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Thread: DIY watercooling, need advice on pump!!

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    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    DIY watercooling, need advice on pump!!

    Ok, i started building a wc kit from various different parts. Just got hold of a monster rad, looks like a car heater core but not sure, it's really thick



    I think must be a really powerful pump to push water through this thing, any suggestion.

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    DIY means making, not assembling

    That rad aint a heater core. Heater cores are made from corrigated copper sheet soldered together and ran in parelell.

    That looks to me more like a condenser for a phase change system. Note the capilary sized tubing for the inlet/outlet.
    Phase change systems use this style of rad becuase of the high pressures in them. A heatercore would be blown apart instantly where as these can take much higher pressures.
    you can get rads in this style from cars I *think*, and I know dangerden definatly madeonecalled the cube, for watercooling.. but id say heatercores are cheaper and generally better.

    If you really want to use this, then take off the capilary tube - you may need to solder/braize on some more piping to make it easyer to connect to - maybe even some barbed fittings or thread the existing ones (after removing the capilary) - but they do look too small ID for a proper w/c system.

    Your right in that you will need a big pump. Id recommend a laing d4 (or TWO in series). An eheim/hydor wont do for this thing, you need the pump to give a lot of pressure and not so much worry about flow.

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    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    Ok, should be DYO instead of DIY then . I dig this thing up from my garage, no problem with taking off the tube, 5' with my dremel, the small tube must be remove for sure. If I could use this it would save me a nice sum to spend on other things , so what i need is a very high pressure pump, right ? And is the Laing D4 is the Dangerden D4 12v pump, they look damn silimar.

    One more question, if I use this rad, then an Antartica or a TDX would be better ? TDX i think? to make use of the high pressure.
    Last edited by Hans Voralberg; 17-02-2005 at 01:12 AM.

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    Hmmm strange rad.

    I'm not so sure about needing a really powerful pump for it SilentDeath. The main flow tubing looks like 1/2 inch ID and the bends are all nicely curved so once the capillary/small tubes are removed it shouldnt cause too much pressure drop. I have a Hydor L20 running a system with a rad similar, if not bigger, than this and it runs fine .

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    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    Anymore ideas people??

    @Turkster: yep you're right, without the capillary it's 1/2'' fitting. What make me worry is not the size, but the length of the tube in the rad, 3 fold, so can a normal pump do it job ?
    Last edited by Hans Voralberg; 17-02-2005 at 01:20 AM.

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    The d4 is a great pump though. Much morepower and 1/2 the size

    To me the pipeing looks smaller, certinally not 15mm which is what ive used for my hdd block and rad (which is acctually non-standard 16mmOD brass which is a pita to connect to 15mm copper)

    Just so you know, it can be a PITA using 1/2" clearflex/tygon with non-barbed 1/2" fittings/pipe. Its just too small and easly leaks without a bit of overtightning.
    To me this rad looks like 8mm ID pipe and the capilary @ 4mmOD?

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hans Voralberg
    Anymore ideas people??

    @Turkster: yep you're right, without the capillary it's 1/2'' fitting. What make me worry is not the size, but the length of the tube in the rad, 3 fold, so can a normal pump do it job ?
    If thats the case, then yea. It wont be the best for flow rate, but if its 1/2"ID then its still good enough

    With a laing D4 you should get quite decent flow rates.

    My gpu block, I made myself. It was my first block and it was uber-cheap using some free silver. I didnt have enough so it was possibly the most restritive block possible, similar to the WW but with 7x1mm*1mm channels.
    The difference maded by taking it out, my d4 can run at 1/4 the power and still give higher flow (not that I have any equipment for measureing by how much.. ).
    Performance was resonably good with the gpu block in, and it was able to do 450mhz on ever r300 card I could find.. so I think if you chose a good block this rad wont give problems..but a heatercore would be better
    Last edited by SilentDeath; 17-02-2005 at 01:28 AM.

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    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    I find it hard to justify the price tag of the Laing D4, don't have much right now.
    Currently i had an Antartica block (15 quids from eBay) and planning to get a DYO Asetek VGA block. (And finding a heater core in Camb is like finding a needle in the ocean)

    So any more candidate ??
    Last edited by Hans Voralberg; 17-02-2005 at 01:38 AM.

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    Well I just looked at my rad: it has 14 passes of 1/2" ID copper pipe and 14 U shaped bends so it is actually a good bit bigger than this one. As I say it does a very good job on my system with a L20 pump keeping my XP2500@2.3Ghz at around 35 deg C load (although with no VGA or chipset blocks).

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    Senior Member SilentDeath's Avatar
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    yea, sounds fine.

    D4 is maybe a bit too powerfull for normal loops/perfect for higher restriction ones..
    If I try to run it now at 12v, with just my cpu block - which is very un-restrictive!, 2 rads, hdd block and res - I get problems that it quickly starts sucking air into the loop, and a lot of it; Its not really useable above 6.5v becuase of this problem, so I need to add some kind of restriction to stop air getting in there.

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    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by turkster
    Well I just looked at my rad: it has 14 passes of 1/2" ID copper pipe and 14 U shaped bends so it is actually a good bit bigger than this one
    OMG, that's huge. I am suprise that a L20 manage to go through 14 passes and still give a decent pressure.

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    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by |SilentDeath|
    I get problems that it quickly starts sucking air into the loop, and a lot of it; Its not really useable above 6.5v becuase of this problem, so I need to add some kind of restriction to stop air getting in there.
    Sorry if this is a n00b question, but from where air get into the loop?? From the res, i guess??

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    • Butcher's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI Z97 Gaming 3
      • CPU:
      • i7-4790K
      • Memory:
      • 8 GB Corsair 1866 MHz
      • Storage:
      • 120GB SSD, 240GB SSD, 2TB HDD
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      • Antec 650W
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      • Big Black Cube!
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    That's a Senfu radiator, they haven't been made in a few years now. I guess most people are too new to watercooling to remember them.
    It's designed specifically for watercooling. In terms of pressure drop, it's a lot more restrictive than a heatercore. It also has significantly less heat dissipation ability. And it's a beast to try and force air through, the weak fans provided are not really adequate to the task.

    Some comparisons of this rad to others can be found here: http://www.overclockers.com/articles481/

    Incidentally, thinner is better in almost all cases for watercooling radiators.

  14. #14
    Amateur photographer Hans Voralberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Butcher
    It's designed specifically for watercooling. In terms of pressure drop, it's a lot more restrictive than a heatercore. It also has significantly less heat dissipation ability. And it's a beast to try and force air through, the weak fans provided are not really adequate to the task.
    The fans provided are not really weak . Also by Senfu (now i notice the Snfu sticker on the fan). According to the comparison @OC.com this rad kinda in the middile in term of pressure drop and flow rate, so ya think a Hydor L30 would do ?

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    DIY means making, not assembling
    LOL believe it means do it yourself m8, could be wrong.

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    • Butcher's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI Z97 Gaming 3
      • CPU:
      • i7-4790K
      • Memory:
      • 8 GB Corsair 1866 MHz
      • Storage:
      • 120GB SSD, 240GB SSD, 2TB HDD
      • Graphics card(s):
      • MSI GTX 970
      • PSU:
      • Antec 650W
      • Case:
      • Big Black Cube!
      • Operating System:
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hans Voralberg
    The fans provided are not really weak . Also by Senfu (now i notice the Snfu sticker on the fan). According to the comparison @OC.com this rad kinda in the middile in term of pressure drop and flow rate, so ya think a Hydor L30 would do ?
    Yeah they are - 80mm fans are all weak pretty much, and those are 80x25mm to boot. Check the graphs on OC.com - your fans are going to be, at best, on the yellow line and probably below.

    L30? Don't know, depends what your goals are. It'll work, but use of that rad will limit the system somewhat.

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