So my last build was a very basic soft tubing build and I had no problems saturating the loop to the point where the water looked static, the cpu block was completely filled up etc, all air bubbles eliminated, however, with this distro plate I am having trouble completely filling the loop.
Few questions/concerns and need recommendations.
Few questions/concerns and need recommendations.
- The yellow circled area: the fluid level does not rise when adding more coolant to fill in that area and if I loosen the plug, the water level will rise but I cannot unplug it fully without it leaking from that port. What is the reason this area is not being filled in and how can I achieve it for aesthetic uniformity?
- The blue circle: I've been using this as my fill port, and right now I have the pump running at 100% with this port off to allow air bubbles to escape. Leads to my next point:
- The red circle: there is a top mounted g1/4 port that can be used instead of the traditional 90 degree mounted port, I am wondering should I leave that one open instead of the distro plate port to let air out or does it not really matter between those two? I have found that that top port is more sensitive to the pressure change between pump RPMs and if I lower the pump RPM the coolant will overflow out of the port. I don't seem to have that issue with the blue-circle distro plate port.
- One issue that I'm having with filling the loop completely is the level of coolant in the main res section of the distro plate varies with the pump speed, so if it's at 100% it will be near the top of the highest fill port, if I put it low on say 35%, the water level goes down a bit and the cpu block gets an air bubble stuck in it because there isn't enough fluid to completely fill up every space in the loop? I guess a video would help to demo this but I suspect this isn't an issue unique to this distro plate. I am just trying to figure out what is the best way to eliminate the air and completely fill every inch of the loop with fluid.
- It seems like if I put the pump speed on 100% and shake the system to get some air out, the fluid level drops ever so slightly so I can fill it up with more. I would just try doing this for a few hours, to try to top everything off, but I want the CPU and GPU block to be completely filled to every corner when the pump is at 35% and right now I'm not seeing that. Is that the solution here?
- At 100% pump speed, the liquid is quite white/foamy/bubbly as you can see from the picture, I am using Corsair XL5 CLEAR fluid, when the pump is at low speed the water is much more clear but air bubbles vortex around in the GPU block and distro plate. What is the fix here?
- Lastly, I ran out of coolant surprisingly, is this an instance where it would actually be okay to top it off with distilled water since the loop is about 1L of pre-mix coolant (less due to leaks when filling and experimenting with opening fittings to let air out). I'd rather use another pre-mix coolant, would it be okay to mix EK CryoFuel with Corsair XL5? I can't imagine that many of the companies use highly differing anti-corrosives and growth inhibitors, but I am sure someone more experienced than me would know if differing chemicals can cause issues from the different pre-mix products out there.