Desk PC Water Cooling Maintenance Vlog

[Emily Young]

It's been 16 months since we built the desk PC... And it's been running nonstop ever since. What horrors await Linus when he cleans it?

 

 

Buy PC water cooling on Amazon: http://geni.us/SjY0lg

Buy a toothbrush on Amazon: http://geni.us/OYVcWD

[givingtnt]

woop

[Nicnac]

I hate when you put classical music in the background... it seems to weird guys seriously 

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

Maintain that shit brother WOOOOOOOO baby 

[AnonymousGuy]

Bro, you don't need to blow into it with your mouth.  Take a can of compressed air, wrap the end of the straw with some duct tape until it's the ID of the tubing or a coupler, and then blow it out with that.  If you have an air compressor there's an attachment that works great: https://www.amazon.com/5-Piece-Nozzle-Capri-Tools-2-Way/dp/B06XD577XD/ref=pd_bxgy_469_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06XD577XD&pd_rd_r=ZH85F19B8D3CC34RMKP4&pd_rd_w=QfwIF&pd_rd_wg=ctfAR&psc=1&refRID=ZH85F19B8D3CC34RMKP4

 

(Just make sure to have one end of the tubing open or you'll overpressurize the shit out of the loop and an o-ring will blow out)

[Walkin]

24 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Bro, you don't need to blow into it with your mouth.  Take a can of compressed air, wrap the end of the straw with some duct tape until it's the ID of the tubing or a coupler, and then blow it out with that.  If you have an air compressor there's an attachment that works great: https://www.amazon.com/5-Piece-Nozzle-Capri-Tools-2-Way/dp/B06XD577XD/ref=pd_bxgy_469_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06XD577XD&pd_rd_r=ZH85F19B8D3CC34RMKP4&pd_rd_w=QfwIF&pd_rd_wg=ctfAR&psc=1&refRID=ZH85F19B8D3CC34RMKP4

 

(Just make sure to have one end of the tubing open or you'll overpressurize the shit out of the loop and an o-ring will blow out)

Yup, I was "why? oh no! stop!"

[Gabs_MAC]

How often on average (I know its like a piece of string right?) do you need to perform the maintenance on your water loops? Like recommended and what you usually get away with!? haha

[fulminemizzega]

Nice video, I find more interesting this maintenance video than the build log. I also see how this could discourage people from buying water cooling gear... reminds me of the "glorious" days of whole room watercooling.

[AnonymousGuy]

28 minutes ago, Gabs_MAC said:

How often on average (I know its like a piece of string right?) do you need to perform the maintenance on your water loops? Like recommended and what you usually get away with!? haha

If you do it right you only need to do maintenance every 2-3 years when the fluid essentially "expires" in the loop.  When I say doing it right, I mean you need to have clean parts going in (especially radiator), filtered fans, premix coolant with no particles (X1, CryoFuel, etc), in line fluid filter, tubing with no plasticizer.

[Gabs_MAC]

Ok that seems quite reasonable to be honest, but saying that I guess it sounds like a long time which however seems to come around way too quick in reality!

What were those drops linus put into the system some kinda antibacterial fluid?

[tsk]

Get a professional cleaning company and have them clean out that pigsty office building.

[Luscious]

12 to 18 months is a good rule of thumb to follow for custom loop maintenance, but it will depend on the fluid you use (colored vs clear) how good your additives work and how dusty your environment is (fans and filters still need to be cleaned).

 

Of course if you even keep your system together for that long it won't matter. Building new every 2-3 years you can get by with just one coolant drain and not even worry about flushing the system.

 

To the guy recommending an air compressor - blocks and fittings aren't rated for high pressure use. A better approach is to just use gravity and have a friend help with a long tube and a funnel. If that's not doable because the loop is too complicated then your best bet is to dismantle and clean it per component. Always inspect o-rings on fittings and replace any stained tubing, it's cheap to buy. Finally you should only take blocks apart if the visible gunk hasn't come out from manually flushing each bock.

 

Then when you put it all back together, DO NOT SKIP a leak test. Just because it wasn't leaking when new, doesn't mean it won't leak after it has been taken apart and put back together. This is especially true of those 45/90 rotary fittings with internal o-rings. Keeping one or two spares of those is handy.

[Mynorx]

You guys might wanna check out fluidxp. Years ago I built my own water cooling loops and played around with water, car coolants, fungicide from fish stores. I found some stuff called fluidxp ran it for years until I upgraded my computer I now use a corsair kit who knows what they use in that. If I had to build another kit I would definitely use fluidxp.  I have no relation to their company I just used it years ago and was happy with the results. 

[Gabs_MAC]

Nice advise guys thank you x

 

[Gabs_MAC]

12 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

If you do it right you only need to do maintenance every 2-3 years when the fluid essentially "expires" in the loop.  When I say doing it right, I mean you need to have clean parts going in (especially radiator), filtered fans, premix coolant with no particles (X1, CryoFuel, etc), in line fluid filter, tubing with no plasticizer.

Hi AnonymousGuy, Unrelated question but how do you get your system details to show below your thread post, I think it looks really cool!

 

[alex_gm]

@LinusTech A usability question: doesn't an air outlet next to your left leg bother you? As far as I know, it is very annoying to be exposed to a constant air flow if it is colder than the body temperature.

[Enderman]

@LinusTech In the video you said it was "erosion not corrosion" in the water block.

It is 100% corrosion.

The distilled water becomes corrosive over time as it picks up ions from all metal components.

This is why you should never use distilled water in a loop even with biocides and kill coils.

A premixed fluid that has been thoroughly tested is much more stable for long term use.

A premixed fluid/concentrate will have a balanced pH as well as compatible mixtures of biocides and anticorrosives.

A lab-tested mixture is far safer than anything you can put together at home by mixing random biocides and anticorrosives in distilled water which have never been tested together.

Mixing things randomly is a bad idea because it can cause chemical reactions that speed up the decomposition of some of the products which could lead to pH unbalance, faster corrosion, or even precipitation (no, not the rain kind).

[Gabs_MAC]

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

@LinusTech In the video you said it was "erosion not corrosion" in the water block.

It is 100% corrosion.

The distilled water becomes corrosive over time as it picks up ions from all metal components.

This is why you should never use distilled water in a loop even with biocides and kill coils.

A premixed fluid that has been thoroughly tested is much more stable for long term use.

 

Could it be a mixture of both at play here?

 

[TechyBen]

The only way to test, would be to setup a test. I would assume it is corrosion. As in, erosion will be minimum, corrosion will always be at play (mixed materials here!).

[DildorTheDecent]

>loop manintenace

 

Now there's something I should be doing

[Enderman]

31 minutes ago, Gabs_MAC said:

Could it be a mixture of both at play here?

 

Unless he is using some abrasive nanonparticle fluid (which he didn't) there would be practically 0 erosion.

[AnonymousGuy]

2 hours ago, TechyBen said:

The only way to test, would be to setup a test. I would assume it is corrosion. As in, erosion will be minimum, corrosion will always be at play (mixed materials here!).

PT Nuke and EK's shit nickel plating (much worse than what Koolance uses) = that result.

[TechyBen]

Personally I'd not trust *any* plating in a water loop. 100% solid metal and/or plastics etc, with 1 type of metal only. Else it's gonna be tin foil in a year or so.

(I have no experience in it, that's just how risky I view it)

[Ceru]

Instead of rubbing everything down, did you ever try a ultrasonic cleaner to save time?