Water cooling for a noob

[clshades]

Steph is correct. Industry standard on all heating or cooling loops uses liquid inhibitors which are regularly tested in a lab. (provided building owners want regular maintenance)

Look at the chart closely... copper and brass are very close to each other so there is very little corrosion between them (virtually zero)... adding silver into a mix of metals is just a bad idea in my humble opinion. Something will be sacrificed and due to the many different kinds of nickel alloys I think we are basically taking an unneeded risk to kill a few microbes. Corroding metals can also produce gasses which need to be vented from the system and most of us don't use any kind of thermal / gaseous venting at all. For people who are heavily overclocking or folding under water this should absolutely be a consideration in any loop.

Galvanic Corrosion Chart*

in plumbing we call it electrolysis which adds to the corrosion process due to water molecules becoming slightly electrically charged due to moving liquid in your loop... as I've stated before this can be avoided by using a sacrificial anode like magnesium which is the least noble. The magnesium would corrode instead of anything else in the loop there for sacrificed and drawing out the electric charge constantly.

[nasrott]

I use just the protector also in distilled water.

[h0w3r]

Originally Posted by nasrott

I use just the protector also in distilled water.

and is it doing ok?

[h0w3r]

Originally Posted by clshades

Steph is correct. Industry standard on all heating or cooling loops uses liquid inhibitors which are regularly tested in a lab. (provided building owners want regular maintenance)

Look at the chart closely... copper and brass are very close to each other so there is very little corrosion between them (virtually zero)... adding silver into a mix of metals is just a bad idea in my humble opinion. Something will be sacrificed and due to the many different kinds of nickel alloys I think we are basically taking an unneeded risk to kill a few microbes. Corroding metals can also produce gasses which need to be vented from the system and most of us don't use any kind of thermal / gaseous venting at all. For people who are heavily overclocking or folding under water this should absolutely be a consideration in any loop.

Galvanic Corrosion Chart*

in plumbing we call it electrolysis which adds to the corrosion process due to water molecules becoming slightly electrically charged due to moving liquid in your loop... as I've stated before this can be avoided by using a sacrificial anode like magnesium which is the least noble. The magnesium would corrode instead of anything else in the loop there for sacrificed and drawing out the electric charge constantly.

"copper and brass are very close to each other so there is very little corrosion between them (virtually zero)... adding silver into a mix of metals"

sorry, but i didn't quite understand this part... what mix of metals are you talking about? isnt the silver coil exactly for preventing this "electrolysis" in the loop and preventing stuff such as algae from building up? a protector is something i haven'\t heard of before

and using magnesium is something i hear now for the first time

[nasrott]

Ya distilled water and protector have used since started water cooling years ago. Back just after retail blocks started to appear.

[clshades]

silver is still a metal and more noble than copper or brass or nickel thus the less noble metals become the anode and anodes corrode. Magnesium is the least noble of all metals so it's commonly used in sacrifice. Most hot water tanks have such an anode to keep the rest of the tank from corroding. I'd have to research how to exactly use magnesium with a loop because I wouldn't want it IN the same liquid. Corrosion creates gasses and that would need to be dealt with. For example: if you ever see a hot water tank that is rusting out the bottom chances are the anode has been used up. Oxygen plays it's part in this process too which is why Poly B (the grey stuff) was banned.

Essentially the closer metals are in nobility the better... which is why we always hear people saying don't mix aluminum blocks with copper. With all this in mind I expect we would be far better off using an inhibitor than using silver which is only good for stopping microbes, bacteria, and algae from growing. Most of these things won't grow in a moving liquid and silver does NOT stop corrosion of dissimilar metals. Glycol mixed lightly in distilled water works to inhibit however it doesn't have very good thermal capacity as compared to straight water. Glycol can be used but you can't just dump it down the drain... I personally have never tried food grade glycol.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that is the gist of it. I asked a couple j-men if they have EVER used silver in cooling or heating loops of any kind and they've never heard of it... always an inhibitor.

*note* I do not believe brass corrodes at all but it still impacts the nobility chart. Braineater would know this for sure he's the chemist.

[nasrott]

Ya we dont add anything into the hotwater closed loops for heating systems, glycol is used but only for freeze areas ie: driveways idea.

[h0w3r]

having all this in mind since i most likely will be using the VID-NX590 full cover waterblock (Nickel+acetal) silver won't be the best choice for me..
The second option is the XSPC 590 waterblock which is copper

[nasrott]

Your worring way to much, buy your stuff from a respectable supplier ie: Daz and stop freaking over some things you shouldn't be worrying about at. Water cooling guys years ago had to worry about weither rads were aluminum, thats not really a concern these days, and again buy from a water cooling store and u should have NP.

[stephengillon]

Why are you switchcing a block to use a kill coil, just switch to daz protector.