Liquid Cooling Liquid

[Endevor]

I just ordered a liquid cooling kit for my computer and have some questions about the liquid that should be used. After surfing through this site and looking at what some others have done, I've come up with two ideas for what to do and figured to get final suggestions.

 

Of course, sticking straight tap water into the system isn't the best idea to go by since things will tend to grow, corrosion, etc. Distilled water tends to be the way to go so far, which is possible to do at home, or I've seen the bottles you can buy with UV liquid to make it glow. Some people think that's cool, others think it's a waste of money. I agree with both, though I tend to lean more to the "I think that would be cool" scene.

 

My curiosity in treating your own water at home, is does anyone have any good techniques they use to clean? My plan was mostly just to boil the water.

 

Also wondering if there was any dye I could add into the water instead of getting a bottle of pre-made stuff.

 

Also curious on what would make it glow... Now don't say, "UV light moron," I know, should be obvious, but my understanding of light doesn't really go that far. I have several blue led lights inside from several fans. I've also seen cathodes, but they look like my blue LEDs, just in long tubes. If I do get a UV colored liquid, would my LEDs be enough to make them glow, or do I need to get a hold of a cathode?

 

Any other suggestions for someone just starting with a liquid cooled system would be much appreciated, Thanks

[Waco]

Distilled water + a silver killcoil is all I run. I dabbled in running colored fluid and it was always far more of a pain in the butt than it was worth (not to mention draining it becomes a HUGE hassle if you don't want to stain anything).

[bigball1]

Nothing can beat distilled water.

 

If your going to make your own, i would pass on that. As its going to take sometime for you to boil off at least 1 liter of water for your system. Plus you have a high changes of getting contaminates in your system from a do at home job. It cost me $2.49 for 4 liters of water at the store. Mind you it took me 4 stores to find it as they had reverse osmosis water or deionized water. Dont buy this.

 

You can buy dye for your system. Some people dont like it some people do. I bought swiftech hydrx additive which l have been running now for over a year with 0 problems.

 

You can buy UV dye that will do different colours. How will it will "light up" all depends on what you buy and what you have for lighting. Will LEDs do it alone, probably not. should you get a UV cathode, probably yes.

[Coors]

They make different color tubing as well. When I was WCing I preferred distilled + an additive in black tubing. It was Tygon I think and also helped prevent growth since less light went through.

[Speedway]

Distilled water + a silver killcoil is all I run. I dabbled in running colored fluid and it was always far more of a pain in the butt than it was worth (not to mention draining it becomes a HUGE hassle if you don't want to stain anything).

 

That is all I run in my loop, and a gallon of distilled water is .99 at the grocery store Silver kill coils are pretty cheap as well!

[Waco]

That is all I run in my loop, and a gallon of distilled water is .99 at the grocery store Silver kill coils are pretty cheap as well!

Yup. Cheap and effective. I haven't had a hint of growth in any of my setups so far and it's far easier to clean up if anything spills.

[sticknstone]

One alternative to a silver coil is to use the silver plated fittings. I do not know how they perform. I prefer propylene glycol because of the anti-rust, water scale reducing, and pump lubrication properties.

[Drdeath]

It is best to add a biocide with distilled water and silver coil BTW.

[Boinker]

One alternative to a silver coil is to use the silver plated fittings. I do not know how they perform. I prefer propylene glycol because of the anti-rust, water scale reducing, and pump lubrication properties.

 

He gets his coolant From Autozone. Is it the Green, clear, or purple stuff. Sorry, I'm just busting you around.

 

When I did water cooling I used PT nuke biocide plus some PT Pentosin G11 blue coolant and dye. It worked for the most part. BTW, the less coolant you use and the les dye you you the better it will perform. and there is no way to put a number to how much performance you will loose so don't put A dye in there unless you are dead set.

[sticknstone]

I would have purchased more thermaltake coolant only finding it at local comp stores is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Even attempting to find custom water cooling parts is equally difficult. I ended up with purchasing zalman blue coolant for the 6970 I plan on cooling I am just to busy to install the block and rad. Plus I need a bigger case to put the rad in, so I am leaning toward a custom solution to get everything fitting right.

I remember a teacher showing the class how to distill water with two bottles and a tube. One bottle was filled with water and was elevated higher than the empty bottle. The tube connected the bottle spouts. The heat to evaporate the water was the sun. We never actually seen the setup working, but I am reasonably sure that only the bottle with the water to be distilled should be in the sun. The bottles were glass. I am unsure how long the process will take.

[Endevor]

Follow up question I guess. Installed my system today, and it's epic. Dropped my CPU temp to 24-26C. Trying to look at Overclocking it now;

If anyone wants to offer any advice, I have an AMD Phenom II x4 955, trying to use AMD Overdrive. Never done it before, so any advice would be helpful. May see a post on it later if I can't find out in research, haha.

 

Anyway, I used Distilled water from the store and a silver coil that came with the kit. I got the XSPC water cooling kit, and have to say, it works very well and is completely silent. In the future I'm going to try to mod it so I don't have to take the CD drive and reservoir out to refill it, but that's a different topic.

 

I'm curious as if there's anything out there, cheap and preferably doesn't stain, that can thicken the water color so it would be easier to see the level. Not really a necessity, I know it's really not that hard to see the level if I wanted, just curious on if there's something that makes it more noticeable.

[bigball1]

Follow up question I guess. Installed my system today, and it's epic. Dropped my CPU temp to 24-26C.

 

 

Isnt liquid cooling sweet