Build log: Corsair 600T

[Sprucemoose]

Tanks for the input guys! @Conumdrum: I know what you think about sensors (especially the flow sensor ), but I really do find them fun to play around with. I do hope your cooking was a success, though. I guess I need to do it myself to resupply my goodwill account with the wife after spending this many hours building my computer.

Now, some final temp measurements in a more standardized way. Running, as adviced, 7 threads on prime95 while running Heaven benchmark at the same time. Temps are recorded as stated above.



The CPU and GPU temperatures still does not seem to vary much at all. Decreasing noise is one of my biggest priorities, and it seems that I can safely turn down the pump speed without hurting my hardware.

 

[mechanical man]

I did some gaming running Battlefield Bad Company 2 single player mode (all settings on full, resolution 1920x1200). Now, there are some temp-issues I don't grasp. I thought that increasing the flow would give me the better temp results, but the opposite happens.

If I set the pump on full speed the difference between water-in and water-out is appr 1 degree while gaming. If I reduce the pump speed, this difference increases and the temperature of the water coming out of the radiator decreases. Delta-T is reduced proportionally.

It seems that reducing the speed of the pump actually gives the CPU a cooler environment.

Some approximate temps:
@1,2GPM
Water-out: 38,5 deg
Delta-T: 13 deg
Delta-water: 1 deg

@0,5GPM
Water-out: 37,5 deg
Delta-T: 12 deg
Delta-water: 2 deg

@0,3GPM:
Water-out: 37 deg
Delta-T: 11 deg
Delta-water 3,5 deg

Now, what is going on here? Giving the CPU the coolest water seems to be smart, and by reducing the pump speed, I'm actually able to do so. The GPU runs at appr. 50deg, so I'm not really worried about those.

When you decrease flow, any chosen water molecule will stay longer in radiator thus it has longer time to cool. But at the same time it will stay longer in blocks, so has also longer time to heat up.

Consider this:

At flow of 1, water molecule heats up by 1 degree. Now we double the flow to 2, it will still use same time in block and in radiator, but it will only heat up by 0,5 degree per full loop, but it makes two full loops in time where at flow 1 it would make only one.

if flow does not affect in your cpu & gpu tems, it does not really matter, use quiter option, but point is as already said, you need to look at cpu & gpu temps not water delta t, water delta t does not matter as such. As you can see from your measurements, faster flow will have lower cpu&gpu temperatures. From your measurements I would choose pump at 0,5GPM.

Where did you calculate delta-t? From input water temperature or output water temperature?

 

[m0r7if3r]

You also have to consider the fluid dynamics and that faster flow creates more turbulence and thus better heat transfer.