Weirdest experience ever.

[danialzaidi]

Okay so here is the story. I have been playing with water cooling since early 2014. So as you can see in the picture below, My specs is SLI gtx 970 water cooled em with a universal waterblock. In August 2015, I started to play with Hardline, as you can see the loop is horrible same goes to the pressure and air trapped in the loop. Ok here is the weirdest thing ever happened to me:

My loop was leaked (I did the leak test for 24 hours) the hardline tube was loosed from the top gpu water block where the water then drips to the gpu below directly. Luckily I have a custom made back plate for the ref 970,s. The moment I realised that my system was leaking is when the monitor does not give out any signal. Was so disappointed that time, I immidiately drain everything, try to save the top gpu first because the bottom one was soaked. The water drip from the top gpu to the back of bottom gpu backplate (I saw the water path underneath the back plate and When I shake the card the water came out) and then below pcie slot and all the way at the motherboard and then to the back of my case then to the cable extender connector and then to the floor. After everything was drained and dried, Everything works fine cpu, mobo, psu, gpu 1. I was so devastated, sold the saved 970 and bought a 980ti. After 2 weeks (lessons learned), I Assembled a new proper loop with a full cover waterblock for the 980ti. Now after my sadness was gone, the soaked gpu under my bed is untouched from the moment the leaking happened. I disassmble the universal block from the 970, place back the heat sink and fan as original. Brushed the back of the pcb with a soft brush (comes with laptop cleaner) and I saw one of the component is badly stained with the coolant. The component is shown in the picture. After all the restoration was done, I wanted to try if the card still works (after 3 weeks). Well I'll be damned. IT FRIGGIN WORKS. How? I mean just how?

Picture of my rig before hardline.

Picture of my rig first time doing hardline

Picture of the component that was majorly soaked with water. As you can see there is some burnt marks i think.

New loop. Proper and safe (I think)

So.. Any opinions?

[SPAS-ID]

Nope, your Good, the RM Ruin the Blue theme

[desertcomputer]

Nope, your Good, the RM Ruin the Blue theme

Well you cant see it when you close the case. 

[W-L]

-SNIP-

 

A waterlogged part doesn't always mean it's dead immediately since you were just leak testing and had no power to it and let it sit for a few weeks it all dried off, any contaminates or residue on the PCB was cleaned off before power up again. A quicker method that is always good is to bath it in 99% isopropyl alcohol, I personally always keep a bottle around just incase that a loop ever leaks to displace the water/fluid as soon as possible.

 

The new loop looks really nice 

[danialzaidi]

Well you cant see it when you close the case.

Was about to reply the same thing haha.

[SPAS-ID]

why the Cable Split ?

Well you cant see it when you close the case. 

true true

[Andrew Storlie]

Honestly i find that usually parts are well protected and have short protection enough that once you really dry off a component, it works fine. I mean, when i clean my video cards, i run the ENTIRE pcb under hot water and scrub with a soft tooth brush. Then i blow dry it until warm and wrap it in a towel for 24 hrs, looks brand new if not even shinier and ive never killed a card before...

[danialzaidi]

A waterlogged part doesn't always mean it's dead immediately since you were just leak testing and had no power to it and let it sit for a few weeks it all dried off, any contaminates or residue on the PCB was cleaned off before power up again. A quicker method that is always good is to bath it in 99% isopropyl alcohol, I personally always keep a bottle around just incase that a loop ever leaks to displace the water/fluid as soon as possible.

 

The new loop looks really nice 

I was not leak testing. Done with the leak test. I was using the computer that time (browsing the internet as I can remember) and the monitor suddenly says no input found. When I saw the leak, immediately switched off the plug.

[danialzaidi]

why the Cable Split ?

true true

There is two cable route below the gpu, if I dont split the cable, it wont look straight lol. When the side panel is closed. Everything looks good. You cant even see the PSU

[W-L]

I was not leak testing. Done with the leak test. I was using the computer that time (browsing the internet as I can remember) and the monitor suddenly says no input found. When I saw the leak, immediately switched off the plug.

 

Well you got fairly lucky then if it was on at the time, that usually makes chances of saving the hardware a fair bit lower, switching it off right away probably help saved it though.

[danialzaidi]

Honestly i find that usually parts are well protected and have short protection enough that once you really dry off a component, it works fine. I mean, when i clean my video cards, i run the ENTIRE pcb under hot water and scrub with a soft tooth brush. Then i blow dry it until warm and wrap it in a towel for 24 hrs, looks brand new if not even shinier and ive never killed a card before...

Well this is a first for me. I really thought that I killed that card. I cleaned the card in the first place because I was planning to try and RMA the card (re-do the warranty sticker). So.. What should I do with the 970?

[SPAS-ID]

There is two cable route below the gpu, if I dont split the cable, it wont look straight lol. When the side panel is closed. Everything looks good. You cant even see the PSU

pic plz

[danialzaidi]

Well you got fairly lucky then if it was on at the time, that usually makes chances of saving the hardware a fair bit lower, switching it off right away probably help saved it though.

Or is it because when I was using the computer that time, both of the card was not in use? I mean if the leak happened when I was playing a game that utilizes the SLI, will that kill the card?

[W-L]

Or is it because when I was using the computer that time, both of the card was not in use? I mean if the leak happened when I was playing a game that utilizes the SLI, will that kill the card?

 

Power still goes through the card even at idle so it wouldn't have really made a difference if it shorted a vital component or part of the GPU core then it wouldn't have come back to life after drying and cleaning.

[danialzaidi]

pic plz

Here you go

[danialzaidi]

Power still goes through the card even at idle so it wouldn't have really made a difference if it shorted a vital component or part of the GPU core then it wouldn't have come back to life after drying and cleaning.

Well I guess that explains. Thanks man. So.. No more SLI with universal gpu waterblock and backplate is damn important.

[SPAS-ID]

-snoop dogg-

that's clean as fuck, how much the WC cost ?

[danialzaidi]

that's clean as fuck, how much the WC cost ?

Haha thanks man. I got it to be clean as fuck after a few builds with good and bad experience. Well if you count the brand new price (some parts are not branded and I got them from Aliexpress.com) I think its around USD290$. The only branded part is the GPU waterblock which is EK. The rest are Barrow, Bitspower and some other brands. Got the GPU temp around 46celcius at 99% usage and oc to 1350mhz.

[aj101202]

Nope, your Good, the RM Ruin the Blue theme

I took the sticker off mine as it didn't go with my black and white build

[danialzaidi]

I took the sticker off mine as it didn't go with my black and white build

Lol I just realize its a sticker. Thanks for that.