Noob Reservoir Questions

Hi again!

Some more questions. And thanks again for your help!

So I'm going to be buying a PrimoChill CTR Phase II Reservoir. In the picture of the supplied accessories, there are 4 normal port plugs and 2 other (currently unidentified) port plugs. Are those unidentified ones for fitting LEDs?? If so, can I put an LED in the bottom and the top of the res? And would those plugs be waterproof to put an LED inside or would I need to buy something else?

Re filling the loop. Do I have to fill via the res or could I fit a fill port to the top radiator and fill the system from there? The rad is the highest component within the loop. With gravity and all, I was thinking it would speed up filling the system as I wouldn't have to top up so many times. Would it make any extra bubbles or cause bleeding issues or any other problems?

And finally, if I got the 360mm tube reservoir instead of the 240mm. Would having a greater volume of water in the loop reduce temps at all or is there no thermal benefit whatsoever?

Thanks folks!

As far as mounting the radiator on top, that's not an issue depending on the pump you have and the distance involved and head pressure for the pump. But for most cases/applications it's not a problem. I ran mine that way for years without any issues and it was a triple rad setup.

Looking at that reservoir you mentioned, the extra ports appear to be for more hose connections and not for LED. It also comes with caps, to cap them off if only using 2 for inlet/outlet setup. It just gives you options to hook up a more elaborate setup.

As far as the larger volume, the answer is no. This is because your temps will always be limited to the ambient temps for where the system will be located as well as the thermal dissipation capacity for your radiator. I found it's always better to use a larger radiator since that's where most of the cooling takes place anyway.

I hope this helps.

metloaf

I had a question about using two 400mm water-tanks positioned vertically side-by-side, each with multi-port tops. Is there any issue (vacuum related or otherwise) with having water exiting from a rad into the bottom Tank-A out from the bottom of Tank-A into the bottom of Tank-B out from the bottom of Tank-B back into a dual D5 pump located within the same proximity?

Trivius said:

I had a question about using two 400mm water-tanks positioned vertically side-by-side, each with multi-port tops. Is there any issue (vacuum related or otherwise) with having water exiting from a rad into the bottom Tank-A out from the bottom of Tank-A into the bottom of Tank-B out from the bottom of Tank-B back into a dual D5 pump located within the same proximity?

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Not sure why you'd need two reservoirs other than for aesthetics but it shouldn't be a problem as long as the loop is bled.

GTXJackBauer said:

Not sure why you'd need two reservoirs other than for aesthetics but it shouldn't be a problem as long as the loop is bled.

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Cool thanks. I am using a Raven case, which is radiator limited, so I am attempting to make up for this by introducing able fluid to circulate in the loop, the water-tanks will be placed external to the case (attached to its read) letting convection work naturally at whatever the temperature of the room is. Also I think doing a dual setup, along with a combination of Bitspower fittings, does increase its ascetics (it will be a black tubed, Monsoon rigid tubing, and black chromed theme using clear coolant).

Trivius said:

Cool thanks. I am using a Raven case, which is radiator limited, so I am attempting to make up for this by introducing able fluid to circulate in the loop, the water-tanks will be placed external to the case (attached to its read) letting convection work naturally at whatever the temperature of the room is. Also I think doing a dual setup, along with a combination of Bitspower fittings, does increase its ascetics (it will be a black tubed, Monsoon rigid tubing, and black chromed theme using clear coolant).

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Oh, that's not going to work. Reservoirs are not used to dissipate heat. Only to fill a loop and bleed it. Heat surface is key along with static pressure. If you don't have that equation in the mix than you're not doing much other than circulating very warm if not hot fluid depending on how much heat surface is lacking while a impending thermal system shutdown is lurking around the corner.

You could just hang a rad in the back of the case or grab a MORA rad for example.

Have a read at our water cooling stickies. I think it will give a clearer picture on how it all works.

That's an interesting idea however as stated above it will not work due to the massive amount of heat that will have to be dissipated. You will just be recirculating fluid that will continue to get hotter instead of actually cooling your CPU. You will need at least a radiator to dissipate the heat from your system. What fluid does in a water cooled setup is similar to a car where it facilitates heat transfer from the motor simply by taking the heat and moving it to where it can be cooled by the radiator. Same concept. Now if you have other ways to cool the water in the reservoir then your have something.

Sorry for the confusion, the loop will also include in-case Black Ice Nemesis', a 120GTX and 280GTX, along with 120mm and 140mm NB fans (also including the cases 180mm Silverstone fans)...

I am simply figuring that introducing a vastly large amount of fluid will serve effectively in displacing heat build up, due to the lack of cooling surfaces or radiators (similarly to how swimming pools, dams, lakes, reservoirs, etc., remain very cool even though being heated throughout the day with say 105F temperatures.)

Trivius said:

Sorry for the confusion, the loop will also include in-case Black Ice Nemesis', a 120GTX and 280GTX, along with 120mm and 140mm NB fans (also including the cases 180mm Silverstone fans)...

I am simply figuring that introducing a vastly large amount of fluid will serve effectively in displacing heat build up, due to the lack of cooling surfaces or radiators (similarly to how swimming pools, dams, lakes, reservoirs, etc., remain very cool even though being heated throughout the day with say 105F temperatures.)

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As far as more water volume, unless you are adding gallons and gallons of water, it won't make much of a difference. You mentioned pools, lakes damns etc, then you are talking about thousands to millions of gallons of water. Yes, then you will have a very large mass that stays stable without much of a temp fluctuation. That however is not much of a comparison for this discussion due to the very low volume we're talking about. I would concentrate on better rad/fan efficiency than more liquid volume. The volume is simply not that important, compared to how efficiently you are able to dissipate the heat. Look at the fluid as moving the heat from one place to another where it can be cooled. Ultimately it's your dime and you will do as you wish.

For larger fluid volume, I personally like submerged oil cooled setups......