Are Distro Plates worth it for watercooling?
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- čas přidán 11. 11. 2023
- Ive been using Distro Plates in my last coulle builds and today we will talk about why!
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Huge tip for screws going into any kind of plastic or acrylic, manually put them in, and always turn your screwdriver backwards till you feel the screw drop into the existing tap.
Or just start it by hand and thread it in half way by hand .....
if you're worried about scratches on acrylic, you could always get a roll of PPF (paint protection film), which is clear, thin, UV resistant and any scratches you make will heal out with some heat. more commonly used on the front ends of higher-priced cars but their application potential is huge.
Solution for scratches in Acrylic, wipe it down with Future Floor Polish or any acrylic floor polish. It will fill the scratches making them invisible at the same time adds a protective coating.
I found a product called polywatch works great for scratches.
Sanding and buffing is always superior.
Sand with 1000 grit, 1500 grit, 2000 grit, 2500 grit, 3000 grit, 5000 grit and any buffer will make it pop better than new.
A major con with distro plates is if they are taking up critical fan/radiator space. If it's sitting on something solid like the PSU shroud on a Corsair 1000D then sure, go for it, but I wouldn't want to otherwise block airflow/cooling. Plus the prices on many of them are pretty crazy for just being a "tube" that might help with alignment of your actual tubes.
Circular scratches can be seen from any angle, straight scratches can only be seen from one. That's why they tell you to clean your glasses with a back and forth motion instead of little circles. Just something to consider.
One suggestion that may benefit... As you take your screws out, label or place them so that the same screw goes into the same hole. Acrylic is very soft and you may find that the treads are slightly different from hole to hole. I did have this issue on a GPU block one time, where I had to use clear silicon to seal the screw to thread. Just a suggestion!
Opps, forgot. To keep the screws in check with the plate, I trace the plate out on paper. Then mark the holes on the paper and place the screw on/near the hole as I remove it.
@@Damien_Clarke also make sure to turn the screw anti clock wise or "loose" until you feel and hear the screw fall down a little bit when reinstalling them, just to make sure you use the same thread from before and dont tap new threads
Only way to crack the distribution plate is going oversized screws in the screw holes as it will expand to the point resulting the spiderweb cracks to appear. Jay need to demonstrate this to prove a point
Some solid advice from you both.
Wish i knew this when i built my first pc😂
If you want to avoid getting scratches on the acrylic, you can use ceramic nano coating just like they use on car paint. Most ceramic coating play very well with acrylic and will dry to a rock hard, completely clear finish. You could use PPF, but PPF has thickness and cutting all of the holes is a pain. PPF may also yellow over time if you use UV lights in the system. The ceramic coating wipes on and polishes out very easily.
N3 Nano from Blacktail Studio is pretty much made for these, he made the stuff so he would get amazing finish and protection on wood but also epoxy, so the acrylic would also be great to use it on. With a case like those wood ones that are coming out recently you could protect your case and your distroplates.
I tend to make false walls, floors or ceilings out of coloured acrylic (to match the case) and have passthrough fittings so that all my runs in the main chamber are straight and the corresponding ones in the rear are where I make all my joins. I did make a feature out of them when I used a false roof. It looked good seeing all the twists and turns through the glass top with all straight vertical runs coming from the components.
With my underwater camera's i have learned to always grease the O-ring ever so slightly, it will snuggle into the recess more easily and expand more easily with less chance of damage to the O-ring. After tightening check the squeezed O-ring for conformity and hairs or debris that by accident got stuck in there. This works very well with acrylic housings, for metal housings a circuit that checks for leaks is almost a necessity.
Like always: It depends. It can replace a classic Reservoir, holds one or more pumps and makes tubing easier with less bends. So it depends on hardware, amount of connectors (how much hw plus radiators), used case, amount of pumps etc.
Man. I'm starting to really get into PC building. Just built my first custom waterloop yesterday. This is great advice
I loved using a distro plate for my first build, it significantly lowered the entry barrier for hardtubing (& watercooling in general) as it standardized tubing placement (using an EKWB distro plate on my O11D XL)
It also looks quite good as a front panel replacement so it was very satisfying to turn on the first time.
I strongly recommend this for first time builders, that way you don't need to get into complex bends from the start. I'll probaby go full DIY on my next build, but I still have a couple years to go with this one!
Used one for my first hard tube build in an O11XL and my main take away was the D5 pump was a lot noiser on the distro than my previous build because you can't really dampen it as well. Also it doubles your fittings and can make your build feel less unique as you are following the distro plate for your tubing runs. Gonna go without on my next build and see how I get on.
O11XL with distroplate leads to such clean lines. Love it
an item of note if using a drill, if it has a clutch you can always set it to a very sensitive setting as a last line of defense.
8:10 finally Phill edited his face in when Jay mentioned a Phill port 😂
"Here's your fill" *pop in Phil's face* Its the little things. Great edits!
I would suggest using a faux leather cloth, FAR less chance of scratching, no possibility of lint and is amazing for clear or mirror surfaces
I was looking to minimize the complexity of my first ever hard-tubing build, so I bought the Lian Li O11D-XL specifically for its custom distro plate. That ended up having a lot of benefits:
1) The case had a designated spot for mounting the distro plate (and its integrated pump and reservoir), so installation was extremely easy.
2) The case, distro plate, and water blocks (all EKWB) were designed such that all the ports were vertically aligned, meaning all the tubing runs were level and needed only one bend.
3) Designing the loop was easier since the distro plate has dedicated ports for every one of your parts (GPU goes here, CPU goes here...) and they've literally drawn you a picture of how to connect it all in the manual.
4) It had a fill port in the best possible spot at the top of the case and a drain port in the best possible spot at the bottom of the case. Compared to my friend who neglected these things, filling (from a squeeze bottle) and bleeding was extremely fast and easy.
5) It looks cool as hell. I filled it with Primochill's Vue, so you can see the coolant flowing and swirling around the entire front of the case (and all the tubing and water blocks). I saw Jay's video on that stuff and it's the entire reason I decided to water-cool.
Do you need one? No, water cooling is almost entirely pointless and you don't "need" any of it. For someone doing their first hard-tubing build, though, it made things really simple and the end result looks really good. Main downside I see is the simplified plumbing-the primary reason I bought it-doesn't look as interesting as the more creative tubes-running-everywhere routing you see in Jay's fully custom routing.
I also have the EKWB Reflection 2 distro plate for my O11D XL. I love that I only needed 5 straight tubing runs for my triple radiator loop. Push-in fittings for all but one of the radiator terminals connect them directly to the plate, and then it's one tiny run for the side rad. With the help of two 45 degree adapters and two 90 degree ones, the GPU has two straight runs to the plate. Two extenders and two 90 degree adapters allow for straight runs to the CPU. The EK converction D5 cover makes the pump look cool too. I wouldn't do another loop without one of these distro plates, honestly.
thats funny because i did the same, my first watercooled build in the OD11XL with the distroplate from EKWB and i basically needed only one 90° bend on each of all six tubes. together with Lian Li's SL infinity fans my build has a sick horizontal theme
If you had the Reflection2 distro in the O11D XL and had to do any bends at all, you did it wrong.
Was the pump noise on distro plate an issue?
The good thing about acrylic is that all of those little scratches can be buffed out fairly easily. On vintage watches, or modern watches with acrylic crystals, something like polywatch is commonly used with a rag to remove the scratches. Or if the scratches are worse a fine sandpaper will do. Anyways, it's not permanent.
What
Wouldnt sandpaper just make this worse?
@@nemtudom5074 well, yes...at first. once you get through the scratches you obviously need to switch to something even more fine to get it clear again. it's not a single grit solution
I used a EKWB Distro Plate in the O11D XL. But i switched to an TBE200 with D5 Pump. Distroplate is was more restrictive and much more noisier. The proper way is to use a tank pump combo, that is decoupled.
Just saw your digital storm ad after my Duolingo daily lesson!
Y’all rock
For the ATX, 3 rad build I'm working on in a 011 Mini, the EK from distro with pump has made it a lot easier.
You can polish acrylic pretty easily and by hand for anyone uspet that they scratched it. Also most the coolant will etch the acrylic if you spill on it but acrylic poilish a lot of the time will remove it.
A high grit polishing compound would be able to remove those superficial scratches. Chloroform might be able to "reflow" those deeper scratches, but i haven't try it before.
I use one in my custom build mostly because of the layout and size to fit where nithing was ever designed to go. For mine its purely aesthetic and just a way to make the build look more interesting and custom.
One important point: When screwing the screws to plastic, remember to first use just your fingers to rotate the screw counter-clockwise until it kinda bumps, meaning it hit its original thread, and then lightly begin to screw it in, and then finish it with a screwdriver. Plastic is so soft you'll easily accidentally crossthread it, which could cause the screws not be as tight as needed, or worse, not thread at all.
Thanks Phil
I'm glad you mentioned about alcahol on the seals I never knew that thanks
Great video jay and Phil
You are very informative. Thank you.
In my experience a distroplate is only useful if you are doing hard tubes and not using crossflow rads. If you are using crossflow rads and/or soft tubes it's usually easier just to route from one loop component to the next. If you are doing a SFF rig you're usually better off with a pump/res combo or a pump/block combo and using soft tubes.
I do wonder if there's distro plate that actually just a thin resevoir
@@bocahdongo7769 EK makes one - Jay used a 120mm flat reservoir in the "Mega Man" build - and Performance-PCs has a few "made to order" options as well.
@@bocahdongo7769 Yes EK makes various sizes(120,240, 360 etc) that are one in 1 out res tanks only, same thing with a pump so you have a flat res/pump vs the tube/pump combo many have. So you can get however you want with them.
great infor foe me! Thanks Jayz
@JaysTwoCents with my flt 240 ive found if you soak it in decently warm soap water overnight that it can lift most of the residue left behind in those milling grooves. But you have to start with warm water and let it cool overnight. I just use dish soap, just enough to suds slightly when you splash it around because too much and you will be rinsing it off forever. In college i had a dishwashing job and this is the trick I used on the really dirty pans, with pans i generally just needed hot water but the particles in fluid are so small ive found the soap helps lift it off, also ive never felt comfortable using scalding hot water on the acrylic, im sure it could take it but i just stick to a temp that is uncomfortable only if you leave your hand in it for a bit
Wow! That Corsair link looks revolutionary. Also thanks for the video, Jay!
That was unexpected extremely satisfying
I love them personally, it adds more water volume to the loop plus you can have a second pump which makes the liquid flow fast or it can simply be used to overcome resistance say when you have a LOT of bends or 90 degree fittings or the case is just huge so the loop is huge to
If the acrylic is decent quality (some isn't!) I would recommend Novus Scratch Remover. Amazing stuff.
Jay, can you do a video on a basic water cooling loop? Nothing super high end and see how that compares at an aio.
Polywatch.
Meant for refinishing acrylic watch crystals.
Works like a charm for buffing out small scratches.
It would be nice to use matte clear pff film over the distro plates, would also save it from being scratched
Maybe next video, you guys could try polishing the inside of the distro-blocks? Maybe compare its light diffusion with a non-polished version! Would be really cool. :)
That large distro could be used in the V3000 Plus... also has enough room for Rads/Dual Loop
If planning to fill with a tube and fitting from a seperate reservoir, use a ball valve with a m-m fitting to the distro plate, easy fix if too much added in top.
Have the Corsair XD7 pump/res/distro combo in my build. Got it because I like the look of it.
Video coming in clutch! I’m looking into doing my
First water loop build selling my kraken z73 and using that cash for a cpu loop.
Really enjoyed this video. They aren't for me but I can see their use
In my limited experience, Acrylic and Acetal is where you need to be careful with over tightening. The Acetal will crack before the Acrylic.
As someone who has run into the issue with acrylic, try to use a cleaner without ammonia to clean it. Ammonia can leave chemical damage over time in acrylic. If you only clean it a few times it may not be a problem, but the more you use it, it can leave damage.
I love custom water cooling it’s so freakin rad man. I’d love to get into it I just feel it’s a lot of flippin work and stress. I already monitor my system like a maniac lmao .
I think they're extremely handy. It's definitely a case of practice makes perfect. I've seen builds with No tubing, just fittings/connectors and distroplates bringing the cpu, gpu, reservoirs and rads together.
C'mon Jay you're a gearhead! Proper torque and tightening techniques!
Is there a rad w/ integrated pump or pump housing on the market? I would like to see a build w/o reservoir, since you could maximize the cooling capacity in a limit space. I can understand the usage of the distro plate, but it kinda still takes quite a lot of space. Maybe if you could fit it behind/under MB or utilize it as an windowed side panel, that would be a "cool" setup.
You know what I'd like to see? A case that's "made of" distro plates. That is, make 1+ panels just be integrated distro plates. Having that and/or the reservoir just be integrated into the frame like that could be neat.
I always like to rub a bit of silicone grease against o-rings when cleaning blocks, that prevents them from drying out or becoming stiff
Still be careful with the torque on the screws. Too tight and stress cracks could start forming once a few heat cycles have went by
I am srsly waiting for the 901 pro project. I just found the case last week and, atleast on paper, I think its close to perfect. Love to see your opinion.
In my current build also using the o11xl, I considered but ultimatly decided against using a distro plate. I used 3 rads and didnt like the obstructed glass panel look. But more importantly, I wanted to have full creative control over my tubing. In fact I actually didnt even use any angle pieces, so every path is bended end to end.
I should also mention this is my first ever watercooled build and for that i think i did a solid job.
the floor distro plate with pump and tank combo would be nice. like have the pump under the plate and have a tank that screws top of it. ofc it would not work with every case but with cases that have basement and a cutout it would be nice. example being having the pump under it and have a tank on top of it then the pump pushes the fluid in to the plate from the tank
fast forward to Jay vacuum filling his system.
Love to see a review over the raijintek Styx case windowed or not.
Its the fitting holes in the plates that are more prone to cracking not the screw holes. My EK 011D distro plate has cracked on almost every fitting hole and some of those I've never used. I suspect it had small cracks from manufacturing and then over time the contraction/expansion has made them spread.
Wow! Its nice
We did some testing with acrylic parts in a lab just a week ago. Had a piece of it locked in a vise so our largest guy could hammer on it until it broke. It took him *several* attempts, and even when the material gave, it would initially not break, but bend.
TL;DR: acrylic is no structural metal, but it's also no pushover.
Jay explaining why he is using a drill was the most tim the tool man thing lol
If you are handy with onshape/fusion, you can design your own. I have some ideas for one my mercury S8.
Will you do the challenge Steve asked you to do in a recent video with the new EK distro plate? One side clear, the other side full of fitting holes.
I have a triple 360mm rad system with the EK Reflection 2 distro in a 0-11 XL.
It's been bugging me for week while watching your videos and it finally hit me. You remind me of Jon Sklaroff.
I got a distro plate made from Performance PC's. I'm happy with mine, got me the look I wanted for my Corsair 7000D.
Ekwb looks way better I had the performance and ek blows it away
I have a member in my group that is building cooling blocks. I would love to see one on this channel as a review
The suction caused by the gap sucking the fluid in is called capillary action. 14:16
Well, I know one thing for sure. They look dope!
The distro plate I bought for my case, the most common Lian Li XL, was $350. The CPU holes don't align with the CPU block. I have to do 45 degree bends to get the tubes to be parallel with the block. The Distro is also not tight fitting. There is a seal worth of movement with it. I kinda of expected something costing that much to fit with precision. Let alone the screws provided with the distro were actually too short to actually mount. I has to use old screws I had from construction work, switch or outlet screws. Sadly I was let down.
I use dielectric grease for the o-ring to keep it moist, not a lot just a thin layer
I found a way to get rid of any scratches on. Acrylic using the Autoglym headlight scratch removing kit and it works really well. 😮😮
Have you thought about using a Cericoat on the acrylic? Would protect from those scratches.
You mean Cerakote? Waste of money, go buy some PPF.
The manufacture may have recommended torque values for their screws.
Then there are the original O11 D distro plate with dance lian li logos on the side. Hiding half the screws to make it impossible to take it apart to clean. Thanks lianli
Meguir's plastX plastic polish will clear up acrylic in a heart beat... did EVERY SINGLE BLOCK back in the day.
that's why I always sand blast or just wet sand my acrylic to make it matte. Plus matte finish Acrylic make the light refract everywhere!
Sorry Jay, for me after4 years with acrylic reservoirs I gave up. None lasted past 2 years, they fog up and then crack at the fittings ports (thermal cycling). Plus as you pointed they scratch inside and out (water erosion). I now use a glass reservoir. My gpu block is acrylic but so far the internals are still clear. The outside well from just gently wiping the dust off, it still scratched. I use clear fluid and the rgb shows them up. I now just dish detergent in warm water to clean the outside. You have to be extra careful to minimize scratches. They make maintenance a pain that I prefer not to go thru anymore. Thanks for this.
i use a quick disconnect in the fill port and a cheap reservoir when i fill my loop.
According to google you can put a ceramic coating on acrylic.. wondering if that would help with external spills and maybe a little bit of protection from fine scratches?
if you have a rounded of screw, you can actually use a rubber band between the screw head and the screwdriver and that will enable you to get the screw out
Dude, what an awesome tip!
Singularity doesn’t use a polishing bit to finish off the milling marks, which is unacceptable for how much they charge. You should look at Alphacool’s universal distroplates. They look super clear. Also there are distroplate designs that incorporate the use of traditional reservoir-pump, giving you the convenience of distroplates and the coolant volume you get with reservoir-pump combos.
btw for filling have you ever tried using a automotive vacuum fill system attached to a fill port with a quick-connect fitting?
Actually, it's quite clever that they used screws from not very hard material and used a hex head. It's now very hard to break the acrylic because the screws break first. A titanium screw with a Torx Plus head would have pulled the acrylic to pieces (as an extreme example).
Would be good to see you 3D printing a custom distro plate.or just seeing if it is possible
about your idea to fill distro : use a big tube res, connect it to the distro, and if you have to much liquid in the tube res... just tip it over in a bucket ! It's that eazy ^^
Clear acrylic can be flame polished
I'd like to see a Fitting's video update. The are so many different ones on the market these days.
Acrylic cracks in time, if you overtighten it, it may look fine at first until the pression does it's work
surprised you didnt talk about the additional noise from a d5 and a distro plate and also reduced flow rate. With a tube reservoir you usually have a decoupling rubber piece and bracket which makes for instance the ek tube res pump combo near silent at even 100% pump speed. With a distro plate the pump becomes a lot louder because the distro plate is holding the pump and there is nothing absorbing that vibration. Also saw someone do a test with flow rates and got much better flow rate with a regular pump top vs a distro plate.
If you got scratches on acrylic then use a dremel with a polish tool, first use fine rubbing for cars, then fine polish with tooth paste, works every time for me
Useful or not they look great and I couldn’t image building a system without one
Good video. Can you make a video on making your own distro plate at home?
I think with a rupes polisher and some fine cut compound I wonder if you could get rid of the scratches? If you treat it like soft car paint it might just work, you would want to use a foam pad though as well.
I think it really depends on the aesthetics and the build. Now to be fair, that is noob me speaking who has never done a watercooled build. I am thinking about upgrading my rig (or building a new one) in the next few months, at which point I may do a CPU loop (or AIO, not yet decided).
If there's room for it (like in the O11 Dynamic with the EKWB stuff, that replaces actual panels rather than "just" fitting in somewhere), it can look really cool. It should also increase the fluid volume of a loop, which should then increase the thermal capacity, so a bit more time before you reach your max loop temp.
My current case wouldn't really work with one, because there's no room for distro plates except if I throw out the front fans - but then I'd have to watercool the gpu just because there'd be insufficient airflow to keep it aircooled. And I'm not sure watercooling a 6750 xt makes much sense (except aesthetically, perhaps?). So, if I keep the case, I'd have to stick to a loop without distro plates.
Then again, the case has proven to be less-than-ideal for cable management and despite being a decent-size mid tower, it's kinda stuffed full, so I'll propably get a different case anyway. As the O11 is an option I'm considering, I might just go nuts and do a full custom loop for the first time, with distro plates and everything.
Weird that you're going to be building in the Be Quiet 901 case. I just ordered that case on Friday. It's about time I'm replacing my Corsair 760T and the main reason I want this new case is for the 5.25" bay for my Blu-Ray drive. Funny you ask why I would use a Blu-Ray drive. For instance, right before I watched this video, I watched the Mummy.