Water cooled system is to cold!

[zogthegreat]

Hi everyone!

 

So, I'm living in Montréal these days and I have a rather unusual problem. The owner of the building that I live in got tired of tenets complaining to the Régie du logement that the heat wasn't high enough, so he jacked up the heating system and now the building is to hot. So, to keep from melting, I have to leave my door next to my desk cracked open. However, as I said, I'm living in Montréal, which is an incredible place to live, but it's a tad bit cold here, (I'm originally from Los Angeles).

 

So I woke up this morning, switched on my rig and noticed that my CPU temperature was -5 c! I unplugged the radiator fans and my system is now idling @ +8 c. 

 

So my question is how much antifreeze should I add to my loop and is it dangerous to run at theses temps? My loop has a XSPC RX240, which is a 56mm thick radiator and I have about 400ml of water in the loop. There is no condensation on any of the system components, so I'm not worried about shorting out the motherboard as much as frying my pump if the water starts jelling and or totally freezing within the loop. 

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

zog

 

 

[Whiro]

@zogthegreatfirst of all use HWinfo64 to check the temps.  Whatever you using right now is not giving you proper reading imo.

[zogthegreat]

Hi Whiro,

 

No, hwinfo64's readings match what System Monitor is saying. I turned off the fans on my radiator and put my pump on a fan controller to slow my flow rate. Than along with the fact that it has "warmed up" to a balmy -6 outside, my temps are above freezing. I also used my cheap laser thermometer and it is giving readings along with the the motherboard readings.

 

I'm going to try making a duct with some cardboard and try to funnel warm air from the buildings radiators to my system radiator to see if that helps.

 

If anyone knows how much ant-freeze I should add to my loop, please let me know. I don't want to crack my radiator like when a car radiator freezes and I don't want to fry my pump!

 

 

[tikker]

As far as I know running at those temps should be ok, that's what cooling's about in the end. It might have some issues booting perhaps at such low temperatures. Condensation is the main worry point I think.

 

How does your room get to (at least) -5, is the building insulated that badly?

[zogthegreat]

Hi tikker, thanks for the advice, although I'm going partially solve the problem for the next few weeks by joining the forums folding@home team and leave my machine on over night. The heat from my CPU should be enough to keep my loop from freezing.

 

No, the problem is that my building is insulated to well and my apartment is small, so I have a choice of leaving the door by my computer cracked open or the window by my bed where my head is. This is my first winter in this apartment and I wasn't expecting it to be so hot in here.

[andrewmp6]

How cold is the room you keep the pc in ?

[Fasauceome]

Run Folding@Home, make your CPU the only active component, it'll never freeze

[The Torrent]

Sorry I’m a noob to water cooling.

 

but is it not possible for the water in the loop to freeze solid? Then imagine ur motor turns on when u turn ur pc on and boom breaks.

[For Science!]

On 3/22/2020 at 4:14 PM, zogthegreat said:

 

Since nobody seems to be willing to answer your actual question, here are some PC coolants that have freezing points below zero.

 

-7.9: aquacomputer DP Ultra

-10: Innovatek Protect IP, Phobya ZuperZero Clear

 

You can also pick up Mayhems Nuke XT-1 and use it at less than 10-fold dilution to achieve lower freezing points (1-in-10 = -5 degrees, 1-in-3 = -20 degrees)

 

[Stuttgart]

56 minutes ago, The Torrent said:

Sorry I’m a noob to water cooling.

 

but is it not possible for the water in the loop to freeze solid? Then imagine ur motor turns on when u turn ur pc on and boom breaks.

It is possible to freeze solid. This would crack open your GPU/CPU Blocks, tubes and reservoires.

You also should worry about your fittings. Those O-Rings are not designed to deal with such temperatures. They eventually get spriddle and you may experience some leaks in future. Keep an eye on that.

[zogthegreat]

2 hours ago, The Torrent said:

Sorry I’m a noob to water cooling.

 

but is it not possible for the water in the loop to freeze solid? Then imagine ur motor turns on when u turn ur pc on and boom breaks.

(chuckle) I see that you live in the UK and don't know about Canadian weather! On the west coast we have Vancouver, where theweather is like in the UK, wet and grey for 10 months with maybe 2 months of sunshine for the whole year. Then you have the rest of Canada where you have 10 months of minus bazillion degrees of cold weather and two months of hot and humid weather! When you see steel shatter because of the cold, you realize that any thing can break because of freezing temperatures!

 

2 hours ago, For Science! said:

Since nobody seems to be willing to answer your actual question, here are some PC coolants that have freezing points below zero.

 

-7.9: aquacomputer DP Ultra

-10: Innovatek Protect IP, Phobya ZuperZero Clear

 

You can also pick up Mayhems Nuke XT-1 and use it at more than 10-fold dilution to achieve lower freezing points (1-in-10 = -5 degrees, 1-in-3 = -20 degrees)

 

Thanks For Science!  That's the information that I needed.

 

BTW, I love your tag!

7 hours ago, andrewmp6 said:

How cold is the room you keep the pc in ?

The room is actually about 16c/60f. That's with the door cracked open. The problem is that with the door open, the wind from outside blows straight onto my radiator!

[avTronic]

On 3/24/2020 at 6:34 AM, zogthegreat said:

(chuckle) I see that you live in the UK and don't know about Canadian weather! On the west coast we have Vancouver, where theweather is like in the UK, wet and grey for 10 months with maybe 2 months of sunshine for the whole year. Then you have the rest of Canada where you have 10 months of minus bazillion degrees of cold weather and two months of hot and humid weather! When you see steel shatter because of the cold, you realize that any thing can break because of freezing temperatures!

 

Thanks For Science!  That's the information that I needed.

 

BTW, I love your tag!

The room is actually about 16c/60f. That's with the door cracked open. The problem is that with the door open, the wind from outside blows straight onto my radiator!

How did your situation turn out? Did you move your computer so it wouldn’t get blasted with cold air?

[zogthegreat]

Hi @avTronic

I "solved" this problem by moving my computer case to a shelf above my desk:

 

 

I also added a piece of wood to deflect the cold air that comes in through the open door. There is also a heater on the wall under the window, so the hot air from the heater travels up and helps keep things warm. Now my system temps are usually around 30c. The nice thing about having it here is that in the summer, my air conditioner is in the window below the shelf, so I get cool air to keep things from overheating.

[fonzz1e]

nice new case too

[zogthegreat]

Thanks @fonzz1e! The case is a Thermaltake Snow. It's a work in progress. I've been holding off completing the build because I needed a 3D printer, However, I now have a nice and shiny Ender 3 Pro, so now I can get back to work on my desktop case, along with several other projects that I have on the back burner:

 

 

[TubbyTubb]

On 3/24/2020 at 8:34 AM, zogthegreat said:

(chuckle) I see that you live in the UK and don't know about Canadian weather! On the west coast we have Vancouver, where theweather is like in the UK, wet and grey for 10 months with maybe 2 months of sunshine for the whole year. Then you have the rest of Canada where you have 10 months of minus bazillion degrees of cold weather and two months of hot and humid weather! When you see steel shatter because of the cold, you realize that any thing can break because of freezing temperatures!

 

Thanks For Science!  That's the information that I needed.

 

BTW, I love your tag!

The room is actually about 16c/60f. That's with the door cracked open. The problem is that with the door open, the wind from outside blows straight onto my radiator!

I loved the Antec 1200 I had one for a very long time, that thing was a beast.

 

THOMAS