First loop, need advice. [Updated with better pic]

Got sick of my H80 grinding, got some tubing, coolant and a res, pulled it apart, slapped it all together. Was still grinding. Said screw it, got a pump and waterblock.

So...updated pretty much everything.

Hardware is as follows:

All 1/4" tubing (H80 used it, wanted to keep the radiator)
1/4" ID fittings on everything except the pump (damn MicroCenter only had one set of 1/4")

Case is a CM Storm Scout, took out the 3.5" drive bays.
Coolant is Primochill PC Pure. Had PC Ice before, added dye, big mistake. H80 block got clogged up, temps were around 100F idle, 125F load. PC Ice FTW.
Danger Den Rad Reservoir Phobya Balancer 250!
Sears 1/4" 3/8x9/16 vinyl tubing
Danger Den CPX-PRO
H80 radiator MCR120-QP from Swiftech.
XSPC Raystorm waterblock
CM Blade Master fans, push pull as intake on the radiator, two more as intake on the door and one more as intake on the drives.
Scythe Ultra Kaze 3000 as exhaust
Stock CM 140mm fan CM Blade Master as upwards exhaust
3x1TB seagate drives in the bays
500GB drive
120GB Agility 3 SSD

M5A99x Evo, Phenom II X4 965 BE C2 stepping OC'd to 3.8GHz @ 1.428v (from 3.4GHz)
Graphics card is a Sapphire Radeon HD 6670, 1GB DDR3, stock clocked.

Rest of it can be found in my sig.

Idle temps are around 78F - 80F, 85-ish light load (chrome, lightroom, etc.) and the highest I can get it under prime95 or overdrive (yeah, I know it sucks) is around 115ish farenheit. Ambient is around 70F, according to my thermostat.

Flow is Res => Pump => Rad => CPU => Res.

Question is, did I do this right? Pretty sure my res is way too small. Been running close to 48 hours straight and still have microbubbles forming. Checked for leaks, etc. It seems like the flow is too strong, mixes air with the coolant and pulls it down. I can see medium-sized bubbles floating up and down (extremely quickly) in the res. Didn't realize this pump was so powerful. I think this is called vortexing? Googled a bit and found a partial solution...cut a piece of tubing in half and dropped it in the res. Helped a little bit, but didn't fix it all the way. Needed a taller reservoir. Works fine now.

If I tilt it to the left, something (guessing the rad) releases a bunch of bubbles. if I tilt it to the right, nothing. Should I mount the rad with nozzles down? Nozzles up. It was the coolant.

Was using the H80 as a block for a day or two before the raystorm got here. Didn't have this problem at all. The output was pulsing high and low every couple seconds. Could have been the H80's impeller getting in the way? Is normal for loops with big rads and lots of restriction.

Have a Phobya Balancer 250 on its way. Should be big enough? Arrived, works great! Got it mounted inside now.

Regarding fans, I'm out working most of the day, so fans have to be on auto. Board has:

4-pin CPU (Rad fans and drive fan on a splitter with molex power)
2x3-pin chassis (ultra kaze and monitoring pump speed)
4-pin PWM chassis (one door fan)
3-pin pwr fan (empty)

Anway, have another Ultra Kaze, currently mounted on the H50 in my other rig. Would put the Kazes as push/pull, but I'd like them on the CPU header and it only does 4-pin PWM. Plus, power draw? Have to get an adapter. Better than the Blade Masters in push/pull? Also have stock H80 fans and another blade master, unused. I know it's positive pressure, but from what I understand it doesn't make too much of a difference. Slightly negative pressure now. Worth a note, I have a filter on everything pulling air in.

Old Pic (pardon the cable mess):


New pic, less mess more pretty:


Thanks for the feedback. Sorry for the novel of a post.

Also, I have an H80 block/pump that I tore apart and put back together, if anybody wants I can take and post pictures. Might lead to an explanation of the grinding issues. Definitely looks like Corsair cut corners.

Edit: I'm not a noob to computers. Been doing this for at least 5 years. Just new to water cooling.
Edited by Jewremy - 5/6/12 at 5:27pm

Ah, crap. PC Pure says no glycol. Bottle also says "Special corrosive inhibiting ingredients to prevent sludge build up and galvanic corrosion." -- not gunna risk it. Time for a new rad, I think.

"first problem" ?
Edited by Jewremy - 4/27/12 at 6:30pm

My current radiator is aluminum.

From what I've read, push-pull with filters and shrouds on the push side is best.

Going to get a swiftech 120-qp radiator later today from microcenter. I believe that's a copper one. Hopefully will help with bubbles, which are still forming.

Edit: just saw. Sorry.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Edited by Jewremy - 4/28/12 at 7:32am

Yep. Read up over the past couple days. Got a swiftech MCR120-QP from Microcenter, temps are pretty good. It's copper fins and brass tubes.

Jingway DP-1200. Rebrand of the Danger Den CPX-Pro. It's the powerful one. 800 L/h. Bit much for what I have in there, thus the microbubbles. If there's any air in there, it immediately turns into microbubbles and gets distributed through the system. Odd, eh?