noob water cooling questions.

hank123 · Nov 6, 2007

if your water cooling 2 video cards cpu NB and SB do you need 2 pumps? it seems like it would be a lot of water to push.

what if your just doing 2 video cards and the CPU?

and would there be a need for more than 1 radiator and reservoir?

seamadan000 · Nov 6, 2007

I have watercooled a cpu and 2 video cards with one pump without any trouble. I would recommend forgoing the NB and especially SB watercooling, as they really don't help with overclocking.

You don't even need one reservoir (you can use a t-line) and one reservoir is is all that is needed no matter how much you have hooked up. It's just a place to fill the loop up.

You would also only need one decent radiator for any loop I can think of. Adding another will not provide a significant performance increase (or even a noticeable one). A dual radiator will do the trick. I even used a single, but I'm not sure I would recommend that.

Spawn-Inc · Nov 6, 2007

if you plan to really push your system then i would w/c all that you said, and i think i would want to do dual pumps. if your just doing the cpu and 2 gpu's then 1 pump and 1-2 rads is fine.

once i get the hardware i will be getting the following

1xSwiftech MCP655 (pump)
1xSwiftech MCR120 (rad 120mm)
1xSwiftech MCR220 (rad 2x120mm)
1xSwiftech microres
1xSwiftech HydrX additive
1xSwiftech Apogee GTX (cpu block)
1xSwiftech MCW60 (gpu block with ram sinks)
6xYate loons (88CFM) for the rads

this is how i will set it up
PUMP>240RAD>CPU>120RAD>GPU>RES>PUMP etc.

2 rads will help better than one if you set it up properly

hank123 · Nov 6, 2007

thanks all.

now running 2 rads do i put them right next to each other or do i put one after the cpu and 1 after the video cards before the cpu?

seamadan000 · Nov 6, 2007

If you really wanted to run two radiators, it would not matter the order they are in. All the water in the system will be (very close to) a constant temperature at load.

2 radiators will not help much in this case as a decent 120x2 radiator will be able to dissipate the heat generated by the system in question.

Spawn-Inc · Nov 6, 2007

put it cpu then a rad then a gpu. if its just a gpu block them you could get away with two 120 rads.
i would only put 2 rads if i wanted to cool the water down in between blocks. if i was just going to put the rads one right after the other then i would just buy one as it would be cheaper. but since it will help get cooler water to the second block then its worth it IMO.

hank123 · Nov 6, 2007

well i just bout got my mix of parts. just waiting on them to get her. i might have all the parts. i been ordering so much crap its hard to keep track of it all.

the way i was thinking of doing it was cpu, rad, gpu, gpu, rad back to cpu.

i'm not sure if 1 pump can take that all.

Spawn-Inc · Nov 7, 2007

what pump did you get? the one i listed, looks like this that one could handle that.

hank123 · Nov 7, 2007

i not sure yet. just order a bunch of used crap from a ton of places. i know i will have a lot of spare parts. well just say that.

I '"think"" the pump might be off a koolance ICM-505+CPU

Spawn-Inc · Nov 7, 2007

interesting, well if you have lots of spare you might consider a dual pump setup, otherwise just wait and see what comes up. and you can always try it and if it doesn't work change it.

seamadan000 · Nov 7, 2007

Just fyi- the theory that there will be cooler water after a radiator is false. All the water in the loop is the same temperature.

hank123 · Nov 7, 2007

seamadan000 said:
Just fyi- the theory that there will be cooler water after a radiator is false. All the water in the loop is the same temperature.

i thought thats what rads where for was to cool the water.?.?

hypertek · Nov 7, 2007

I didnt know that.. basically he means that the rad does not chill the water, it can only reduce/dispate the water temps soo much..

this is your first setup, expect the leaks =p
but over time you learn to build it better.. my setup is all budget stuff, homedepot parts and pepboys chevette heater core and hobby water pump.. had my share of leaks, but found ways and techniques to reduce those chances.. good luck! I love it, Alot quietier then having a huge heatsink/fan combo on your cpu.

seamadan000 · Nov 7, 2007

the radiators do indeed dissapate the heat, but because the water is constantly cycling through the system, and the amount of heat put into the system and the amount of heat the radiator can dissapate result in an equilibrium temperature.

hank123 · Nov 7, 2007

hey thanks guys. i so understand a lot more now! yall kick some hard ***!

Spawn-Inc · Nov 7, 2007

seamadan000 said:
the radiators do indeed dissapate the heat, but because the water is constantly cycling through the system, and the amount of heat put into the system and the amount of heat the radiator can dissapate result in an equilibrium temperature.

while that is true for the most part i still say if you had to exact same setups (cpu,gpu,MCR120,MCR220,pump,res) and you had one setup this way,
PUMP>RAD120>RAD220>CPU>GPU>RES

vs.

PUMP>RAD120>CPU>RAD220>GPU>RES

the second loop would have better gpu temps then in the first.

seamadan000 · Nov 7, 2007

You really really wouldn't- at least not a difference that would be noticable. Unless your water was barely moving, the water will all be the same temperature, it's the miracle of thermodynamics.

Think about it this way- how long is the water on a given pass through the loop in the radiator. With a decent pump you are talking a second or two at most, not nearly enough time to significantly change that one little bit of water. Same goes for the blocks that add heat. These balance out, leading to an equilibrium and the delta T over the course of a trip through the loop is very low.

hypertek · Nov 7, 2007

that reminds me, at one point in time i did have 2 radiators in my loop, the chevette core, and a heater core from a nissan skyline (i had parts from a car that i was putting into my car and this core was a leftover).. so i threw it in the mix, had it in for a while but really didnt do much difference so i removed it.

Spawn-Inc · Nov 7, 2007

ok you brought fancy thermodynamics into the mix so i give up, you win. so for my setup above, here it is again.

1xSwiftech MCP655 (pump)
1xSwiftech MCR120 (rad 120mm)
1xSwiftech MCR220 (rad 2x120mm)
1xSwiftech microres
1xSwiftech HydrX additive
1xSwiftech Apogee GTX (cpu block)
1xSwiftech MCW60 (gpu block with ram sinks)
6xYate loons (88CFM) for the rads

would you recommend changing out the two rads for one MCR320? i plan on getting the newer intels for cpu (Q9450) and it looks like a 8800 ULTRA.

seamadan000 · Nov 7, 2007

LOL, if I were you Spawn I would stick with what you have. I don't think you would see a performance difference from changing radiators for what you are talking about, as you are getting roughly the same cooling capacity from the two radiators you list as you would from the triple. There could be other factors such as ease of mounting that would play into your choice, of course, but from strictly a performance standpoint your system wouldn't see a drastic improvement. If it were me, I might even take out the smaller radiator just to see if there would be a change in temperatures- I think you could get away with just the double rad. Heck I have a AMD 165 and a 7800gtx on just a chevette heatercore, which is basically a 1x120 rad (I do have high speed fans on it). Admittedly I could probably benefit from a double, but I think that the recent rush to triple radiators is overkill.

noob water cooling questions.

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads