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ROGBot
Over the past week or so i've been really interested and eager to give liquid cooling a shot. I've looked at all kinds of stuff ranging from the Corsair closed loop systems like the h100 to custom water loops. It looks like it would be fun to setup your own custom loop. The main concern i have had is the chance of springing a leak and trashing your system. I understand that it's necessary to do leak tests and let the cooler run for a while before running it in a live system. I was just wondering the likeliness of experiencing a major problem and if any of you have had any bad experiences with liquid cooling yourselves. Thanks in advance for your input 🙂
Yeah thats what i've heard, an occasional leaking corsair closed loop. If theres gonna be a potential leak in a closed loop i figure i might as well just make a custom loop so i can ensure its quality.
Arne Saknussemm wrote:
I've never had a problem with leaks on my custom loop. My h100 leaked after 3 days.....so you will hear a bit of everything no doubt..I would recommend the use of quality compression fittings as the best way of preventing leaks and propper leak testing before you fire up the system. The results and the low noise you get from WCing are fantastic.
Yeah thats what i've heard, an occasional leaking corsair closed loop. If theres gonna be a potential leak in a closed loop i figure i might as well just make a custom loop so i can ensure its quality.
It is quite easy to do the custom loops, like you, I was quite worried about leaks and stuff before starting on my loop.
But if you follow all the advice you can find on these forums, its not a problem.
Once you have decided on your components, the way I did things was to build the loop in the case with everything else (minus the PSU, leave the PSU out of the case as it will be the only thing with power going through it when you leak test))
Under all the possible leak points (joints etc...) place paper towels.
Fill the loop as much as you can without the pump.
Use a jumper on the PSU 24pin connector (either you buy one especially for this or you just use a piece of wire to bridge between the green wire and any black wire)
Fire up the pump, finish filling the loop and let it run for a few hours checking for leaks and topping up as a top up will be needed when the pump pushes out any air that was in the loop.
If you put things together right, you have no leaks and all you need to do is put the PSU back in the case, connect all the wires and fire her up.
If you have a leak somewhere, stop everything, sort out the leaky joint and start the leek test again (not forgetting to top up the loop again)
Any liquid on the components, either leave to dry naturally, or steal the wifes hairdryer for a few minutes 😉
A good way to go if you want to start out by cooling just the CPU is a kit (Swiftech/XSPC/EK all do them) You get everything you need for cooling the CPU and you can build on it later to add VGA/Mobo etc...
I'm no plumber, and touch wood, I've rebuilt my loop 4 or 5 times now and never had a leak 🙂
edit: One very important thing, never run the pump with no liquid, I've been told the pump doesn't like this 😉
But if you follow all the advice you can find on these forums, its not a problem.
Once you have decided on your components, the way I did things was to build the loop in the case with everything else (minus the PSU, leave the PSU out of the case as it will be the only thing with power going through it when you leak test))
Under all the possible leak points (joints etc...) place paper towels.
Fill the loop as much as you can without the pump.
Use a jumper on the PSU 24pin connector (either you buy one especially for this or you just use a piece of wire to bridge between the green wire and any black wire)
Fire up the pump, finish filling the loop and let it run for a few hours checking for leaks and topping up as a top up will be needed when the pump pushes out any air that was in the loop.
If you put things together right, you have no leaks and all you need to do is put the PSU back in the case, connect all the wires and fire her up.
If you have a leak somewhere, stop everything, sort out the leaky joint and start the leek test again (not forgetting to top up the loop again)
Any liquid on the components, either leave to dry naturally, or steal the wifes hairdryer for a few minutes 😉
A good way to go if you want to start out by cooling just the CPU is a kit (Swiftech/XSPC/EK all do them) You get everything you need for cooling the CPU and you can build on it later to add VGA/Mobo etc...
I'm no plumber, and touch wood, I've rebuilt my loop 4 or 5 times now and never had a leak 🙂
edit: One very important thing, never run the pump with no liquid, I've been told the pump doesn't like this 😉
Granger wrote:
It is quite easy to do the custom loops, like you, I was quite worried about leaks and stuff before starting on my loop.
But if you follow all the advice you can find on these forums, its not a problem.
Once you have decided on your components, the way I did things was to build the loop in the case with everything else (minus the PSU, leave the PSU out of the case as it will be the only thing with power going through it when you leak test))
Under all the possible leak points (joints etc...) place paper towels.
Fill the loop as much as you can without the pump.
Use a jumper on the PSU 24pin connector (either you buy one especially for this or you just use a piece of wire to bridge between the green wire and any black wire)
Fire up the pump, finish filling the loop and let it run for a few hours checking for leaks and topping up as a top up will be needed when the pump pushes out any air that was in the loop.
If you put things together right, you have no leaks and all you need to do is put the PSU back in the case, connect all the wires and fire her up.
If you have a leak somewhere, stop everything, sort out the leaky joint and start the leek test again (not forgetting to top up the loop again)
Any liquid on the components, either leave to dry naturally, or steal the wifes hairdryer for a few minutes 😉
A good way to go if you want to start out by cooling just the CPU is a kit (Swiftech/XSPC/EK all do them) You get everything you need for cooling the CPU and you can build on it later to add VGA/Mobo etc...
I'm no plumber, and touch wood, I've rebuilt my loop 4 or 5 times now and never had a leak 🙂
edit: One very important thing, never run the pump with no liquid, I've been told the pump doesn't like this 😉
Thanks you for such a thorough response! It was quite helpful. I think if i go to liquid cooling i will probably look into those kits. Seems like you build a pretty solid water loop to never have had any leaks 🙂 Regarding the pump, i watched a youtube video a few days back where a guy was demonstrating how to fill up his loop, he didn't exactly know what he was doing, he started running it with the pump dry, and the pump quickly came down with a case of bronchitis. It was pretty amusing because he was saying how the awful noise was being caused by air bubbles in the loop. Thanks again for the help! 🙂
Eric127212 wrote:
Thanks you for such a thorough response! It was quite helpful. I think if i go to liquid cooling i will probably look into those kits. Seems like you build a pretty solid water loop to never have had any leaks 🙂 Regarding the pump, i watched a youtube video a few days back where a guy was demonstrating how to fill up his loop, he didn't exactly know what he was doing, he started running it with the pump dry, and the pump quickly came down with a case of bronchitis. It was pretty amusing because he was saying how the awful noise was being caused by air bubbles in the loop. Thanks again for the help! 🙂
I saw that vid too, did make me chuckle 😉
I know a lot of people here advise compression fittings (I might buy some one day?) I'm using plain barbs with either screw on or clip on collars (screw ons at the moment) with 13/19 tubing.
Never had a problem with them, although I do admit that the compression fittings look nicer.
