In my opinion, don't even try it before replacing all the water pipes. I have drowned 3 computers because of water cooling and it sucks every time. Better yet, replace that old water cooling kit with air cooling, since you can get much quieter fans nowadays anyway.

Aideka wrote:

In my opinion, don't even try it before replacing all the water pipes. I have drowned 3 computers because of water cooling and it sucks every time. Better yet, replace that old water cooling kit with air cooling, since you can get much quieter fans nowadays anyway.

That's why I've never messed with water cooling before. It's risky and the benefit is absolutely minimum beyond the bragging rights of oh look I got X CPU to run Y faster thatn it's factory spec, but really in real world performance how much does that actually help...usually not a whole lot practically.

Rhuwyn wrote:

Aideka wrote:

In my opinion, don't even try it before replacing all the water pipes. I have drowned 3 computers because of water cooling and it sucks every time. Better yet, replace that old water cooling kit with air cooling, since you can get much quieter fans nowadays anyway.

That's why I've never messed with water cooling before. It's risky and the benefit is absolutely minimum beyond the bragging rights of oh look I got X CPU to run Y faster thatn it's factory spec, but really in real world performance how much does that actually help...usually not a whole lot practically.

It can help a lot, I had an first generation Core i5 650 cpu, that I overclocked so that it was practicaly as fast as the current generation Core i3 CPU:s. I just never used water cooling on that chip, and only used overkill air cooling with big fans and kept the noise down that way. I had 2 GeForce 480GTX gpu:s at one point, and when used in SLI, they ran so hot that the water cooling was pretty much a necessity. Sadly the bottom ones block started leaking, killed the gpu and the power supply. Around 2 weeks later the other one did the same, and took another PSU with it. After that I just haven't bothered with watercooling, I still overclock stuff, but I do so with huge air coolers and big fans. Not for bragging rights though, but for that extra bit of performance, that to be fair is pretty useless when you think about it, but it's a hobby among others.

http://imgur.com/a/AfPi7

Here's a link to some photos. If there is a yellow tinge to anything it's because the person who gave it to me was a HEAVY smoker which is another issue I'll have with cleaning it up.

EDIT: and I just noticed the reserve actually has some coolant left in it. I thought it was all dried up but was mistaken.

Remove the water cooling stuff, that case keeps the components nice and cool anyway with just air cooling. And also, since the previous owner was a smoker then if you decide to use the water cooling set check the pipes extra carefully. Tar from smoke doesn't seem to do really well with certain plastics and rubbers, so they might be even more brittle than otherwise. And that Antec PSU... Open it up and check the capacitors, I have had 6 of those True series Antec PSU:s explode because of really crap capacitors.

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kithylin wrote:

No! Leave the water kit as is if it's plumbed and designed for it. IF it leaks while it's off then there's no harm. I would say […]
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No! Leave the water kit as is if it's plumbed and designed for it. IF it leaks while it's off then there's no harm. I would say try and get a spare power supply or something and and power the pump directly without powering the rest of the system. See if it runs, see if there's any leaks. If not then just add more fluid to it and run with it. It also would be the short-term solution to it all. If it does leak while it's off, it won't hurt a damn thing. Just kill power to the pump and dry up what ever came out, and if necessary wait a few days to a week for other parts to dry out then you can gut the water system.

But more than anything I would definitely try to make it work as is if it's designed for it.

These early water systems used a ethanol glycol mixture for coolant (automotive antifreeze) typically in the ratio around 10% or 5% pure antifreeze to 90% - 95% distilled water. It's easy to mix yourself and the big cavet is you -MUST NOT FOR ANY REASON- use tap water. It absolutely has to be distilled water. Or actually instead of mixing this seems to have enough glycol in the solution from what I see. You can just go ahead and top it off with straight distilled water and it'll be fine.

Probably I would actually say to try and top off the reservoir with distilled water before trying to run it.

The main problem that you have is not the water system it's self but that it's most likely partially evaporated over time (lost some water content) And you'll probably have a few issues with getting the air bled out of the lines. But if it can run with no obvious leaks then it would be better to run with the water system intact.

Definitely do not power it on as-is until you investigate the water system for issues first.

It might hurt components anyway, automotive antifreeze is sticky as hell if it leaks out. I know since my car decided to leak the cooling liquids out from between the spark plugs, and thore rubber spark plug wires have had an tendency to stick to my fingers and all other soft parts after that. Also, if that stuff leaks out, it can very rapidly create corrosion on metal parts, even if they are not turned on. I have a Scytche Ninja and Antec Truepower Trio to show the effects of a leaking water cooling system that had no power when they leaked, and those do not look pretty.

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kithylin wrote:

Computer water systems are -NOT- like automotive systems. It may use similar coolant mixtures but the environments are completel […]
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Aideka wrote:

It might hurt components anyway, automotive antifreeze is sticky as hell if it leaks out. I know since my car decided to leak the cooling liquids out from between the spark plugs, and thore rubber spark plug wires have had an tendency to stick to my fingers and all other soft parts after that. Also, if that stuff leaks out, it can very rapidly create corrosion on metal parts, even if they are not turned on. I have a Scytche Ninja and Antec Truepower Trio to show the effects of a leaking water cooling system that had no power when they leaked, and those do not look pretty.

Computer water systems are -NOT- like automotive systems. It may use similar coolant mixtures but the environments are completely alien to each other.

With automotive applications you need the coolant system to routinely operate above water's boiling point, and below water's freezing point. And as such, the antifreeze mixture has to be concentrated enough to modify water to withstand the higher temperatures without boiling, and survive sub-zero temps without freezing. So in cars, you're typically running the coolant in it at a 50/50 mixture. Or in some extreme hot or extreme cold parts of the world you even end up with cars running mixtures of 70% antifreeze 30% water. Even then it's usually always mixed with distilled water as well.

With computer water systems you're never going to encounter temps for the coolant getting any where near freezing or anywhere near boiling. So in computer water systems the concern is more of transferring heat more efficiently to the radiator than it is making the water able to withstand extremes beyond it's nature. Nothing transfers heat better than water it's self. So in computer water systems you essentially want as much water as possible and as little actual additive as possible.

Here in Finland people usually go for 30% antifreeze, 70% water. That is the recommendation on our antifreeze bottles. The temperatures vary very much here depending on the season, and it is not too uncommon to have -30 degrees celsius in the winter and +30 degrees celsius in the summer. As a car mechanic I would also have to say, that the water, or in this case the liquid, hardly ever goes actually past the boiling point. If it did, the engine would have a very bad time, since the pressure in the system would rise to a very high value, and thus would propably blow something off. True, the liquid temperature may go above the 100 degrees celsius, that is the boiling point for water, but the antifreeze solution actually rises the boiling point, so the liquid does not actually boil.

Of course, that is pretty much what you said, and the water cooler on a computer doesn't have such extreme temperatures, but it really doesn't make the rubber seals too much less likely to go bad.

Drain the system, remove all the old tubing, replaced fitting o-rigs/thread tape.

Put everything thing back together and flush the system out with distilled. Refill it with distilled water and .999 silver coil or a few drops of pknuke

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Jade Falcon wrote:

Drain the system, remove all the old tubing, replaced fitting o-rigs/thread tape.

Put everything thing back together and flush the system out with distilled. Refill it with distilled water and .999 silver coil or a few drops of pknuke

Isn't this abit overkill? It's only water that goes through the system with barely any positive pressure and no extreme temperature spikes. My car has to cope with worse conditions and doesn't get that kind of love.

Visual inspection of the system and sound of the pump is the only thing required, only replace parts when you take it apart. Aslong tubes don't show wear and tear it's good to go (lubricating the pipes is the most that you maybe need to do).
Most important thing with wc is especially the mod ones is proper materials (since i work in heavy duty industry i usually have acces to the best quality materials) and right torque when assembling everything (most people go wrong here and break screws and nuts by using to much force)

omg that case...

But to be helpful, replace everything that is rubber. seals, hoses, etc. you will be fine then.

luckybob wrote:

omg that case... […]
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omg that case...

But to be helpful, replace everything that is rubber. seals, hoses, etc. you will be fine then.

🤣 are you commenting on the condition of the case or do you just not like the case style. I plan on getting it cleaned up either way. Which is why i've decided to replace all the tubing either way.

The addition of that Koolance Kit involves physical modifications which pretty much means if I were to convert it to air-cooling I'd ether have a giant hole in the top of the case or I'd have to be ok with leaving the extremely heavy radiator in the case. So if I have to leave the radiator in the case anyway I might as well leave it liquid cooled. I am getting some CRC electronics cleaner for the circuit boards hopefully that will get all the crap out of the PCB from the heavy smoking it was exposed to.. I'll use something else on the plastic and metals of the case.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BXOGNI/

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kithylin wrote:

Jade Falcon wrote:

Drain the system, remove all the old tubing, replaced fitting o-rigs/thread tape.

Put everything thing back together and flush the system out with distilled. Refill it with distilled water and .999 silver coil or a few drops of pknuke

Again with your suggestions from the old days jade.. I know this site is about nostalgia but come on, we all move on some day. Everyone in PC water cooling stopped using silver in the loops years ago and no one needs additives anymore other than a little glycol and everything's fine. Had glycol/distilled mix in my x58 system for 6 years used daily as my daily-driver and I never drained it never flushed it. Was perfectly fine when I finally retired it and took it apart, no corrosion not a single speck of anything in any of the blocks everything clean after 6 years.

Plenty of people still use silver and pn/pk nuke. It's preferred over glycol where longevity and best cooling capabilities are needed. Infact I haven't seen a modern system with glycol in years.

glycol Is not the best idea but it's far better then most pre mixed coolant and dies. glycol can be hard on pumps if you use to much and can brake down and split form the water at random if using copper blocks and brass rads. It also limit the cooling capabilities of the system.
It's works for most applications, but is hardly the most ideal.

Richo wrote:

Isn't this abit overkill? It's only water that goes through the system with barely any positive pressure and no extreme temperat […]
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Jade Falcon wrote:

Drain the system, remove all the old tubing, replaced fitting o-rigs/thread tape.

Put everything thing back together and flush the system out with distilled. Refill it with distilled water and .999 silver coil or a few drops of pknuke

Isn't this abit overkill? It's only water that goes through the system with barely any positive pressure and no extreme temperature spikes. My car has to cope with worse conditions and doesn't get that kind of love.

Visual inspection of the system and sound of the pump is the only thing required, only replace parts when you take it apart. Aslong tubes don't show wear and tear it's good to go (lubricating the pipes is the most that you maybe need to do).
Most important thing with wc is especially the mod ones is proper materials (since i work in heavy duty industry i usually have acces to the best quality materials) and right torque when assembling everything (most people go wrong here and break screws and nuts by using to much force)

True it may be overkill, but it's better safe then sorry. I'd certainly hate to only fix what's wrong only to have something go bad and the system leak overnight or something.

kithylin wrote:

Rhuwyn wrote:

🤣 are you commenting on the condition of the case or do you just not like the case style. I plan on getting it cleaned up either way. Which is why i've decided to replace all the tubing either way.

The addition of that Koolance Kit involves physical modifications which pretty much means if I were to convert it to air-cooling I'd ether have a giant hole in the top of the case or I'd have to be ok with leaving the extremely heavy radiator in the case. So if I have to leave the radiator in the case anyway I might as well leave it liquid cooled. I am getting some CRC electronics cleaner for the circuit boards hopefully that will get all the crap out of the PCB from the heavy smoking it was exposed to.. I'll use something else on the plastic and metals of the case.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BXOGNI/

You most likely won't be able to adapt it to modern water cooling stuff if you tried to replace it by the way. Most of that stuff uses one-off tubing and fittings like 1/4" tubing or 3/4" tubing. Everything today uses 1/2" tubing and wouldn't be compatible with any of it. Part of why I kinda suggested trying to repair/keep the stuff there if you can. At least the fittings and pump and radiator. If you do have to replace the tubing, one idea is you may have to look to medical supply places for medical grade tubing which is more common in those smaller / non-standard tubing sizes.

1/4 and 3/4 is hardly non standard, but 1/2 and 3/8 is what most people use these days. That system almost certainly has 1/4" tubes. Most bigger places that sell wc stuff will still have it. I'd be more worried about the fittings not being G1/4 thread. That would be the only real problem. I recall that CPU block using 1/8" threads or something.

For the OP. Look up a site called performance PCs. They will likely have anything your need.

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