Final Flow Rate

How many people have measured thier final flow rate? What figures did you get?

Measured with all the tubing and blocks in place. I did! The final result is a bit scary. I do have a "special" setup.

Water chiller (final steps)

In the res I have 2 x ViaAqua 1300 pumping 1/2" into a joining Y with output to 5/8" tubing.

5' of 5/8" tubing to a Y split into 2 x 1/2" steams. First for CPU, second for GPU and NB.

The 2 x 1/2" join again at a Y into a 5/8" tubing. Another 5' of 5/8" tubing into the res.

With everything connected, pumping water, I get
---> 3.75L of water pumped in 25sec.
---> 9 Lpm ==== 2.4 gpm
---> 650 Lph === 171 gph

Is this good? Should I get a stronger pump? I have a large res (10L) and a large compressor (1/2hp). I actually will need the water to heat up to boil the coolant in the evaporator.

The actual flow rate that is good for you depends on the actual waterblock you're using.

However, as a general rule, anything above 2gpm (~8lpm) can be considered a very decent flow rate, and anything above 1gpm (~4lpm) can be considered acceptable.

Depends on your needs. I doubt that you'd see any performance improvement from using a stronger pump as the extra heat from the stronger pump offsets any minor gain you'd get from the boosted flow rates.

For more information, take a poke at some of BillA's test results at the overclockers.com water-cooling section for some example of how various waterblocks perform at various flow rates.

Thanks Cathar

I am using a Maze 3 (this is still the first and only WB I have purchased), A DD Geforce 4 WB and an older DD NB. I looked at the article called "Waterblock Roundup" but is says the data for the Maze 3 is unavailable??

So 2.4 gpm is actual quite resonable.

By the way, how is your Pelter based water chiller project going. Have not had any updates for a while now?

I decided on a dehumidified chiller. I had the "water" do to -15c easily with no load. Should be up and running this weekend.

yeah man, thats more than enough. you have to remember too that if you run a closed loop system (seald from atmosphere) you can actually generate higher flowrates than the old fill a bucket for a few seconds method. pumping when exposed to ambient creates more of a psi drop then pumping sealed

I'm not sure it's reasonable to generalize like that. It could go either way for a system with a reservior, really. And the bucket method is really not representiative of a system without a reservior.

How many have any idea what their actual flow rate is?
Not many I bet. I have an idea will let you know later.

i'm one of those people who don't know their flow rate.... i don't know my flow rate, and i don't care what kind of tubing i have.

Mark620 said:

How many have any idea what their actual flow rate is?

Click to expand...

I've conservatively estimated mine at ~8lpm using Bill's data, and an empiracle relationship/equivalent lengths for the tubing and fitting resistances.