DIY: How to flush and refill your radiator... on your computer
I finally shelled out the cash (and gift cards yay) to get a nice new DVD burner. It's a nifty Plextor 16x dual layer piece. Now I can finally organize all my files. Backing up onto CD really sucks when you're burning 150GB at a time. DVD > CD
While I was installing the drive, I figured I'd go ahead and clean out the case and change the fluids too.
Why write this up? I felt like it.
1. Cleaning!
Open your case:
Get out your handy dandy can of compressed air so you can blow out all the dust in your case:
No, not that expensive can of crap, this:
15 gallons of air at 125psi ought to be enough.
Spray away!
Make sure to spray through the radiator. You get TONS of dust buildup in the fins.
If your case is as big and dusty as mine, you should be down to something like 25psi when you're finished. If you're buying expensive cans of R134 with straws sticking out of them, you'll be out a few hundred bucks.
2. Water prep
Unplug the power to your drives. I'll explain later.
Gather the ingredients. Water Wetter + distilled water = best cooling solution. It works awesome in your car too- trust me- just don't go without anitfreeze when it's uh... freezing outside.
Measure out 6 ounces of Water Wetter:
Dump out a bit of water from your gallon jug of distilled water, then add your 6 ounces of Water Wetter. Cap, shake and stir to mix.
3. Draining
Drag your computer into the bathroom, then flip it upside down.
Remove the drain plug. Turning a standard issue quarter is a hell of lot better than the plastic Honda radiator plug!
Wow, there's a hole in the bottom of the computer!
Muscle your heavy ass box over the edge of your bathtub and delicately balance it while it pisses its lifeblood away. Shake after its done pissing. Old grungy apartment tubs are nasty.
Remove the computer from the tub and flip it upside down again.
4. Flushing
Fill a measuring cup about halfway up with your coolant mixture. Remember to use the best measuring cup in the kitchen, because food that tastes like radiator gunk is awesome.
Use a rag or ex-company T-shirt to "line" the fill hole, then start pouring coolant into the computer.
Keep going until you're over the coolant reservoir's fill line. The standard Koolance tower takes a little under 2 cups of "computer juice."
Reinstall drain plug.
Flip the computer back so its standing right side up.
Plug in the power cord.
Turn it on. Hopefully you unplugged all your drives- this way you won't be running your OS while you're getting all the air out of the system, and you won't have M$ bitching at you to run SCANDISK on your drives because you didn't "shut down properly." Nyaaaaaaa
With any luck, you'll see a few bubbles creep out into your reservoir and then everything will flow smoothly without any air trapped in the system. If you have air pockets in your water lines or water blocks, start manhandling the computer as much as you can to shake all the bubbles loose. This is extremely fun with an 80 pound machine, especially while its running.
Run the computer like this for about 5 minutes. If you're not lazy like me, you'll have used something a bit heavier duty- like radiator flush from an auto parts store- but I'm rebuilding the whole water system later anyway, so on you.
If you're even luckier, you won't have any water leaks anywhere in the case. If you do, maybe you should have thought about removing ALL your components from the case before playing around with your water cooling system. Wait- you were just following along and copying each step, then got water all over your expensive computer goodies? Aww... too bad. No soup for you!
5. Filling
Repeat step 4. Having fun yet?
If your coolant level dropped too much during the de-aerating phase, flip the computer over and top the reservoir off before you close things up.
6. Cleanup
Wipe up any spilled coolant.
Label your gallon jug "1337 p00t3r ju1c3" so nobody mistakes it for Kool-Aid and drinks themselves into a coma.
Slap the case back together and use a forklift to put it back in its normal place.
You're done! Turn it on and watch the sparks fly.
I finally shelled out the cash (and gift cards yay) to get a nice new DVD burner. It's a nifty Plextor 16x dual layer piece. Now I can finally organize all my files. Backing up onto CD really sucks when you're burning 150GB at a time. DVD > CD
While I was installing the drive, I figured I'd go ahead and clean out the case and change the fluids too.
Why write this up? I felt like it.
1. Cleaning!
Open your case:
Get out your handy dandy can of compressed air so you can blow out all the dust in your case:
No, not that expensive can of crap, this:
15 gallons of air at 125psi ought to be enough.
Spray away!
Make sure to spray through the radiator. You get TONS of dust buildup in the fins.
If your case is as big and dusty as mine, you should be down to something like 25psi when you're finished. If you're buying expensive cans of R134 with straws sticking out of them, you'll be out a few hundred bucks.
2. Water prep
Unplug the power to your drives. I'll explain later.
Gather the ingredients. Water Wetter + distilled water = best cooling solution. It works awesome in your car too- trust me- just don't go without anitfreeze when it's uh... freezing outside.
Measure out 6 ounces of Water Wetter:
Dump out a bit of water from your gallon jug of distilled water, then add your 6 ounces of Water Wetter. Cap, shake and stir to mix.
3. Draining
Drag your computer into the bathroom, then flip it upside down.
Remove the drain plug. Turning a standard issue quarter is a hell of lot better than the plastic Honda radiator plug!
Wow, there's a hole in the bottom of the computer!
Muscle your heavy ass box over the edge of your bathtub and delicately balance it while it pisses its lifeblood away. Shake after its done pissing. Old grungy apartment tubs are nasty.
Remove the computer from the tub and flip it upside down again.
4. Flushing
Fill a measuring cup about halfway up with your coolant mixture. Remember to use the best measuring cup in the kitchen, because food that tastes like radiator gunk is awesome.
Use a rag or ex-company T-shirt to "line" the fill hole, then start pouring coolant into the computer.
Keep going until you're over the coolant reservoir's fill line. The standard Koolance tower takes a little under 2 cups of "computer juice."
Reinstall drain plug.
Flip the computer back so its standing right side up.
Plug in the power cord.
Turn it on. Hopefully you unplugged all your drives- this way you won't be running your OS while you're getting all the air out of the system, and you won't have M$ bitching at you to run SCANDISK on your drives because you didn't "shut down properly." Nyaaaaaaa
With any luck, you'll see a few bubbles creep out into your reservoir and then everything will flow smoothly without any air trapped in the system. If you have air pockets in your water lines or water blocks, start manhandling the computer as much as you can to shake all the bubbles loose. This is extremely fun with an 80 pound machine, especially while its running.
Run the computer like this for about 5 minutes. If you're not lazy like me, you'll have used something a bit heavier duty- like radiator flush from an auto parts store- but I'm rebuilding the whole water system later anyway, so on you.
If you're even luckier, you won't have any water leaks anywhere in the case. If you do, maybe you should have thought about removing ALL your components from the case before playing around with your water cooling system. Wait- you were just following along and copying each step, then got water all over your expensive computer goodies? Aww... too bad. No soup for you!
5. Filling
Repeat step 4. Having fun yet?
If your coolant level dropped too much during the de-aerating phase, flip the computer over and top the reservoir off before you close things up.
6. Cleanup
Wipe up any spilled coolant.
Label your gallon jug "1337 p00t3r ju1c3" so nobody mistakes it for Kool-Aid and drinks themselves into a coma.
Slap the case back together and use a forklift to put it back in its normal place.
You're done! Turn it on and watch the sparks fly.