Mixing metals / Liquid ?

[CrazyRussian]

Hello everyone.
gathering some more information for my 1st water-cooled build.
I a looking for some white liquid.

1.Is it OK to mix nickel, copper and brass.. metals in the loop?

2.what make liquids is it better to choose? any of them specific to metals?

3. your thought on non-conductive liquids (Feser One)

4. what do you guys think about EK Supermacy - Cpu waterblock?

 

[Goldskis45]

This has everything you should know about mixing metals in a loop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

 

[NRG!]

1: Yes, but always use an anti-corrosion inhibitor to be on the safe side (e.g. premix coolant)

2: Most are fine, I use Aquacomputer DP Ultra as they still have aluminium products - so I figured somehow they might pay more attention to anti-corrosion properties of their brand coolants.

3: Suitable non-conductive PC watercooling coolant does not exist.

4:I don't care much for it because I think it's ugly.

 

[alpenwasser]

1. This:

This has everything you should know about mixing metals in a loop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

2. Most coolants should be fine. I've never personally used coloured coolants so I'm not sure
what's good when it comes to white coolants. I have heard of some people having trouble with
Mayhems pastel though.

3. As long as you have water in it, autoprotolysis will always result in some conductivity as far
as I'm aware (self-ionization of water). Unless you're going with something like Fluorinert
(which has higher electrical resistance than even air), you're always going to have some residual
conductivity AFAIK. Also, as soon as you have some contamination (dust particles), which you'll
inevitably get unless you're working in a clean room, conductivity will increase drastically.

My personal opinion: They're primarily a marketing ploy, and even if they did work more or
less as advertised they would still be vastly overpriced IMO. Having said that, if you pick
something that's not based on water, this might no longer be true.

4. Most CPU blocks will perform almost equally. Pick the one you think look best.

EDIT:

2: Most are fine, I use Aquacomputer DP Ultra as they still have aluminium products - so I figured somehow they might pay more attention to anti-corrosion properties of their brand coolants.

I've also been using AC DP Ultra, going for about six years now. For most of that time I've
had some anodized Alu parts in my loop and they are still in excellent condition. So that
coolant I can personally recommend. It's not white though.

 

[Remmy]

2: Most are fine, I use Aquacomputer DP Ultra as they still have aluminium products - so I figured somehow they might pay more attention to anti-corrosion properties of their brand coolants.

I used DP Ultra a year ago, and after some time my acrylic reservoir started leaking and upon inspection it had an incredibly small crack in it which was caused by the coolant. DP Ultra is (or was) an alcohol based coolant, which I didn't know at the time, but it is damaging to acrylic, so DO NOT use it if you have any acrylic components.

 

[NRG!]

I would've thought if it was damaging to acrylic it would've destroyed the o-rings in your loop too.

 

[alpenwasser]

I used DP Ultra a year ago, and after some time my acrylic reservoir started leaking and upon inspection it had an incredibly small crack in it which was caused by the coolant. DP Ultra is (or was) an alcohol based coolant, which I didn't know at the time, but it is damaging to acrylic, so DO NOT use it if you have any acrylic components.

Hm, interesting. Until last fall I ran it with a Cuplex classic which has an acrylic top, and my
reservoir had an acrylic window (laying on its side).

The CPU block's top is still in perfect condition. I know that there are different kinds of acrylic,
is it possible that some are compatible and others are not? Specifically, the Cuplex' top is
made from Pexiglas.

How do you know it was actually the coolant which damaged your reservoir, i.e. how reliable
is your source? If that really is the case I'd be very interested in some more info on that.

I would've thought if it was damaging to acrylic it would've destroyed the o-rings in your loop too.

O-Rings are not made from acrylic, and are in fact often very resistant to many chemicals.

 

[Remmy]

What you mean the rubber O-rings? They're not acrylic

" NEVER use window cleaning fluids with ammonia (such as Windex or Formula 409), gasoline, denatured alcohol, carbon tetrachloride, or acetone, which will cause the acrylic to craze with minute cracks."
source: http://www.e-tplastics.com/blog/how-to-clean-repair-and-protect-acrylic/

There's also other people/videos explaining about it, and I've had first hand experience with it happening.

It also tells you in the warranty information on some acrylic reservoirs not to use alcohol or it can damage it or it voids your warranty. It said so on the warranty of my res which cracked, but I didn't realise the coolant was. I assumed if it's so bad, why would any company use it in their coolant

 

[NRG!]

Well I was going on you saying it was because the coolant contained alcohol. Alcohol breaks down o-rings does it not?

 

[alpenwasser]

What you mean the rubber O-rings? They're not acrylic

" NEVER use window cleaning fluids with ammonia (such as Windex or Formula 409), gasoline, denatured alcohol, carbon tetrachloride, or acetone, which will cause the acrylic to craze with minute cracks."
source: http://www.e-tplastics.com/blog/how-to-clean-repair-and-protect-acrylic/

There's also other people/videos explaining about it, and I've had first hand experience with it happening.

It also tells you in the warranty information on some acrylic reservoirs not to use alcohol or it can damage it or it voids your warranty. It said so on the warranty of my res which cracked, but I didn't realise the coolant was. I assumed if it's so bad, why would any company use it in their coolant

Hm, very intriguing indeed.

To be certain, I just checked my bottle of DPU, and it says "1,2-Ethandiol" on it, which according
to Wikipedia is Ethylene Glycol.
Also, Plexiglas actually does seem to be Acrylic (link).

As for the list of chemicals in the article you've linked, none of them are actually Ethylene
Glycol as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure if that applies? Google has so far not yielded
any results, but considering how many names there are for both Acrylic and Ethylene
Glycol that does not surprise me, maybe I just haven't searched for the right combination
of synonyms yet.


In any case, if Acrylic really does respond badly to Ethylene Glycol, I'm now left to ponder
why the hell I've never even had the slightest problem? Or is it possible that there are traces of
other chemicals in DPU which are so low in concentration that they don't need to be listed,
but still high enough that they could do damage? I'm no expert in legalese though so I can't
say.


As a side note: I'm definitely not a chemist, so if I'm making some ridiculous mistake here
somebody feel free to point it out.

EDIT:

Well I was going on you saying it was because the coolant contained alcohol. Alcohol breaks down o-rings does it not?

That makes more sense :lol:

I think some rubbers are sensitive to alcohol, others not so much. In any case, is Ethylene
glycol actually alcohol?

 

[NRG!]

TBH I've had a phobya res that cracked of it's own accord while I was running plain di water through it.

 

[alpenwasser]

TBH I've had a phobya res that cracked of it's own accord while I was running plain di water through it.

Acrylic does have that tendency all by itself since it is rather brittle anyway. Still I would be
interested to know if the problem can be exacerbated by DPU.

 

[Remmy]

Well I did A Level chemistry, and from what I remember from organic chemistry, anything with the suffix -ol is an alcohol. As in 1,2-Ethandiol.

And as far as I recall, that was the same chemical as it was when I used it.

It may be that it's unlikely to cause enough damage to crack it, and that I was very unlucky, but I'm confident the coolant was the cause of the problem as the 'symptoms' of the damage were exactly what my res had i.e. the micro cracks or whatever they were called. It was also my first time watercooling, and since then I will never use it again, once bitten twice shy and all.


Sorry OP, just taking over the thread without even answering you.

1) Should be okay as long as you get the necessary anti corrosive additives (or a premix coolant with them already added)

2) If you want clear I'd use distilled/deionised water with biocides and anti corrosives. For coloured I'd just buy premix, for instance I use Mayhems X1 Blue, and I love the colour. I've heard bad things about their Pastel range occasionally, and definitely don't use their Aurora products, they're specifically for show use only, and will clog up the loop in a couple of weeks. I guess you want opaque coolant, I'm not sure of any white ones other than Pastel, so get that if you like, or you could get white tubing (which I admit isn't as good IMO). EK coolants are good too.

3) Not sure specifically about Feser One, but definitely get non-conductive. You don't want all your motherboard and graphics cards etc. shorting out and dying do you?!

4) Again, not specifically sure, but I have an EK LTX block, and I think it's great. EK are known for high quality products, particularly blocks and reservoirs.

 

[alpenwasser]

Well I did A Level chemistry, and from what I remember from organic chemistry, anything with the suffix -ol is an alcohol. As in 1,2-Ethandiol.

Yeah, that does sound familiar. I only had one semester of chem in Uni, and that was three
years ago, so I'm rusty to say the least.

The only thing we'd need to know now is what kind of alcohols were meant in that article,
since they only used the singular form of the word.

And as far as I recall, that was the same chemical as it was when I used it.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're right about that, I don't think they've changed the formula.

It may be that it's unlikely to cause enough damage to crack it, and that I was very unlucky, but I'm confident the coolant was the cause of the problem as the 'symptoms' of the damage were exactly what my res had i.e. the micro cracks or whatever they were called. It was also my first time watercooling, and since then I will never use it again, once bitten twice shy and all.

It's always the same problem with these kinds of debates: Maybe you just got extremely
unlucky and had a bad experience, or maybe I was lucky and didn't run into any problems
when in actuality I should have.
Impossible to know without doing some large-scale experimenting on a larger sample.

 

[Remmy]

Impossible to know without doing some large-scale experimenting on a larger sample.

Well I was going to buy about 100-200 acrylic reservoirs, and about 50 litres of alcoholic coolants, but then just decided I had better things to do with my money and time

 

[alpenwasser]

Well I was going to buy about 100-200 acrylic reservoirs, and about 50 litres of alcoholic coolants, but then just decided I had better things to do with my money and time

That would be a pretty epic setup though. Combined with some good lighting you could use
it as decoration in your apartment/house. :lol:

 

[Remmy]

That would be a pretty epic setup though. Combined with some good lighting you could use
it as decoration in your apartment/house. :lol:

Yeah lol that'd be amazing xD Ain't nobody got the bank for that though