Water Cooling question

Logla · Apr 4, 2004, 11:15 AM

I finally got my water cooling installed this weekend and its working nicely but I'm concerned about the temps I'm getting.
They arent a lot different from my CoolerMaster Heatpipe HSF just one or two degrees lower but what normally happens is the CPU starts off at 29d and then over the course of about 30mins eventually rises to 35c. So I start doing some benching and the temps go to about 44c.
But heres the worry - they dont cool down after the benchies are finished. I might get a 2c drop but thats it.

I have my rad mounted on the outside of the case and the fan is on the inside sucking air through the rad.

Is this normal and if not what am I doing wrong?

~~Sourcer_2002~~ · Apr 4, 2004, 11:32 AM

I had this problem and my issue was that i didnt have the Waterblock on the core ... of on it enough.

Logla · Apr 4, 2004, 12:37 PM

Mines on fine - P4 so the spreader takes the load - and its on securly. I made sure the spings were compressed enough so I dont think its that. I've added a couple of exhaust fans to the case to see if this makes any difference as I think the warm air being pulled off the rad into the case is causing everything else to stay warm. The res for example is mounted at the bottom of the case instead of outside.

Logla · Apr 4, 2004, 02:03 PM

I seem to be having big probs here. I cant get the cpu past 3.6 now. I had gotten it to over3.8 on friday and that was on my HSF , no water in site.
I noticed that all the pipes seem to be about the same temp and I would expect the pipe coming from the rad to be a bit cooler. The Rad doesn't feel warm at all but with the system powered off it is a bit warm at the bottom but not at the top.

I have a bleed washer on the top of the rad and water comes out if I open it so I'm assuming there is no air trapped in the system.

please someone make a suggestion as this is starting to look like I've wasted an awfull lot of money.

@/2ct!< · Apr 4, 2004, 02:10 PM

Refresh my memory, what watercooling components do you have?

free_refil · Apr 4, 2004, 02:12 PM

Wow, it sounds like you're having a pretty bad experience with water. I can think of a few things for you to try, but my first question is, did you check to see that the pump is pushing water through the system? I would get a pale of some sort and unhook a hose and see if when the pump turns on it squirts the water out. The fact that the lines feel the same temp, and that the temp's go up and not back down, makes it sound as if the system is circulating the water.

scobywhru · Apr 4, 2004, 04:35 PM

You might not be getting enough air through the radiator, and temperature in the system won't be much different from pipe to pipe unless you are using peltiers and have a massive radiator, otherwise its not much difference. I would suggest making sure that all the fans are pushing in and pulling out about the same amount of air so you don't cause some of them to choke, you also might not have a good seal on the radiator from teh fan and air is getting out around the fan, it would have to be a massive hole but I am just throwing out ideas

If you are using a Pump Relay switch so your pump turns on and off with your system try just pluging it into the wall and run it constantly and see if that helps, some times a wire can come lose on those things and they won't click over 100% of the time, to start the pump

Driver 7 · Apr 4, 2004, 05:12 PM

I don't have a fix for ya But I could suggest a couple of things.

Make sure you bleed it well. Air bubbles will restrict water flow. You will never remove all the air but you can cut it right down.
Add spacers between your fans and your rads. Best tip you will ever get for h20. I took the center off fan's that I was not using that were the same size as my rad fans to create distance between the rad and fan's.

Scooby is good for h20 advice as well.

As far as your prob goes. If you haven't checked the basic stuff yet check for kinks in your lines and also make sure your flow order starts with your pump>to Water block or blocks>and then to the rad.

Not Pump> Radiator> and then water blocks or you will be sending warm water to your pump.

What kit are you using and are you using a reservoir or a T Line?

Logla · Apr 4, 2004, 06:16 PM

thanks for the responses guys.

Heres my setup

DD RBX w #5 nozzle
DD Z-Chip lock for intel 875
DD Radeon block

Eheim 1250 pump
Innovatek tank-o-matic rad
Thermochil 120.1 rad
all hooked together with thermochill clearflex tubing and attached to the chips with AS5

The pump is definatley pumping as I can see this through the res, one thing I'm worried about though is how much its pumping. When I added the UV dye after filling, it seemed to take at least 5 seconds to pump through back to the res. I was under the impression that this would only take about 2 seconds. As far as I can tell, there are no kinks in the tubing. Although the way I have setup is : res - pump - rad - cpu - n/b - gpu - res. I also noticed that the temps have started to drop by a couple of degrees after bootup, but in no way is this machine stable anymore. I am seriously considering going back to the air cooling.

Driver 7 - how much of a difference would it make pumping water to the rad than the blocks and why? I got my adice from what I would call a reputable source

This is really, really anoying. I cant even get the p4 to 3.6 now at the same voltages I could with the HSF.

El Kapitano · Apr 4, 2004, 06:33 PM

If you pump water to the rad then to the blocks the water has chance to lose any heat it's picked up from the pump body..at least that's the way I look at it. BTW you should have a lot better flow than you mentioned my rigs similarish and it takes less than a second to flow round the circuit. Have you cleared the rad of air? Are you using water wetter or similar?

free_refil · Apr 4, 2004, 06:58 PM

Could you post some pics of the inside of your rig?

Driver 7 · Apr 4, 2004, 07:30 PM

The difference would be after it left your radiator all nice and cool it would then go to your cpu waterblock and then your gpu waterblock (or which ever order you have em set up) and the the warm water leaving the last water block would be heading straight for your pump. That is not good for the pump. You wanna run cooled water fromthe rad through your pump and then the pump can distribute the cool water.

are you using a T line or are you flowing from 1 waterblock to the 2nd waterblock?

scobywhru · Apr 4, 2004, 11:00 PM

well how restrictive is that waterblock, thats where the problem may be, the RBX is not a high flow block, like the maze series so that may be a problem

EDIT: it looks like the #5 is the most restrictive of the nozzles so you might want to try #2

@/2ct!< · Apr 4, 2004, 11:36 PM

Wcing your cpu will get you better results, but not necessarily if you cool NB & GPU as well. These two blocks dont necessarily add too much heat, especially NB, but may provide flow resistance, much like you described low flow rates. If nothing else seems to work, (Try a fan shroud, fan might be too close to rad and not getting enough air) It would either mean getting an even more powerful pump/additional pump, $$$$

or not use one of your blocks/ change RBX nozzle :? . Either wayl, I hope your WCing experience improves.

@/2ct!< · Apr 4, 2004, 11:38 PM

PS you have any digipics, so we could maybe "see" any problems?