• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Need help with my LCS setup

Joined
Nov 18, 2009
Messages
100 (0.02/day)
Location
Amelia, VA
Processor AMD 965 BE
Motherboard MSI gd70
Cooling Koolance Exos 2.5 w/ cpu 350 block
Memory 8gb corsair Dominator ddr3 1600
Video Card(s) 2 sapphire 6870's liquid cooled
Storage 8 150 gb wd raptors in raid 0
Display(s) Acer 24in lcd
Case Thermaltake Armor lcs
Power Supply Thermaltake Tough Power 1200w
Software Win7 64 Ultimate
well its that time of year. upgrade and maintenance time.

lately my liquid cooling system's performance seems sub par.

due to a few of factors i knew about and one i didn't know about.

1. my flow guage has stopped working which is likely a flow restriction.

2. i think my pump is dying bc at full power it seems to only cool about 60% of what it used to.

3. massive dust build up on the radiator which probably reduces it's efficiency.

4. the one i didn't know about...it looks to be sediment in the coolant. did a little reading and it appears the recommendation is every 3 years for coolant replacement. it has been 2.75 for mine.

anyway i recently purhased a new gpu and just installed a new cooling block so i have more load now which consist of a 965 be and 2 6870's cfx.

well since i had to drain the system anyway i decided to completely tear the machine down and external lcs down and maintenance it. i have a koolance exos 2.5 btw.

i removed the flow meter and after flushing it with water noticed it began to work flawlessly again but decided against it bc i feel i was tricked by a marketing gimick.

i can tell by my temps how my system is doing and do not need any little spinning du-hickey.

when i drained the coolant i noticed that sediment i was talking about so i decided to completely flush the cooling system. during the flush procedure i noticed the pump seemd to perform better(by sound and the amount of h20 it was spitting out seemed to increase noticably).

also installed a second in-line pump but havent brought it into the loop bc it needs additional fittings; however i may abort if the system works efficiently as it is once re-activated.

the coolant i have is clear and i have been able to salvage about 50% of it by siphoning from the top as the sediment goes to the bottom if allowed to be still and seperate. i may be about to get another 10-20% after it settles again. i will use it as backup colant for emergencies if needed.

im just waiting on the new coolant to come in the mail to re-activate the system.

questions i have is:

am i being too optimistic in hoping the pump will start working more efficiently since i have removed all the sediment or is the pump screwed? ill know one wat or the other once i bring it back online bc the system was operating at max capacity with just one liquid cooled gpu.

will that sediment cause the pump to function less efficiently? seems it would cause the coolent itself to be less efficient by counteracting it's ability to transfer heat.

should i add a second res. the one in the system is kinda small i think.

any other input would be appreciated. thanx.
 

cadaveca

My name is Dave
Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
17,232 (2.63/day)
Cleaning a loop, and replacing coolant can make a world of difference. Yes, the sediment you have found could have largely hampered performance, including slowing the pump down.

If the sediment put up enough resistance, there is a chance the pump has been damaged.

As to the res...a large volume of water will slow the heatup process. It is possible it can affect temps @ load as well, but only really if the loop is past the water's "heat saturation" point.
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
10,209 (1.71/day)
Location
Austin Texas
Processor 13700KF Undervolted @ 5.6/ 5.5, 4.8Ghz Ring 200W PL1
Motherboard MSI 690-I PRO
Cooling Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 w/ Arctic P12 Fans
Memory 48 GB DDR5 7600 MHZ CL36
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 FE
Storage 2x 2TB WDC SN850, 1TB Samsung 960 prr
Display(s) Alienware 32" 4k 240hz OLED
Case SLIGER S620
Audio Device(s) Yes
Power Supply Corsair SF750
Mouse Xlite V2
Keyboard RoyalAxe
Software Windows 11
Benchmark Scores They're pretty good, nothing crazy.
I would not reuse the coolant at all. If the pump started working better then that helps. However pumps are supposed to only last 5 years or so, and I am sure that they burn out over time.

You also do have a ton of stuff in that loop - you may not be getting enough flow/ the radiator is not cooling enough to keep up with a CPU and 2 GPUs.
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2009
Messages
100 (0.02/day)
Location
Amelia, VA
Processor AMD 965 BE
Motherboard MSI gd70
Cooling Koolance Exos 2.5 w/ cpu 350 block
Memory 8gb corsair Dominator ddr3 1600
Video Card(s) 2 sapphire 6870's liquid cooled
Storage 8 150 gb wd raptors in raid 0
Display(s) Acer 24in lcd
Case Thermaltake Armor lcs
Power Supply Thermaltake Tough Power 1200w
Software Win7 64 Ultimate
thx for the input.

so basically 50/50 on the pump.

i think i will get lucky bc it definitely seemed to work better during a flush with the h20; however even if it does start working efficiently enough to keep everything cool i should use the time i bought to buy a new pump.lol.

k appreciate the advice on the additional res. so basically if i need to upgrade just enable that second pump i have mounted to move more liquid.

the rad i have is definitely sufficient but will be operating at about 87 +/- 5% with the second gpu i believe. It is huge and according to the manufacturer able to dissipate 1000w of heat.
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Messages
4,013 (0.75/day)
If it seemed to work better during the flush, just ditch the coolant and just used distilled water. That's the best choice, anyhow. What pump do you use?
 
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
10,209 (1.71/day)
Location
Austin Texas
Processor 13700KF Undervolted @ 5.6/ 5.5, 4.8Ghz Ring 200W PL1
Motherboard MSI 690-I PRO
Cooling Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 w/ Arctic P12 Fans
Memory 48 GB DDR5 7600 MHZ CL36
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 FE
Storage 2x 2TB WDC SN850, 1TB Samsung 960 prr
Display(s) Alienware 32" 4k 240hz OLED
Case SLIGER S620
Audio Device(s) Yes
Power Supply Corsair SF750
Mouse Xlite V2
Keyboard RoyalAxe
Software Windows 11
Benchmark Scores They're pretty good, nothing crazy.
thx for the input.

so basically 50/50 on the pump.

i think i will get lucky bc it definitely seemed to work better during a flush with the h20; however even if it does start working efficiently enough to keep everything cool i should use the time i bought to buy a new pump.lol.

k appreciate the advice on the additional res. so basically if i need to upgrade just enable that second pump i have mounted to move more liquid.

the rad i have is definitely sufficient but will be operating at about 87 +/- 5% with the second gpu i believe. It is huge and according to the manufacturer able to dissipate 1000w of heat.

yes with 100CFM fans, it will dissipate 1000W of heat... but it will also sound like a jet engine. What fans do you have on it?
 
Joined
Nov 18, 2009
Messages
100 (0.02/day)
Location
Amelia, VA
Processor AMD 965 BE
Motherboard MSI gd70
Cooling Koolance Exos 2.5 w/ cpu 350 block
Memory 8gb corsair Dominator ddr3 1600
Video Card(s) 2 sapphire 6870's liquid cooled
Storage 8 150 gb wd raptors in raid 0
Display(s) Acer 24in lcd
Case Thermaltake Armor lcs
Power Supply Thermaltake Tough Power 1200w
Software Win7 64 Ultimate
it is a self-contained external cooling system(koolance exos 2.5) it uses a low profile pump called the pmp-400.

it has 3 120mm fans on the rad but i do not know the flow rating on them. all i can tell you is they are stock.

p.s. i may consider a mix of h20 and coolant but wouldn't advise running straight h20 as it tends to corrode aluminum.
 
Last edited:
Top