286 replies to this topic

[Speedway]

What coolant do you think will be better than water?

Any coolant Knowing that theres coolant in my rig will give me more peace of mind. Car's dont use water , they use coolant so why not give it a go .

No offense Nyt, but this is a bigtime fail!

I have been talking to you about ONLY using water in his loop ever since you were 1st thinking about going water cooling! Sometimes people just have to learn the hard way

Enthusiast have been experimenting with all sorts of coolant types and mixtures since water cooling in the PC world was discovered. From all of that, it has been determined that plain ole distilled water is the way to go. Sounds like from Capi that some of the WC coolant manufacturers have made them easier to flush, and not "gunk up" inside of all the components. But, Nyt if you are going to some form of automotive coolant, then you will definitely be finding out the hard way why it is a terrible idea. GL cleaning that crap out of yout rad, res, and block

[El_Capitan]

Distilled water is the best and cheapest solution, however, you need some sort of biocide that will prevent microbes from forming in your loop. All that marketed coolants provide is that type of biocide (and safe dyes, if applicable), along with trying to make it pH balanced to prevent corrosion on certain materials used for watercooling, along with keeping it non-conductive in case of leaks occurring while your system is running.

[Coors]

Unless you keep your system completely dust free all day everyday non-conductive or not doesn't really matter.

[Knight_72]

There no biocide in SA and Im just running water + dye in it . Cleaning coolant that has dye or water that has dye is basically the same anyway. If I get the same temps using a RX360 with coolant than a RX360 with water , then maybe I'll change it I used coolant for my first 2 weeks of WC and then changed to water and I didnt see any difference so they are basically the same and I am doing this for peace of mind. Oh and its not car coolant lol Its designed for PC's

[El_Capitan]

There's a lot of different types of biocides. Silver coils can be used as a biocide. Copper sulfate pentahydrate (PT Nuke), and Benzalkonium chloride (PT PHN Concentrated Nuke) is another.

[Waco]

There's a lot of different types of biocides. Silver coils can be used as a biocide. Copper sulfate pentahydrate (PT Nuke), and Benzalkonium chloride (PT PHN Concentrated Nuke) is another.

I run pure distilled with a silver coil. Dyes and coolants are a waste of time and money IMHO.

[Coors]

I'd use a colored tubing before a dye. But I prefer just black tubing. Looks good with most any setup and less light = lesser chance of growth.

[Hyper]

You can't convince someone who already "Knows" whats best for him. And if it gives him more piece of mind all good, As we have seen there is little to no difference in performace. I've used a couple of the pre-mixes and when you spill them on something they tend to be a bit "sticky" feeling, so I prefer to just use distiled water and a silver-coil. (put a little dye in if I want color or just use colored tubing...

I've also seen several video's showing the non-conductive properties and yea, it's always taken more water to lock the system up then the pre-mix.

[bishop245]

if you want to check the conductivity just get a multimeter open the bottle and check continuity by sticking the leads in the liquid if you get any reading its conductive if no reading then nope its not conductive

[Krieg1337]

You wanted to side/downgrade to HD 6970s but you don't even have SSDs?

That onboard audio is also a real eyesore

[Speedway]

Even a silver coin can be used as a biocide

[Krieg1337]

A dye will always do something to your blocks. It can clog them up with weird stuff(My brothers had some really odd colored clumps of who knows what stuck in his blocks) while some will just stain the blocks. Still, dye's are honestly not really worth it, just get different colored tubing.