Liquid Cooling Maintenance

[Phrease]

Been scrawling around on youtube and going to google to figure out how to properly maintain a liquid cooling system. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a literal step-by-step guide on how to do it. It's my first time doing maintenance on one, want to make sure there are no fuck-up's on my end.

Hopefully the community may have some suggestions.

[Fascinate]

If you are talking about all in one coolers they are maintenance free, in fact most are sealed.

[Thunderball]

The only thing that can be serviced in a AIO water cooler is cleaning the radiator and it's fans from dust. The loop itself is not servicable.

[Lathais]

Best way to perform maintenance on an AIO Cooler is to simply replace it with a good air cooler that will likely be better and quieter anyway.

[Vash The Stampede]

AIO coolers can have the fluid flushed and replaced, but it's not recommended to do so. You mainly want to change seals to prevent a leak, but for the most part you use it until something goes wrong. AIO coolers aren't like custom loops where maintenance is needed.

[Phrease]

Much appreciated on the responses and guide. After doing research on my end, it appears my liquid cooling system is the one that doesn't need service, which is great.

Vegas82, I'm screenshotting your step-by-step as this is something I've been trying to research but have had no avail. Thank you for writing this out, it's very much appreciated

I guess my concern for performing maintenance on my liquid cooling system started about a month ago, when I would turn on my computer and it would sound like the water wasn't getting pumped through; I think it was just sitting in the reservoir.

Is it normal for a liquid cooling computer to have an obnoxious noise when it's first booting up?

[Sturmbringe]

If it's AIO you remove the heatsink and change the thermal paste, no real maint required. If you're talking about a custom loop:
1) drain the system
2) take everything apart and inspect for signs of corrosion or algal growth(this means the heatsinks mostly)
2a) if found clean everything until it's like new again using a vinegar/water solution
2b) order appropriate additives to prevent issues going forward
3) clean off old thermal paste
4) apply thermal paste and reassemble everything
5) fill and leak test like you did the first time

Step 2 is only really necessary until you make sure it's not an issue. And then I'd probably check every 2-3 years or so as long as you're using proper inhibitors.

I drain my system about once a year and have no issues with algal growth or corrosion(I use EK's clear pre-mixed coolant for convenience).

I'd rather slash my veins or fix my Harley-Davidson than go through this. One of the reasons I don't WC.

[Lathais]

Meh, it isn't that bad. I built my loop well so that all the air bleeds quickly and I have a stable 4.8ghz OC thanks to the cooling capacity. Really isn't that much of a hassle for me.

My friend has a stable 4.8ghz OC thanks to the cooling capacity of his air cooler too, without having to go through any of that.

[Fascinate]

Even the heaviest heatsinks wont cause damage to a motherboard lol, you are just trying to justify your water cooling setup. There are so many drawbacks to water cooling but the main one that most people forget about is motherboard VRM temps, unless you specifically setup a separate fan to do that job. With an air cooler you have all that air passing by the motherboard naturally, and never have to worry about leaks or a faulty pump.

I will say i like the looks of AIO's/waterblocks and that is the only reason id ever do water cooling.

[Lathais]

Yep, and his is putting more strain on his mobo and has higher temps than mine does. Just the temp difference on my GPU is well worth it for me when I have had some computer rooms get excessively hot(even when AC is on) in the summer months thanks to living in the desert.

Strain on the motherboard? What are you even talking about? Temps may be a bit higher, but they are well within safe ranges and not shortening the life of anything. As for keeping your GPU cooler, you realize that just makes your room hotter right? The GPU is still generating the same amount of heat, no matter what or how good the cooler on it. It's just where that heat goes that changes. It's not like it magically makes your room cooler because you have a water cooler, if anything it makes your room hotter as more heat is being exhausted from your case to your room. Really, we live in South Texas, we know about heat here.

[Phrease]

Yep, and his is putting more strain on his mobo and has higher temps than mine does. Just the temp difference on my GPU is well worth it for me when I have had some computer rooms get excessively hot(even when AC is on) in the summer months thanks to living in the desert.

This is the exact reason why I switched to liquid cooling. I was always a bit skeptical due to the fear of the hoses leaking water. But I must say, it's well worth it if the room you're playing in becomes a sauna via your computer.

[Fascinate]

This is the exact reason why I switched to liquid cooling. I was always a bit skeptical due to the fear of the hoses leaking water. But I must say, it's well worth it if the room you're playing in becomes a sauna via your computer.

Actually lathais is correct here, you have a hotter room with lower component temps....the heat doesnt just disappear lol.

[elmoe420]

The ambient room temperature should be about the same whether you use liquid or air cooling. This is due to the first law of thermodynamics which states that energy is conserved. If you want to lower the ambient temperature then you need to reduce the overall power consumption of your computer. Liquid cooling you have to power the pump but you can also typically use lower powered fans because cooling a radiator is easier due to the larger surface area. Liquid cooling does also have the advantage in that as temperature increases so does power leakage but I don't know that with a desktop computer this would actually make a measurable difference.

The major advantage of a nice liquid cooling solution is it produces very little noise and is aesthetically pleasing.

[Mythbredor]

Actually lathais is correct here, you have a hotter room with lower component temps....the heat doesnt just disappear lol.

I can back that up, liquid cooling doesn't change the amount of heat your pc is going to kick out. If I have my room door closed after a moderately long gaming session it gets quite a bit hotter overall ambient temps and component temps.

But yeah you can't wave a wand and make heat disappear

[Cows For Life]

You realize how much those coolers weigh right? And how much they stick out? That means that is putting what's known in physics as torque on the motherboard.

Not if your case is designed to have the board laying flat across the bottom.

[the boar]

Actually lathais is correct here, you have a hotter room with lower component temps....the heat doesnt just disappear lol.

unless you can put your radiators in another room, or out the window -- also a hotter room in winter is good~!

i still don't get all this "aio's are so loud" i see every time a thread like this comes up. my nf-f12's at 500rpm are louder than the pump on my h100i.. and i can't even hear them where my pc is. sticking me head inside the case i still can't hear the h100i pump over the fans.. so idk what horrible pumps people have been getting D:

[Afrospinach]

unless you can put your radiators in another room, or out the window -- also a hotter room in winter is good~!

i still don't get all this "aio's are so loud" i see every time a thread like this comes up. my nf-f12's at 500rpm are louder than the pump on my h100i.. and i can't even hear them where my pc is. sticking me head inside the case i still can't hear the h100i pump over the fans.. so idk what horrible pumps people have been getting D:

There are some loud as fuck AIOs out there in the wild, that's why.

[Lathais]

You realize how much those coolers weigh right? And how much they stick out? That means that is putting what's known in physics as torque on the motherboard.

You realize I have a Noctua NH-D14(it's in my sig), which weighs a decent amount and sticks out pretty far. I put the thing in my car and take it to my friends house which involves driving over speed bumps. Never damaged my motherboard at all. Nor has my wife who has an identical setup, nor has my friend who has pretty much the same just a different case. Sure, it's putting some torque on the motherboard. It's designed to handle it though.

If you can't avoid a room being hot an air cooler can only do so much. A liquid cooler can only do so much as well, but the difference is so much smaller it is a serious benefit to anyone who has a computer room that gets hot in the summer. This isn't a function of the computer being on, it's a function of the sun making the room an oven which leads to temperatures much higher than usual. When you live in a place that never gets below 85 in the summer(in the middle of the night) rooms can get hot quickly and running AC to keep them cool gets extremely expensive for some. I can take an extra couple degrees in my room, my PC doesn't like the extra heat nearly as much.

Never gets below 85 at night? Get's up over 100 outside during the day? Oh noes!?!?! Computer is gonna melt!!!! You do realize the 100 Degrees Fahrenheit is only about 38C right? OMG, 38C is gonna hurt the CPU and GPU really bad. Even if it's getting up to 120 in your room(which it's not), that's like 49C. Not enough to bother your computer at all.

[Lathais]

Actually, that difference in temperature with the ambient air makes cooling that much more difficult for your system. As such an air cooler on an extreme OC can fall short from time to time. It's ok though, you clearly don't know much about much and I'm just going to put your ignorant account on ignore. Have fun yelling into the wind!

Funny, because a 5.2 gHz on a 4690k could be considered pretty extreme. Here in South Texas where during the summer we can have multiple days where it is over 100F out in a row, and my friends OC runs just fine. He did end up dialing it back to about 4.8 as he doesn't really need to run at 5.2 for any reason. The air cooler kept up just fine.

Go on thinking I don't know anything about anything though. That's ok. It's you who is clueless though.

[Phrease]

The ambient room temperature should be about the same whether you use liquid or air cooling. This is due to the first law of thermodynamics which states that energy is conserved. If you want to lower the ambient temperature then you need to reduce the overall power consumption of your computer. Liquid cooling you have to power the pump but you can also typically use lower powered fans because cooling a radiator is easier due to the larger surface area. Liquid cooling does also have the advantage in that as temperature increases so does power leakage but I don't know that with a desktop computer this would actually make a measurable difference.

The major advantage of a nice liquid cooling solution is it produces very little noise and is aesthetically pleasing.

I see what you mean. Heat or energy is not created nor is it destroyed, rather, it can only be transferred. With a fan heatsink, it spins at a rate which it displaces the heat on top of the CPU, ensuring the heat from the CPU doesn't fry itself.

A liquid coolant system rather absorbs the heat from the CPU and transfers it into the radiator so that the liquid is cooled down. The heat from the radiator is then cooled from the fan on top of it. So instead of the heat forming on top of the CPU it forms at the radiator, correct?

Regardless, I don't regret getting a liquid cooling system, it's quiet and you're right, aesthetically nice. Though, I'm the type of person that likes to explore all options instead of just one.

For my next rig, I'm hearing mineral oil does wonders .