second hand water cooling kit

KX36 · 22 Sep 2007 at 21:16

I have just bought what is essentially a Asetek WaterChill KT03A-L20 water cooling kit (£150 new) second hand for £35.
The kit contains:
1x black ice pro radiator (1x120mm)
2x Hydor L20 AC pumps
1x power relay
1x Asetek WaterChill Antarctica CPU block
1x small reservoir

(all have push fittings, not barbs.)

the kit is all copper, brass and plastic, so I figure the chance of previous corrosion is reduced and all it will need is a clean

my questions are these:
1 - is this worth the £35 i paid for it second hand
2 - does anyone know how good/bad this kit is, the only review i can find is in german
3 - is it really dumb to buy water cooling equipment second hand when you don't know the history of the components
4 - has anyone got any advice for me

(PS. I intend to use it to cool a laptop via either a hacked up ice pack underneath or the more traditional wedges of copper in the exhaust hole soldered/brazed onto a length of copper pipe. nifty eh?)
also if the previous owner is on this site, I'd like to say "hello and thanks".

needmorstuff · 22 Sep 2007 at 21:22

price is ok, should be fine for a laptop, 2nd hand if fine just leak test, take your time and leak test leaktest ;leaktest

Cob · 22 Sep 2007 at 21:26

I really want to see pics of this when it's finished.

KX36 · 4 Oct 2007 at 18:07

well 2 weeks after ordering, the 2nd hand kit finally came.

well the CPU block and old tubes were filthy (the block was coated in some black stuff, the tubes white);

the top of the CPU block was mounted upside down and the fittings are stuck in there (i broke my tool trying to get them out) as are all the ones which attach by allen key; all the fittings are 1/4" and I can't remove enough of them to increase the bore of the tubing to something less silly.

taking the fittings off the radiator and having a look inside shows several channels stenosed or obscructed by limescale! (although there is still some flow through it, so maybe i can clean that up)

seems like the previous owner had used good old-fashioned tap water in a hard water area. perfect.

well the pumps, radiator and reservoir still work, although need a lot of maintenance, we'll see how it goes when i have enough time away from university to build some kinda heatsink for the laptop.