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Copper and aluminum

F

foolio

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 4, 2003
Messages
139
Hey all, been a while since I have ben around these forums. Just wanted pop a quick question in.

I am going to get the exos al, I am getting sick of having all of my gear on the inside of my case and my pump is loud and vibrates everything in the case, so I figure that the exos al seems like the easy way to go. Question is I am using a swiftech waterblock, which is copper. The question I have is can I mix the aluminum rad from the exos and the copper in the swiftech withopu corrosion? I thought I had read somewhere a while back about using distilled water and you wont get corrosion. any comments?
 
So you currently have a SwiftTech kit and you are going to downgrade to an Exos? I cant understand why on earth you would want to buy another full kit instead of just upgrading 1 or 2 parts of your current setup. Perhaps list the exact parts you have already and we could offer advice on possible upgrades.

Also as far as I know every waterblock SwiftTech has ever made has aluminum tops and should have already some sort of corrosion inhibitor in the water. If you have been running only distilled water you might already have corrosion or beginnings of it.
 
Originally posted by foolio
Hey all, been a while since I have ben around these forums. Just wanted pop a quick question in.

I am going to get the exos al, I am getting sick of having all of my gear on the inside of my case and my pump is loud and vibrates everything in the case, so I figure that the exos al seems like the easy way to go. Question is I am using a swiftech waterblock, which is copper. The question I have is can I mix the aluminum rad from the exos and the copper in the swiftech withopu corrosion? I thought I had read somewhere a while back about using distilled water and you wont get corrosion. any comments?
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Distilled water alone won't do the job. By using a decent corrosion inhibitor, you can significantly reduce the corrosion rate. You can find something like automotive radiator additive at your local auto-parts store.
 
Originally posted by Animal982
So you currently have a SwiftTech kit and you are going to downgrade to an Exos? I cant understand why on earth you would want to buy another full kit instead of just upgrading 1 or 2 parts of your current setup. Perhaps list the exact parts you have already and we could offer advice on possible upgrades.

Also as far as I know every waterblock SwiftTech has ever made has aluminum tops and should have already some sort of corrosion inhibitor in the water. If you have been running only distilled water you might already have corrosion or beginnings of it.
Click to expand...

Swiftech's block tops are anodized, and that's supposed to prevent corrosion. I have seen examples of bad anodizing jobs, though.
 
Here is what I have going

swiftech mcw5000
dtech heatercore
ahiem pump I forget which one

anyways my shit is too damn noisy it rattles the hell out of everything, I have 2 120mm fans shrouded on the dteck, and 3 80mm fans for the case.

I am just looking for a differant soloution to the noise, after thinking about it I will prob mod the exos and put my dtech core in there. But its going to be ohh so nice to have everything out of my case in one solid unit that will hopefully reduce the noise problem and also clear up my case some.

back to the question though corrosion? :)
 
Hell use a cardboard box and place your pump and rad in it if you want it out of your case but to spend the money on an Exos that has a weaker pump, a weaker rad, smaller ID tubing, etc when you already have absolutely everything you need is a complete waste of money. Do you have your pump just sitting on the bottom of your case or is it sitting on something like a mousepad to dampen the noise? Hell you could even get some small bungie type cords and suspend the pump in the air so that it doesnt even touch the case.

As for corrosion even though the SwiftTech blocks are anodized that doesnt mean they are guaranteed from corrosion. Any time you mix aluminum, even if its anodized, with other metals like copper you should use a corrosion prevention like water wetter or one of the other many products like it. Even SwiftTech includes corrosion prevention liquid in all of their kits.
 
Volt mod the fans, and get a different pump. The mag 3 is silent. I doubt the exos is. Also, you dont need two fans on the heatercore and 3 extra 80mm's on the case is just overkill when watercooling.

I have 3 case fans on my comp: 2x 120mm blowholes on top that suck air out of the case and through the radiator mounted on the front (the case acts as a shroud) and an 80mm on the power supply. That is it. The 120mm's are also running at less than 7v, so they barely make noise. The pump is silent because it is a mag 3 mounted on velcro to absorb vibration. Really, the only things producing noise in my system are the three hard drives and the fans on the GPU and NB, which are soon to be removed when I finish making my waterblocks for those.
 
There are rubber dampers you can find online for the eheim pump. I forgot the link, but for $15 it will stop your pump vibration issues.

Mixing metals is asking for corrosion. Make sure you have decent corrosion inhibiters. A 90/10 water to antifreeze ratio should suffice, but the dye in the antifreeze tends to stain tubing something awful.
 
thanks for all the input guys, I am going to see how the exos works compared to my current set up, if my temps raise more than I am willing to give then I mod it and put my current heatercore and pump in it. Main reason I am doing this is because I dont have the time thses days to build a custom box, and I like the concept of the exos al, it will loook sweet on my lian li pc75. modding the exos will be easy if thats what it comes down to. As for corrosion, I was pretty sure that anti freeze would work, I will also stop by autozone and see if they have any solvents that is made for mixing those 2 metals specificly, I am sure it exists.
 
So I went to Checker Autoparts today and asked the guys in there if they new of anykind of product that helps prevent corrosion between copper and aluminum. They pointed me to a product called hy-per lube super coolant. According to the bottle it comes in this is what it does:

Lowers the surface tension of the coolant allowing it to more deeply penetrate the metal surfaces at vital heat ransfer areas in the cooling system. This allows cooling systems, using a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze and water to run 6-8 f cooler, racing applications running straight water up to 20 f cooler.

it als says that it provides protection from rust corrosion and electolysis in cooling systems using 50/50 water and anti-freeze and in water only systems. Hy-Per Lube contains Molybdate which forms a protective film on aluminum parts. It says that it passes some ASTM D-2570 simulated service corrosion tests.


Anyways I am going to try this stuff out and see how it works. Keep ya posted :)

edit: forgot the link

Hy-Per Lube

and definition for Molybdate:

References: G. P. Haight and V. Paragamian, Analytical Chemistry, pp. 32, 642 (1960), H. Onishi and E. B. Sandell, Photometric Determination of Trace Metals, 4th Edition, Part 1, p. 29 (1978).

Molybdate is used throughout the industrial water treatment and power generation industries as a corrosion inhibitor in both open and closed loop cooling water systems. In solution, molybdate anions complex with oxidized iron to form a protective film of molybdate and ferric-oxide. Molybdate is considered an effective, environmentally acceptable alternative to chromate treatment. Unlike many other transition elements, molybdenum exhibits low or even negligible toxicity.

The Colorimetric Method. The molybdate test method employs the catechol chemistry. In a mildly reducing alkaline solution, catechol reacts with hexavalent molybdenum to form a yellow-orange colored chelate in direct proportion to the hexavalent molybdenum concentration. Test results are expressed in ppm (mg/L) molybdenum.Iron (total & soluble)
 
Not necessary, all that stuff is bull in a watercooled system. It is not worth the money. Basically, your best bet will be a 10:1 ratio of water to any kind of antifreeze. The antifreeze already has lots of corrosion inhibitors in it. A car can run 100k miles on a single fill of antifreeze, and there are many dissimilar metals in a car setup.

Also, You will not be able to fit a different radiator and pump in the exos, it is not big enough. Anyways, why would you buy it and do that to it? Do you just want the case or something?
 
Not necessary, all that stuff is bull in a watercooled system. It is not worth the money. Basically, your best bet will be a 10:1 ratio of water to any kind of antifreeze. The antifreeze already has lots of corrosion inhibitors in it. A car can run 100k miles on a single fill of antifreeze, and there are many dissimilar metals in a car setup.
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I agree with you there, but wanted to take the extra step, that Hy-Per Lube stuff was only 7 bux so no biggie.

Also, You will not be able to fit a different radiator and pump in the exos, it is not big enough.
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my heatercore will fit in there, I just have to pull the barbs that are on it, plug the holes and insert the barbs on the top of it, wont be very hard. As for the pump you may be correct on that one, I will only be able to tell once I actually get the unit.

And yes basiccly I really like how the exos al looks, where it goes the whole deal, I also like the idea of all of that stuff being out of my case and in a self contained unit.

I am not really worried about temp loss, as my neighbor has the same unit and the same swiftech waterblock and his temps are right where mine are. I will have to wait and see when it gets here :)
 
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