How do you empty a loop filled with water??

[cnick79]

This is my first go at water cooling and I'm going to start putting my system together in a few days. When this is all completed how would you empty out the system. Since my radiator will be mounted externally I was thinking of disconnecting one of the hoses and let the pump push or pull the water through the loop ad drain into a bucket. Since I'm using the DD 12v pump connected to my power supply don't I have to have all my components (HD's, MOBO, etc) plugged in inorder for the PS to work? I don't want to do this because the system would be running without water for a brief period.

 

[FunkStar]

Your right in just disconnecting one of the hoses to drain. You can actually run a PSU without having it plugged into the motherboard by using a wire to connect two of the circuits on the motherboard connector. I'm not sure which two, but if you didnt recieve a clip the same size as your mobo connector with your pump (they do this for draining and filling purposes) then simply google it. Hope it all goes well

-Funk*

 

[diredesire]

green & black if you're using a normal ATX power supply

 

[cnick79]

I bought the DD 12v pump and it didn't come with any clip. I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. You take two pieces of wire and connect them to your mobo and the power supply's dongle that would plug into the mobo? Doing so would allow you to run the pump only?

 

[diredesire]

connect the pins from the green wire to any black wire on your ATX (20 pin) header. This will short the 'motherboard detect', therein "trickign" the power supply to make it think it's been plugged into the motherboard. You can turn the switch from 0 to 1 in that case and anything plugged into the power supply will turn on.

 

[thewhiteguy]

Open the loop and the physically lowest part and it will drain. You may have to tilt the machine around to get water out of blocks and your radiator, but it should work.