolant/water to help stretch the tubing over the compression fitting is anything such as ptfe tape or similar used to help strengthen the 'connection/seal'? I can already feel in my gut this is probably a ridiculous question, as have seen many water cooling build videos over the last couple of years on Youtube and never once heard someone mention using ptfe tape. I should delete this paragraph....
 
You normally put draint port at lowest point of the loop. So you will need to open drain port with connected hose to some sort of tare (bottle, bucket whatever) and open fill port which is normally highest point of the loop. And it drains
 
It's not a ridiculous question
Don't usually use ptfe
As any leak usually it's the o ring
Or the joint/corner/angle or however you want
To call it on 90 degree rotary fittings or other rotary angles
That leak
Nothing to stop you putting a bit of ptfe on though
The thread just don't go crazy with it

The ball valves to drain
Put it as low as possible in the loop
Multiport Radiators for the bottom are ideal for this
If don't have a multiport radiator
Usually you use a T piece or Y piece
Then a male to male g 1/4 to attach into the ball valves on
The pump if its lower than gpu
On a watercooled gpu that is
I have also used the spare port on the bottom of gpu waterblock
for a drain valve as was lowest point in that build
I always put a g 1/4 blank/stop/whatever proper name is
On the end of the ball valve so if accidentally open the ball valves
It's not going to come pouring out
 
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malccy said:
Mcnumpty2323 - I was bidding on a Z370-i Asus strix m/board/i7 8700k with 16gb ram tonight which I checked had the 2-pin temp sensor pin but was outbid, and it went for £145 in the end. I have a feeling this is going to be the hardest and possibly the most expensive part of the build. Nobody has yet unfortunately offered anything in the MM 'Wanted' section of the forum that I posted, so will have to keep scanning Ebay.
Click to expand...
You could always get something else that reads temperature - I use an Aquacomputer Farbwerk which is an RGB controller but also has temp sensor input. Measure the water temperature and adjust my RGB to tell me if the system is warm or not. And as a bonus it works independently of Windows, so if the system crashes it will still works.
 
Yeah absolutely can use something other than
Motherboard sensor
Just the cheapest option if your motherboard
Happens to be able to take a sensor

Edit
Should point out
If you use a motherboard 2 pin temp sensor
It's not as convenient as a hardware solution
Because you need to open
Or have running in taskbar or overlay
Some software to actually tell you the sensor reading
The hardware option is always /or should be visible at a glance

I use old android phones or tablets for this
Currently using a really old 10 inch yoga tab
Android 6 on it lol but still works for a sensor panel
And the yoga tab has a great metal kickstand on it
So it's ideal for an external sensor panel
Use aida64 or other software
And I have all my temperatures, fan speeds,cpu usage,
Gpu usage ,gpu temperature and hot spot and vram temp etc
Display on it
Basically anything something like aida64, hwinfo etc can report
Then you can Display it
 
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And @Jay85 i think had some mini itx stuff
On mm
Not sure exactly what it was though
As small form factor isn't something I have
Experience with

Edit
Jay's stuff might be over budget
Worth mentioning anyway just in case
And he does have a lot of
Mini itx builds so who knows what else
He may have
 
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Mcnumpty2323 said:
And @Jay85 i think had some mini itx stuff
On mm
Not sure exactly what it was though
As small form factor isn't something I have
Experience with

Edit
Jay's stuff might be over budget
Worth mentioning anyway just in case
And he does have a lot of
Mini itx builds so who knows what else
He may have
Click to expand...

I might have some cheaper stuff coming up but just not sure what i have in my inventory right now. I'm overdue some inventory management!
 
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