- Joined
- Jul 21, 2018
- Messages
- 773 (0.37/day)
- Location
- Germany
System Name | FATTYDOVE-R-SPEC |
---|---|
Processor | Intel i9 10980XE |
Motherboard | EVGA X299 Dark |
Cooling | Water (1x 240mm, 1x 280mm, 1x 420mm + 2x Mo-Ra 360 external radiator) |
Memory | 64GB DDR4 |
Video Card(s) | RTX 2080 Super / RTX 3090 |
Storage | Crucial MX500 |
Display(s) | 24", 1440p, freesync, 144hz |
Case | Open Benchtable (OBT) |
Audio Device(s) | beyerdynamic MMX 300 |
Power Supply | EVGA Supernova T2 1600W |
Mouse | OG steelseries Sensei |
Keyboard | steelseries 6Gv2 |
Software | Windows 10 |
Do you have a regular maintenance plan for your custom loop? How frequent do you check and drain / flush / refill your loop?
I was curious about how other users might tackle this topic, if at all. I would appreciate any wisdom from experienced people, feel free to share information about your setup like the liquid you use, if you use any additives or special colors.
I have started my LC adventure in early July last year with my Threadripper build. It was the first time I have gone for LC and right from the start I went with something a little bit complex by using aquarium pumps and going for a dual-loop setup. As I´m a bit lazy when it comes to cleaning my PC (I think many can relate), I was hoping to just be able to 'build and forget' this system like I did with my previous PCs.
I used distilled water + a car coolant recommended for this application as 80/20 mixture.
It has 2x 420mm radiators in push/pull on the top as exhaust (CPU-Loop) and a single 420mm radiator pulling air in from the side. One large 200mm fan on the front as intake, the GPU radiator sits under the mainboard tray which acts like a little duct so I have a fan pulling air out the lower back compartment to create not only a dual water-loop but some kind of dual-loop airflow too (works great).
A lot of air going through which did attract some dust, I cleaned the filters on the front/side/PSU every 6 months and checked if the radiators are clogging up, but they are absolutly fine every time as the filters catch most of it.
It has been 15 months now and I have not flushed the system or done internal cleaning. The cooling performance is still the same as day 1. I switched some RAM a few days ago and decided to take a closer look at the GPU block in the process to check for corrosion or if anything is building up in the microfins.
The flashlight does make it look a bit weird but I needed some light to get a proper look at the fins. They are fine, nothing blocking the flow, no build-up gunk. Only thing for concern is on the bottom right of the opening in the center there is a small patch of something. Looks a bit like corrosion, but the color is exactly the same as the residue of the car-coolant when it dries out.
Not sure what to do, it still performs well and given that it took 15 months to look like this I´d say I´m safe but would you rather drain, disassemble, clean and refill?
I´m going to monitor this area each week now and check if its growing.
The fluid itself has not changed one bit. Color is the same and there are no particles floating around.
All in all I had no trouble so far and no additional maintenance compared to my other PCs in the past. At first I was a bit terrified to leave the system running when I was not around just in case a pump failed but I have a lot of trust in these Eheim-pumps and they served me well for a total runtime of 4354 (180 days) hours since I build this machine, in some occasions doing work 24/7.
Some pictures from the day of assembly (yes it is a horrible mess inside, but a reliable and top-performing mess ):
I was curious about how other users might tackle this topic, if at all. I would appreciate any wisdom from experienced people, feel free to share information about your setup like the liquid you use, if you use any additives or special colors.
I have started my LC adventure in early July last year with my Threadripper build. It was the first time I have gone for LC and right from the start I went with something a little bit complex by using aquarium pumps and going for a dual-loop setup. As I´m a bit lazy when it comes to cleaning my PC (I think many can relate), I was hoping to just be able to 'build and forget' this system like I did with my previous PCs.
I used distilled water + a car coolant recommended for this application as 80/20 mixture.
It has 2x 420mm radiators in push/pull on the top as exhaust (CPU-Loop) and a single 420mm radiator pulling air in from the side. One large 200mm fan on the front as intake, the GPU radiator sits under the mainboard tray which acts like a little duct so I have a fan pulling air out the lower back compartment to create not only a dual water-loop but some kind of dual-loop airflow too (works great).
A lot of air going through which did attract some dust, I cleaned the filters on the front/side/PSU every 6 months and checked if the radiators are clogging up, but they are absolutly fine every time as the filters catch most of it.
It has been 15 months now and I have not flushed the system or done internal cleaning. The cooling performance is still the same as day 1. I switched some RAM a few days ago and decided to take a closer look at the GPU block in the process to check for corrosion or if anything is building up in the microfins.
The flashlight does make it look a bit weird but I needed some light to get a proper look at the fins. They are fine, nothing blocking the flow, no build-up gunk. Only thing for concern is on the bottom right of the opening in the center there is a small patch of something. Looks a bit like corrosion, but the color is exactly the same as the residue of the car-coolant when it dries out.
Not sure what to do, it still performs well and given that it took 15 months to look like this I´d say I´m safe but would you rather drain, disassemble, clean and refill?
I´m going to monitor this area each week now and check if its growing.
The fluid itself has not changed one bit. Color is the same and there are no particles floating around.
All in all I had no trouble so far and no additional maintenance compared to my other PCs in the past. At first I was a bit terrified to leave the system running when I was not around just in case a pump failed but I have a lot of trust in these Eheim-pumps and they served me well for a total runtime of 4354 (180 days) hours since I build this machine, in some occasions doing work 24/7.
Some pictures from the day of assembly (yes it is a horrible mess inside, but a reliable and top-performing mess ):