Water cooling loop decision

[Alphyn]

Hi,

I am looking for opinions and advice on which of these two loop designs I should use. I am not too bothered by performance, unless it saves me a full 10C or something. I'm only interested in aesthetics right now.

1)


2)


Now, bare in mind, I know for certain that the top design will work, but would the second one, too? Basically, I guess I'm asking "would both of these loops work?" I've never water-cooled before, but I'm confident that I can do it without frying my system.

Any advice is appreciated.

[Golden Dragoon]

The second one wouldn't work from what I can see, as for loop order I always go pump>cpu then whatever else you want, changing the orders round in a closed loop system barely affects the tempratures, but most cpu blocks like a higher pressure at the inlet, so going pump to cpu means that there are no pressure drops possible between them.

With your case layout I would go, pump>cpu>gpu>bottom rad>top rad(you could hide this along the edge of the moterhboard)>res

[GoNz0]

#1, the pressure drop from a 240 rad is very little compared to the gpu, stick with that and your fine.

#2 is nonsense m8 unless they designed a new VGA cooler with 2 in and 2 out

[Alphyn]

Alright, thanks, guys. #1 it is.

[piggin23]

Go with No.1

[Bugbait]

CPU's have a lower operating temperature than (performance) GPU's so always put the CPU before GPU in a single loop. Assuming the pump isn't near capacity in terms of pressure/head-lift then I would suggest:

Pump/Res --> CPU --> Top Rad --> GPU --> Bottom Rad --> Pump/Res

The heat dump from the pump is the lowest out of all the heat generating components in your diagram. Given you "only" have 2 radiators then something will have to miss out on a heat dump (radiator) prior to cooling.

Putting a radiator after each heat generating component (CPU and GPU being the hottest) maximises the efficiency of the loop. A loop is most efficient when the delta between the water and component (CPU/GPU/Radiator) is the highest. Cooling the water before it enters the CPU is ideal, but running the warm water from the CPU directly into the GPU isn't as efficient as cooling it through a radiator first.

[GoNz0]

CPU's have a lower operating temperature than (performance) GPU's so always put the CPU before GPU in a single loop. Assuming the pump isn't near capacity in terms of pressure/head-lift then I would suggest:

Pump/Res --> CPU --> Top Rad --> GPU --> Bottom Rad --> Pump/Res

The heat dump from the pump is the lowest out of all the heat generating components in your diagram. Given you "only" have 2 radiators then something will have to miss out on a heat dump (radiator) prior to cooling.

Putting a radiator after each heat generating component (CPU and GPU being the hottest) maximises the efficiency of the loop. A loop is most efficient when the delta between the water and component (CPU/GPU/Radiator) is the highest. Cooling the water before it enters the CPU is ideal, but running the warm water from the CPU directly into the GPU isn't as efficient as cooling it through a radiator first.

that's all very well until it evens out after 10 mins then it doesn't make much difference

[Bugbait]

that's all very well until it evens out after 10 mins then it doesn't make much difference

Did some reading, you're right . Basically heat dump into the closed loop coupled with flow rate makes the order insignificant.

[Golden Dragoon]

Yup in theory it makes sense to have rads after everything, but closed loop systems don't work like that, the biggest problem is the pressure differences at the various parts of the loop.

[Macadee]

Component order makes little difference, the only one definite rule to remember is having the res before pump.