Cooling liquids question

[Picasso]

Hey guys, I'm running:

• Core i7 920 slightly overclocked @ 2.79Ghz water cooled
  
• 12GB (3x4gig) Patriot PC12800 DDR3 Trichannel @ 1600 Mhz
  
• Radeon 5870 (XFX if I remember)
  
• Seagate Momentus XT 750gig Hybrid
  
• Watercooled MOBO:Gigabyte EX58-Extreme
  
• Watercooling/tower system: Thermaltake VH600LBWS Link: www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1309&ID=1480
  
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
  

I have two questions. I'm currently using http://thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1162&ID=1641 for coolant, was wondering if there is something better out there for coolant, it seems to be the only thing I can find readily available. Also I was wondering your guys thoughts on the cooling system (I believe it is known as the Big Water 500 or something like that, can't remember for sure, I put this rig together a few years ago)

I'm just wonder because my rig runs around 100-120F just dinkin around on the net and around 10-20 degrees warmer when gaming. I know its well within levels, but would like to see it cooler if I could, and was wondering if there is any better coolants out there that last longer and cool better. I tend to burn through one of those coolant bottles about every nine months or so depending on use. I gnerally leave my rig running 24-7 unless I'm out of town. If I overclock any higher than that using gigabyte's auto over clock system, and runs quite a bit warmer and really starts to burn through the coolant. Any ideas, comments and suggestions are more than welcome

[Granger]

From what I understand from all the reading I have done on watercooling, the best liquid is distilled water with either a silver coil or a biocide.
But there are "ready mixed" solutions that are pretty good, I'm running Swiftechs HydrX-PM and I pretty happy with it. Its been in my loop for around 8 months now and from the look of whats running through the tubes, everything is ok, my temps havent changed since I put the loop together (I'm running a Phenom II 1100T at 4Ghz with no problems).

I looked at your link, having your mobo and cpu cooled by a single 120mm rad is a little short (even without the OC)
The basic calculations for watercooling is one 120mm rad per item cooled plus one extra 120mm for OC (that is a very simple way of calculating, there exists a more accurate way by calculating the amount of heat to disperse)
Which basically means, you have 2 items cooled and an OC which means you should have a 360mm rad. (or at least a 240)

So I don't think the coolant will make a notable difference with your temps.

Its a very nice looking case, do you think you could get another rad inside it? It looks like you could take out the 2 HD bays on the bottom and replace them with a 240mm rad (can't see the underside of the case to see if it would need modding or not)
Your pump should be able to handle it.

[Zka17]

Oh yeah... you did choose a very unfortunate case for water cooling...

I agree 100% with Granger... you need to drop in more radiator surface... - or the easiest way, try to increase the airflow and the coolant flow... (not sure, it it is possible) also, if you can lower the ambient temps... and double check the CPU block... - those temps are way high for that CPU at those settings! (also, you could try lowering the Vcore - if it's too high of course)

The final resolution will be to redesign your cooling though...

[xeromist]

Picasso wrote:
I tend to burn through one of those coolant bottles about every nine months or so depending on use.

How do you "burn through" coolant? Your loop should be sealed so that other than initial topping off after purging air you really shouldn't need to add any until you flush the loop again. A whole bottle disappearing into thin air makes me think you have a leak somewhere.

[Picasso]

Granger:

There is plenty of room for another radiator, I can take some pics and show the setup if needed. The problem I have is that the pump and radiator are basically one unit, so i would have to daisy chain them together. I'm fairly inexperienced with water cooling so I don't really know if that is something considered ok. If that's what you mean, then I could definitely do that if the pump is capable of pushing that much liquid. The next to three questions would be

• How much does the coolant you use cost?
  
• How often should I flush it?
  
• Any ideas on some solid rads that aren't crazy expensive?
  

Xeromist:

There is absolutely no leak. I kept it running with the case wide open for a few days to be able to check on all the connections to make sure there wasn't any leaks. When I first put this rig together its set me back around $2k, so I wasn't about to throw that out the window because of some leaks lol 😉
That being said, I think it the fluid literally breaks down from the heat over time. Last time I flushed it, the original neon green looking fluid had turned a bit darker, almost giving it a brownish orangish tint. And its no rust, there isn't any sediment in the coolant, the color literally changes a little bit like its breaking down or something. Overtime there is less coolant in the radiator and I have to top it off with more coolant on occasion

ZKA17:

So you're saying the case I went with was a bad choice to begin with as far as watercooling is concerned?
As far as the vcore and other settings, like I said, I've just used the software program that came with the gigabyte motherboard for preset overclocks, I'm too scared to do it maually and screw it all up lol. I can defintely get a screen capture of the settings and post that as well if it helps

[Zka17]

Picasso wrote:
So you're saying the case I went with was a bad choice to begin with as far as watercooling is concerned?
As far as the vcore and other settings, like I said, I've just used the software program that came with the gigabyte motherboard for preset overclocks, I'm too scared to do it maually and screw it all up lol. I can defintely get a screen capture of the settings and post that as well if it helps

Yes, I'm sorry to say, but that case may not be the best... this is not meaning that you can not do nice WC setup in it though... the top part is pretty occupied with the PSU... - maybe you can try something on the bottom...

Using any kind of presets usually means very generous voltages... post some pics with values, let's see what we can do...

I did mention before the CPU cooling block... you have to be sure that it's mounted correctly and has good TIM...

[Picasso]

Zka17 wrote:
Yes, I'm sorry to say, but that case may not be the best... this is not meaning that you can not do nice WC setup in it though... the top part is pretty occupied with the PSU... - maybe you can try something on the bottom...

Using any kind of presets usually means very generous voltages... post some pics with values, let's see what we can do...

I did mention before the CPU cooling block... you have to be sure that it's mounted correctly and has good TIM...

I'll get some picks up as soon as I can. Gotta work soon, and I have to reformat the computer quick due to some hard drive trouble. Would you like me to continute to use this thread or start a new one once I got it all together?

[xeromist]

Most pumps can handle a couple of rads and blocks so you should be OK.

Even when fluid breaks down it breaks down into something. It doesn't disappear into thin air. It seems to be pretty slow but it's leaving your loop somehow. It might be a very slow leak or leaching through something that is not completely impermeable. Given how slow it is I don't know that I would worry though. Still, distilled water is cheap so if you run that you could lose half your res and flush once a month if you wanted to (not that you need to).

With pretty much any fluid I would flush it when it gets cloudy (to answer your general question).

[Arne_Saknussemm]

That does sound strange! If the water is evaporating from the loop slowly you will just end up with whatever the rest of the fluid is made up of concentrating in the loop i.e. you may be pumping mostly propylene glycol over time if you just top up. Although, a 30% solution only decreases the thermal performance 3%....but maybe the other component concentrating wont help performance.

Other fluids? this stuff is quite good http://www.ekwb.com/shop/accessories/water-additives-coolants/ekoolants/ek-ekoolant-clear-premix-100...

I personally run only deionised water and flush the loop regularly.

[Picasso]

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
That does sound strange! If the water is evaporating from the loop slowly you will just end up with whatever the rest of the fluid is made up of concentrating in the loop i.e. you may be pumping mostly propylene glycol over time if you just top up. Although, a 30% solution only decreases the thermal performance 3%....but maybe the other component concentrating wont help performance.

Other fluids? this stuff is quite good http://www.ekwb.com/shop/accessories/water-additives-coolants/ekoolants/ek-ekoolant-clear-premix-100...

I personally run only deionised water and flush the loop regularly.

Looks like that is in the UK from the pound/euro pricetag. Can that be found in the states?