Computer Cooling Liquid

[Kiryia]

So, about a month or two ago I finished my build. This is the first time I've done my own custom water cooling loop. For some unknown reason I decided to stay up until 3 in the morning to finish my build. Finally completing my build I realized I had used all my water for flushing my radiator and tubing. A short thought process led me to using straight vehicle radiator fluid for my cooling loop.

I ran it like this for a few months with no problems at all. About a week ago I switched back to water after reading some articles on the interwebs suggesting that I'm a moron for using radiator fluid even in a worst case scenario. However, my computer is now running on average 3c hotter on water than with radiator fluid.

Now, 3c is minimal for the setup I am running as my OC is only to 4.8, but I may decide to push a little higher later on.

I guess my question is; Is radiator fluid that bad to use for a water cooling loop? Is there a suggested liquid over water?

Thanks for any help/advice suggestions.

Kir

[noteworthynerd]

If I remember correctly, Drunkenvalley uses a mixture of water and engine coolant...

Personally, I use a premix I bought online.

[n0cturnal]

Isn't normal battery water good?

[Drunkenvalley]

By radiator fluid, do you mean distilled water and antifreeze basically? 'Cause I've got 3 rigs so far running ~80% distilled water and ~20% concentrated antifreeze.

[Kiryia]

I'm talking straight up antifreeze you use in a car radiator.

I was running 100% antifreeze/radiator fluid

Just switched to 100% distilled water bumped up 3c in heat

[Synthaxx]

The only thing better than water is Ethanol and that requires professional equipment. I choose plain deionised over distilled as it doesn't cause the tubing to cloud as much while still being "as clean" as distilled. To clarify, distilled is what's commonly used in cars.

[Drunkenvalley]

I'm pretty sure antifreeze would offer higher temperatures, but anyway, a 1part antifreeze er 4parts distilled water is the general name of the game. Gives a nice blue hue too.

[Kiryia]

Well, I'm running solid black matte tubing, so color is a not a factor.

I guess I'll wait till I decide to push my OC higher since the extra heat is really not a problem at the moment. I'll try the 1 to 4 mix or possibly a premix....really draining this thing is quite annoying and a bit nerve wrecking as I'm worried about frying parts even though I'm taking precautions.

[n0cturnal]

I'm pretty sure antifreeze would offer higher temperatures, but anyway, a 1part antifreeze er 4parts distilled water is the general name of the game. Gives a nice blue hue too.

What is the point in adding antifreeze?

[Drunkenvalley]

What is the point in adding antifreeze?

Anti-corrosion. Also, I can't say this for sure, but last I recall it also served as a biocide.

[n0cturnal]

Anti-corrosion. Also, I can't say this for sure, but last I recall it also served as a biocide.

Wouldn't a silver coil be better for that?

[Drunkenvalley]

Wouldn't a silver coil be better for that?

Nope. Silver is a pretty poor idea for waterloops. It either does exactly nothing, or causes more corrosion. (Not quite the same rules apply when you've got water involved here.)

That's at least the leading theory among anti-silver folks. What with watercooling being largely a huge heap of loose theories being mixed together till you have a computer.

[n0cturnal]

Nope. Silver is a pretty poor idea for waterloops. It either does exactly nothing, or causes more corrosion. (Not quite the same rules apply when you've got water involved here.)

That's at least the leading theory among anti-silver folks. What with watercooling being largely a huge heap of loose theories being mixed together till you have a computer.

Oh ok, well I haven't done any watercooling myself yet but I've read and heard different stuff as well, such as silver coils, not mixing metals in the loop and so on.

[c0rnel]

So, about a month or two ago I finished my build. This is the first time I've done my own custom water cooling loop. For some unknown reason I decided to stay up until 3 in the morning to finish my build. Finally completing my build I realized I had used all my water for flushing my radiator and tubing. A short thought process led me to using straight vehicle radiator fluid for my cooling loop.

I ran it like this for a few months with no problems at all. About a week ago I switched back to water after reading some articles on the interwebs suggesting that I'm a moron for using radiator fluid even in a worst case scenario. However, my computer is now running on average 3c hotter on water than with radiator fluid.

Now, 3c is minimal for the setup I am running as my OC is only to 4.8, but I may decide to push a little higher later on.

I guess my question is; Is radiator fluid that bad to use for a water cooling loop? Is there a suggested liquid over water?

Thanks for any help/advice suggestions.

Kir

I'm also in the process of hooking up my first water cooling setup. From what i've read using car antifreeze is bad because it can mold, it's conductive and it can degrade.

I think using distilled water together with some Kill Coils (silver coils) on primochill antimicrobial tubing should be good. If you're using nickel waterblocks then kill coils may not be a good idea. I'm using only copper blocks so kill coils definitely help against bacteria.

Probably the best thing to do in your case is to flush your system out a few times, dry out the parts and then start using destilled, de-ionized water (not expensive at all plus it's non conductive) with some kill coils.

[Cyanotical]

the antifreeze in cars is the same antifreeze that comes in off the shelf liquids, the reason you don't want to use too much is that it will cause many plastics used in reservoirs and waterblocks to crack

you don't need a kill coil because copper is better and it is directly exposed to water in most radiators and many gpu blocks (there is a reason most doorknobs and hand rails are copper or copper plated in hospitals)

for the most part you want pure distilled water, and change it every 3-6 months, when you do this, you will also want to disassemble your waterblocks and clean them

if your parts are clean to begin with, you should not have any problems with mold, if you do, you need 1-2 drops of a non reacting biocide

[Kiryia]

See I had read the opposite, basically antifreeze kills everything. I know after two months or so off running 100% antifreeze I had no buildup or growth of anything when I flushed my system and switched over to water. I guess I was just curious why my thermal readings went up 3c when switching from antifreeze to water. Almost every where I have read says it should be the other way around, that I should see a slight increase in heat switching to the 100% antifreeze. I'm going to pull my waterblock off tonight and reattach it to see if I possibly had a bad contact compared to my early set up.

Thanks for the help/advice/suggestions all.

[Cyanotical]

See I had read the opposite, basically antifreeze kills everything. I know after two months or so off running 100% antifreeze I had no buildup or growth of anything when I flushed my system and switched over to water. I guess I was just curious why my thermal readings went up 3c when switching from antifreeze to water. Almost every where I have read says it should be the other way around, that I should see a slight increase in heat switching to the 100% antifreeze. I'm going to pull my waterblock off tonight and reattach it to see if I possibly had a bad contact compared to my early set up.

Thanks for the help/advice/suggestions all.

do not do that, not only is it bad for your components (antifreeze is a type of sugar) but antifreeze by itself is terrible at moving heat, its to be used as an additive to water to keep the water from freezing,

and it does not kill everything, in fact it kills very little, it is indirectly toxic to mammals, it does not harm us, but when certain bacteria in our digestive system consume it, they release toxins that will harm/kill a mammal

basically, by running pure antifreeze, you are ruining your components, and hurting your temps

[Kiryia]

Then it must have been just a bad contact when I hooked my block back up which is why I'm getting higher temps running water.

[kromagnuts]

An engineering friend of mine turned me on to immersive cooling rigs for high powered electronics back in the 80's and I've gone that route on all my OC rigs I've built. I have a custom box that keeps the motherboard, gpu's, ram, power supply and ssd's, etc fully immersed. I run maxed OC and never worry about overheating, running one fluid circ pump and radiator set through a custom dispersion manifold. I currently have 4 fully immersed rigs with my latest one being an SGI UV running 3 xeon E5's and 150 gigs of onboard ram. No matter how long my rendering sessions run, I've never seen it over 90 F on any of the processors. I could use a chiller system in the same rig and get the temps below 50-60 degrees but whats the point? I make my own systems, but Puget sells commercially available systems starting at 150.00.

[Cyanotical]

An engineering friend of mine turned me on to immersive cooling rigs for high powered electronics back in the 80's and I've gone that route on all my OC rigs I've built. I have a custom box that keeps the motherboard, gpu's, ram, power supply and ssd's, etc fully immersed. I run maxed OC and never worry about overheating, running one fluid circ pump and radiator set through a custom dispersion manifold. I currently have 4 fully immersed rigs with my latest one being an SGI UV running 3 xeon E5's and 150 gigs of onboard ram. No matter how long my rendering sessions run, I've never seen it over 90 F on any of the processors. I could use a chiller system in the same rig and get the temps below 50-60 degrees but whats the point? I make my own systems, but Puget sells commercially available systems starting at 150.00.

okay, but what does that have to do with the fluid composition used in watercooling?