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Where on this chart did I reduce my pump speed?
- Thread starter orion456
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2007
- Location
- Atlanta, GA
In a closed loop, no matter how fast you are pumping the water, as long as it is traveling around the loop, it spends the same amount of time overall in the radiator. Think of to cars on a track, one going 100 mph, and the other going 50 mph. Even though the faster car will be on the front straight half as long, it will be there twice as often.
Bottom line, as long as your pump is overcoming the resistance of your blocks, the performance difference due to flow rate is negligible.
Bottom line, as long as your pump is overcoming the resistance of your blocks, the performance difference due to flow rate is negligible.
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2005
You start to loose cooling efficiency (blocks and rads) as the flow gets less and less turbulent. Somewhere around 1/2 gpm the effect is pronounced with most components.icantfindone said:
But, I totally agree that flow rate is overrated. With benchmarking, every *c helps, but for everyday use and gamming, 1/2 gpm isn't much different than 3 gpm.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2004
Because once you pass the "elbow" of the thermal resistance vs. flow rate curve for your block, additional flow gives you very minor gains in performance.orion456 said:
http://swiftnets.com/assets/images/products/apogee/Single-Die-TR_VS_FR.PNG
When you reduce the speed of your pump, you also reduce the amount of heat it adds to your loop. This tends to offset slightly higher thermal resistance from slower but still fairly turbulent flow. If you reduce the pump speed to the point where laminar flow dominates, then you'll see the performance hit you were expecting.
