Loop ran for 1.5 years, nothing but distilled + a killcoil

[Sparky]

About 1.5 years ago I built my "Quad Insanity" build that was a 4P system with 4 opteron quad cores in it. I was building it on the cheap so the entire loop was built out of cheap used parts (except the tubing and fans on the radiators were new). The loop consisted of an Apogee, an Apogee GT, a Fuzion v1, and a Fuzion v2 - good flowing blocks that I could find for as cheap as possible.

Anyway, the only thing I have done to the loop during that time was top off the res a tad about a year in and vacuum off the radiators every once in a while. That's it. No water changes and the system ran pretty much 24/7. So how did the silver coil dropped in the res do at keeping the baddies from growing?

I think the pics speak for themselves...

Apogee GT
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/SparkyJJO/Quad%20AMD/IMG_00571024x768.jpg

Fuzion V1
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/SparkyJJO/Quad%20AMD/IMG_00581024x768.jpg

Apogee
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/SparkyJJO/Quad%20AMD/IMG_00591024x768.jpg

Fuzion V2
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/SparkyJJO/Quad%20AMD/IMG_00601024x768.jpg

MCRES
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/SparkyJJO/Quad%20AMD/IMG_00611024x768.jpg


Yeah, NO growth at all, no weirdness in the loop, nothing. Just some typical copper oxidation and even that isn't very much (the flash makes it stand out a bit more I noticed). The only pic I took of the tubing was on the countertop directly, so you really couldn't see much, but aside from some minor clouding it was fine as well (it was Duralene IIRC).

So, does a killcoil work to protect the loop? Looking at this I say yes.

I use a kill coil in my main loop now, but it had only been running for a few months before I recently drained it to swap out the CPU block for my CPU upgrade. Nothing weird in it either for what its worth.

[BeepBeep2]

I wish I was that lucky.

[Martinm210]

Very nice! Good looking loop for that amount of time..:)

[Sparky]

I wish I was that lucky.

After the fiasco I had in my main rig loop a while back I think I deserved a little bit of good luck in the water cooling arena :rofl:

[defect9]

looks like the last time I opened up my loop, minus the blackening/tarnishing that supposedly is normal for HK blocks.

[matari]

Cheers. Nothing more than distilled + silver needed. Your block looks nice for 1.5 years.

[HuffPCair]

I ran mine for about a year with distilled and kill coil. My stuff came out about the same, just cleaned it and it looked brand new, then sold it lol

[Sparky]

I probably should have mentioned I didn't even clean those blocks before the pics. All I did was drain the loop, open the blocks, and take the pics. Didn't even wipe them down.

[Elganja]

I've been running my loop for about 9 months ... i'm curious what it will look like when I break it down this weekend (have to install some new parts)

[slaveondope]

Same way my blocks looked with distilled water only after 1 year.
About to tear down again next week since it's been a year and I've got to add a quad 140 Coolgate to the loop plus a couple DD 5970's.
Never seen the point in additives as they seem to be more trouble.

[HuffPCair]

I probably should have mentioned I didn't even clean those blocks before the pics. All I did was drain the loop, open the blocks, and take the pics. Didn't even wipe them down.

By cleaned I mean dried the stuff off basically, there was no cleaning really done. That is why I do not get why people use color fluids when you can get colored tubing and save yourself the hassle.

[ggdh]

Few days ago I opened my loop after ~1 year. DI+CuSo4x5H20. Blocks as new. Only EK barbs (high flow) corroded. Nothing serious I guess...

[lennox]

Mines going on 2 years without even silver... temps haven't changed but I'm afraid to tear it apart ;)

[Sailindawg]

I'm running just distilled, no coil. I refilled the loop about 6 months ago when I got a water lock for my 5870. Before that I ran about one year with just a kill coil plus distilled. No problems that way either. I do not use UV lighting. No bling. just straight ahead cooling. Keep It Simple.

[ziddey]

3 years on tap water. need to top off the fill port T every few weeks. 7/16 on 1/2 barbs so no hose clamps. no kill coil. still peachy?!?