[Vinyl_Lives]

I am strongly considering watercooling my next build, which will happen within weeks.

There is something that scares me a bit, I wounder if a correctly engineered and installed WC system should be safe enough to just trust it with no monitoring.

Anyone here ever have a pump fail?

Is watercooling as safe as air as long as the cooling fluid is monitored to be sure of no junk building up in it?

 

[steadly2004]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinyl_Lives;13072289
I am strongly considering watercooling my next build, which will happen within weeks.

There is something that scares me a bit, I wounder if a correctly engineered and installed WC system should be safe enough to just trust it with no monitoring.

Anyone here ever have a pump fail?

Is watercooling as safe as air as long as the cooling fluid is monitored to be sure of no junk building up in it?

It's as safe as the builder makes it, (quality parts don't fail as often) if you're worried you can always do the 24 run without the power on in the computer, just the pump and fans.

I leave my computer on 24/7 for BOINC, watercooled.

 

[Triangle]

Water cooling is safe.
You just have to leak test.
Or as safe as you make it.....

 

[Soggysilicon]

It's safe in the same way you run your water in your home and don't wonder if the pipes are leaking... that said...

I have not had a pump fail but I do use CoreTemp with overheat protection enabled to shut down if the temps go beyond (in my case 54c). If that were to fail than there is always the thermal limit of the cpu itself which "should" catch it... Some pumps have PWM cables and correctly installed into a mobo cpu header, if the rpm bottoms out, should also shut the machine down.

Cooling fluid, lots of debate, I like distilled water and a silver (kill) coil. I check this periodically from the res (for any critter buildup) and also keep a closed container sample of water that has been in the loop nearby as a sorta control sample. If one gets junk/gunk buildup, pull/flush/clean/install and your back in business. Just be as clean as possible on the initial installation and you "could" in theory make it two or more years on the same h20.

 

[Rangerscott]

I turn my pc off if Im going to be out and about for hours or going out of town. Ive had a pump go out on a prebuilt kit and the cpu block's top cracked. Luckily no leakage. I uave had a swiftech 655B stop working. I guess the previous owner tugged on the wires or something. The solder popped off on one of the wires and made a bad connection or it may have fallen off its self.

 

[Vinyl_Lives]

Where does one find the silver coils?

 

[Soggysilicon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vinyl_Lives;13072837
Where does one find the silver coils?

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_381_384&products_id=28871

That, or just about any jeweler will be able to hook you up with some high grade silver bit to toss into the drink.
http://www.ccsilver.com/silver/fines.html

 

[Beezie]

Water cooling is as safe as you make it as it have been said.
dont be to cheap on parts and always leak test the whole loop at least 12hours with being int he room and can keep an eye on it, put taper towels around the tube were it ends to more easily see if anything leaks,
always run the system without anything more connected to the PSU then the pump, that way you can clean up any drops or spill water without shorting out your motherboard or other cards, its mentioned in the water cooling guides on this forum.
read up a little how the watercoooling is set up and research a little on your own, its not cheap so taking your time is well worth it

 

[Methos07]

Have some confidence in your ability to put something together, and it will work fine. Learn from the forums, browse build logs, etc.

 

[finrring]

No! Watercooling is dangerous! it may destroy all your hardwares!

 

[Gib007]

I was hesitant at first myself, considering I wouldn't much like to spend £400+ on watercooling equipment and have it leak over a £140 motherboard or £200 graphics card...
Anyway, I went for it. However, I did read A LOT on this forum of other people's builds (looked at lots of photos, too, to get an idea of how it all fits together), asked questions, etc, etc. Once I decided to go for it, I asked around for the best parts and then when I listed all I wanted to buy, I again asked for verification to see if I went wrong somewhere or if I should change one part to another, etc, etc.

In the end I settled on what I have (see link in my signature for my build - photos and equipment list included). I can never go back to a simple air cooling solution or a semi-watercooling solution (Corsair H50, H60, H70, etc). The performance on a custom build is stunning when you choose the right things and the looks are a killer!
Love it.

So yeah, don't cheap out on equipment and definitely invest in safety. By investing in safety I mean stuff like buying 7/16" tubing for 1/2" fittings (extremely tight seal) and on top of that, adding compression or wormdrive clamps to each fitting (no leak, guaranteed). Also, buying good tubing, a good reservoir, good blocks, etc.

 

[Boyboyd]

As long as you do it right, it's perfectly safe.

 

[Vinyl_Lives]

Just picked up a heatkiller cpu block.... more to come. Trying to decide on radiator configuration right now. I have a coolermaster HAF 932 case. Probably go with 2 radiators.

More research....

Thank you all for the help.

Any recommendations on pump?

And, what are opinions on a dual bay res, or what is YOUR favorite.

Cheers!

 

[Zackcy]

I am WCing this summer. So excited. Sure I could spend a million other things on my PC that would give me more in price/performance, but badassery comes second to none!

 

[ChaosBlades]

My rig is on all day every day. I even had a pump fail. The rig gets to 90C and shuts down. You run to microcenter and get a new pump. The end.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[toasti0]

Don't buy cheap crap. I have had a thermaltake reservoir crack on me lucky didn't leak on top of my components. And i have had a super expensive water cooling kit, but i made the mistake of hooking it up to a cheap fan controller that decided to stop working. Lucky the thermal halt on the cpu worked otherwise i'd have a super expensive worthless cpu/gpu. Even the radiator would burn me when I touched it the water got so hot! Also use non conductive coolant if your a noobie that way if it spills it won't short out anything.

 

[fat_italian_stallion]

It's incredibly safe if you do even a half assed job at putting it together. I always use 2 pumps in serial for extra flow and redundancy, just in case one fails. If they both fail then the comp just shuts down after it hits its thermal peak. No big deal. Won't hurt anything. I've even had water spray all over my system (pressure problem I had with 2 reservoirs while filling the loop while the comp was on). Nothing was damaged and was back on like nothing had happened within an hour. WC is great. I will always WC my rigs from now on. That being said, quality watercooling gets expensive. You're looking at $1000+ to wc your entire rig with high quality parts (not just the cpu).

 

[pali]

It is very safe if quality parts are used and everything is tightened properly. Most bios' have built in heat protection on the cpu. Most of the time it is adjustable. I set my cpu power off at 57c. With my water cooling, I haven't gone above 28c.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Kick]

safe if u take the necessary precautions.

For the first few days, if im leaving the comp, i just turn it off and disconnect everything- in case it leaks when im not here.

 

[wermad]

triple check all fittings and connections. leak test by jump starting your psu and only powering on the pump. its helluva fun too