Here is what the inside of a failed Enermax TR4 AIO looks like after a year EDIT number 2 died today

Markfw

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And it does not cool, and I RMA'ed it

A9FXu0k.jpg


All that brown "stuff" at the bottom is blocking the flow
 

Markfw

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My second of 3 died today, and took the OS with it. DC rig will be down for a day.

I hate Enermax now.
 

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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That's pretty sad. Enermax used to be such a great brand (used them quite a bit for PSUs back in the day), but they are a shell of their former self quality wise.

How long did you use it for before it stop working?
 

Markfw

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That's pretty sad. Enermax used to be such a great brand (used them quite a bit for PSUs back in the day), but they are a shell of their former self quality wise.

How long did you use it for before it stop working?
Both lasted right about a year. I don't know why I am bothering to RMA, the first one they sent back the same version one crap. Its sitting on s shelf, and I am using the Noctura air cooler on both now at stock.

Now it they would replace them with the fixed version that would be great, but strike one on that.
 

UsandThem

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Both lasted right about a year. I don't know why I am bothering to RMA, the first one they sent back the same version one crap. Its sitting on s shelf, and I am using the Noctura air cooler on both now at stock.

Now it they would replace them with the fixed version that would be great, but strike one on that.

Every time I get a wild hair, and think about trying out water-cooling, it's posts like this that make me realize how much I like the simplicity of air coolers. However, I don't use the demanding components like Threadripper CPUs that you do, so a good air cooler like Noctua is plenty for me.
 
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StefanR5R

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@Markfw, what was your impression of the gunk that clogged the cold plate? Could this be corrosion products, as some have stated? Or could it be sealant paste that wandered into the loop? (I know that at least AIOs from EKWB and from LEPA had the latter problem.)
 

DaveSimmons

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Every time I get a wild hair, and think about trying out water-cooling, it's posts like this that make me realize how much I like the simplicity of air coolers. However, I don't use the demanding components like Threadripper CPUs that you do, so a good air cooler like Noctua is plenty for me.

Yep. I really don't want to win the Murphy (or Final Destination) lottery and get a defective system that sprays out fluid and possibly starts an electrical fire.
 
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UsandThem

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Yep. I really don't want to win the Murphy (or Final Destination) lottery and get a defective system that sprays out fluid and possibly starts an electrical fire.

I think some of them come with non-conductive fluid, but it still would be one hell of a mess to clean up.

I guess I will just have to live vicariously through pictures of other people's water-cooled builds. :)
 
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aigomorla

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it looks like you had one hell of a corrosion.
do you remember if those crummy looking things were jelly like? or was it hard?
It also looks like it may have gotten some residue or crust inside the pump housing.

Hows the full custom doing?
Any issues or problems?

Just remember you may need to top the system off every month or so.
Water will naturally evap though the tubing, as the tubing is pourous.
Do not freak out if you notice your water level slowly falling, unless its droping noticeably daily.

I guess I will just have to live vicariously through pictures of other people's water-cooled builds. :)

lol its a lot of fun when you do it yourself.
Its like working on a model, always trying to get that last piece to fit right and aesthetically.

If you ever decide to get wet, im sure we can help you out.
 
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StefanR5R

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Re periodically topping off a water loop:
My four loops which I rebuilt or built ~10 months ago have not lost any water at all yet.
 

aigomorla

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Re periodically topping off a water loop:
My four loops which I rebuilt or built ~10 months ago have not lost any water at all yet.

there is no way unless your runing a full rigid tubing, as PETG is less pourous then regular soft tubing.
Or neoprene tubing might extend it a bit.

But in all my builds for the past 15yrs , i have had coolant evap slowly and that is without leaks.
 

StefanR5R

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I've got neoprene tubing; EKWB ZMT. The low maintenance aspect was specifically why I chose this over the more common "high maintenance" materials. I guess there is still some evaporation going on (also through rotary fittings), but so far it looks like it will be a long while until I need to refill.

To get back on topic, that's another rub with all-in-one watercooling kits: They have comparably small reservoirs (hence not much room for an air pocket), and are difficult or impossible to refill. AFAICS most don't have a fill port. While it hopefully takes a long time until the loss of coolant becomes too much, the owner is obviously supposed to throw away the cooler at that point.
 

guskline

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Thanks aigomorla for your comments. Like you, I have been running custom water loops on 2 of my machines for quite some time. I have a good flashlight and regularly check the water level. I use soft clear tubing and only use distilled water.

Once your loop is established and purged of all of the bubbles, maintenance is not that hard. I really think custom water cooling's biggest bang for the buck is gpu cooling.
 

Batmeat

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Dang Mark, that looks like rust. Sorry you're dealing with it. As others have said, Enermax used to be good, but have fallen recently.
 

Atari2600

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Aluminium + Copper + Water = Corrosion of the aluminium unless you have suitable inhibitors within the water.

A pretty fundamental ***k up to make when you are in the business of designing CPU coolers that frequently use copper and aluminium within the one enclosed system.
 

Atari2600

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Just checking - as far as I am aware, there are **still** no available alternatives to the Noctura and Enermax for TR4?

Anyone?
 

Campy

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Just checking - as far as I am aware, there are **still** no available alternatives to the Noctura and Enermax for TR4?

Anyone?

Wraith Ripper was supposed to be available in September, hopefully it will show up soon.
 

StefanR5R

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I am disappointed of what the Wraith Ripper turned out to be: Lots of LED lighting, yet a puny 120 mm fan inside.
 
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aigomorla

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I am disappointed of what the Wraith Ripper turned out to be: Lots of LED lighting, yet a puny 120 mm fan inside.

it seems like vendors want quiet and bling more then performance lately.
Its really sad, but at the same time i guess its showing where the trend is going now.

As for other viable sinks for TR4, i think those 2 listed are the only ones.
That monolith die is so large, its hard for vendors to make a single chip heat sink.
Most of the other heat sinks is cross compatible except TR4, so were probably not going to see many of them, as it would require too much resources from a smaller company.
 

StefanR5R

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Quiet would be OK in my book. But that'd be hard to achieve with an air cooler on a 250 W CPU, and plain impossible with a single 2750 RPM rated fan which is going to have to run at high PWM percentages often...
 

Markfw

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THIS IS TO ALL WHO HAVE A LIQUITECH TR4 COOLER. ENERMAX NOW REQUIRES YOU TO PAY RETURN SHIPPING ON YOUR RMA, EVEN THOUGH ITS KNOWN THAT EVERY ONE WILL FAIL IN A YEAR.

I am not going to even bother, just never going to buy from them again, and please pass the bad news on, I hope they get real bad reviews and go bankrupt.
 
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aigomorla

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Mark if i paid you for shipping do you mind sending me a busted unit?

I would like to check it out in detail along with the drive block.
 

Markfw

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Mark if i paid you for shipping do you mind sending me a busted unit?

I would like to check it out in detail along with the drive block.
Sure, flat rate medium bos is $13.65. I just tried it, and I will have to cheat and make the box about 1 inch longer, and I hope they still pickup/ship.

Otherwise, not sure what it would cost. If you want to try, just PM me your address, and I will send you my paypal.
 

Fir

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Jan 15, 2010
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Wow these should be recalled.
Truly a design defect.
Where are the engineers?
Shame on them for releasing a flawed design in 2017.
And making the customer pay to send it in only to send out a doomed product of the same, flawed design!
 
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