Watercooling - Cleaning CPU & GPU Blocks

Chronictank

Chronictank

Chronictank

Soldato
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12 Jan 2006
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I couldnt dismantle my water blocks (swiftech apogee, and the gpu blocks) like the guide says so i put vinegar straight into the block.
How long should i leave it in? as i dont want to damage anything else inside them

Thanks in advance
 
Urr your not supposed to put the vinegar into the blocks only sit them in a glass bowl so that the vinegar is on the copper block on the bottom of the waterblock. Also don't let the vinegar get near ** plastic as it apparently stains it. Just flush out the blocks with distilled water.

This is the guide I followed:

Now that your done with the radiator we can move onto the waterblocks. Thankfully the waterlbocks are much easier to clean than the radiator. The first thing to do is to take the waterblock apart, and flush it with deionzied or distilled water. After you have flushed all of the parts, grab some vinegar and pour it into a glass or ceramic bowl. Plastics wont do as they can actually stain the waterblock. Once the bowl has been prepared, place ONLY the copper base of the waterblock in the bowl, making sure it is fully submerged and that only a small portion of it (non wetted surface) is touching the bowl. Set the baseplate stand in the vinegar from anywhere between 8-24 hours. Upon removal of the waterblock, flush it with disilled water and then lightly scrub it with a NEW toothbrush that has been cleaned off with rubbing alcohol and distilled water.
Click to expand...

If you mean your cleaning the radiator then follow this guide:

1. Flush the raditoar with distilled water. I suggest getting 2-3 2.5gallon jugs and just start pouring about 2.5-3gallons of distilled through the rad.
2. Pour Distilled or De-Ionzied water into radiator. - Pour until full, drain and repeat. Shaking the radiator when it is half full of water will help. Repeat this 3-5 times.
3. Following the same procedure as in step 2, repeat with vinegar.
4. Fill the radiator with vinegar, and let it sit for appx. 6-8 hours.
5.Flush the radiator after 6-8 hours, following the procedure of step 2. Repeat Step 3 as well.
6.Repeat Step 4.
7.Repeat Step 2.
 
oops, i couldnt take apart the blocks as i didnt have a alen key of that diameter
I then googled and read that putting vinegar in doesnt damage the block but makes it ugly because if discolouration, since they arent transparent i didnt think it mattered.
My rad im going to leave with vinegar in it for a day then wash out with distilled

That mean i have totaled my blocks? or are they still usable as they are?
 
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I have never cleaned my waterblocks (might when i do a rebuild) but reading the guide above i would say its fine to pour the solution inside.

It says:

The first thing to do is to take the waterblock apart, and flush it with deionzied or distilled water....Once the bowl has been prepared, place ONLY the copper base of the waterblock in the bowl, making sure it is fully submerged and that only a small portion of it (non wetted surface) is touching the bowl.
Click to expand...

I imagine when you take your waterblock apart you have the copper base with the copper cups/dents/whatever is used in the block design to maximise the surface area. Surely if you dont take the block apart the only way to clean these bits is to plonk the whole thing in?

In the pic below showing an Apogee fully dissassembled i take it the guide means you submerge the whole of the copper base plate in the solution. How is this different from submerging the whole block in it (in terms of the copper bits - you still have both sides in contact with the fluid dont you?)

image11big.jpg
 
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the bottom of my cpu block (maze 4) is very sort of discoloured. some bright guy at the shop i bought it from put celotape on the bottom of it which then left loads of sticky crap on it. the only way i could get it off was to use some methylated alcohol and a cotton bud but now after the month ive been usin it, its got a really murky sort of colour??

if i stick just the bottom of it in some vinigar, you think it would fetch some of this stuff off??

btw, the small rectangle in the middle that isnt murky was where the core of my socket A cpu was

dsc00225es8.jpg
 
I favour tomato ketchup over vinegar but they both do a similar job in removing oxidisation, definately worth a try.

For future reference WD40 is great for dissolving adhesive left behind from stickers or tape etc. Clean the WD40 off the copper when completed with some IPA or ketchup/vinegar.
 
Sorry for another off topic question, but DaveMac would WD40 be ok to use on an Acrylic surface? I ask becuase there was a load of gunk on my Acrylic Aquatube where I took of the cellotape. I have removed the worst of it but there is still a sticky opaque mess still there.
 
Yip, I've used it on CD-cases and acrylic window panels before, iirc you can use it on most non-porous surfaces.

You might want to give it a wash in soapy water and rinse well to get rid of the WD-40 afterwards.
 
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