I have spent hours in the frozen CPU warehouse looking at just about everything they sell (which is allot). And I can honestly say that no matter what you do, you will be restricted to 1/4" ID on at least one part of your system.
The Storm, is considered one of the best water blocks on the market. It comes with 1/2" and 3/8" barbs. When I attach the 1/2" tube to the VGA block (Tyee) which is relatively unrestrictive, I get a waterfall effect on the output. This is NOT the case with the 3/8" barbs. I assume this is due to the lack of flow coming out of the water block.
Also if you really want a nice setup, they sell 3/8" Compression Fittings, which they DONT sell for 1/2". Compression Fittings are the best, though changing fittings on the parts often requires some pipe tape to seal.
Germans are no idiots. They use 8mm almost exclusively. (Which is slightly larger then 1/4"). They know that water pressure and not water flow maters. It takes ALLOT of heat to warm water up just a bit, and flow only decreases the
single cycle hot spot time. Since the
single cycle time on the heat source (even at the lowest flow rates) is so slight, it doesnt change the water temp much. Thus the water will hit the radiator without any significant increase in heat (again even at the lowest flow rates).
Also remember that water takes 1
calorie of energy to heat one cc of water. When we talk about food we use Kilocalorie's which the food industry was so wise (and deceitfull) to define a single calorie as a "calorie" and a kilocalorie as a "Calorie" (they now even break this caps rule). Anyways, calories are a way to determine the amount of energy it takes to heat up different components. Luckily to us water coolers, and the entire field of science, water itself has the highest heat absorption rate then any other materials before it changes temps (though their may be other man made materials I havent read about though have heard about). This means that the water can sit on the hot spot and cold spot a long time without changing a degree.
I keep mentioning Single Cycle because it is important when the water temp rises and then cools dramatically on every cycle that it starts to effect performance. This is unefficent because it means the water is staying on the hot spot for WAY too long, thus changing the delta of water from cold to heat source temp. When this change in hot to cold decreases, the efficency of the water to cool decreases. This would require higher flow rates to fix. What makes things worst is that a 10 l/min pump may have enough flow, but because a low pressure, it only performs at 1 l/std. So flow rate and pressure are not independant
From my personal experiances, the level of flow that starts to effect a system is around 1 l/std(which is german speak for 1 l/min).
The way to test the flow rates efficency is to test the radiators input water temp and the radiators output water temp. If the temp is drasticly different (more then 1-2c) then you have to increase flow for better performance.
The interesting fact that I learned is that it isnt the size of the tube that effects this flow so dramatically, but the pressure the pump can exert. I came to this conclusion because of my fathers home improvement history. He showed me the water valves used for garden hoses. Inside the huge water pipe, there is a 1/4" inner pipe that feeds the water hose. Now water pressure from the water authority is much higher then what we want or need, it definately proves my point.
What makes everything even more complex is that many water blocks use techknowledgies that uses the presure to increase the water -> copper surface area. They use micro-channels or jets to do this. This mixes the water, and that allows the water to heat evenly. If you want your water on the stove to heat up faster, you can stir it. This mixes the water and thus increases the delta temp between the hot side and the cold side.
The Danger Den Tyee and its Ge-force equivelent is a high flow water cooler, that depends on pre-existing water turbulance, to ensure that the water is mixing within its wide and long passage. I find it works great, and is one of my most unrestrictive parts in my system.
Choosing a pump, means looking at the flow rate and the pressure. The pressure should be very high, while the flow rate should be 10 l/min at a minimum.
I hope this all makes sense and helps out things. I recommend you go to the home site and that you read the articles on flow rate, pressure and water cycles.
Mike
