Thermaltake aluminium rads and copper waterblocks

[Intars]

Hello. Planning my first ever custom waterloop. Was thinking about going with Thermaltake stuff because of cheaper prices.

 

What I noticed while browsing shop is that R series radiators are made out of aluminium, yet all the waterblocks ar copper or nickel. Doesnt this pose a risk of galvanic corrosion?

What got me confused is the fact that they even sell these things in kits together. Anyone has any experience with this?

[bellabichon]

Not sure, but I think the most corrosion happens between copper and nickel. Aluminum and nickel or aluminum and copper should be fine, as long as you don't have both nickel and copper in your loop at the same time. I'm a pretty big watercooling noob, though, so if someone who knows for sure comes along I would take their word over mine. Cheers!

[MkaiL]

11 minutes ago, bellabichon said:

Not sure, but I think the most corrosion happens between copper and nickel. Aluminum and nickel or aluminum and copper should be fine, as long as you don't have both nickel and copper in your loop at the same time. I'm a pretty big watercooling noob, though, so if someone who knows for sure comes along I would take their word over mine. Cheers!

Copper, nickel (= plated copper) and brass are all fine to mix. Adding aluminium would cause galvanic corrosion. If you want to cheap out go alu only with all components (like the fluid gaming kits), or else avoid it in your loop completely if you're dealing with any of the other metals.

 

@Intars

I personally avoid thermaltake when it comes to custom watercooling. They don't really have a positive reputation in that area. 

[Intars]

Well I wanted to go with copper components. Its this that confused me - https://ttpremium.eu/product/pacific-r360-water-cooling-kit/

Its aluminium rad with copper base CPU waterblock. If theyre bundling this together they should be safe to use?

[For Science!]

2 minutes ago, Intars said:

Well I wanted to go with copper components. Its this that confused me - https://ttpremium.eu/product/pacific-r360-water-cooling-kit/

Its aluminium rad with copper base CPU waterblock. If theyre bundling this together they should be safe to use?

They bundle is because it lowers cost, no consideration of quality. They use a somewhat anti-corrosive coolant, and keep their fingers crossed that people dont complain/find out. Long story short, do not buy this kit. I believe their newer ones are all copper, but nonetheless I do not have a good opinion about TT products generally.

[Intars]

Well I just checked out EK Fluid Gaming kits. Amazing prices, any downsides with going fully aluminium?

[MkaiL]

1 minute ago, Intars said:

Well I just checked out EK Fluid Gaming kits. Amazing prices, any downsides with going fully aluminium?

Copper has better heat transfer so it performs better, also with an all alu kit, your options to expand are limited. For example if you want to add a gpu down the line, they only have blocks for the founders edition, also no standalone hardline fittings, only a few sizes of radiators etc...

 

It depend on your budget and the overall build but I personally would rather go with a full copper kit like the P360 from ek or just stick to aircooling. 

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-kit-p360

[kevinisbeast707]

On 5/24/2018 at 2:42 PM, Intars said:

Well I just checked out EK Fluid Gaming kits. Amazing prices, any downsides with going fully aluminium?

Really the only downside besides a few degrees is that future compatibility is at the discretion of the manufacturers of gpu waterblocks. Also I have heard that some coolant premixes (mainly the showy opaque ones) don't play as well with aluminium parts. Aluminium's biggest strength is that it costs less both in raw costs and to cnc since it is softer, it is also much much lighter than copper so it can be nice if you have a bunch of radiators in a case to keep weight down. Here is a trustworthy review that directly compares ekwb's aluminum and copper kits of the same sizes.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ekwb-fluid-gaming-a240-liquid-cooling,5284.html

[AdamTheSlave]

I use this kit now and a few downsides:

 

No drain valves out there at all. I asked EK Support if any were in the pipeline and they said the R&D team are focused on other things at the moment, so it's not a priority (I'm going to guess they are busy at work designing new water blocks for the 1100 series). Also, you can't get motherboard/cpu monoblocks, and they are also not in the works. So, I don't know. I think EK would be smart to invest more into the aluminum series due to their appeal for people that want a custom loop without the cost. I think, if a company wants to pick up where EK left off and start designing more aluminum blocks, monoblocks, fittings and new valves they would see some decent profits.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

Like someone else on this thread, I would personally go for a full copper watercooling kit like the EK-KIT P360 that I employ in my build.

 

Unless you're using coolant that is common in CLCs, I strongly advise against mixing aluminum radiators with copper blocks.

[noext]

i have a the a360g ( the one with 1 rad + cpu block + gpu block ) , it work great for the price, but the expandability is shitty, adding a 240 rad in the loop will cost me 70€ in ek-acf alu fitting when the same number of copper fitting on aliexpress will cost around 20€ and there is no other brand with alu fitting yet.
 Its the same for the radiator, they force you to buy the rad + 2 shitty vardar fan at 80€ when a good full aluminium 240 rad cost 20€ ....

So yeah the entry cost of the ek fluid gaming is lower but the cost for upgrade is ******* huge