Tuxedo Refresh

[AlienALX]

Sorted the C5 errors and now beginning to understand the difference between watertight and airtight (one of my rotary fittings is watertight but not airtight it seems)

A couple of observations on Leakshield
- Documentation is pretty poor - No real step by step guide to what to do and look out for
- With my Aqualis Top on the D5, once you install the Leakshield and build the loop you must also build in a separate release outlet (this is because the top is part of the overall sealing mechanism for the overall reservoir), preferably towards the top to allow drainage (no mention of that in the docs)
- It has to be said that running a pipe into a bottle, selecting fill mode, watching it build negative pressure and suck the coolant in is pretty cool
- Lastly, it seems to be best to prefill your radiators as the fill function only really works for the drain pipe and reservoir

Rotary fittings are mostly awful. The problem comes from lateral pressure. IE, you can pump your rig up with air and leave it for three days and not a single leak. Then you just literally touch the fitting, move it sideways and it lets air and coolant out.

That is why in the end I stopped using a Dr Drop and just stick a hose on a fitting and suck, then stick my tongue over it. If it holds my tongue for a few seconds it's as good as it will get.

There are very few rotary fittings I have used that have not leaked, and all of them have been totally tank like. Like these, for example.

Even recently when I did my ITX build I had every single one of my XSPC straight rotary fittings leak on me and had to remove all of them.

This one doesn't leak either, for the obvious reason. Like the Monsoon you could literally hang from it and it would not spill a drop.

And you're right with your finding about air and water, too. Air is 830 times less dense than water.

 

[Warchild]

I havent had a single EK Torque rotary leak on me. My only gripe is the O rings are a little weak. IF you dismantle, you might see minor breakag, but its leak free for sure. Downside is the cost of these beauties is not cheap.

 

[AlienALX]

Downside is the cost of these beauties is not cheap.

Is the final conclusion. Nothing good comes cheap.

 

[robbiec]

Yep, I've put orders in for new fittings, mostly all solid and for the first time ever a few Bitspower bits (I've been a watercooling fan since the original Asetek waterchill stuff came out) which I've always baulked at the price of.

I've also ordered some Aquacomputer tubing and coolant (currently on Mayhem's X1 clear and EK 16/10 tubing) and a AirRadical 2/240 rad (aluminium fins but copper tubing) as I wanted to try one out before getting the 360 variants.

and just cause it looks good

 

[AlienALX]

I love Bitspower. That said though Barrow are pretty much identical in looks and in build quality and cost less.

Other than maybe two fittings I have bought all of mine in clearouts and etc. Which has benefitted me big time. Nice thing about fittings is you can just keep using them pretty much forever with just the odd O ring change

These red ones I am using now on a 3950x and 2080ti have been in about 7 rigs now !

 

[robbiec]

Oh and I preordered a Lian-Li 010 Dynamic EVO in grey - I have an idea in my head that I want dual 360s - top and bottom and my little 6800 needs a new jacket!

I redid all the pipework again and swapped out some rotatable fittings but still not air tight

 

[Warchild]

Oh and I preordered a Lian-Li 010 Dynamic EVO in grey - I have an idea in my head that I want dual 360s - top and bottom and my little 6800 needs a new jacket!

I redid all the pipework again and swapped out some rotatable fittings but still not air tight

That case would look good with inverted mobo.

 

[robbiec]

That case would look good with inverted mobo.

And my desk is better setup to have the PC on the left rather the right - Due in the end of March according to Caseking.

 

[robbiec]

Some bits arrived today.
Airplex Radical 2/240 - lovely build and finish - strangely enough there are keyed entry and exit ports. The screw inserts are a PITA and I'm decidedly unhappy that they only supplied 8 x 25mm screws as default. You can't even mount a fan nevermind mount the rad using a fan as passthrough.
Couple of RGBx parts (led ring for the res and a small strip)
Barrow fittings which are a deffo step up from Alphacool bits and some seriously stiff 16/10 tubing (I'll be using warm water to fit and shape)

 

[robbiec]

Well, I managed to drop the Leakshield and it flew asunder or more accurately a stream of swear words non stop for about 10 mins and a vision of picking up all the watercooling, monitoring and flinging the whole lot out the window. One step back... More to come in a few weeks

 

[robbiec]

And i'm over €300 in fittings so far

 

[Warchild]

And i'm over €300 in fittings so far

To quote the wolf of wall street... Those are weak numbers!

 

[robbiec]

To quote the wolf of wall street... Those are weak numbers!

- what might be considered strong?

Tbh, what I'm building, planning out now will be the basis of the whole refreshed rig with Zen 4, 64GB DDR5 and an RX7950 so fittings in that sense would be 15% to 20% of overall cost I think.

 

[AlienALX]

To quote the wolf of wall street... Those are weak numbers!

I have spent about half of that. That said I bought them all on clearouts and they are older, and smaller.

The fittings are the money though. For sure they are the money. They do last forever though, so it's a one time purchase. I have a ton of spares too so I can make the loop work no matter what case it's in now.

 

[Warchild]

- what might be considered strong?

Tbh, what I'm building, planning out now will be the basis of the whole refreshed rig with Zen 4, 64GB DDR5 and an RX7950 so fittings in that sense would be 15% to 20% of overall cost I think.

Just teasing you. I think I have spent around 1200Euro on 2 PCs for just watercooling parts.
The latest has been using the EK quantum fittings, which in Norway cost €15 for one single HD fitting.

 

[robbiec]

HighFlow in Rotterdam have a sale on

 

[NeverBackDown]

With the cost of fittings I'd pull the ol TTL method of 1/2" and 7/16" tubing and make em work without anything lol

 

[robbiec]

With the cost of fittings I'd pull the ol TTL method of 1/2" and 7/16" tubing and make em work without anything lol

There is always that approach
This is the first time I'm doing everything from scratch, previously I've carried over cases, rads (I think my current rads are over a decade old), fans, reservoirs, etc and adapting to what I was doing but this one will be different. I've chosen the case, getting rads to suit a theme I have in my head. Fittings will be new, reservoir and pump block will be new. Ultimately it will be a negative vacume loop with 720mm of 40mm deep rad cooling a 16 core Zen 4 Ryzen with 64GB Ram - all nvme storage with the slower bigger stuff being U.2 format and whatever the nexgen Radeon is - 7950 most likely. Theme = Aluminium with black and light alloy compute parts, hopefully bright copper rad fins and subtle green highlights in lighting and cabling.

PS - actually I tell a lie. My 2nd PC I ever built was for a singular purpose, namely to run OS/2 2.0-1 - 486DX2 66, 16MB Ram (cost about a months wages for the ram alone), S3 Virage graphics, Soundblaster card with CDROM (another months wages there) and a ata HDD of a size I can't remember. This would have been 92 going into 93 iirc.

 

[NeverBackDown]

If it makes you happy I say by all means go for it! All new sometimes is just the way to go

 

[robbiec]

Some bits and bobs arriving in now



I'll be using Bitspower compression fittings on every tube connection. Some other bits to help routing - I won't be using all but giving myself some options.

D5 getting a new block and reservoir - block itself is slimmer than the older Aqualis variant but the reservoir is fatter.