*Help: which pump & radiator to buy for watercooling!?

[BillyBatson]

I am going to be buying the danger den cpu block, chipset block, etc what I can't decide on is which pump or radiator to buy?

For the radiator it is between the Black Ice Pro and the Black Ice Micro. I have a mid tower lian li right now and will never be betting anything larger than a mid tower. Both of these should fit easy but obviously the micro will fit much easier. Obviously the pro gets a 120mm fan and owuld be quiter but the micro is smaller and 80mm fans can perform very well aswell. Which one of these is more efficient at cooling? and is it a large enough difference to care!?

Now the pump, I was going to go with a Hydor L30 which claims to be on par witht he quality of an eheim but lower price and only slightly higher sound volume butttt now they have the Danger Den 12 Volt Pump DD12V-D4. This thing is REAL small, built wel, lasts forever, connects directly to a PSU through a molex! BUTTTT i can't find the GPH spec for this pump anywhere not even ont he manufacturers site!!!! ALSO it has a nominal rating of 24v but can run at 12, would htis effect performance at all? It is also very loud and costs double that of the other pumps!!!

OH and does a higher flow pump make a different!? ex 185GPH vs 320GPH? i would htink slower moving water would spend more tine in the blocks absorbing heat and mroe time in the raditor cooling off? probably wrong here but still.

What do you guys think?!

*edit* ended up buying the Hydor L30 because of price/performance. I have a 560w PSU though so running the DD pump wasn't going to be a problem.
Also got the black ice Pro because i figured it was between the micro and extreme in price, size and performance but if i need to step up to the extreme or can go down to the micro i will.
This is intended for a mobile 2600+ to OC of course, and will be cooling the northbridge and cpu.

 

[Jen]

depends on what your useing for a processor and if your going to overclock etc.

long time ago i used a small pump and radiator and small 1/4 inch lines to cool down a PIII at 1001 mhz 1.95 volts. this worked well for that period

then i moved up to thunderbirds and found everything got hotter. i upgraded to a larger pump 350 gph and 1/2 inch lines . still a 5 x 7 radiator. that worked well for that


then i moved up to a 5 5/8 x 12 inch radiator with two 120 mm fans that dropped my previous tempuratures by 5c .


now i have moved on to a dual system for my needs , i still am useing the same 350 gph pump and two water blocks . radiator size now is 3 inch thick by 7 x 12 . i also moved my cooling to external which makes it harder if it needs to be moved.

i havent had time to use this new external box much cause of problems with my computer. but from what i seen there is only a 7c rise from idle to full load. if it stays this way i will be very happy with the results.

 

[Gaunt]

If you're going to go with a pump that connects via your PSU, just make sure that you have sufficient power in the PSU to power the pump. Depending on what PSU you have, this might not be an issue at all, just something I thought I'd mention.

I recently installed the Hydro L30 in my case, and I find it to be extremely quiet. I can't hear it at all while the side panels are on. The pump vibrates quite a bit, so the suction cup mounting that comes with it is pretty much required, and you need to make sure that the pump doesn't contact anything else inside the case, otherwise you may have to find a way to dampen the vibrations apart from the suction cups.

As for a rad... it really depends on what you're trying to cool. The type of CPU and it's heat output will affect what rad you should buy. Also, if you're going to be cooling the CPU, chipset, and GPU, then going with a larger rad is almost a must. The Black Ice Extreme should be able to handle all 3 without any problems (or atleast that's what I'm hoping for, considering that's the rad I have). I don't believe the Black Ice micro will be able to cool more than just a single CPU, but you'd have to look into that a bit more.

For pumps, the flow rate does make a difference. Most people recommend a flow rate of atleast 100gph (If I remember correctly) after all tubing and blocks have been installed. Obviously to meet this requirement, you need to start out with a pump that is higher than 100gph. The gph ratings on the pumps are given at 0 head, meaning with no load on the pump. As soon as the pump has to actually push water a distance, the gph drops. Most pump manufacturers provide a graph of head vs flow rate.

This (www.overclockers.com) article may help.

 

[Sokratz]

I have the BIX and the L30 for the rbx/maze4. Like my setup, but it's pretty huge in my case. I think adding the chipset block on this setup would be a bit much. As Gaunt said, the L30 is pretty quiet (as long as it's not touchign anything), although I do hear a sucking-wierd sound once in awhile. Make sure you get a good 120mm fan, else all your quiet dreams will go down the crapper.

Sorry that I can't provide any details on teh Den pump, I thought of that one myself. I do recommend the BIX instead of the micro if you can fit it though.

 

[BillyBatson]

I updated above on what i purchased and what it will be used for.
However i could still use the info since who says i can't just buy new stuff next week if this doesn't cut it

 

[Sokratz]

I think you will be happy with whatcha bought man. It's always a fun time too. Oh, if you misc tubing etc, remember that menards is your friend while home depot is the devil.

one thing i reget not doing was putting cutoff valves throughout the system so i could easily interchange parts. now that would have been cool.

 

[BillyBatson]

Originally posted by: Sokratz
I think you will be happy with whatcha bought man. It's always a fun time too. Oh, if you misc tubing etc, remember that menards is your friend while home depot is the devil.

one thing i reget not doing was putting cutoff valves throughout the system so i could easily interchange parts. now that would have been cool.

Menards!?!?

and hey i didn't even think of that! that's good advice right there!

 

[NewBlackDak]

wtf is menards?