- Thread Starter
- #61
After doing a little refreshing (good suggestion that) the only change I am inclined to make is to go with a 480 + 360 rad for the GPU loop. A lot of you folks are trying to build uber quiet systems. While I would like to minimize noise, silence is not a design priority for me. When I got into water cooling my main interest was to improve cooling efficiency relative to what I was getting with the best air cooling solutions I could find so I could get higher overclocks. Quieting my machine down was secondary. The 2000 RPM Cooler Master Sickleflow 70CFM fans I am currently using fine as far as I am concerned.
Part of the problem for me is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of test data for 480mm radiators. In fact, I could not find any. Looking at some 360mm rad tests seems to suggest that three GTX 780s would require about 3 x 360mm rads. I'm not prepared go that far. But I will add a 360 to 480 already in my GPU loop and I'll take my chances. If it isn't enough then I will have to change it out. But I think it will be fine.
Looking at the pumps...here is where I am at so far. From a cost standpoint if I went with two pumps per loop or one pump per loop it wouldn't matter. If I used two pumps per loop I would buy two pumps and reuse the two pumps that are in my system right now. If I only went with one pump per loop I would buy two new pumps because the pumps in my system have been running almost continuously for two years. The only thing that I have seen about running two pumps in serial that might be a concern is that it has been said that the pumps work harder, but I have not seen any data that suggests running, say, a pair of D5 pumps together makes them more susceptible to premature failure. I like the idea of pump redundancy in a water cooling loop. There are times when I have to leave my machine running and might be out of my home office for several hours. While the risk of a failure might be relatively low that would be the worst possible time for a pump to die.
I am pretty close to having everything set. I'll sit on it for a few days and revisit the pump decision to see if I am having any second thoughts.
Part of the problem for me is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of test data for 480mm radiators. In fact, I could not find any. Looking at some 360mm rad tests seems to suggest that three GTX 780s would require about 3 x 360mm rads. I'm not prepared go that far. But I will add a 360 to 480 already in my GPU loop and I'll take my chances. If it isn't enough then I will have to change it out. But I think it will be fine.
Looking at the pumps...here is where I am at so far. From a cost standpoint if I went with two pumps per loop or one pump per loop it wouldn't matter. If I used two pumps per loop I would buy two pumps and reuse the two pumps that are in my system right now. If I only went with one pump per loop I would buy two new pumps because the pumps in my system have been running almost continuously for two years. The only thing that I have seen about running two pumps in serial that might be a concern is that it has been said that the pumps work harder, but I have not seen any data that suggests running, say, a pair of D5 pumps together makes them more susceptible to premature failure. I like the idea of pump redundancy in a water cooling loop. There are times when I have to leave my machine running and might be out of my home office for several hours. While the risk of a failure might be relatively low that would be the worst possible time for a pump to die.
I am pretty close to having everything set. I'll sit on it for a few days and revisit the pump decision to see if I am having any second thoughts.