because the nickel jobs of the world are trash and eventually flake & corrode.

whereas copper is much more visibly durable, and can be quickly polished up with stuff from home depot.

whereas, using mother's like products on your nickel with cause the nickel to fail even sooner.

you can prolong the tarnishing of copper quite a bit by using proper coolants, but it does eventually happen.

luckily, tarnishing does nothing to temps. only corrosion and fin clogging does.

 

Cooper for sure. Nickel-Plated looks cool until it starts to flake off. I installed a Nickel-Plated block on my Radeon 7 and after 2 months of almost no usage it flaked off. That being said I have an EK CPU block that is nickel-plated and still spotless after years.

 

and really, you're spending way too much time looking at the computer instead of using it if it matters that much to you.

not that there's anything wrong with that. I guess I just have a natural distrust in those that're a e s t h e t i c s & updoot chasers. doesn't end up meaning much in the apocalypse, unless you're using it to send morse code maybe.

 

Why would anybody choose to go Pure Copper if the result is guaranteed tarnishing over time? Perhaps if you plan to hide it with a dye colored coolant? Or is there a performance benefit to pure copper?

Hi,
Main thing that causes copper to tarnish is light, mainly sun light but that really does nothing but turn it brown not black you get black and you added another item air pockets and or even mixed metals or most of all improper fluid

Obviously if you add two layers of another coating like nickle plating it's adding distance to transfer cooling...

I prefer copper or brass either one rocks :thumb:

 

Almost 400 W/m*K heat transfer for copper versus almost 91 W/m*K for nickel. Nuff said why would anyone want to go for bare copper.

 

but what's the affect on temp when the nickel is only a few micron thick & prone to failure?

you could at least give us a plug & play equation.

 

Hi,
Seems those number came from someone who also might say distilled water and silver coil is best with nickle plating :thumb:

 

I have only used distilled water in my loops. What do you recommend I use if I want to get nickel-plated blocks?

 

absolutely the best method for destroying your nickel plating, yes.

 

Hi,
All good I read it on the internet

 

Hi,
Distilled water use mayhems inhibitor+ & biocide+ check the ph every month to maintain ph7.
Otherwise premix or concentrate mayhems x1 clear.

 

If prefer nickel. If you use a quality coolant (Mayhems for example) it stays spotless.
And nickel can be used with liquid metal, whereas copper absorbs the liquid metal.

 

Hi,
Same goes for copper proper fluid and no worries
I'll agree with the liquid metal bit but then again I don't use LM so a nonissue

 

My nickel plated nh-d14 is still in mint condition after 7 years of service. No flakes and cools like a boss.

 

Copper block with distilled water for 5 years -> LINK to my build log

Minimal maintenance... No biocide. No silver coil. No coolant.
Too much misinformation regarding corrosion and distilled water here.

The block out lived the GPU it was cooling. GPU still works, just outdated and was sold. Poor power consumption compared to today's silicone for performance.

It all comes down to preference. I prefer the raw copper vs an extra coating.

 

My Supremacy EVO and Phanteks Glacier are both ~4 years in service with X1 Clear (annual fluid changes, Blitz Pt 2 every two years, no sunlight on the case). The nickel on both of them looks like it just came out of the box.

Younger, dumber me used a Silver Bullet with a couple of nickel blocks (not EK). They didn't flake, but they badly discolored.

 

Hi,
Strange things happen in 32-33c distilled water

 

Shall I ship you my water from the loop to validate my findings?

It's been about a 8 months since I last did a flush

 

Pure distillate water will get corrupted, with trash, ions, and other stuff i even can pronunciate...

Reading this tread, and already scared, from buying a Heatkiller IV on niquel....


My old Apogee GT (still use it) and Inovatek Rev3, are like new inside (both copper).