Does anyone know how this could have happened? It looks kind of cool..

Picture shows a comparison between used and new tubing. The coolant was blue car antifreeze with distilled water. (The green blotch is from my spray-painted pump, not relevant here.) There's no smell or visible mass inside, and the blackness seems like a semitranslucent layer that covers or is part of the tubing now.

Always wanted to do a custom water cooled pc. I decided to do a “wall art” style build.

This is my first ever attempt at water cooling. I also never liked the look of the metal fittings so kept those to a minimum.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Ventus 3X OC — 16GB GDDR7
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B850-E WiFi
RAM: 64GB G.Skill DDR5-6000 CL30
Storage: Crucial P310 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Power Supply: MONTECH Century II 1050W
Water Pumps: 2× Alphacool VPP Apex D5 pumps
Reservoirs: 2× Alphacool Core 200 Aurora reservoirs
CPU Water Block: Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
GPU Water Block: Alphacool full-cover RTX 5070 Ti water block
Radiators: 2× Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 360mm full-copper radiators

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to share the condition of my Heatkiller IV Pro CPU water block after ~ 6.5 years of use.

The loop has been running only on distilled water with Mayhems Inhibitor+ and Biocide+ and was never fully drained. About once a year, sometimes every 1.5 years, the pc was disconnected from the MO-RA and only part of the water was drained.

Overall, I think it's held up pretty well. No visible signs of corrosion, just some exposed copper where the nickel plating has worn off.

Before and after cleaning:

My favorite is the always-popular air pressure tester.

Fantastic tool to check for leaks before adding coolant but it can also....

Pressurize a loop from the top to help with draining.

Pressurize a reservoir to help force out those damned air bubbles that get stuck in your pump.

What other off-label uses have you found for common water-cooling gear?

I ordered few GPU water blocks week ago, and I have no response from them. They were on stock, so i expected that by end of the week they would at least ship them. Received just confirmation mail, but pretty much that's it. Sent them email - no response. My order is still not shipped. So anyone knows more about them?

After recent video from Derbauer, where he talked about avaiablity issues of liquid metal ingredients, I decided to buy a syringe just to have some spare for future builds. Not saying I think the prices will increase soon, but I was buying other things, so decided to add it to cart.

I didn't know they now have conductonaut extreme available (I know this is not a new product, but I had old stuff before, bough few years ago, I was not following them for development news). Reading the description, I see that new stuff is sltigtly more dense, so I assume there is some difference in the mix. They also advertise it as "optimised" for high power density. I would think that means it has better thermal conductivity?

Anyway, I tried to look around for test results, but I'm probably looking in wrong places. Do any of you have some factual data, is there a noticible difference between those two?

Hi! First time custom loop builder here. I just bought this flow indicator because I think it looks sick:

PC Water Liquid Cooling DNA Flow Meter Flow Indicator with Female G1/4" Threads (black) - Newegg.com

But I am worried about it causing corrosion or gunk in the loop? I asked them and this was their response:

"The materials in contact with the coolant in this flow meter are primarily stainless steel, acrylic, and brass. All surfaces have been treated with anti-corrosion coatings and are specifically designed for liquid cooling systems.

These materials are safe and compatible with common ethylene glycol-based or propylene glycol-based coolants. They are resistant to long-term immersion and will not cause chemical reactions or release impurities into your loop system"

Any thoughts from some veterans who can help me? Thanks!