Custom Water Cooled PC breaks down

[creyD]

This is our first water-cooled PC and it seems like we did something wrong. I posted this here and was referenced to this forum.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X (16x 3,5 GHz)
Board: Gigabyte Aorus Master X570
GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Xtreme Waterforce WB 11G
RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 DIMM CL17
SSD: 2 x 1TB Crucial P1 NVMe SSD
Power: 1000 Watt Corsair HXi Series HX1000i
Case: Lian Li PC-O11DW Dynamic Midi-Tower

Fans: 5 x 120mm
Radiators: EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 + EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 240
Distro (Pump + Reservoir): Lian Li O11D Distro-Plate G1

(Full specs incl. water-cooling here)

After a while the first pump of the Distro Plate died, then after an upgrade to a pump twice as strong the second one. Then the mainboard died (because of a bad power supply which got replaced) and got replaced and now the third pump which was connected to an external power brick, died as well. We think we seriously did something wrong, but we can't seem to find the reason.

Our first loop was from Distro Plate split to GPU and CPU where each went into a separate Radiator and were merged into the Distro plate after this, but as we thought it might be the reason of the pump not working anymore, we restructured into two semi-separate loops one going directly into cpu and rad 1 and after that going into gpu and rad 2.

Thanks a lot for your help in advance!

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Certainly doing something wrong
1 pump failure is possible
But 2 and 3 isn't definitely
Some photos or video of your loop would be
Extremely helpful though

 

[creyD]

Here are the pictures: https://imgur.com/a/eFWDbsI , we tried a video as well but imgur only allows for 60sec...

 

[creyD]

Here's the video
https://streamable.com/iprgy8

 

[stuie]

Based on the vid and the noise of the first pump id say the pumps running dry hnce the bearing death of the first pump

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Couple of things
You shouldn't run the pump outside the pc like that
Even for testing running a pump dry is a bad idea
The liquid is what lubricates it

Some of your tubes bends are kinked
Ie flattened out thats probably causing flow restrictions
Its not easy to see on my phone which are the in
And which the out ports on the distro plate
So double check you haven't went in an out
And vice versa
Are you bleeding the air out of the loop?
As a major air lock will cause issues

Based on the vid and the noise of the first pump id say the pumps running dry hnce the bearing death of the first pump

Just pointed that out but they may have caused that
While testing it dry afterwards

 

[creyD]

Couple of things
You shouldn't run the pump outside the pc like that
Even for testing running a pump dry is a bad idea
The liquid is what lubricates it

Thanks for the advice!

Some of your tubes bends are kinked
Ie flattened out thats probably causing flow restrictions
Its not easy to see on my phone which are the in

Yeah, one or two tubes aren't bend perfectly, but could this really be the issue?

Are you bleeding the air out of the loop?

What do you mean by that? In the beginning, we fill the loop until all air bubbles disappear and leave it running for a couple of hours. I don't think there are air pockets in our loop, at least I couldn't see one.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Just to clarify
Its fine to run or test a pump outside the pc
But you should set a simple in and out loop on it
With coolant or water in it
Usually the pump has a spindle or ceramic bearing set up
Running with no liquid in it will immediately cause friction

The flattened bends certainly won't help
But may not be totally to blame

As you put liquid in the air is displaced by it
That air has to come out
Its not always visible as the air bubble could be in the pump or cpu block etc
The distro plate should have some sort of bleed screw
To let air out

In a way its like a domestic central heating system
If that helps make it clearer
You bleed the air out of those with a bleed screw on the radiators

your pumps work when removed so possibilities are
1 its the flattened bends severely restricting flow
2 the system is air locked
3 you put a tube on an in port that should go on an out port
Or vice versa
4 a combination of any of 1,2,3

 

[mickyflinn]

Ignore me.

 

[Defy Belief]

Why was the third pump ran off an external power brick?

A distro block should allow for clean, straight lines, I'm not sure what you were thinking when working out the runs, the kinks will not be helping, some look extremely restrictive, especially gpu to rad

Doesn't look like any of the tubing is full of water either? Which screams lots of air locks. Lots of tipping/tilting whilst running should reduce this.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Just looked at the distro block
It may be that to fill and bleed it you will need to
Tilt or lay down the pc

One more thought
Not used that distro so may be wrong
The top radiator are you sure you didn't go out then back in
To an out port?
Because that U shaped bit of tubing top right
Doesnt seem right to me
Would expect the radiator return to go to one of those holes

 

[creyD]

As you put liquid in the air is displaced by it
That air has to come out
Its not always visible as the air bubble could be in the pump or cpu block etc
The distro plate should have some sort of bleed screw
To let air out

Yes it does and we had this open during the filling process.

1 its the flattened bends severely restricting flow

Is highly possible.

2 the system is air locked

We did let the air out during filling and the first hour or so, so this shouldn't be it.

3 you put a tube on an in port that should go on an out port
Or vice versa

We redid the loop and the layout of it 2-3 times now, this shouldn't be it. Our first combination was very suboptimal as two streams did come together exactly where the pump was, but this is fixed since Mk2 and there were a lot of issues after that.

Why was the third pump ran off an external power brick?

Because until Mk3 we apparently had a faulty power supply (found out after measuring) and this probably destroyed the mainboard. The second mainboard didn't always tell the pump to kick in (unknown reason) and so we tried to solve this problem by not using the mainboard to power or control the pump but to always run it via this power brick.

A distro block should allow for clean, straight lines, I'm not sure what you were thinking when working out the runs, the kinks will not be help, some look extremely restrictive, esp gpu to rad

Like I mentioned this is our first hard tube water-cooled build and we didn't know that the flow is impacted by such bends so much. Yes this is a scuffed line (gpu-> rad)!

Thanks for all your help so far!

@Defy Belief Our loop is scuffed like this, as it was partially rebuild 2 times now. But the PC is so unstable, that we think about just rebuilding the whole loop. Clean lines weren't our priority, because we thought it would be beneficial if we always went heat > cooler > heat > cooler (as it is now). Any tips are welcome!

 

[creyD]

Tilt or lay down the pc

We did do that!

Would expect the radiator return to go to one of those holes

I will check this real quick with the manual!

 

[creyD]

In the middle is our plate and a config with dual gpu: http://www.lian-li.com/o11d-distro-plate-g1/

 

[Defy Belief]

Component/loop order does not matter so long as the res feeds the pump - which it always will with a pump/res combo.

 

[Defy Belief]

The order you have done the distro plate looks completely wrong imo, I think the setup you have will be poor for flow of water, added with the kinks you have I can see why a pump would give up as it looks like you have a tonne of air in there where the water is not flowing from section to section like it should (At least from what I can tell)

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Its a learning process
But yes that U shaped pipe theres no logical reason
Why you would put it there
As already said distros are about a clean tidy look
So that makes no sense

You mean the one in the middle picture
With red coolant in it?
Yes that one makes sense flow wise
They didnt need to do that U you see?
Obviously its your first build
Possibly you should have used a 90 degree fitting on the
Lower gpu port and on the bottom radiator
To avoid some of those flattened bends

 

[creyD]

Possibly you should have used a 90 degree fitting on the
Lower gpu port and on the bottom radiator
To avoid some of those flattened bends

Yeah we probably do that.

Thanks for helping us out! I think we will come back with plans on how the loop will look like.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

We will be here when you need any advice
And you have some nice components there
So even though its been a nightmare so far for you
Once its all sorted it will be great

 

[im4gine3]

Personally, and just a suggestion. Given the amount spent on this loop, and assuming you have excess tubing about, why not connect a simple loop outside the case using the distro plate purely for the pump (so 1 inlet and 1 outlet), and see if all is working.

If it is then you know it's either the kinks in the tubing a possible issue, air locks and/or the flow setup.