A big fat two fingers to Enermax

ED E

So, I lied.

ED E wrote: »

One of my AIOs failed today.

Both of my AIOs failed today.


1. AIO #2 started gurgling a bit more than usual
2. AIO #2 suddenly stopped cooling the chip basically at all
3. In "fixing" #2 I tilted the machine, #1 totally stops working - Wait, what?



After a minute that'd be nuding 80*C just idling in BIOS. Wonderful. I had better things to be doing but not having my workstation just isnt gonna fly.

#2



And more



#2 (#1 was similar to this)



#2



#1



#1



#1 after a rinse




More in the next post.

ED E

So these are Enermax Liqmax II 240s. I bought them in June 2016 and at the time they seemed fine. Not amazing but not dire. More recently its come out that maybe they were a ticking time bomb.

Just now when putting this post together I've stumbled across another video. Again longer after I bought them.

The repair:

So, for now, the units have been drained, submersed in a small about of water and ran, then refilled. With tap water. Yep, I know. I dont know if they're worth trying to purge and then fill with an anti corrosive anti bio solution for further use. Might be better run them into the ground then replace em. Might even go dual Noctua and forget the water idea altogether. 135W TDP is high but manageable.

Serephucus

I have this nagging feeling I was the one to recommend those to you at the time. Oops...

For what it's worth, I have an NH-U9-TR4 cooling my 1950X in a not-particularly-well ventilated area, and it's doing the job admirably.
Did you have any issues with them (other than the gunk-up)? Any leaks? Could be worth getting AIOs again. Air will be louder, but more set-and-forget.

K.O.Kiki

If it's for Threadripper, the Arctic Freezer 33 TR is supposed to be nearly as good as Noctua for half the price.

ED E

No problems before the gunk up. #2 ran a little warm for a while but not majorly. Some of the testing LTT did with AIO vs good air cooling showed not much in it IIRC.



Not threadripper, Xeon V3 (Haswell). Also Epyc would be the 2P product on their side.

ED E

Just to update:

- Enermax never responded to my email, shocker

- Performance after the clean out is actually pretty decent. Accidentally left BOINC running and didnt notice for ages. No ramp up. The loops will regunk eventually but thats a problem for future me.

z0oT

Is there a particular reason you don't just switch to two big Noctua (or other) air towers?

Far less to go wrong. In fact, the worst case scenario will just mean a fan replacement or two in your case.

Tow

That red stuff looks organic, like an algae bloom. What did you use an coolant in them?

Edit:
Watched the 1st video. If the copper is 'copper' any corrosion would be a green/blue colour. As the Youtuber says replacing the 'water' with car engine coolant.

Solitaire

Don't see much actual chemical corrosion, but it looks like they used biodegradable, non-bio-resistant gaskets and baffles and didn't put in any biocide into the coolant at all. A recipe for disaster. Ironically it looks as if the biocrud was actually helping maintain the seal on the gaskets but it was also kindly helping seal up the insides of the transfer plate fins under the baffle and anything that did come loose also helpfully sealed up the radiator and impeller. GGWP.

ED E

z0oT wrote: »

Is there a particular reason you don't just switch to two big Noctua (or other) air towers?

Far less to go wrong. In fact, the worst case scenario will just mean a fan replacement or two in your case.

135W TDP in intel language is really more like 150W. So two big noctuas. The 600C is a big case but two large coolers will kinda make it cramped. I may well go that way though.

Tow wrote: »

What did you use an coolant in them?

Tap water. For a temporary fix, wasnt waiting for coolant to be delivered.

PostWoke

Air cooling all day, everyday. Similar temps for far less hassle. I understand your use case with dual cpu's (am I understanding that right?) is a bit different but I would still recommend air. Tried an AIO once, had one on the CPU and a pre-built AIO GTX 770, and the coil whine put me off them forever.

I also don't think using tap water is recommended in this case. Maybe have one on hand for issues like this in future? These are dirt cheap and supposed to be good; https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32958534669.html

ED E

Coil whine has nothing to do with water vs air. Unless you're mixing it up with pump "rumble".

Tap water will grow gunk again faster but it was a temp jobbie to see if Enermax would reply and offer a good will gesture.

PostWoke

ED E wrote: »

Coil whine has nothing to do with water vs air. Unless you're mixing it up with pump "rumble".

Water needs a pump. And it was indeed the pumps. High pitched squeals from both.

K.O.Kiki

PostWoke wrote: »

Water needs a pump. And it was indeed the pumps. High pitched squeals from both.

PostWoke

Dunno if I even have to watch that tbh, had high pitched squeals coming from both pumps, heard it was also an issue on that first HBM AIO AMD card, never had that issue on other components, sticking with air in future.

ED E

PostWoke wrote: »

Dunno if I even have to watch that tbh, had high pitched squeals coming from both pumps, heard it was also an issue on that first HBM AIO AMD card, never had that issue on other components, sticking with air in future.

You're still not talking about coil whine. Like calling a siren a church bell. Both are noisy but not the same noise.

PostWoke

Whine is whine, one of the reasons to avoid AIO's at the very least, though I'm sure it can also affect proper loop pumps too. *shrug*

K.O.Kiki

PostWoke wrote: »

Whine is whine, one of the reasons to avoid AIO's at the very least, though I'm sure it can also affect proper loop pumps too. *shrug*

I put an AIO on my 980 Ti (cheap 120mm Thermaltake) and apart from a gurgle on start-up, it was the quietest GPU I've ever had.

PostWoke

Dunno what to tell ye, maybe your case was quite soundproof, lots of people complain about this issue.

If I'm going for a card that I'd like to be quiet, which I usually am, I like to go with one that has a 'no-spin' feature while just browsing etc, they're great.

K.O.Kiki

PostWoke wrote: »

Dunno what to tell ye, maybe your case was quite soundproof, lots of people complain about this issue.

If I'm going for a card that I'd like to be quiet, which I usually am, I like to go with one that has a 'no-spin' feature while just browsing etc, they're great.

My case at the time was a Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 3 which is a big box with massive holes everywhere.

What we're telling you simply is that you're mistaking coil whine for something else.

ED E

Post is clearly embedded in his views, no point trying to convince him.

PostWoke

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

What we're telling you simply is that you're mistaking coil whine for something else.

I don't care what kind of whine it was. Genuinely. Just that it was there. And it sucked, and I won't be falling for the cost/hassle/whine for pretty much the same temps again.

K.O.Kiki

PostWoke wrote: »

I don't care what kind of whine it was. Genuinely. Just that it was there. And it sucked, and I won't be falling for the cost/hassle/whine for pretty much the same temps again.

Same temps?
My piddly 120mm AIO was 15-20C cooler than the 2.5 slot monster it came with.
AND quieter.

You had a bad experience, sure, but I don't think you actually know what caused it.

PostWoke

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Same temps?
My piddly 120mm AIO was 15-20C cooler than the 2.5 slot monster it came with.
AND quieter.

You had a bad experience, sure, but I don't think you actually know what caused it.

Again, that's conjecture. Infinite variables here due to the amount of coolers out there. That might have been your personal experience. Could have been down to your re-pasting too. But any cooler bench videos I've seen in recent years suggest a very similar temperature proposition these days, and for cheaper, and there's less buckets of rank liquid involved.

These two videos are great for the topic;

K.O.Kiki

PostWoke wrote: »

Again, that's conjecture. Infinite variables here due to the amount of coolers out there. That might have been your personal experience. Could have been down to your re-pasting too. But any cooler bench videos I've seen in recent years suggest a very similar temperature proposition these days, and for cheaper, and there's less buckets of rank liquid involved.

These two videos are great for the topic;

CPUs & GPUs are not comparable for heat dissipation.
And I had already repasted the Jetstream so original paste was not a factor.

EoinHef

My head hurts,must be all the coil whine:P

PostWoke

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

CPUs & GPUs are not comparable for heat dissipation.

But this thread is about CPU blocks, no? Xeons, I thought OP said.

Not to mention that if you strapped an off the shelf AIO to a GPU, you were doing your VRMs and VRAM etc. dirty, so your statement is absolutely correct, just not in the way you intend.

ED E

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

CPUs & GPUs are not comparable for heat dissipation.

135W (C) vs 175W (G) for me, so not too dissimilar.

K.O.Kiki

ED E wrote: »

135W (C) vs 175W (G) for me, so not too dissimilar.

Well then it must be that GPU heatsinks are simply too inefficient, even with the biggest designs :pac: