Reconfiguring the Pink PC

Our console-killer needs some love to get it ready for testing

LENGTH OF TIME: 2–3 HOURS

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: COMPLEX

OUR $3,333 PINK PARIAH has had its fair share of knocks and scrapes since we built it pre-lockdown, and it’s in dire need of a renovation and some key component adjustments before we can inject any new coolant into the thing.

At its heart this machine has an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X six-core, 12-thread processor, an Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 OC Edition graphics card, 16GB (2x 8GB) of Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 @ 3,200MT/s, and a 1TB WD Black PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD with heatsink, all inside a Phanteks Evolv Shift X (sadly no longer for sale), and powered via a 750W Corsair SF750 80+ Platinum PSU.

Back in its heyday, it was no slouch in the performance department (especially for living -room gaming), but with the advent of the RTX 3000 series, Intel’s 10 series CPUs, and AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series, it’s now somewhat long in the tooth. However, the thing it has always done really well is produce heat. And that’s something we absolutely need to test out here. With the panels on and dust filters in place, this tiny system often hit 85 C on the GPU alone during long-term intense gaming sessions at 4K.

When this editor’s future spouse got fed up of it being in the living room and told him to move it upstairs, we removed one of the rear glass panels and pulled off the dust filters from the sides with the radiators attached to improve airflow, and this dramatically affected temperatures—under-load GPU temps topped out at a meager 59 C compared to that aforementioned 85 C, with CPU temps

hitting 69 C max. Neat, and that’s just adjustments to intake air, plus space to exhaust that heat.

THE UPGRADES

So, what needs fixing? Well, the problems lie in both the usability of the machine for draining and filling, and some potential issues that may arise in the future in the form of the water blocks we originally attached to the CPU and GPU.

When we built it we decided to use Phanteks’ latest liquid-cooled water blocks. Everything else—frosted tubing, pump, reservoir, RGB rings, and radiators—came from Alphacool. For our coolant, we went with Mayhems’ Pink Pastel.

The problem is that the water blocks on the CPU and GPU have developed microfractures around the G1/4-inch ports. We think this is due to user error, because we used ethanol to clean the blocks during the original photo shoot. Using alcohol on plexi typically causes it to shrink, then develop microfractures. Over time, they can lead to fullblown leaks. Not good.

We also need to add a decent drain port at the bottom of the system, and preferably an aeration port at the top as well. For all of this we reached out to Alphacool to get some additional gear in to reconfigure the loop for our new tests. This included a new CPU block, a new GPU block, and a few new fittings to add an aeration valve. But that does mean we need to fully drain, strip, and reconfigure the system ready for the tests.

01 OF MICROFRACTURES AND MEN

HERE WE HAVE a prime example of what we’re talking about with regard to those microfractures. These have been developing slowly over time on the block, ever since the photo shoot, progressively getting worse, but as this rig isn’t used often, they’ve not been at the top of our list of priorities. You can see the fractures are emanating from the G1/4-inch ports themselves— this is obviously where there’s a considerable amount of pressure being pushed down and where the plexi glass is weakest. Top tip: Don’t use alcohol wipes on your plexi blocks.

02 DRAIN PORT CANDIDATES

THIS IS OUR FIRST CANDIDATE for a drain port location. Thanks to the design of the Alphacool radiators, there are multiple G1/4inch ports on both sides. This is the slim 120mm radiator we have in the “bottom” of our case, next to the PSU. The 120mm fan there effectively sits below the chassis, stuck between the case and its detachable feet. In a perfect world, we’d disassemble the entire machine, drill out the plate, and attach a 90-degree fitting and a ball valve. However, the radiator has an additional port, facing out on the other side, which could be a better solution, and it doesn’t require any modding. The only problem is that if a ball valve is used there, it will stick out the back of the case, and you won’t be able to reattach the side panel (or tempered glass window).

03 AERATION VALVE

ONE OF THE KEY PRINCIPLES involved when it comes to draining a liquid-cooled system is the movement of air and pressure. Gravity helps you move some fluid from a pressurized system, but if you don’t have air passing through it, it’s a very slow process. In systems with both a fill and a drain port, usual best practice is to open the drain port (draining the coolant out into a bucket), and open the fill port as well, so air passes through and the coolant flows out at a much faster rate. Because our system’s fill port is located in the middle of our PC, this does present some issues when it comes to draining. So, we’re adding an additional aeration valve (effectively a T-block fitting, with a plug on top of it) at the very top of our rig, to help the draining process.

04 SYSTEM DRAINED

TO DRAIN OUR SYSTEM, we moved to it a sink, carefully unplugged the bottom port on the radiator, and quickly attached a length of soft tubing, placing the end in the sink. Then we opened up the fill port on the reservoir and began to drain the coolant as best we could. As our fill port is in the middle of the loop, we attached a clean length of soft tube to it, then blew into it, to encourage the rest of the coolant to leave the system. Only do this if you’re replacing your coolant with one that contains a biocide, because it can introduce bacteria to the system and encourage organic growth. Once as much of the coolant was out as possible, we started to disassemble the various parts of the machine, including the GPU. G1/4 ports on different manufacturers’ blocks can be in different locations, so it’s no guarantee that, when swapping blocks, the tubing will fit back in place afterward, but it’s handy to keep them nonetheless.

05 BLOCK SWITCH

WITH THE GPU OUT, we then turned to the CPU block, and removed that as well, being extra careful because the RGB cable plugs directly into the case itself. Here is where we made our first mistake, because we accidentally got some coolant on the board. We did the best we could, mopped it up with a microfiber cloth, then used a heatgun to dry the board off—however, this would come back to bite us later. Then we placed in the new Alphacool block (a satin block to match our tubing), and attached the DRGB frame as well, and plugged it into the header close by. After that, we were lucky, in that all the tubing runs we’d used in the previous build fitted perfectly back into position, with some help from a bit of flexibility from those angled fittings.

06 T-BLOCK INSERTION

WE THEN REMOVED the topmost tubing run (now hanging loose since the removal of the GPU), and placed it to one side. With the 90-degree fitting out, we installed a small male-to-male extension, then screwed in a T-block—a giant extension fitting that has G1/4 threads at three locations. You can also get X-blocks and Y-blocks. They’re usually designed for adding drain ports, or splitting flow off in parallel loop designs, where coolant flows through two separate runs at once. We’re using it as a pseudo 90-degree fitting, then placing a plug on top to act as an aeration valve. There’s a slight issue with the fact that it’s not rotary, as once it’s secured, that’s the angle you get. Fortunately, the panel pass-through fitting it’s attached to can rotate in the hole we originally cut out of the case, so it’s not an issue. If you use one, pair it with a male-to-male rotary extender, to avoid the problem.