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Primochill Coolant is NASTY! 15-day review

hihihi8

My recent upgrade also involved a loop rebuild, during which pretty much overhauled the entire loop. My old loop used deionized with a silver kill coil, and I never had any real issues with it worth mentioning - coolant stayed clean and temps were good.

 

- EK ROG CH8 Dark Hero Monoblock (new)

- EK Monarch X4 RAM blocks (reused but with full disassembly cleaning)

- EK 6900XT full-cover block (new)

- Alphacool NexXxos UT60 480 RAD (reused, thorough flushed, left to dry fully before being refilled)

- Primochill RSX Fittings

- Primochill Res (new 360mm, forgot exact model)

- D5 pump

 

With the rebuild, I moved from colored tubing and water to clear tubing and colored water. I'm definitely one of the "water is best" people, but I thought "hey, how bad can it be? plenty of youtubers use coolant," and went with a gallon of Primochill True Opaque in pink. Man was I wrong. Within 15 days I've been getting this white frost-like sediment that clings to the tubes and the "opaque" coolant is becoming visibly less opaque by the day.

 

And before anyone asks, no I am not mixing metals, at least nothing really bad. Nickel and copper in this loop, no aluminum. Primochill also advertises this coolant as corrosion and sludge inhibiting. The kill coil was also removed.

 

Pictures speak for themselves:

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PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB  WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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Coolant temp is kept under 45c. The loop is controlled using an aquaero based off coolant-ambient delta. Certainly no overheating.

 

imo there is no excuse for this to happen within 15 days of filling.

 

Everything is gonna have to be disassembled fully and wiped down. F.

PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB  WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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4 hours ago, hihihi8 said:

Coolant temp is kept under 45c. The loop is controlled using an aquaero based off coolant-ambient delta. Certainly no overheating.

 

imo there is no excuse for this to happen within 15 days of filling.

 

Everything is gonna have to be disassembled fully and wiped down. F.

Opaque coolants are very poorly documented and so it is impossible to know what kind of incompatibilities you run into. I would recommend you to try a clear colored (optional) coolant.

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The only opaque fluid I feel like trying out is the new white XTR from Mayhem's (not sure its in USA yet). Other than that, in general they just seem like a bad idea.

 

I'd stick to either water (and instead of silver, run biocide and inhibitors in the water), or else clear coolants otherwise. Can also dye the water. Won't be opaque, but will give you some color if you really want it.

 

I'd stay away from EK Cryofuel though. The newer Cryofuel, even the clear, is known to fall out and gunk up. The older Cryofuel was fine as I believe it was rebranded Mayhems. Corsair is also a rebranded and slightly reformulated Mayhems X1.

 

Modmymods also makes a coolant that I have heard good things about and it tends to run cheaper since its made in the USA.

 

If you do run distilled water though, good luck with EK when your plating flakes off your blocks and they blame your water instead of their crappy plating.

Zen 3 Daily Rig (2022 - Present): AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + Optimus Foundations AM4 | Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti FE + Alphacool Eisblock 3080 FE | G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB DDR4-3600 (@3733 c14) | ASUS Crosshair VIII Dark Hero | 2x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB | Crucial MX500 1TB | Corsair RM1000x | Lian Li O11 Dynamic | LG 48" C1 | EK Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 w/ D5 | HWLabs GTX360 and GTS360 | Bitspower True Brass 14mm | Corsair 14mm White PMMA | ModMyMods Mod Water Clear | 9x BeQuiet Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM High Speed | Aquacomputer Highflow NEXT | Aquacomputer Octo

 

Test Bench: 

CPUs: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, Core i5-2400, Core i7-4790K, Core i9-10900K, Core i3-13100, Core i9-13900KS

Motherboards: ASUS Z97-Deluxe, EVGA Z490 Dark, EVGA Z790 Dark Kingpin

GPUs: GTX 275 (RIP), 2x GTX 560, GTX 570, 2x GTX 650 Ti Boost, GTX 980, Titan X (Maxwell), x2 HD 6850

Bench: Cooler Master Masterframe 700 (bench mode)

Cooling: Heatkiller IV Pro Pure Copper | Koolance GPU-210 | HWLabs L-Series 360 | XSPC EX360 | Aquacomputer D5 | Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 250 | Monsoon Free Center Compressions | Mayhems UltraClear | 9x Arctic P12 120mm PWM PST

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Mayhem X1 Clear if you want reliability.  Opaque fluids are always settling out eventually or clogging blocks or whatever.

Workstation:  13700k @ 5.5Ghz || Gigabyte Z790 Ultra || MSI Gaming Trio 4090 Shunt || TeamGroup DDR5-7800 @ 7000 || Corsair AX1500i@240V || whole-house loop.

LANRig/GuestGamingBox: 9900nonK || Gigabyte Z390 Master || ASUS TUF 3090 650W shunt || Corsair SF600 || CPU+GPU watercooled 280 rad pull only || whole-house loop.

Server Router (Untangle): 13600k @ Stock || ASRock Z690 ITX || All 10Gbe || 2x8GB 3200 || PicoPSU 150W 24pin + AX1200i on CPU|| whole-house loop

Server Compute/Storage: 10850K @ 5.1Ghz || Gigabyte Z490 Ultra || EVGA FTW3 3090 1000W || LSI 9280i-24 port || 4TB Samsung 860 Evo, 5x10TB Seagate Enterprise Raid 6, 4x8TB Seagate Archive Backup ||  whole-house loop.

Laptop: HP Elitebook 840 G8 (Intel 1185G7) + 3080Ti Thunderbolt Dock, Razer Blade Stealth 13" 2017 (Intel 8550U)

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idle temperatures have now increased by 25c.

PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB  WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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