New to water cooling please help

[CMH]

How often does a well built watercooling system spring a leak anyway? I'm talking something that's been leak tested, built with quality parts, and regularly maintained (checking for wear and stuff).

 

[KingCody]

if you take your time and build it correctly... it should never spring a leak.

i have had leaks in the past due to hasty setups, but that was my fault by being careless and rushing through it. I have never had a leak after i took my time.

 

[CMH]

And therefore, I really think the need for 20mOhm water is not justified (exaggeration there). Just make sure the algae problem is resolved, don't worry about how the anti-algae solution will make the water conductive, cos you've got more important stuff to worry about, and that problem can easily be handled.

 

[CMH]

Oh yeah, about the rusts and all, its kinda true that these metals don't flake off, but to some extent, it still does ionize, and these bits still get oxidized and precipitate out. You'll notice its effects after a few months or years. Small problem, but I think most people would want to keep their comps running for a few more years. You can add a filter to overcome this problem, but I think its not worth the trouble. You'll have to get a bigger pump for that.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Are all u guys nuts about Chem? I bet my A-Level Chem teacher would love u

 

[CMH]

I love Chem, everything just falls into place

 

[mod-newbie]

a water cooling rig should not leak, but you really don't plan for it to either

that is why it is a good idea to help protect your components by using a non conductive fluid to cool your rig, you never know what might happen. i had leaks that just appeared over time, they didn't do any damage because I had used distillled H20 instead of tap H20.

i would not recommend using tap water, and i would recommend flushing it out as best you can before lnstalling it.

 

[KingCody]

I agree with most of what you say, but...

i had leaks that just appeared over time

where? from what component(s)? and why?

leaks should not just "happen" over time.

 

[CrossFire851]

Also many of people and including me, have had problems with the CPU block cracking because it was made out of plastic. If you are going to use one do not over tighten it. It will cause leaks.

 

[CMH]

I really really suggest you NEVER to consider those acrylic top CPU blocks. They look pretty till they yellow out/crack. Then they are just a pain.

Secondly, no matter what water you use, you will not get it unconductive for long. Especially since copper kinda ionizes (one reason why you don't drink from hot water taps) readily in water. So if you're saying you had deionized water in your system for 2 months, I can bet if you tested the water for conductivity, chances are its more conductive than tap water. And it just proves again that water on comp doesn't permanently fry it.

 

[CrossFire851]

When I had a Game Boy color back in the day (1998 or so) I put it through hell and it still worked. maybewent in in the washer three times, and after letting it sit in the window seal to dry after a few days I was back to playing it (I could beat blue version in 2 hours with a my guys at level 100). So back to the main point in my experience water and electronics usually don't have permanent effects.

 

[CMH]

Good, so the lesson here is: don't be too worried about what kind of water you put in the system: it makes little difference.

Personally I'd put the purest water I can get, but its only because I don't want unwanted metal ions in there. I wanna keep my whole system Mg, Pb, Fe, Na, K, etc, etc free. Oh yeah, and I'll probably add CuSO4 to the mix, to give it that nice blue colour and to prevent algae from growing. It'll be super conductive, but I'm gonna leak test before installing, so there

 

[jezreex]

everybody thank you for all your help I have learned a lot from this thread alone. last sunday I was able to buy a distilled water from walmart as you all suggested it can be bought in supermakets but I haven't drain the system yet. I know I have to flush and drain the system and I undrstand what you all are saying but my problem is how to flush with my particular system. I will give you a picture of it and maybe you can help me in detail how to do it with my system. I am using the corsair coolwater. the reservoir doesn't have a drain hole only a fill hole and it fits on a 5 1/4 drive bay so I placed it at the top of the bay as suggested by corsair. I think there are two ways for me to drain the system (one) pull-off one of the tubes and get rid of the water in it and return the tube back but it is virtually impossble for me to pull out the tube from the reservoir because my case is now very cramp and I tried to pull it off and it is really hard to pull off and if I will really try harder it call be pulled but the danger is the water I believe my computer parts will be bathing in water if that is the case. the only recourse for me is to pull it off from the pump but again the tube is really tight. (two) another way is two something that will suck the water from the reservoir but my problem is the remaining water inside the tube how will I do take it off. my idea is after sucking out the water from the reservoir I will fill it up with DW and run the system. after a few minutes I will suck the water from the reservoir again and run the system again until all the old water is out. is this a good Idea though or is there a better way to do this? I need your input. thanks a lot in advance.

 

[KingCody]

i dont know what your specific system is, but it sounds simlialr to mine. i have a 5.25" bay reservoir with an inline pump at the floor of the case. to drain mine i simply move the pump slightly out of the case and disconnect the inlet house (from the resi) and let the water drain into a bucket. then i carefully remove the resi and drain the rest.