Guys is it better to get 2xpumps or 1xpump ?

I ask this cause my setup is...


pump-360mmradiator-980ti-980ti-120mmradiator-cpu-photonres-360mmradiator-pump

would having 2 pumps in series be better ?

was looking at these 2 to purchase next week...

EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 PWM Serial - (incl. 2x pump)
or
EK-Dual DDC 3.2 PWM X-TOP With Dual Laing 18w DDC Pumps

--

not sure what one is better between the 2....

I asked the same question last week, i was recommended to get just one pump and it seems to be running fine, even on low speeds. I guess s second pump would just be for redundancy if you like to have a backup. Backup aint really my thing

I bought a D5 Vario as theyre super quiet and you can just set and forget the speed. Im running Res>Pump>240>240>360> GPU>GPU>CPU>360>Res and all seems good.

I'd take out the 120mm rad and run a single pump.

Personally I would put your two 980ti in parallel and as Minstadave says, ditch the 120mm radiator it'll do nothing worthwhile for you with 2 360s in there. The only real benefit of a second pump is redundancy if one fails, personally again, I would rather just monitor flow rates with an alarm.

The 2nd pump if not running will be causing a flow restriction anyway.

If you do run 2 pumps, they should always be in series not parallel. Both performance and redundancy is better that way - been well tested. Most dual tops do this anyway.

thanks guys for the info
will stick to the pump i currently have then as its doing a fine job if not a little slow on the flow but it works perfect....

Note* though in future if i do decide to get one of the above pumps ? what one is better ? or are they both just as good as each other. ?

You also are likely to get a roughly equal split of people telling you the D5 is vastly superior to the DDC and people telling you the reverse. I've only played with DDCs myself but I strongly suspect the truth is that they're both good, it's just whichever you picked to try is your favourite.
If you're looking to PWM control a D5 then you might want to check the Aquaero thread as apparently the D5's PWM implementation is a bit flawed with the exception of Aqua Computer's version which has the correction mod pre-applied - I don't know the full details though to be fair.

My DDC has been running nearer ten years than five and turned down a bit, is silent. Very happy with it - so much so that I've just bought a dual top and a pair of new ones. You don't always NEED two...

Yeah, i've read threads saying the D5 is better and threads saying the DDC is better. Ive had the same experience as Cenedd, my last d5 lasted 10 years so i replaced it with another of the same, i guess people are gonna stick with something theyve tried and tested.

There's a functional difference between D5 & DDC.

DDC is geared towards high resistance environment, while D5 is geared towards high flow function.

So if your loop is extremely restrictive, you are recommended to use DDC.

Another functional difference is that D5 does not need active cooling since the motor is inside the loop while DDC can fail if you do not have any airflow inside the case to cool the pump.

I've personally used DDC PWM, D5 Vario, D5 PWM & D5 USB.

DDC PWM is still noisy when turned down compared to D5 turned down.

D5 Vario is good if you doesn't care about real time control.

D5 PWM is a fail unless you get a Aquacomputer or have a mobo which is compatible with them.

D5 USB is pretty much the best, since it uses Aquabus (or USB if you don't have a Aquaero) and doesn't take up a PWM channel on my Aqauero, plus it scales really well.



edit: for those who care, D5 USB runs at 100% if there's no USB or Aquabus signal, which resolves the filling problem common when using D5 PWM.

Wow you get through a lot of pumps, im guessing you upgrade a lot

BluD said:

Wow you get through a lot of pumps, im guessing you upgrade a lot

Click to expand...

I move from D5 PWM -> D5 Vario -> DDC PWM -> D5 USB just because I'm very sensible to the pump noises.

D5 USB is the final step that I am happy with.

But I only upgrade when I spot a nice second hand deal, so in total I probably only spent ~50GBP cash to get to D5 USB (over 3 years?)

Nice to hear views from someone who's used both. Really helpful, thanks.
The DDC can get hot - the EK DDC heatsink is a good idea or they have been known to die under some particular combination of flow and restriction. Interesting to know the D5 is cooled by the flown of coolant - which doesn't seem like a difficult thing given its proximity to said coolant!

With the rubber feet of the EK heatsink and turned down to 7V I don't hear mine at all and I'm fairly noise sensitive myself. Directly screwed to a case, they can be loud.

It's also worth noting that the DDC is small and square and the D5 is slightly larger and cylindrical. I'm not being facetious, the aesthetic can be important in some builds.

I really cant hear my d5 vario, i have it on speed 3. While i was bleeding it i had to keep touching it to check it was actually on. Asthetics mean nothing to me though as my computer goes into a desk cupboard so i just go for quietest, even if it means using some ugly fixings and tubing

Firestar_3x said:

The 2nd pump if not running will be causing a flow restriction anyway.

Click to expand...

This has been tested multiple times and it adds basically no restriction even when the pump is off.

I have 2 D5s in series at setting 2 and they are silent.

mjallan123 said:

This has been tested multiple times and it adds basically no restriction even when the pump is off.

I have 2 D5s in series at setting 2 and they are silent.

Click to expand...

i disagree with that, one of mine sort of seized up and it definitely reduced the flow.

But reduced flow better than zero flow!

Personally i often go for two seperate loops with a pump on each running from one reservoir.

Not sure if there is any science in it but my gut feelings are short loops, better flowrate etc

Or am I mad?

Greebo said:

Personally i often go for two seperate loops with a pump on each running from one reservoir.

Not sure if there is any science in it but my gut feelings are short loops, better flowrate etc

Or am I mad?

Click to expand...

Well a lot of the "Streaming" people all seem to do this, so maybe it does work ....

thou I feel it might be more of a case of "More stuff to show off in my case!"

VKleita said:

Well a lot of the "Streaming" people all seem to do this, so maybe it does work ....

thou I feel it might be more of a case of "More stuff to show off in my case!"

Click to expand...

LOL more like more hassle....a lot of the "streaming" people have two reservoirs though which means you need to calculate your cooling out right for each loop. A nightmare.

Suppose it depends how restrictive the items in the loop are. I didnt do this until i would have had a loop with 3 rads and two gpu waterblocks plus the cpu waterblock and it just seemed a long loop to have just one pump running. Didnt know at the time if putting pumps in series was a good/bad idea so juts made two loops

res>pump>cpu>480 rad>res

res>pump>240rad>2 x gpu>360rad>res

i figure the water temp will equalise over time in the system anyway so didnt matter about which loop dumped the most heat or how many rads on each.

But figured i would be getting the max flow rate through each loop and hence the best cooling.

mjallan123 said:

This has been tested multiple times and it adds basically no restriction even when the pump is off.

I have 2 D5s in series at setting 2 and they are silent.

Click to expand...

So it does add a restriction then?

The pump has to add restriction due to its design, the static impeller is in the way of the liquid flow this has to cause a restriction.

10+ years ago when i was messing around with Vapos and my first water cooling loops i tested all this out and the flow restriction from a second pump in series was notable.