Small problem with my water cooled system - Swiftech Corrosion Issues!

WJA96

WJA96

WJA96

Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,348
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
OK - my gaming system was running a trifle warm - but it's the summer and I didn't think too much of it, and then my pump (Swiftech MCP-655) started screeching. Not a little - a lot!

So I stripped it all down and the entire system is full of black and white granules. Can you guess where they are coming from? The Swiftech Apogee GTX CPU block is the culprit.

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I think I'd have to say avoid this particular unit unless it has the copper top. I should have listened to the various people who said these would corrode, but I didn't think Swiftech would put out anything so spectacularly poor.

The radiator and pump were both full of the little specs of corroded material and I reckon the pump is trashed, and the radiator's probably not much better. The all-copper and acrylic EK 8800GTX GPU blocks are also fine, as is the reservoir, but I'm truly gobsmacked that such a shocking design could have been sold at all.

In the fourth picture you can see the anodizing has been eaten through, and on the fifth picture it looks very much like some of the copper fins have also disappeared.
 
I think it may be because I've been using this machine to fold for the last 7 months solid - 60C core temperatures (3.8GHz) running 24/7 can't have helped.
 
Maybe.

Tho I'm still going to put it down to a shoddy design and terrible workmanship. Going for anodized aluminium is bad enough, but failing to ensure that it's done well enough to avoid the above is criminal for a company like Swiftech.


Still, atleast they offer a copper top for only another 20 of your fine British pounds.
 
Cob said:
Maybe.

Tho I'm still going to put it down to a shoddy design and terrible workmanship. Going for anodized aluminium is bad enough, but failing to ensure that it's done well enough to avoid the above is criminal for a company like Swiftech.


Still, atleast they offer a copper top for only another 20 of your fine British pounds.
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I've sent them an e-mail - let's see what their response is. As they are US based, I doubt I'll get a single digit salute, but who knows?
 
Have a read through this and this over at XS.

The original GTX thread here is quite funny as they constantly reassure everyone that they use only 'military grade' plating.
 
This should be interesting as it looks very much lik ethey are giving a single-digit salute to anyone who hasn't used HydrX in their loop. I am using Deionized, distilled and microbiologically filtered Ice Water with Algaecide, so who knows if they'll accept that as a valid product to use.

Given the warnings on other US products I would have thought that this would have had 'USE HYDRX' all over the front in big letters - just avoid getting sued by US customers.

I think I'll contact my UK source as well.
 
WJA96 said:
I think it may be because I've been using this machine to fold for the last 7 months solid - 60C core temperatures (3.8GHz) running 24/7 can't have helped.
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It shouldn't matter. I would be SERIOUSLY ****** off.
 
Amazed Swiftech let this one get through quality control on the whole design, not an isolated incodent either as there are a couple more examples I can think of but none this extreme.
 
A perfect example of galvanic corrosion:(. Sorry to see this happen to such a seasoned enthusiast - swiftech should be ashamed of themselves tbh.

I would seriously think of stripping down your whole loop m8 because those missing fins could be anywhere. Also you would likely find that your water has been turned into a mild acid (much like battery acid but on a lesser scale) so I wouldn't be surprised if your radaitor is showing similar symtoms like you said, although it is hard to check so best just throw it away. Your pump 'should' be fine unless any 'floaters' have damaged the impeller, just give it a damn good rinse out but the pump is relatively easy to check over.

Hopefully this hasn't put you off watercooling and swiftech deserve to lose a lot of custom over this as a company such as swiftech, widely recommended in the watercooling scene should have WITHDRAWN the GTX upon first signs of them being faulty ( a year or so ago?). Shame on them tbh!

Shame you didn't see my post on the subject a while ago :

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11076804&postcount=13

or chose to ignore me :(
 
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w3bbo said:
Swiftech should be ashamed of themselves tbh.
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I agree. Their default position seems to be that it's calcium build-up because their MIL-spec plating can't have been breached. Well, I beg to differ.

w3bbo said:
I would seriously think of stripping down your whole loop m8 because those missing fins could be anywhere. Also you would likely find that your water has been turned into a mild acid (much like battery acid but on a lesser scale) so I wouldn't be surprised if your radaitor is showing similar symtoms like you said, although it is hard to check so best just throw it away. Your pump 'should' be fine unless any 'floaters' have damaged the impeller, just give it a damn good rinse out but the pump is relatively easy to check over.
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The pump is trashed. 'Bits' of corrosion got in behind the magnetic impeller and half the ceramic is missing off the top of the little nubbin the magnetic impeller sits on. Hence the squealing noises that alerted me to the problem. I have also decided that for the sake of another £60 it's not worth trying to salvage the radiator as no matter how much I flush it, it still keeps shedding more 'bits'.

w3bbo said:
Hopefully this hasn't put you off watercooling and swiftech deserve to lose a lot of custom over this as a company such as swiftech, widely recommended in the watercooling scene should have WITHDRAWN the GTX upon first signs of them being faulty ( a year or so ago?). Shame on them tbh!
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No fear of me being put off watercooling. But it is now my mission to make sure as many people as possible know that Swiftech is synonymous with galvanic corrosion and that they should be avoided if at all possible. With their attitude to custiomer service, would you want anything of theirs - even if it didn't have any aluminium in it?

w3bbo said:
Shame you didn't see my post on the subject a while ago :

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=11076804&postcount=13

or chose to ignore me :(
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Well, I actually bought the block in November of last year, so it was a little bit late to take the warning, but I'm the sort of person who won't usually buy 2 of anything, and I like to test everything myself. In this case, I tested it to an untimely destruction and it took out the pump and RAD as well unfortunately. Luckily, both had seen a long and fruitful lives before this, so I'm not too broken up about those.
 
Did you decide to look because of mine or were you going to look anyway? Let me know if you get any joy out of Swiftech; I didn't bother to complain. Yet.
 
MikeTimbers said:
Did you decide to look because of mine or were you going to look anyway? Let me know if you get any joy out of Swiftech; I didn't bother to complain. Yet.
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It was running warm, and I had a quick look at the tubing, and it looked fine, but today it started squealing, so I stripped it down. I wish I'd stripped it down before to be honest, but you live and learn.
 
Getting the copper top is cheaper than getting a new block but it still hurts to have to pay for what should be a free replacement.
 
Mine is way beyond a new top. The rubber seal is corroded into the top. If I try to remove it, it will not reseat, so it's fubared basically.
 
I hope EZ or DTek blocks don't suffer from this issue.

How on earth could they possibly let this happen?
 
Nasty stuff. Wasn't expecting it to ever get that bad despite all the stories I had heard.
Will be interesting to see what Swiftech say if they reply.

Excuse to get a better block though I guess!
 
Amazing that Gabe at Swiftech still put this on the market and still defends the choice for doing so.

I don't understand why you would design a product with material which isn't suited for the application. You could say using protected aluminium and anti-corrosion will suffice, but using Delrin with straight water and no anti-corrosion will just result in a bit of build up - not ruining the whole block.

Kind of like cars, people aren't supposed to crash but they do - and the air bag is put in regardless.
 
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