Watercooling fluids

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

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18 Mar 2008
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Sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but I remember a year or so ago that it said on these forums never to use fluid xp, that it was an awful fluid. Therefore at the time OcUK didn't stock it. however, they stock it now. Can I assume that since then, it's become good stuff? Also, is the fluid like Feser F1, ready to use with all the additives already in there?

Thanks :)
 
100% pure water is the second best liquid for cooling loops
Ammonia is better, but you don't want to be anywhere near it.

any normal additive (in solution or suspension) will reduce waters thermal performance.

Fluids with die in them will separate (how long can be anything from 6months to 3 years) why fluid xp wasn't liked for a time
If you have a single metal loop (aluminum or copper) and no window/internal lighting then the 'additives' are of little use.

A 35p a litre deionised water works fine.
If you can get distilled it .01c better (and less likely to have life in it)

A few drops if nuke or ~2cm2 of pure silver will kill all the plant life and bactiera.
Did use Feser aqua for a time when I had an mixed metal external loop near a window as algee was a problem.
then realised it was mild acid

Used distilled (from my condensing tumble drier) and a silver kill coil now.
I change this every 6-12 months when I tweek my loop

NanoFluids - are the exception as this will knock one degree of your temps.
 
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Also interested in hearing about the fluids. What about the non-conducting stuff, will these really prevent a fried mobo etc? To me this seems like a worthwhile hit in temperature if it saves your board.

I am planning on running my loop through a chiller unit (actually it is called a 'python cooler', it's used to cool beer all the way to the pump from the chiller) so I am interested in the outcome of this as all I wanted to use was de-ionised water. Currently running Fesup which is nothing special AFAICS

Sorry if slightly OT
 
shadowscotland said:
100% pure water is the second best liquid for cooling loops
Ammonia is better, but you don't want to be anywhere near it.
Click to expand...

Especially on a Saturday morning after a few beers the night before!!

rush_syndrome said:
Also interested in hearing about the fluids. What about the non-conducting stuff, will these really prevent a fried mobo etc? To me this seems like a worthwhile hit in temperature if it saves your board.

I am planning on running my loop through a chiller unit (actually it is called a 'python cooler', it's used to cool beer all the way to the pump from the chiller) so I am interested in the outcome of this as all I wanted to use was de-ionised water. Currently running Fesup which is nothing special AFAICS

Sorry if slightly OT
Click to expand...

What temps are you looking run the chiller at, one to watch out for would be condensation.
 
DONT BUY FESER ONE! It IS conductive. The only good thing I can say about it is that it is easy to spot under a UV torch if you spill any of it. It has shorted some of my components but its nothing that rinsing and drying in distilled water didnt solve.

Anyway I used feser one red and after a few months I opened up my cpu block and THIS happened.



Not sure about fluid xp but this has put me off. When I switched to colour tubing, distilled water and silver coil I had a few degrees cooler set up.
 
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From what i have read the general consensus seems to be using distilled and a silver coil, thats what i did :). Nano fluid is expensive and you will only see marginal gains in the region of 1 degrees, which in the real world equate to about 5mhz more overclock and most don't overclock that close to the bleeding edge of performance anyway.
 
I really want to use clear tubing with some UV fluid. however, you guys have said that this isn't the best thing. Is it possible to get uv tubing made out of tygon?
 
first thing to know is that out of all the common coolants distilled water is the least electrically conductive and conveys the most heat

second thing to know is if you're chilling the loop get a liquid which won't freeze until about -30, AFAIK quite a few people who chill their loops use methanol because the freezing point is very low.
 
I thought methanol would attack plastics. I'm no chemist though. Antifreeze and water is the standard for sub-zero loops afaik.

Distilled water is probably better than deionised (costs more anyway), but neither will remain nonconductive for long. As soon as they're exposed to the air, co2 (and other stuff) will dissolve and it'll now start conducting. I imagine feser one has the same problem.

Tygon make industrial tubing. It's ridiculously overspecified for watercooling computers. If any of it is UV reactive, I imagine it's coincidental.

edit: Hmm. Wonder if I can get distilled water out of my tumble drier. Ammonia attacks copper btw, among other problems.
 
i use nano fluid

purely because of looks and performance.

distilled water is the second best option

fluid xp has improved a lot recently
their current range is excellent - especially the eco-earth range.
 
I'm impressed that nano fluid consistently outperforms water. Can't find out what the stuff is unfortunately, but a home-brew replica is probably not viable.

A strong advantage to water is that it's cheap, even when you accidentally empty the entire loop onto the carpet. It also doesn't stain said carpet.
 
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