Almost ready to watercool. Have a few questions

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

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18 Mar 2008
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Hi,

I'm likely to be getting a new pc soon. I want to watercool gtx 480 and i7 in a single loop. Here is the kit I have definitely decided:

Thermochill 420
D5 pump
xspc dual bay reservoir for D5
EK supreme clear top (it's the only one in stock atm)
480 prefitted waterblock

I've decided that as I'm only just losing my wcooling virginity, I don't want to complicate things by adding the motherboard into the mix, and from what I've read the rampage III extreme isn't that hot anyway?

But a few questions remain.

Coolant

First of all, I was all set to go with distilled water, pt nuke and sticking a silver coil in the reservoir, but after this post from Nathwraith, I'm considering fluid xp eco fluid:


NathWraith said:
For fluid/coolant any of the EcoXP series we sell is great as they don't stain and they are not conductive so you don't have to worry if you spill some on your expensive hardware.
Click to expand...

I know that it's almost a golden rule of thumb not to buy pre-made coolant. If I do decide to go the distilled water route, can I just colour my loop with a little bit of anti freeze, or will that cause staining too? A lot of older guides mention anti freeze, but not the newer ones.


Fittings
I've consciously not yet decided on fittings, due to the conflicting information on the various guides I've read. Some say to stay away from compression fittings, especially for a beginner. Others say that they're quite good to use. As a first timer, would 1/2" id + compressions be better or 7/16"id with 1/2" barbs? I've specced out parts for either, especially as the Thermochill is g3/8" and needs different fittings.

Okay, thank you guys :)
 
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For the most part all any of us can offer is our opinion with reguards to the best coolant and fittings.

For my first loop i used EC6 clear and coloured tubeing which worked great. And useing comp fittings for the first time wasnt hard at all, just make sure you order the right thickness of tubeing. I orded 16/10mm when the comp fittings i had where 13mm.O.D/10mm.I.d

I would recomend useing the EcoXP fluid if you have a side window or a exposed res (where you can see the colour of the water) and/or have a 'theme' going on in the tower, which coloured water can really help with. If you dont have many or any of those then coloured tubeing would be much better for you as its cheaper and easier to maintain, in my opinion.

I would allso recomend useing either bards or comp fittings they really are just as easy/difficult as each other. I used comp fittings for a cleaner look and the reduced size it takes up, as i had a window and small space inside my case.

That my 2c anyways , hope it helps mate and goodluck with your watercooling :)


Edit: If you where allso thinking of UV lighting, coloured tubeing would give a better look, with less chance of dimming. Fluids that have UV (imo) will lose their brightness considerably faster than good coloured tubeing and can allso react to v.strong UV light.
 
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talk about water cooling what happened to liquid metal cooling as posed to water cooling I thought it was better

Sorry for going off topic

yh rampage 3 should be cool with its specs
 
I am no expert but after having just done a water loop myself and doing lots and lots of research most people seem to think good old distilled water and and something like PT Nuke or Phobia Liquid utopia or a silver coil in the resivour. Known problems are tube staining, block staining, colour dissapears after a while, raised temps, regular loop cleaning.
If you want colour the advise I was given is get coloured tubes. I used perfect seal barbs and 7/16" tubing and it was so easy with no leaks.
 
Demonmirc said:
I am no expert but after having just done a water loop myself and doing lots and lots of research most people seem to think good old distilled water and and something like PT Nuke or Phobia Liquid utopia or a silver coil in the resivour. Known problems are tube staining, block staining, colour dissapears after a while, raised temps, regular loop cleaning.
Click to expand...

Exactly, that was the direction I was headed in. But then that post from nathwraith made me think twice. I'm hoping that I can still do the distilled water route, and add anti freeze to colour the water.
 
Maybe you should wait on buying and get the Thermochill TA120.4 radiator :p I hear they are coming out soon, and have G1/4 threads (instead of the old ones) as far as I know :)

If you want to use a PA series radiator with the G3/8 threads, you can buy reducers, that take them down to G1/4 threads. That way you don't need to find funky fittings, as all other parts will use G1/4 threads.
 
People often used to use ethylene glycol/anti-freeze with deionised/distilled in a mixture in their loops before it was commonplace to use water by itself. The anti-freeze will negatively affect the cooling performance of your loop, however unless you are running a very high ratio of anti-freeze to water the chances are it will not be noticeable.

IIRC there have been reports of 'jelly' forming in loops with glycol in, so if you do decide to go down that route it would pay to keep an eye on temps for a while after setting the loop up incase it decides to separate and clog something.

Personally I'd just stick with water and blue tubing then put some blue LEDs around/in your res to keep the blue theme.
 
ThestigGT999 said:
I am also interested to know whether it's safe to use anti freeze to colour loops
Click to expand...


I have had water for the past ??? 10 years and always used AntiFrezze. From a 10% mix all the way to 80%.

I had one rig running for 5 years on about 30% mix (Seti) and still have the pipes and water block,NO leaks or corrosion.

Dont worry someone will post that it kills this and that.but i can say its all my arse:) Antifrezze stops bugs growing and that crappy slime build up....

O forgot to say the 5years that Socket A was running the Res was OUTSIDE! 25l water tank.
 
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