3 Years of Basement Water Cooling. Did It Hold Up?

AntVenom · August 3, 2018

So just over 3 years ago, in this topic, I decided to take a stab at doing my own iteration of the "Whole Room Water Cooling" project that LTT did just over 3 years ago. I have a small office that heated up fairly quickly with my rig expelling a bunch of heat into the room. My "Basement Water Cooling Project" actually didn't fix that problem. Yes, the office does heat up a little slower, but 3 monitors output a surprising amount of heat. But heat wasn't the sole reason I did this project. The main reason I did this project was to rid my office of fan noise, as I do video and audio work for a living, and I wanted my office to be as silent as possible. And in that regard, the project was a massive success. But three years have gone by, so I wanted to make a new topic about it, rather than bumping a thread that hasn't had a reply for over 2 years.

So, there's really only 2 questions that I feel need answering.

1. Is the "Basement Water Cooling Project" still working?
2. Was it worth it?

So, is the project still working? Short answer, yes. Long answer, yes, and it has required shockingly little maintenance. Since I properly completed the project about 2 1/2 years ago, I've only recycled the water once, which was in November of 2017, when I upgraded my rig. But even then, and now, the water inside of the system has remained almost completely clear, but there is a sort-of new exception.

Judging by this image, which I took under an hour ago, things look great! At a glance, the water looks completely clear. But if we take a closer look at the outlet from the pump, as well as the inlet for the reservoir, something looks off.

If you know anything about clear tubing, it shouldn't be too hard to see that the tubing shouldn't have a blue tint when there's a brown desk right underneath it. So something is going on inside of the system. But what?

Well I think this image sheds a lot of light on what's going on. The acrylic reservoir shows no signs of tinting at all, leading me to believe that the biocide that I used (PT_Nuke), which can be seen in this image, has begun to stain the tubing used in the rest of the loop. So, am I going to do anything about this? Honestly, probably not. There's no hint of any corrosion of any kind, and the water is pretty much crystal clear. So, 3 years, one flushing of the system without ever replacing the tubing.

But was it worth it?

Well considering that I've lived in this house for over 3 years now, and don't plan on moving any time soon, I would say yes. However, I spent a LOT of unnecessary money on this project, primarily when I bought my original pump, which it, along with all of my other mistakes, can be found in the original thread.

I'm a big ol' geek. I found this project to be a lot of fun, and I'd do it again. I doubt LinusTechTips will ever re-approach their project, but if they did, I can confidently say that as long as they use spring water, a biocide like PT_Nuke, and they don't mix in an aluminum reservoir or any other aluminum, and they stick to copper / nickel (and I think brass is fine too, as I think my fittings on the copper pipe are brass), then they'd have a system that would require a shockingly low amount of maintenance.

Anywho, was randomly in the mood to post an update, so I thought I'd do so. Thanks!

(The computer's lights go through different shades of fairly deep blue colors, but always show up purple in images, for whatever reason)

ArcSmith · August 3, 2018

Have you experienced any problems with the GPU/CPU heating up the CPU/GPU since they are hooked up in series?

AntVenom · August 3, 2018

9 minutes ago, ArcSmith said:

Have you experienced any problems with the GPU/CPU heating up the CPU/GPU since they are hooked up in series?

No. That just isn't a problem if you have the radiator capacity to deal with it. The water moves too fast. The CPU temps typically idle in the 25-28c range, not overclocked, and the GPU idles around the same as well. During the winter, when the basement can quite cold (but not TOO cold because of a heater in the basement), the GPU can idle as low as 18-20c, whereas the CPU stays around the same.

My CPU temp under load is around 50c, and the GPU is somewhere just under that. I could overclock the system if I wanted to, but I just haven't felt like it, or needed to for my workflow.

Edit: And no, in the 3 years I've had the system running, condensation has never been an issue. The temperature delta is never THAT high, and the pipes have insulation on them, which may or may not help.