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There’s nothing more annoying than spending hours getting the perfect water-cooling system installed in your machine only to see the fateful drip, drip of a leaky connection after you’ve started adding coolant. Sure, you can make some last-minute adjustments to a water-cooling rig once it’s in your case, but it’s cumbersome. And depending on the severity of your leak, it could be a race against the clock.
You can avoid drippy disasters entirely by assembling your water-cooling rig outside of your case to begin with. Admittedly, this will do nothing to prevent user error in the installation process, but it will help you quickly diagnose problems with connections, tubing, and anything else that could possibly go wrong with your setup.
Spread out a couple paper towels and set your entire water-cooling rig on your makeshift leak-testing station. Jump a power supply by jamming one end of a paper clip in the 20- or 24-pin green connector and the other end in a black connector, but make sure the power supply is unplugged. Before you plug the power supply into the wall, rig up your pump and a few fans—you need to draw a bit of juice or your power supply will burn out.
That’s it! But don’t consider yourself finished just because your kit didn’t start shooting water. Let it run for a bit—a full day, if you’re patient. Trust us, it’s a lot better to find leaks before they have a chance to drip all over your expensive computer parts.
If you spring a leak, it might be in your best interest to unplug the power supply before you get to tinkering.
You’ve cleaned your kit, checked it for leaks, and are now ready to take the final plunge and stick your water-cooling gear back into your system for good. Filling a water-cooling system is simple, but there are still a few ways to ensure that it’s a smooth, spill-free process.
If you’re using a reservoir, just pour your liquid of choice into the bay, sit back, and let the magic happen. As soon as you see some water coming through the output of your pump, it should be safe to turn on the system and let your pump do the work for you. Just be sure to keep the reservoir filled.
For those who are cooling sans reservoir, it’s a similar process, but pour the coolant slowly into your T-line; we’ve often found ourselves daydreaming during a steady pour, only to end up with coolant all over the place after misjudging the overall flow rate of the water-cooling setup. However, one benefit of using a T-line is that you can take a little more time to fill the machine before turning it on. Just use the same trick as before, in which you hold the T-line as high as you can when filling it, letting air pressure push the fluid through your system for you.
There's little more embarrassing than surviving the entire maintenance process only to spill a ton of liquid because you weren't paying attention when filling.
Wait! What’s that? Your fluid isn’t chugging around as fast as you think it should, and you’re seeing a lot of air bubbles churn through your tubes? Well, these problems are related. The air traveling through your pipes impedes the performance of your water-cooling setup, but fear not. It happens every time you install a water-cooling unit, and it’s easy to fix.
f you have a reservoir, just pop off the cap and let your machine run. The bubbles will make their way back into your reservoir and happily escape into the atmosphere. Let your rig run for a few hours (or overnight), and all the trapped air will be gone. T-line users will find the process a bit more tedious, but you can always tape the line to the side of your case. Just be sure it’s up high to discourage any fluid from making an appearance on your floor.
Bubbles impede your pump's ability to . . . pump. Nix the bubbles to increase performance.
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lovebug653
October 24, 2007 at 10:59pm
I use a large mouth container. I disconnect the input or return line from the CPU water block. I submerge the CPU block into Distiled water. I afix fishing weights to the return line and submerge that into my large mouth bottle. I add a bit of water into my reserve tank and close cap. I turn on the pump. The pump will suck water minus bubbles from the bottom of my large container. The air that normally circulates and gets trapped in the loop drops into my large container and floats out of my loop. I now look at my reserve tank and simply tilt my case until the air in tank is replaced by water. When no air is in the loop I stick my gloved hands inside the jar and connect the hose back to the CPU block closing the loop. I then wipe off all the water or coolant, remove the weights, tighten the hose clamps, and place block on top of CPU using artic silver. You will have no air in system and your PC will not sound like a fish tank.
lovebug653
October 24, 2007 at 10:37pm
Go to auto zone and purchase hi-temp silicon gasket cost about $3:00 per tube. I use hi temp just in case the water level becomes low and water starts to boil over the CPU. I apply a very small bead of gasket silicon over and under the o - ring or in both the upper and lower o- ring groves. I then wait a a few hours before tightening up the block. I have never had a leak since I began doing this over 5 years.
