Micro bubbles?

famas

famas

famas

Soldato
Joined
12 Dec 2004
Posts
3,303
Location
the south
Hey all

I've just finished setting up my first wc rig and am in the process of leak testing.

I'll admit the pump, res and radiator orientation are probably not the best but I think it's ok.
Can't get a picture at the moment.

The system seems to be circulating fine but I'm getting a lot of micro bubbles in the res and in the upper most tube.

I'm using a combination of clear and coloured tubing so can't see inside the coloured tubing but the rest of the clear tubing looks to be bubble free.

I've had the pump running for nearly two hours now and in that time I've tried tipping and tilting the case in all directions which has helped to get some air out but not all.

I have the plug off of the res so air can escape and the res is nearly full to the brim.

Question is how long does it roughly take for all the micro bubbles to disappear and do I have to wait until there all gone before I can use the machine?

Cheers
 
If it is just tiny bubbles sticking to the side of the tube reservoir, it is normal and it is fine to use like that. I get this every time i fill up a loop for the first time and it takes a little while for them to go, but you are in no danger of them entering the loop, so it doesn't matter.

You don't need to keep the plug off, you can instead just loosen it every few hours to let the built up air escape. Congratz on the new cooling!
 
Cheers for quick reply,

The bubbles are tiny and like you say are stuck to the side of the res near the top, the bottom half of the res is bubble free.

Seems most of the tubing is clear from bubbles now apart from one piece going from the CPU block to the top rad which has loads of tiny bubbles but again are stuck to the side of the tubing.

One other thing that is concerning me is I have the ek supremacy water block and in the instructions there was no mention of which way to orientate the block, so I have it with the ports going vertically as it suited the tube routing better but all the pictures I've seen of other peoples builds have the block mounted horizontally.

Is it ok mounting it vertically? I hope I don't have to change it now.
 
The orientation can make a slight difference (1-2degC) depending on what CPU it is. Mounting them that way is apparently better on S2011 I think. Not sure on other sockets. Personally I wouldn't be too bothered about it.

The bubbles will clear out eventually over a few days.
 
Excellent cheers for that.

Going to bite the bullet now and try starter her up, wish me luck :)
 
Hurray! all up and running though not with out issues.

Something is making a hell of a racket, I think its the pump vibrating on the case.
The pump came with a foam pad but I forgot to use it. will sort that out tomorrow.

The temps aren't quite what i was expecting.

The loop temperature is 26c and at idle the cpu is at 32c (FX 8320) which is the same as my old h80 was getting.

The gpu is at 32c also which is the same as i was getting on air. (iceq 7950)

I was expecting them to be a bit lower if I'm honest but I've not tried under load yet.

I'm thinking it could be the fans i'm using, currently have both rads using enermax clusters, one rad in pull and the other in push configuration.

I cant fit the top rad in push pull due to space limits but I can put two more fans on the front rad so I might try using the stock h80 fans as well as the clusters, just means i have to lose the dust filter.

Is it ok to run fans of different speeds in push/pull? the clusters ran at about 1200rpm max, not sure what the stock h80 fans run at.

Any thoughts as to the temps?

and here's a quick picture so far.

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cheers mate.

I'll do some testing and see how it fairs.
Got to do something about this pump noise though, its driving me mad :)
 
could well be air still in the system, though I cant see any more bubbles in the tubing.
Still a few in the top half of the res but they are above the inlet port.

The pump is just sitting directly on the case bottom and probably being push up against the back panel by all the cables. I'll have a fiddle about with it tomorrow and see if it clears up.

Yeah clear tubing with mayhems pastel blue.

Just done some gaming and the gpu went to a max of 39c which seems good.

The cpu went to 40c, with the h80 it was hitting about 45-46c.

I do have the window open so the ambient temp is down a bit.

I'm wondering if the cpu block orientation is having a negative effect on the cpu cooling?
 
I also want to share something that, If it is just tiny bubbles sticking to the side of the tube reservoir, it is normal and it is fine to use like that. I get this every time i fill up a loop for the first time and it takes a little while for them to go, but you are in no danger of them entering the loop, so it doesn't matter. Thanks for sharing nice post.
 
cheers for the replies chaps.

I had a fiddle with the set up this morning and added the foam pad under the pump which has quietened it down a load, it must have been vibrating against the chassis which was making all the racket.

I also added a couple of 140mm fans to the font of the case with amazing custom dust filters (old tights :))

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They dont seem to have done much to the temps though which are still hovering around 31-32c at idle.

I'll see how it goes but I might add a couple of corsair sp120s in place of the 140 fans.
Though I think i'll need a fan controller as well as all these fans are getting loud.

every thing is stock at the moment so going to start overclocking now :)
 
I think you said before the loop temp is 26c at idle - how does that compare to your room?

Because if the water temp is quite close to the external temp then I would not imagine extra fans are likely to assist with CPU/GPU temps significantly - they would (again, I imagine) oly help if you've having trouble dumping heat out of the loop (i.e. high water temps).
 
I had horrendous problems getting all the micro bubbles out of my loop also (pic in this thread) - had what I can only describe as foam collecting at the top of my res. In the end I left the pump running for 36-48 hours and then left the system off for another 48 hours. Fired it up again and all the micro bubbles had cleared.

Those temps sound OK to me. I get 33c idle (25-27c ambient) and 50-55c on load on a 4770k. Both my 7950s idle at 35c (57c on load w/ stock voltage) and water temp is 33c if that helps at all :)
 
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Yeah the loop temp is pretty consistent at 26c idle.
I'm not sure on the exact room temp, I would think its pretty close.

Pretty sure the loop is bubble free now, only have a few micro bubbles at the very top of the res.
 
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