With the help of our sponsor, Lifens Wave Electric Toothbrush, we are giving David's Extreme Home Upgrade Machines the full treatment. I'm talking coolant change, de-gunking, O-ring lubrication. By the end of this, you guys are gonna know how to get your liquid cooling system running as good as new, no matter how scary it is. Oh my God. Can't believe I just put my mouth on that. What is that? We've never revisited a $5,000 tech upgrade, but looking at this, I feel like I should be keeping a closer eye on you guys. This is disgusting. My favorite is you can see the line where I once dusted, but then it's now been dusted over. So there's like beautiful texture of dust. I might've been responsible for this zip tie, was I? I think so. Yeah, this is kind of a roast of you. I like that. No. No. I didn't pick the parts for this. Is any water even getting through here? Yeah, I think. The first thing we're gonna do, assuming that we didn't configure our loop with a drain port, is pop one of our tubes in a way that, boop, it's easy to catch all of the water. Now to ensure that my instructions are clear and complete, we're gonna have David work on his second system while I work on the main one. You might not remember, but this is actually the second episode of Linus Cleans David's Tech for Free. One of my favorite tricks to clean out a loop, especially one that
you're about to clean anyway, is... Oh my God. Can't believe I just put my mouth on that. What is that? Was that ever alive? Much better. Funny note about their packaging, by the way. When I first saw this, I was like, "Wow, they really ripped off Apple's packaging." And then I found out they are literally using the same factory. Assuming your loop is not this nasty. It's a quick way to get everything drained out so that when you disconnect your hoses, they don't start leaking water all over the place. Because even once you've drained the reservoir, radiators can hold a significant amount of water. Now look, if you're looking at this so far going, oh my God, I wanna let you in on a little secret. Water cooling is not necessary to have a great gaming experience. I happen to love it, it's one of my passions. And if you're a silence enthusiast or you just like hot rodding
things for fun, you might wanna take the plunge. But the reality is that the inconvenience... generally outweighs the benefit. While no one really likes talking about it, least of all the manufacturers of AIOs, all kinds of water coolers can require maintenance in order to perform their best. Now, the additives that they put in the coolant and the low porosity tubing that they use in these all-in-one solutions should keep them running gunk-free for many years, but if you read the fine print, many generally means something like three or five. And I know a lot of people who expect more than five years of
dependability from their coolers. So while we're focused on custom water cooling, some of these same
principles could be applied to an AIO that is no longer performing its best. What's interesting is I don't see where these flakes came from in
either the CPU or GPU block. I don't know if that's reassuring or even scarier. Let's see how nasty my CPU block. Oh yeah. Oh shoot. Did you get CPU temps before we started? Because I didn't know it was this gross, I didn't think we were gonna need that. I promise you, 'cause I've seen it before, that this would have a multi-degree impact on cooling performance. Basically, this acceleration plate right here, the slit down the middle of it is completely jammed, and the water that's coming into this block is not able to get at the fins very well. It's slowing it down significantly. We need this loop clear. And we need this block clean, yuck. I do have to question the overall complexity of your setup here, David. You've got the gaming machine and then you've got, if I recall, the NAS/Capture PC. That's right.With virtualization. Yeah, the idea was that I could game unfettered on the gaming computer and then stream and capture at the same time on this. How long did that last? Not very long. I went to an older system that I had that's a little higher end. And I've been running that. But every time that I've needed to upgrade or fix or change it, I don't even want to think about it. I just like shove in the back, ignore it. What was your biggest mistake? Water cooling. And that's a really good point. Almost no one has a system that has compromised nothing on reliability and performance, whether it's a cheap HBA or a low end motherboard. And so often I see budget wasted on RGB or liquid cooling that could have been spent much more effectively elsewhere. So did you learn a valuable lesson at least David? Oh, yeah, that Linus will fix all my problems if I wait long enough
and pitch a good video. Thanks Laifen. For that you get the manual toothbrush and I get the Laifen so we can do our comparisons. I don't remember ever seeing anyone else recommend this stuff, but I've always liked Brasso for cleaning my blocks It's compatible with copper, brass, duh aluminum, chrome, nickel, and it contains a fine abrasive that helps to remove even tough oxidation and build up. To get the Brasso off we're going to need a hit of some other soap. I guess now's a good time to mention the IP7X water resistance of this toothbrush. Not every electric toothbrush is waterproof. One soapy rinse later Not bad. You can see around the outside, it still looks scummy, but if you look closely, you see copper through it. So that's not something sitting on the surface. We've actually worn through the nickel plating. There's nothing I can do to fix that with a toothbrush. Okay. So we both did pretty good, but getting into those little crevices there, there is no question that even though mine are finer, I was able to clean them better. I mean look, this is not a Laifen talking point. You talk to any
dentist and they'll be like, "Yeah, you should probably use this." Like, yeah, because they freaking work. Of course, if whatever gunk we found in our loop ended up being organic, we can't just clean the parts that affect performance or it's just going to grow back. So the next part I want to clean is this acrylic top. Now my understanding is you can actually use Brasso for that as well, but you can also use household cleaner or a headlight polish like this one. Whatever you do do, do not use alcohol or it'll end up looking like this. You know, I'm gonna take a shot with the Brasso and then we'll try this Plastix stuff. Dang Brasso, you awesome. And Laifen, I guess you guys helped too. Check that out. That is really good. That took two minutes. Now that David's done a round of manual cleaning, Laifen boasts that with their app, you can configure their brush to oscillate up to 60 degrees and it has 10 levels of power that vibrated up to 66 000 times a minute using their proprietary servo tech. They claim it's three times more powerful than the competition so let's see if we can take his block to another level. David, I had it at like 30 percent before. That was plenty of power. Ah okay. Yeah I actually have been using this thing for a couple of weeks now and that's the first thing I noticed about it, it's like holy crap is this thing ever powerful? Not gonna lie David everything you did kind of a waste of effort. That's a lot better. Yep. Again there's absolutely discoloration on the block but that's copper. That's where the nickel plating has been worn away by the erosive power of water. Looking great. Do you think brass was safe on this painted stuff? I think this is anodized aluminum. I'm pretty sure when I looked it up it was not. But it might be, let's see. I mean I can find out for you. How do you find out? It's aluminum so there's- But that's not even the loop that was having the issues. It will. I think this GPU block might be a little bit wonky there's like, it's like where it's oxidized I thought that was dirty but now I'm not- have you hit it with the toothbrush? oh I've hit it with the toothbrush. That's what happens when you mix metals. I didn't mix the metals! Yeah so it eats away at the aluminum and then I believe it deposits onto the copper. The good news is I wasn't actually really planning on using this card. The bad news is I was planning to sell it and now I can't really do that. Now that my block's as good as it's gonna get, it's time to put it back toget- Wait. Double check. Make sure A, that you've got all of your O-rings in place because if they're not, you're going to have water shooting everywhere inside your PC, and number two, if you're a smart boy, you're going to want to give them a quick lube before you reassemble them. We use this Synco stuff, but anything silicone not petroleum based should do you just fine. For those of you who do automotive work this won't be new information but when you are reassembling anything with a lot of fasteners you're going to want to go in a star type pattern to ensure that you're not just cranking one side causing the O-ring to slip out on the other side and then cranking that down, leaving it in a position where it's gonna cause a leak. Oh, I'm so happy with this result. I'm a little behind David. I think he's actually done his GPU block already, but you know what I say, quality first. Now we find out if David's gonna get some really bad news. Losing a 1080 Ti, that sucks. Losing a 3080? All right. I have more bad news. Oh, I don't like that. This block cannot be meaningfully cleaned without us pulling out like the heat gun and undoing the adhesive on this and ripping these two pieces off. Are we doing it? I think it needs to be cleaned. You saw what was in this loop. Yeah, let's do it. All right, the resale value goes. Also, this is acrylic. Oh. Our temperature control is not gonna be great. So you break my 3080, what happens? Well look, no, you're gonna do it. No! I am advising you, as your veterinarian, that your pet needs surgery. Oh God. If it dies- And so you're telling me to do surgery on my dog? I'll be there every step of the way. I don't want the liability! Oh my God, David, what are you doing? I might've put too much lube. No, you did put too much lube. Who taught you how to do this, Alex? You! No I did not! You said put it on your fingers and rub it through and that's
exactly what I did. I said put it on your fingers and run it through. Yeah, you just, you didn't tell me how much to put here. That's the problem. Specificity, Linus! Now I'm teaching you how to teach. Who's the
master now? Okay, well this is lubed. That little? Hey, hey, hey, hey, there we go. Yeah, buddy. 'Cause this one's not all corroded and stuff. So you can really see what a good job you can do with that. There you go. Not bad, huh? Almost as shiny as my toothbrush. We've already talked about the numbers that are possible thanks to the sophisticated servos with tech that Laifen claims has only ever been used in robot arms before now, but it also uses hall effect sensors to generate consistent brushing power and that helps it hit that 60 degree oscillation with an accuracy of 0.1 degrees, which is pretty cool when you see the price. I've been using one for about a month now. I'm really pleased with the results of it. And I've only had to charge it once in the entire time that I've had it. You remember your janky solution for this pump? No. Strip the wires and shove them into here. Oh yeah. And you were like, replace the cable. I'm like, what cable? The pump? Yeah. You just take this and then you, you know, put a muret on it and then you get a molex and you put a muret on that and then you make a molex end for it. It sounds like- Sounds like something that never happened. No, it happened. I just disassembled it for the video. Oh, it stinks.The pump stinks? Oh God, that does stink. It's green. Is it possible that we had no biocide on the day of the shoot? And I said, "Hey, make sure you throw some biocide in here." It's been drained and filled a couple of times. So every time I move, I drain it. 'Cause it's just, they're so heavy with water in it. So I think I actually did put iodine in it the first time, but not the second two times. And now he knows, just in time for him to never water-cool again. Yeah, it looks a little worse for the wear, but the inside is
clean, and for that matter, so is the back, which means now is a perfect time to replace our thermal goop. It's generally good for five-plus years, but David never does
maintenance, and I'm not coming back to this thing, so we're gonna upgrade to the PTM 7950 phase change thermal pads that we just started stocking on lttstore.com. This stuff lasts... A FREAKING LONG TIME. Yeah, I'm gonna find a way for you to come back to this. Nope, nope. These just came out of the fridge, so that means I need to move
pretty quickly to get it measured. And cut. If I wait too long, it's gonna melt. That's the phase change part of phase change thermal pad. So, why does it have to be cold when it's installed? 'Cause it's gonna go to room temp right away. Because, otherwise, when you pull the plastic protective covering off of it, it rips it apart. Oh, okay. As for the rest of our pads, they're in pretty good condition, and I'm not worried about those ones drying out over time. I guess you really are passionate about water cooling, 'cause you've been in the game since before there was PC water cooling parts. There were some. Okay. But a lot of people were using pumps from aquarium suppliers and stuff like that back in the day. There used to be a point to it. Water cooling was, and actually still is, the quietest way to cool a computer, but it's only quiet if you configure it in a particular way. The average person putting an AIO in their system or even building a modest custom loop is not really getting the silence benefit that I would be looking
for. You need big radiators with super slow moving fans, a particular
pump, like it ends up being a really big system. Yeah, and computers are kind of getting smaller these days. Tell that to the GPU makers, got 'em. Speaking of a particular pump, this is the one. The Lang D5 and its variants are among the highest performance and more importantly, highest reliability pumps that you can get for PC water cooling. So I've been holding onto this one for eight years in hopes of restoring it to its former glory. You see, it went through some stuff when it was installed in whole room water cooling. All that time ago, and we had a cheap reservoir from Princess Auto, rust, and, uh, well, this. This will be your greatest challenge. I don't quite have enough to submerge it. Okay, there we go. So there's that, like, water filter thing, right? Yeah. That's what it is. Oh, no way! I have never seen that before! That's the shmoo! That's the shmoo! It was just a tiny little piece, and I went to pick it up, and it,
like, fell apart in my hands. It's that, that, that EK little puck? Yeah. So, they've got this anti-vortex, like, kind of mesh puck thing
that is included in some of their reservoirs, and something about your system, you know, I don't know that those
are compatible with iodine. Oh, maybe. I've used iodine in my loops for a long time, but that's not necessarily something that EK recommends. That makes so much more sense than this tubing, which was our leading theory so far, 'cause we've deployed this stuff dozens of times internally, and it's been great. But then, I mean, the same goes for those, so I don't know. Radiators can be a little physically challenging to clean, but the idea is simple. You just get yourself a pair of oven mitts. Then you fill the radiator with the hottest 75/25 water vinegar mix that you can handle. You plug the ends, almost sealed, not quite sealed, and then shake. Linus, what are you doing? You really do want this to be as vigorous as you can possibly handle for as long as you can possibly handle. Oh, and the reason that we don't fully seal them is that the radiator starts cold and the fluid that you put into them is hot. And what can happen is if it's sealed, pressure can build up. And then when you go to unseal them, you can get vinegar water spraying out of it. And it's really unpleasant. So we want, to be a little bit open so that pressure can be released as we're shaking. All right, that's probably- Once it runs clear, I'd give it another blast or two with just the hot water and then you should be good to go. Now for our last component, a lot of people don't bother cleaning and reusing their tubes, but as a certified cheapskate, I do. Nothing gets me going like saving a buck. All you need is a little pipe cleaner like this, you can get this at the dollar store. And then for good measure, if you use compression fittings or realistically any kinds of fittings, you're gonna wanna find anywhere where the tubing's deformed, and cut that off. If you had a little bit of extra length, then your runs should still be good, and you can totally reuse this. We've soaked these rusty parts in CLR for quite a long time now, we're gonna try and see how much rust comes off. It's still pretty rusty. But it's definitely an improvement. I'm back and the system looks, I mean, so much better. Yeah, a lot better. You mounted your reservoir a little wrong, but the clamp goes on the pump, not on the- It's an aesthetic choice. Good job. Thank you. But the temps are great! Check this out. How long has this game been running? Oh, an hour. Okay, cool. So let's just pop over into hardware info. We're looking at GPU temps of, I don't know, maybe 45 degrees, hotspot temps of 56, and our CPU temps are sitting in the neighborhood of about- 55 degrees. It's pretty quiet too. Yeah, only the power supply is making noise. Okay, maybe water cooling's still cool. It's definitely cool. It is. But I will not do it again. That's pretty cool. Oh my God, his arm! Jeez. It's Fear. I can definitely see the fun immediately though. Oh yeah. As unrealistic as it might be. Wait, what? How did? Those guys are really tough. Like you'll have to slow-mo to get around them and shoot their tanks. Oh, all right. Or I could just not. I could just do the conclusion of this video. Our blocks might be clean, but our toothbrush heads are decidedly not. Do not Brasso, then brush your teeth. Thankfully, the replacements are affordable. They're about 10 bucks for three. And while there are a lot of alternatives actually to what we did. Like an ultrasonic cleaner or a flow cleaner or just plain old
elbow grease. I'm pretty impressed at how these worked. Of course, the best
alternative is to optimize your loop so that it doesn't need as much maintenance in the first
place. Low porosity tubing like EK's ZMT or zero maintenance tubing will
reduce evaporation from your system so you don't need to do as many top ups but that does nothing to prevent growth. So I always recommend distilled water with a couple drops of biocide. Like iodine to make sure that things stay sanitary in there. Just make sure that it doesn't interact with anything else in your loop. We don't know that that's what happened to EK's little filter thing, but maybe it is. Of course, none of that stuff looks as good as the cool tubing and colored coolant. So if you do want that stuff... It's dead anyway. Cool. Just make sure that you configure your system with a drain port at the bottom and your pump directly below your reservoir. You'll find this whole process, if you have to do it much faster and simpler. Just like brushing your teeth. We have a few more things to cover for Laifen. Their wave toothbrush lasts about two hours on battery and charges in just two and a half hours. And it's available in three different configurations. With this one being the world's first aluminum alloy electric toothbrush built from one seamless piece. It's a little specific, but hey, at least there's a benefit to it 'cause you won't get any dirt buildup getting into the crevices. It starts at $70 for the plastic version and they all have the same ergonomic handle, extra wide 60 degree oscillation and powerful 66,000 vibrations per minute that mean you can deep clean your teeth or your computer like a pro. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out David's $5,000 tech upgrade. Yes, it was full of exactly that kind of chaotic energy, but maybe more even.
