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CoolerMaster AquaGate Liquid Cooling System |
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Installation Problems
The first time I turned on the PC after installing the AquaGate – there is no separate switch for it – the computer powered up and POSTed, but nothing happened on the AquaGate. No LCD, no fan, no pump noise. I quickly shut down the PC and checked that everything was plugged in, but still nothing. After several minutes of confusion, I realised that I had the pass-though power cable plugged into the back of the LCU, and not the 220V AC cable converter that I should have been using! USA-style 110V plugs usually look very different to our Australian 240V plugs, so I didn’t even think when I plugged in the standard pass-through power cable.
Panic and much cursing followed after I plugged the correct 220V power converter cable into the LCU and still nothing happened when the PC was powered on. I spent an hour or so cursing my bad luck (or was it stupidity) at killing the unit before I even got to use it – I fully expected that supplying 240V to the 110V intake of the LCU had fried every internal component.
It was only after I was ready to disassemble the system, that I noticed that I’d not connected a molex power cable to the molex connector on the internal PCI card. Nowhere in the manual does it say to connect power to the molex connector, nor in any of the multitude of pictures does it ever show the molex power attached, so I thought that it was perhaps an ‘optional extra’ provided for additional functions I had not come across yet.
However, I was rather pleased when – after plugging in a molex power connector to the PCI card, and using the correct power converter cable to power the pump – the AquaGate started to work. At least, it started to make noise. Lots of noise, and mostly of the grinding, scraping, crunching, plastic-components-destroying-themselves kind.
CoolerMaster had indicated to us previously that: “the sample that we sent you (aquagate liquid cooling system) is for 110V/ 60Hz. although there is a 110V to 220V cable inside. but frequency is still not suitable for countries that use 50 Hz … if you use the aquagate, you will notice : the pump will generate strange noise. that's all … we will release 2 version one is for 110V/60 and the other is for 220 V / 50 … so just to let you know that the sample that you got is not suitable for your country at the moment … btw they are engineering sample only and it is not finalised as the one will be bought in the market.”
I’m not an electrical engineer, and I really did not know what to expect from a pump that is operated using the wrong AC frequency, but I didn't expect the extremely loud grinding, scraping and crunching type noises that the pump was making. To me it really did sound like the pump was destroying itself. Thinking something was wrong, I shut the system down fairly quickly, but each time I started it up again, it made the same loud annoying noises, and I was persuaded that these were indeed the noises that I was warned to expect and that I should continue to test the unit.
After running through a number of cooling tests, and using the system for about 4 or 5 hours, the loud pump noises suddenly stopped and we were left with a blissfully soft-humming noise. Again, to my untrained ear and non-electrical engineer’s knowledge the soft hum sounded like the pump stalling and failing to work. Immediately I expected that the pump had failed, so I started to closely watch the temperatures, and try to determine if there was still fluid flowing in the pipes – which was not easy given that all the air bubbles had been bled out, and that the fan was causing a small amount of vibration. After a while I concluded that our now almost silent system was functioning as normal. I repeated a few of the previous temperature tests and achieved the same results, so concluded that everything was functioning the same as it had previously except at a much more bearable sound level.
Since then I have run the system for several weeks with no problems and with the pump making no audible sound – most of the time. However when the system is shut down and turned on, or the pump’s power is cycled, it will revert back to its loud grinding and scraping type sounds. This will last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so, before it goes back to being virtually silent, or sometimes it will revert to a soft humming sound. Occasionally the pump will also decide to be noisy – for no apparent reason – even after using it for quite some time.
All I can say is that CoolerMaster did warn us that the pump was being operated at the wrong frequency, and that they will be shipping new pumps, that work with the appropriate AC frequency, with the retail AquaGate kits. I am not going to try to explain the noises the pump made, but if you intend to purchase an AquaGate unit, ensure that you get one with the correct pump for your location.
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