So cheap.. What's wrong with it?

[Layer Cakes]

Hey, I've been looking for a cheap secondary cooling solution for testing, then I came across this.

I already have a spare rad, cpu block and fittings so I could use thud to make a cheap loop.

I know you get what you pay for, and this is incredibly cheap, so I was asking if anyone that's used one can tell me what's wrong with it? Reliability isn't a major concern as its not going in my every day rig or anything, just for a test loop.

Thanks!

 

[Layer Cakes]

here's another example.. Apparently this one even has removable fittings?

 

[trawetSluaP]

I'm guessing they're cheap cos they're cheap crap haha.

 

[Avet]

I wouldn't risk it. Yea they are cheep, but reliability is questionable. If it could be done cheaper and be good, we would probably see it buy now. They will do the job, but for how long. Then you will need to redo your loop.

 

[RobM]

I am sure we have someone on the forum that has done a loop using cheap stuff from China

 

[Kei]

Probably worth a go as you aren’t putting your components at great risk. I’d be putting it in to a tub of some kind and keeping an eye on it to make sure that it doesn’t leak as that would be my biggest worry. As you said reliability isn’t a big concern, it’s certainly worth a try.

Pretty sure jayz2cents did a video testing out a cheap Chinese block bought from amazon.

 

[AlienALX]

I use two of these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SC600-DC...319738&hash=item3ac8a22ce5:g:uYcAAOSwtnpXlWDS

They are ace. Strong, and full ceramic bearing etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atwKmPZ8XsU

^ vid of me testing mine.

 

[Warchild]

The life cycle of those pumps probably wont last very long.

 

[AlienALX]

The life cycle of those pumps probably wont last very long.

The SC600? One of mine has been running for close to two years dude.

I took it apart, they are seriously hench.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMfHn1hJ7A8

Watch the tubing crank when he turns it on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRgPxYT-FQw

Like I said, it's seriously hench. Built like a tank, full ceramic bearing etc.

The only thing I don't like? they are quite large. They are also a sod to prime unless you have them upright, but, once primed they are absolutely silent and give a very strong flow.

For a second rig/test rig etc I give them a 100% thumbs up endorsement. Being G 1/4 is very rare for a cheap pump too, they are usually barbs.

Ed. Here is one of mine.

And here is the other.

Never thought about it before, but will highly likely box in the second one. They are quite ugly, but as I said good work horses.

I don't condone using cheap fittings though. There is no point, when you can find great bargains on older fittings.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bits...-on-11-8mm-rotatable-blood-red-wc-403-bp.html

Is just one example. £4.99 each, BP, full rotary.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitspower-connection-1-4-inch-to-16-13mm-blood-red-wc-406-bp.html

If you wanted fatter tubing. Not quite as good as the £1.99-£2.99 I paid, but more than worth doing because BP are the absolute best fittings I have used for ease of getting them done up and sealed without losing skin.

 

[Warchild]

Wall of stuff

didnt mean yours. I meant the pumps the OP saw on Amazon. Just becareful if you intend to hide yours in a box. pumps product heat after all.

 

[Eddie long]

I did look at cheaper options when I did my loop, I know you pay the tax for having ek etc branded parts but I thought the peace of mind and a reasonable rma structure was worth the extra cost

 

[AlienALX]

didnt mean yours. I meant the pumps the OP saw on Amazon. Just becareful if you intend to hide yours in a box. pumps product heat after all.

Yeah those are pretty awful. Plastic barbs FFS just asking to crack.

I did look at cheaper options when I did my loop, I know you pay the tax for having ek etc branded parts but I thought the peace of mind and a reasonable rma structure was worth the extra cost

I wouldn't use cheap fittings. That is where you will get all of your leaks. I had some so bad that they needed doing up with spanners. Now granted they did seal but I lost more skin on those than anything else. It was also a sod when you needed to turn with them, as the spanners always made the hose rotate inside the fitting throwing everything off.

When OCUK had a deal on chainguns I bought loads. £7.99 for a pack of four !

The pump though? to be honest I have two Alphacool mini pumps and I worry about them far more than my Chinese pumps. Reason being they are thin, cheaply made and look crap. But worse the wires of one have come off twice. It's just a poor design tbh.

 

[Layer Cakes]

These pump / res units are never going near my actual rig as I said. But I have a spare 2500K, 200x200 rad and an alphacool CPU block. I want to try really push this old CPU as far as I can until it dies. See what maximum I can get CPU-Z to validate at

I wouldn't use cheap fittings. That is where you will get all of your leaks. I had some so bad that they needed doing up with spanners. Now granted they did seal but I lost more skin on those than anything else. It was also a sod when you needed to turn with them, as the spanners always made the hose rotate inside the fitting throwing everything off.

When OCUK had a deal on chainguns I bought loads. £7.99 for a pack of four !

The pump though? to be honest I have two Alphacool mini pumps and I worry about them far more than my Chinese pumps. Reason being they are thin, cheaply made and look crap. But worse the wires of one have come off twice. It's just a poor design tbh.

Oh god yeah, leaks are almost always the fittings. I'm still so mad that an XSPC 45 fitting resulted in the death one of my DDCs

 

[Warchild]

Oh god yeah, leaks are almost always the fittings. I'm still so mad that an XSPC 45 fitting resulted in the death one of my DDCs

My first setup in a 900D case I managed to crack my cpu block

So while fittings can be the main source of leaks (99% being rotaries), you can get leaks at the blocks. Especially If you pumped water around with 4x mcp 35X at 80% pwm 8 hours a day

Luckily etailer replaced my block free of charge. Since then I ran 2 pumps at 40% pwm and well... performance and cooling improved.

 

[Layer Cakes]

My first setup in a 900D case I managed to crack my cpu block

So while fittings can be the main source of leaks (99% being rotaries), you can get leaks at the blocks. Especially If you pumped water around with 4x mcp 35X at 80% pwm 8 hours a day

Luckily etailer replaced my block free of charge. Since then I ran 2 pumps at 40% pwm and well... performance and cooling improved.

What was the CPU block made out of? I've never had an actual block fail, only threads and O rings.

 

[Warchild]

What was the CPU block made out of? I've never had an actual block fail, only threads and O rings.

Believe it or not, it was an EK Supremacy block.

Could be that a hairline fracture was present from the start but I wont complaine. I got an upgrade for free and no issues since.

 

[Layer Cakes]

Believe it or not, it was an EK Supremacy block.

Could be that a hairline fracture was present from the start but I wont complaine. I got an upgrade for free and no issues since.

Oh blimey! Glad to hear it all got sorted though.

 

[AlienALX]

Was it acetal or acrylic? I can see acrylic cracking (you should see the spider webs around the G 1/4s on the back of my dual bay res) but acetal is soft like turd so shouldn't crack. It does mark very easily though.

 

[RobM]

I use two of these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SC600-DC...319738&hash=item3ac8a22ce5:g:uYcAAOSwtnpXlWDS

They are ace. Strong, and full ceramic bearing etc.

^ vid of me testing mine.

How did those pumps hold up and what did you use for a res?

 

[AlienALX]

How did those pumps hold up and what did you use for a res?

In the first instance I used a bay res. Single bay, some one gave it to me for free.

Note that's a double res plate on there to make it look better haha. I now have another single bay res directly below it, with a double cover on that shows both res fill levels.

That rig then became my daily driver, because it was half as noisy as my Triad. It also used mainly 600 RPM fans due to the locked Xeon so yeah it was practically inaudible. I used that rig for a solid year before I went proper water on the Triad which made it just as quiet and five times as powerful. It's my TV rig now (the one above).

And I have this bay cover now over the two res.

Was 99p in the sale lol. I got a load of these for £1.99

So did a proper block/loop on the Fury X.



For Old Skool I used a nasty cylinder res (nasty because it's poorly designed and the brackets are terrible.)

Which was definitely easier and made it easier to prime and fill.

There, that's it there with a res/pump combo (CRAP). The wires fell off the AC pump touching together and blew up my BigNG fan controller (worth over £100) my voltage meter and my temp sensor LCD FFS.

That's the culprit there. Horrible whiny little thing.

At some point in the future I am going to gut it and sort it out properly. It got one loop (that was designed for it) then the second one was just a stuff in. It needs gutting and sorting out properly.

That's how it sits today.