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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Really. If it has 1 inlet and 1 outlet it can't possible be called a " Distribution" anything. You might as well call it a very thin, stupid and useless, extra reservoir. The only use is hole position if that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. :)
I thought about getting one awhile back, they’re absurdly expensive. I’ll stick with a cheap reservoir. Complete waste of money imo, it’s like a water block for your reservoir.
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.
@@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.
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.
Pretty, but I don’t want to pay a few hundred $ for the privilege of several linear feet of potential future seal failure that is a fiddly PITA to keep clean. For what some of these brands sell that cheap piece of acrylic for, you’d think they would offer an even more rapacious upgrade option to a more scratch-resistant plastic like polycarbonate.
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.
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 .
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.
@@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 would definitely not start those screws with your drill. Start them by hand a few threads and then you can speed things up with the drill afterwards.
Hello Jayz - what you're saying is absolute rubbish. I use an EK-Quantum Reflection Uni 140 D5 PWM D-RGB - Plexi with two MO-RA3 420 Noctua and an internal Heatkiller 360 radiator. No matter how big or small the resavoir is, it has no effect on better cooling performance. So please don't fool your viewers.
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
Instead of a polished surface on the exterior I think a frosted finish would be a better choice if scratches are an issue for someone. You can get very anal about tiny scratches in your polished acrylic but it's unlikely unless someone is scrutinizing your system very close that they will be seen. Still, I like the idea of a frosted surface finish more since it creates a translucent look instead of optically clear.
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.
Waste of money as is water cooling as is RGB. Unless the acrylic plate has metal sockets for the screws they’re going to strip at some point then you have an expensive paperweight. Put all that money towards a better CPU, GPU or RAM.
dont use microfiber cleaning tissues on glossy acrylic, it will scratch. use a soft toothbrush on matte milled acrylic and use your fingers or optic grade tissues for the polished acrylic surface. if you think you might scratch it, dont go in circles, if you scratch it, circles are very noticable and look extremely messy. polishing out scratches is extremely hard with acrylics because it is so touchy and you need extremely fine grit polish. this is not your everday polish. dont risk scratching it unless you dont care how it looks. buy a glass Reservoir like watercool heatkiller tube over any acrylic reservoir in the first place. dont use alcohol for acrylic, and also no window cleaner Fluid, these also often contain alcohol. this will erode the acrylic as alcohol is practically dissolving it. Also dont use alcohol on o rings or other rubber sealings. use a mild dish washing soap without parfume or very mild vinegar or citric acid mix. acid works very well with copper discoloration, use acid only on acrylic if dishwasher soap doesnt clean it well enough. wash with tap water then rinse with distilled water. dont let any cleaning compound sit on it for too long.
I use aluminum polish paste with a buffing wheel. Repolishing my safety glasses to perfect clear and clean of imperfections. Would that not work since same type of material??
I wonder if anyone has ever built a computer in a case made entirely of distro plates. It would be completely ridiculous, but it seems like the kind of thing Jay would try just to see what happens.
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
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!
@@EpicBunty It's actually not too bad, I need to remove the front panel and put the drain plug, and most of it can be drained without too much fiddling. You do need to tilt the tower to get as close to 100% out as possible, and it's the XL case, so it's an heavy one to move, but I don't feel it's a problem of the distro plate, it's just a problem of my build
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.
isnt this one of those totally depends how you like the looks kind of question?? like i personally like more the esthetics of good soft tube build more than hardline build
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.
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.
Short answer: With hard tubes, distro plates can make the installation a lot easier. With soft tubes, they have no real use since they offer no advantage over a classic reservoir.
@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
Maybe on modern stuff? But I'm running a 7 year old system on air and never had any issues. Heck, I'm running a 7700k, a notoriously hot chip back then on air, overclocked to 4.9 and without ANY trouble.
The cracking test should have been done with an o-ring or gasket in place - the 'squish' of the o-ring would have allowed the kind of top layer flexing under pressure that leads to cracking. Just screwing one layer against another completely flat layer will virtually never crack. In the real world, everyone who uses this video as a guide needs to be aware of the real risk of over-tightening screws with an o-ring between the layers - I think you should warn viewers about this or they'll blame you when their plates crack! That's my two cents!
I don't mind distro plates but there's only one problem with them the problem I have with them is the fact that they're overpriced, seriously I was looking for one for my computer even the smallest one on the market is like $250 so they're very very overpriced
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.
I'm actually quite impressed by bygski, I bought a 4080 waterblock and while watching video with nvidia super resolution and hdr plus plex transcoding (load detected as 33% by icue) the core is exactly at the fluid temp (room temp = 30.3°c liquid temp in the pump 32.0°c , core temp 32.0°C)
Off subject. But would love to see a video repurposing an AIO. Currently running dual 280 AF ii’s in my system (gpu EXTREMELY cold). But I want to mill my own distro. But I’m not keen on how to approach the idea as far as fittings for soft tubing. I think it’d be fun for you.
I have an I7 10700k. It was a prebuilt PC. The GPU was overheating. 3080 GPU. An Asus Prime z7409-p motherboard. I was am still am overheating to all heck but only the CPU now. I replaced the Rosewell fans with Corsaire sickleflow 120 3in1. The back fan with a Noctua NF-P12. I bought this Noctua NH-U9S because my ThermalTake AI0 apparently evaporated all the water. I am absolutely terrified it won't cool down my CPU and if it doesn't I am at a loss at what to do next.
Hey jay I have been having a issue with my pc lately my Ram exp goes back to default and the pc also starts lagging alot its a old pc i have a ryzen 2700x 16 GB Ram 3000 MHz and a 2060 super can you explain me what is the issue I am from India by the way.
Stripped screw? ENGINEER PZ-60 Screw Removal Pliers, PZ-59, or PZ-58. Depending on the screw type. I think 59 is the one you need for the screw you showed on screen. I've had better luck with those than the cheap "extractor" bit sets.
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.
Call me crazy, but i'm just not a fan of how distroplates look in general. Some builds make them look okay, but i honestly prefer the look of themed reservoirs and soft tubes. If it looks like a build from 2011, that's my jam.
@JayzTwoCents Are you getting more and more stressed and you're overeating due to that? Come on, Buddy! :( Slow down a bit - overworking yourself won't do you any good in the long run. Take care of yourself ❤ PS. Yeah, I probably pissed you off with that. I don't care - I'm worried about you!
Hi Jay. John T., you know that Hollywood star, invited me to his house one Saturday evening. He wanted me to see his new $10K+ PC and to show him how to play games on it. I asked him to tell me what components were in the case. He was knowledgeable concerning the different parts. He pointed to a clear plastic liquid-filled component and told me it was his PC's DISCO plate. The many RGB lights, flashing in a pattern I hadn't seen before, convinced me he was right.
@JayzTwoCents but you missed one big pro on using Distroplates: you can fill more water into the loop, which results ina greater amount of Thermal-Mass which is great for low-time workloads since it takes longer for the water to reach its maximum Thermal-Limit point within the Loop. Which can improve the Thermals on Short-Time-Workload Systems. Since more water means more Thermal-Mass. - This do NOT apply on the Distro-Plate+Pump Combos, since they have a way smaller reservoir! - only speaking of the Passive ones like the Bottom one you showed off in the beginning. - Also many of the Distro-Plates offer more than only two Ports (inlet+outlet) - so they can be used for parralel loops, too. also they're also usable if you place them on the lowest spot to act as an reservoir with a drain-port for the System, since thats always a huge pain in the A** to get your loop drained.
living dangerously you would flame polish it. or use acrylic glue slightly warmed to fog it clear. Dont safety rail on me. Each is responsible for their own actions. Plenty of pro's on channels to watch. Enjoy the channel Jay.. thanks.
i downt understand at some gpus why exists waterblocks a friend buy one for his gigabyte rx6700xt at gaming its gpu is at 50-55C in a atx full tower my asrock rx6700xt oc is at 47-65C with aircooling at a itx case, yes his gpu looks much better now but for the same price he payed for all i can buy a rx 7800xt for 570€ mine costs 330€ was it worth i think nope!
Still say a simple manifold is all that would be needed... but that implicates multiple loops, which in itself is ridiculously uneccessary. Pump to CPU to radiator to GPU to Radiator back to pump... everything beyond this simple road map is asking for things to go wrong. Channeled airflow is your key to cooling, period. Even if you are water cooling a channeled flow of air through the radiator is what cools it. Edit: Extreme nonsense like consumed liquid nitrogen cooling exempt.
I mean the answer is no whichever way you look at it. It has zero benefit outside of aesthetics over a more standard WC config, but then, custom WC is all about aesthetics haha! Think distro plates would be more popular if the companies doing them didn't take the absolute p*ss with pricing (EK, Singularity etc)
Hey jay fun fact idk if you have extra graphics cards but if you match a EVGA gtx 780 with fan rpms of 4000 rpm if you place the high rpm and then place the Titan Xp on second lane 16x then you get very superior performance while under load and everything
I worked in photography and one of our product was photo mounted on acrylic and I gasped when I saw your Windex bottle. You should never use glass cleaner on acrylic it can damage it and even crack. Either use just warm water, an acrylic cleaner or warm water and a normal soap. The best would be to follow the acrylic manufacturer's guidelines. I know isopropyl alcohol is bad for acrylic but the one we used for our frames was actually recommended by our supplier and we never had issues. So YMMV always RTFM!
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.
First off they make acrylic cleaner which they have for fish tanks and DO NOT USE WINDEX as it has amonia and that makes acrylic cloudy. Second when tightening the screws tighten them like a car tire so the gasket smashes evenly. Third most distro plates are not designed for flow thats why you get build up in the corners. The liquid will circulate in the corner and just spin in circles and not go anywhere creating a build up of film and will wear the acrylic down. How do I know this well I have been a plumber for over 20 years and we have the same issues. LOL I even fixed a leak at Jays house under his kitchen sink when I work for AAP plumbing in riverside. He has a wood sign with JAYZ two cents by the front door on the left hand side. Looks like some kid made it in wood shop. Didnt know who he was bat the time and when his wife introduced us he looked at me like I should know who he was. I thought he was a retired cop.. When I told him what IU was gonna do and the issue he said its okay my wife will take care of it..
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.
These are redundant questions. Does the owner of a Lamborghini Aventador think about gas mileage? Maintenance or financial value?. No.. Its cool, they want it. They got it. Stop thinking abo8t what you lose and think about what you gain.
I spend to much money on components to want to possibly ruin my build or short something out from a leak. I avoid all this water cooling stuff. Changing out components after it’s built is a nightmare also. Not worth it. That’s why there is AIO Coolers. My fav !! Safe and they work well enough to cool any CPU or GPU.
Distroplates are literally just a fancy looking piece that costs a ton. The only functional features is that the may have a place for a pump and it can make the tubing runs look somewhat uniform. They're still a waste of money to me. What it really does is make people think that watercooling is super expensive. You're also kinda limiting how your build looks when you use a distroplate. I can put a cylindrical pump almost anywhere I want in the build, and have the runs go wherever I want. O11 builds look pretty similar. O11 builds with a distroplate look damn near exactly the same.
A word to the wise, Never use window cleaner, ammonia products, or other chemical sprays on acrylic, it will yellow over time. Avoid ammonia-based products, like Windex or other home glass cleaners, because they contain harmful chemicals that will actually damage the surface leaving it cloudy looking. Soapy water is the safest and most effective cleaning solution for acrylic.
Distro plates utility comes into play when you want a loop in your system, but you do not have the real-estate to put in a regular reservoir/pump. I have worked with plastics for a long time. For care and Maintenace never use a harsh abrasive cloth on the exterior. Use a high-quality jeweler's cloth to lightly wipe off debris and dust. If it needs more cleaning use warm water with a few drops of liquid soap. Do not use any chemical or cleaners. Use a high-quality microfiber towel to lightly wipe it down and clean it then wipe gently with clean warm water, dry, and wipe off with the jeweler's cloth. If you find there are scratches on the exterior surface and they are really bugging you, you can use an acrylic/plastic buffing kit and compound to remove the scratches. A bench mounted grinder can be equipped with the proper wheels, but I recommend using an orbital palm sander as it can be difficult to gauge how much pressure is being applied against a bench grinder. Make sure the orbital sander actually rotates around and doesn't just vibrate. Wipe it down with warm water and jewelers' cloth when done. You can also customize the exterior surface of the plate with etching. Be sure to mask off the screw holes and edges and back (interior) of the plate and apply whatever masking pattern to the exterior you want. You can then either use etching compounds made for plastic and acrylic or use a light application of sandblasting using fine grit. It will give the pattern a frosted look. Blow it off with air afterwards and rinse with clean water. Clean it off as outlined above.
"I'd love to find a system that will allow me to use this" Try to make it fit in the Lian Li V3000! You said you were pretty excited to build in that case, now here's the chance
Capillary action is what will pull the fluid in the channel between the layers of acrylic. It is the same form of action as dipping a paper towel in water and watching the liquid travel through the paper. I figure you or Phil would appreciate the technical term and explanation. Not trying to be a douche and say "YoUr WROnG JaY!"
