Question about maintenance

Mothership · 5 Jun 2012 at 11:25

Hi all, I'm just investigating my options for a new build. I woud love water cooling, but I'm still on the fence due to maintenance. Suppose I just use completely clear fluid without any dye, only anti bacterial additives and a silver spiral, would gunk still form overtime? If so, what is it collecting?

jeff6475 · 5 Jun 2012 at 12:25

i use mayhems pastel in my loop shouldnt need changing for 18 months +
all ill do is blast some air on the rads and fans clean the dust if any

Mothership · 5 Jun 2012 at 12:58

For how long have you had your system, and have you kept track of the temperatures?

jeff6475 · 5 Jun 2012 at 13:35

8 months and idles 25-29 across the 4 cores and maxes out 56 highest core and thats with the hot weather we had other week
fans still on low setting

craarc · 6 Jun 2012 at 17:13

occasional top ups, fan cleans, and when ever i feel like an upgrade on anything usually dismantle blocks for a clean never really had any gunk problems using mayhems pastel now with dionised water in the past have used water alone

would recomend the mayhems as an additive tho

noticed a slight rise in the warm weather recently but always do in the summer months buy as couple degrees only tho any more than that and i would investigate

try and keep the room temp constant tho most of the time so i dont expect much variation water temps hit 31 in the hottest times very rarely

spixelspixel · 6 Jun 2012 at 17:20

swiftech hydrx concentrate , green UV. I used it for 4+ years without changing once. No growth/corrosion. Mix 1 bottle for every 1/2 litre distilled for long term (up to 5 years). 1 bottle for every litre for short term (up to 2 years)

This was in 2007 though, thy could have changed their recipe

Mothership · 6 Jun 2012 at 23:03

Thanks for the answers guys! After all the stuff I read, I was worried I would be dismantling my system for cleaning every 6 months. My personal taste is that lots of tubes in the case is ugly, so I wanted to build it in a way with as little tubing as possible. Like this guy:

Now, the same people who are religious about cleaning every half year also say that 90 degree bends are a horrible thing. But considering they appear to be wrong on the maintenance, are they wrong on this as well? Can I safely install a ton of 90 degree bends in my loop like in the video?

craarc · 7 Jun 2012 at 00:41

i would rather have 90 degree bends with high flow large bore than small bore with more restriction its not the bend its the flow thru it that matters ( but generally more bends will = more restriction depends on what u use)

i have a ton of tubes and 3 resevoirs and a small pump but i run a cool system with lots of flow so it depends on how you set it up tbh

i have 2 tubes in my case all my stuff is external (ugly) but out of site, my case is clean again depends how u want it set up

i like external loops and tons of volume

everyone likes their set up diferent

but a clean case minimal stuff looks good if u can hide it all elsewhere.

as far as koolant additives are concerned mayhems are the bolluks i think so far

but saying that i never had probs on clear water .. just blew it all thru each rebuild

and lets face it if it gets corroded or gunked up once a year its not a lot to replace stuff and you will prob want to upgrade something at least once a year anyway ...