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Noisy water loop!

vjcsmoke

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
4,511
So I've got everything hooked up, cpu block, waterblock, two radiators, pump, reservoir, fillport, and t/drain port. But here's the problem. It's noisy!! I spent all this money to get a quieter system, and every so often the pump will make weird/popping noises. I think this is because of micro bubbles or whatnot. I did try tilting my case and stuff and squeezing my tubes, but I dunno it still makes intermittently loud noises. Is there something wrong with my setup? How long do I leave this thing running because I don't think I can sleep with all the noises! Oh and I see a TON of bubbles inside the reservoir.

components:
mcp355 pump
xspc dual bay res for mcp355
2x xspc 360 rads
ek supreme hf cpu waterblock
2x xspc gtx 480 razor waterblock
koolance fillport, koolance drainport
and a bunch of bitspower comp fittings
tube diameter is 7/16 ID and 5/8 OD

UPDATE: Now there's this thick foamy line of bubbles floating at the top of the res, like the bubbles you'd get in the head of a beer. What the heck is going on here?? Is this normal?
 
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That doesn't sound normal... but I'm still relatively new to water cooling, so someone else will have to diagnose your exact problem.
 
did you use water or additives? You need to bled the air out before you do any thing. Did you leek test it really well? You might be sucking air in the loop.
 
I have this issue whenever i refill my loop with a t-line instead of res, least i think its the same. Basically mine will pull the bubbles thru faster than they can float up the t-line which then the pump gets them and makes alot of noise, kinda like a vaccum picking up sand. I'd suggest to you to shutdown for a while to let the foam die down then see what your water levels are really at to see if you need to fill more cause i think maybe you're sucking some air from the res that might not be full enough or there's some big bubbles in your foam that are going in.
 
I have almost the exact same loop setup as you, minus the fill port and drain port. Here is what I did to remove the air from my loop.

First, make sure you have unplugged your system power supply cable. Then I removed the reservoir from the case and then placed the reservoir on top of the case. This is because one of my radiators is top mounted (case is a Corsair 800D), and I wanted the reservoir to be the highest point in the loop. I hooked up the pumps to a spare power supply, so I could cycle the pumps without worrying about a leak springing up because you'll be tapping hoses and moving the reservoir around.

Now turn on the pump PS, and notice the bubbles shooting through reservoir and directly into the pumps? These are what are making noise, in the pumps, in the blocks, and most loudly in the reservoir. So turn the PS off. Tap the hoses leading to the reservoir, so the air in them floats to the reservoir. Then tilt and tap the reservoir so that the air that is now trapped in the acrylic nozzle that feeds the pumps is released into the top of the reservoir. Turn on the PS for a couple seconds, and then turn it back off. Repeat the tapping and working the air into the top of the reservoir.

As you build up air in the res, add more water and replace the fill port cap. I do this at the res since that's where the air is. After about 15 min of this, only very small bubbles were left. At this point I let the pump run for about 30 min and all that was left was very fine bubbles attached to the walls of the res. Tap and refill 1 last time. You should not hear any more bubbles circulating in your loop at this time. If you do, keep working on it. Any tiny bubbles left will collect in the res over the next couple of days.

You may be able to do something similar using the fill port instead of the res.
 
Thanks. That seemed to work. Having a drainport and a fillport I've found is really handy to do this stuff. The loop is much quieter now, can't really hear it over the GT 1850 rpm fans I've got going. I've got a ton of pics of my loop. I'm gonna put up some of them later. The temps are awesome btw.

38C idle on both my GTX 480s in NV Surround mode. Wow. ^_^
 
Glad you got it quieted down. And yes, WC on video card typically makes a HUGE difference in temps. If your GT's are connected to your mobo you could probly quiet them down while your system is idling, making it even quieter.
 
Glad you got it quieted down. And yes, WC on video card typically makes a HUGE difference in temps. If your GT's are connected to your mobo you could probly quiet them down while your system is idling, making it even quieter.

I've got a brand new fan controller coming in soon. My old fan controller doesn't fit anymore.

did you use water or additives? You need to bled the air out before you do any thing. Did you leek test it really well? You might be sucking air in the loop.

Yup, I used Petra biocide with the distilled water after i finished bleeding it.

Here is how it looked before bleeding finished.

103_6618.jpg


See that thick foam floating near the top? Those are all bubbles.
 
As mentioned above, it will calm down. Can take up to a week to get all the dissovled air out of the water.
 
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