Watercooling advice please

Yeah I'm not too keen on opening any of my blocks, it was mainly the radiator which I wanted cleaning, I've read that most modern blocks don't need disassembly these days so I'm quite happy to go with that. Although the EK HF Supreme does come with a variety of jet plates and if any of them provide any particular advantage I might be tempted to try it out.

So would my current intended procedure of just using the DI water to flush out each component be sufficient?
 
The EK Supreme HF comes with the best plate installed these days. However, when i took mine apart there were quite a lot of metal shavings in there, something i have found on other EK blocks as well.
 
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So Saturday came along and I was putting together my loop and the first problem I encountered were those absolutely demonic screws on the back of the GTX 480, of which 2 remain and I think I'm a bit boned because they are rather stripped (grrrrrrr), and then secondly it seems that my awesome radiator has a leak in it and has to be RMA'd /sadface.


So now I'm presented with 2 new problems;

1) How do I get these god damn screw's out now?
2) In the event that I can't get another GTX360, what other radiator would be best to get as a replacement? Keeping in mind I'll be running my gentle typhoon's probably no higher than 1500RPM.

Everything else though, seems to be working just fine :)
 
For lowish fan speed pa120.3 or ta120.3 is gonna be your best bet. Although you can't go wrong with swiftech and they have a new model out soon too.

Just a thought its pretty easy to repair a borked rad if it is located at the top or bottom of one of the finds; either solder it up or even easier grab some gasket seal from halfords or something and put it in the hole; works like a dream.

I recently pierced my pa120.3 about 6 times (picked up the wrong screws without thinking) and the gasket seal did the job.

Yes the gtx480 screws are soft as hell; easiest option is either going to be trying to gourge a new slot for a straight head (I did this); superglue trick or most dangerous getting a hand drill and destorying the head.
 
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Oh really? hmmmm I might take a look into that tonight while I wait for them to reply to my RMA request. Although I'm not quite sure if I can actually see the leak to plug it, all I know is that there is a leak :(

Will take a look at it tonight, as for the screws I might have just got myself a solution, as a local hardware shop had a screw extractor set with a 2mm head size, so hoping that'll do the trick.
 
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If you can find the leak and can be bothered trying let me know and I will the stuff I used and tell you the name.

ta
 
I managed to get the screws out and the waterblock mounted woooo!!!! With regards to the radiator it looks like the leaks are coming from just below the mounting holes. No idea how that even happened as I only used the screws supplied with the Radiator and they barely go into the mounting holes after going through the fans.

Sucks man... I am tempted to use the Sealant but would rather just get a replacement radiator. How would the sealant work anyway?

Wouldn't sealing the leak completely block the flow of water through the rest of the radiator?
 
If its in warranty send it back, the only reason for not doing so would be if you destroyed it.
 
Yeah I'm just waiting on the damn customer support team to get back to my on my RMA request... Won't mention the competing site, but I'm a bit worried as I checked their site today and now they only have 3 Tripple Fan Radiators listed where as yesterday they had dozens, including 10+ stock of the Thermochill TA 120.3's.

:s
 
jinxpad said:
I managed to get the screws out and the waterblock mounted woooo!!!! With regards to the radiator it looks like the leaks are coming from just below the mounting holes. No idea how that even happened as I only used the screws supplied with the Radiator and they barely go into the mounting holes after going through the fans.

Sucks man... I am tempted to use the Sealant but would rather just get a replacement radiator. How would the sealant work anyway?

Wouldn't sealing the leak completely block the flow of water through the rest of the radiator?
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Mine was way out of warranty so had little choice but to fix the leek; in your situation I would just RMA it.

With the sealent you don't put in in the hole but simply mould it around the edges of the hole. All what happens is that is seals up and sets solid it shouldn't impair the flow at all if done correctly.
 
ahh I see, I think I get it :P

Wish they would hurry up and authorise this RMA, I might just send it back for a refund and buy a new Radiator today... hmmmm

Edit:

Just got an email from them requesting images of the radiator. Sent them so hopefully will be able to get this radiator sent back to them today.
 
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How much extra performance in terms of temperature drops will I get with 6 fans in push/pull config as opposed to 3 fans in either a push or pull config?

I'm primarily concerned with noise being a little too loud, but if the performance increase is a significant one then I might get another 3 GT's.
 
You have to be careful when fitting the Thermochills' for some reason they come with extra long screws which can pierce the thin water channels which go the length of the radiator.
 
jinxpad said:
How much extra performance in terms of temperature drops will I get with 6 fans in push/pull config as opposed to 3 fans in either a push or pull config?

I'm primarily concerned with noise being a little too loud, but if the performance increase is a significant one then I might get another 3 GT's.
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Push and pull with give you a couple of degrees better performance but for the cost (gts arn't cheep I just picked up 4 myself) I don't think its worth it.

I just have 3 on my pa 120.3 in push with a shroud made from cheapo fans.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the screws mmj will definitely take a great deal of care when installing the GT's onto the rad.

Dazzerd, cheers for the tip, I'm not sure about using shrouds in terms of how they work (never used them before), does the radiator sit inside the shroud? Also if I was to get a shroud would it increase the size of the rad to a point where it would be difficult to mount at the top of an 800D?
 
You can buy a custom pa120.3 shroud if you want which kind of goes over the bottom of the rad. In fact it fits over the sides and then you put your fans on it. Its difficult to explain but special watercooling shops sell them. Go find a picture of it and you will see what I mean.

Using old fans is just as effectice though. Basically rip out the fan blade and motor so all you have left is the frame. Attach the 3 frames to your rad as you would do a complete fan then add the real fans on top of the frames.

The principle behind it is that it removes the dead spot of a fan, i.e. the bit where the motor is won't push air through the rad so you will have a large portion of your rad not exposed to air. By mounting your fan on the shorud you negate the size of the deadspot increasing air contact to your rad.

Regarding whether it will fit I have mine in a 700d (same size as 800d) and it fits wilh about 1mm spare so it is a tight fit. The main issue is the space around the vrm's; if worse comes to worse you could just use shrouds on the middle and front of the rad and leave the rear section unshrouded. It depends on the size of the heatsink on the vrms and whether your 8 pin mobo connector is on the top of the board like mine is.
 
jinxpad said:
Dazzerd, cheers for the tip, I'm not sure about using shrouds in terms of how they work (never used them before), does the radiator sit inside the shroud? Also if I was to get a shroud would it increase the size of the rad to a point where it would be difficult to mount at the top of an 800D?
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The shroud sits between the rad and fan and thus spaces the fan away from the rad. If usings and old fan with the middle cut out as a shroud then you may well have clearance issues with the PA rad and and 800D, depending what is on your mobo top edge, as it will probably overlap the mobo's footprint. If things stick up like ram clips etc then they could clash with each other.

I have a 700D with a fan-rad-fan sandwich (25mm fans) and it is only about 5mm clear of the mobo footprint and I modded the top of my case to remove the factory built depression in the case and replace it with a rad grill.
 
Ahh right, so basically the shroud lifts the fan off direct contact with the radiator, hmm might look into that then. I'm not the handiest of handymen and don't think I could bring myself to drilling into my case, although I wish I had a nice big garage sometimes and a lovely set of powertools. Maybe then I'd give it a go :P
 
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