Dumb thing to do...?

[Woodsie]

I finished my first setup a couple of weeks ago, and surprisingly things worked well except for one thing... The temprature of the water would rise slowly so it would get lukewarm...

Then the computer would start acting up. Probably because the core was getting too hot.

So, thinking back. I seemed to have it in my head that a few drops of washing up liqiud would help heat transfer by lowering the suface tension. So, rightly or wrongly, I`ve put some in the makeshift resivior. It seems to do the trick, as the temprature doesn`t get half as high and stays at a certain level hour after hour. I`m strapped for cash so it`s the finger in the water temprature probe type method...

The questions are ( finally ) was it a dumb thing to do, regarding chemical reactions etc? Or will it do or will water wetter do a better job?

The motherboard temp probe says 50 degrees after load ( I know it might not be accurate, but I can`t afford a temp probe right now)

FYI: The setup is...

Soyo K7V Dragon KT266 Board
Athlon T-Bird 1400@1600 (133x12)
Dangerden 2-1 with the cold plate removed
D-Tek copper radiator (without a fan)
Plastic toolbox (10 litres?) as a res with a Ehiem 1250 pump suspended in it to reduce vibration...

Thanks in advance...

[BladeRunner]

Yes it will basically do the same as water wetter, but I'm not sure how long it would last or if it will cause corrosion. My dad always told me never to use washing up liquid to wash the car with as it contains disolved salts. Two ways to improve your cooling would be a much larger water capicity, (120 plus litres works well), and is also silent, or a fan on your rad as it wont do much without forced airflow.

[WaterPog]

the radiator fan would be #1, and as for the soap it depends on what type you are using. The reason you don't want to use Dish shop (is that what you refer to as "washing up liquid") on cars isn't because of salts, it is because it has grease cutters which will remove the wax from the cars finish and dry out the paint making it oxidise much quicker (brother is a paint/body man)....