Reservoir size , does it matter / make difference?

[Donnie Fisher]

Considering doing water cooling loop as a little project over time.

One of considerations being pump / pump res combo / block pump combo designs.

For reservoirs / pump reservoirs, you can obviously get different sizes of reservoir … does the size matter or make a difference to the performance of a loop?

Off the top of my head it might slow the rising of overall system temp due it adding a larger thermal mass to be heated , but wouldn’t change the final settled max if run for long periods ?

 

[Minstadave]

It won't make any meaningful difference.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Would need to be a physics' genius to work it out
Since variables in the radiators used
And the fans used would come into play
Plus components used
CPU and GPU % etc
My opinion as a non physics genius
After a certain volume of liquid
Yes going to have some effect Even if it's minor
No idea what volume though
You can actually use a calculator online
To see the effect of X amount of electric/power/heat on y amount of water
But that doesn't account for the mentioned variables

Would it be meaningful in actual use?
Probably not
Though there must come a point where the pc
Is unable to raise the coolant temperature
Above a certain point with the power input to it

In real life use I would say the advantage of a larger reservoir
Is if you don't check/can't see the reservoir
Because over time the level does drop due to permeation

 

[delvey]

Does it make a difference? Yes. It takes so much energy to heat 1 kg of water by 1°C. So the more water you have (or fluid) the more energy it can absorb. But we aren't just talking a reservoir on its own. We are talking about radiators, pumps, blocks all of which have so many variables that the size of the reservoir (unless you are going stupidly big, like 10 litres) is negligible on overall loop performance

 

[Minstadave]

The extra water will only effect the time to reach max temp, once at equilibrium the max temp will be the same (excluding the tiny amount of heat lost from the reservoir).

 

[ttaskmaster]

does the size matter or make a difference to the performance of a loop?

In a way, yes...

The more money you spend on a massive stonking reservoir, the bigger the case you'll need, the more money you'll have to spend on buying cooling fluid (DP Ultra for the win, in that regard) and the less money you'll have left to spend on decent cooling blocks, rads and fans.

 

[Disco_P]

Within the confines of a watercooling system it'll simply increase the thermal inertia of the loop. This means that it'll take longer for the coolant to heat up under load and cool down afterwards.

If you hooked up 100L as a reservoir, it'd take a 500W system 14 minutes for it to heat up by 1C assuming no heat is lost to the surroundings (which it does, mostly via radiators in a typical loop).

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

It's an interesting question in physics and thermodynamics
But for real life you could probably get away with
The tiny reservoir triggerator has there
Though depends what CPU and GPU radiator and fans are involved
And what fan rpm
Whereas my loop takes 2l to fill up
And got 14 fans
So even with all that there may not be enough coolant
To overpower the amount of watts being put in

The end goal is fans, radiator, reservoir, coolant
Can take the watts to a point where the temperature reaches
A plateau and stops rising while CPU and GPU are at max load

The only question is how high in C are you wanting that plateau
And at what fan rpm/noise
So yeah 500ml compared to 2000ml may make that plateau lower

On a practical level since that's all theory
Usually I use an ek Revo 150
Though I have a backup ek Revo 250
Either of those size reservoir should cope
But basically it's down to your build have seen people use
Multiple 400 reservoir before

After all that lol
I would say an ek Revo 150 should be sufficient for most uses
Or a 250 if got a larger case and it looks a bit empty

Really to come out of all the guessing
The op needs to give some clues as to what hardware
They intend to use and what noise level they will tolerate

 

[Donnie Fisher]

Thanks folks, along the lines of what I had thought in terms of inertia.

as for hardware, as per spec really. I have a 5800x and a 1080ti. I like the capability of it and don’t feel a need for a new gpu so thought water cooling in the case I have might be an interesting project.

I have a streacom f12c which is basically a htpc atx size case. As I look at it from the front I have it setup to cross flow air from left to right with 2 fans on the left and 1 fan on the right (the other right hand fan space is the psu).

in the case I basically have spaces for 2x240 and 1x120 units. If I used something like an ek flt pump res unit then I could have either 2x240 rads and a 120 pump res, or have a 240+120 rad and 240 pump res. Hence asking whether the red size makes a difference.

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Thanks folks, along the lines of what I had thought in terms of inertia.

as for hardware, as per spec really. I have a 5800x and a 1080ti. I like the capability of it and don’t feel a need for a new gpu so thought water cooling in the case I have might be an interesting project.

I have a streacom f12c which is basically a htpc atx size case. As I look at it from the front I have it setup to cross flow air from left to right with 2 fans on the left and 1 fan on the right (the other right hand fan space is the psu).

in the case I basically have spaces for 2x240 and 1x120 units. If I used something like an ek flt pump res unit then I could have either 2x240 rads and a 120 pump res, or have a 240+120 rad and 240 pump res. Hence asking whether the red size makes a difference.

I would probably choose 2 X 240 rads and the flt120
Extra rad space usually allows lower fan rpm
And that's a reasonably hot CPU and GPU so I would rather have
The extra rad even if it probably would work with a 240 and a 120

 

[therealdippy]

It makes a big difference during maintenance. My loop capacity is around 2 litres and my reservoir is about 0.35 litres. I'm glad of that when it comes to refilling the system after a drain.

 

[Donnie Fisher]

Interesting info , thanks folks , I’ll need to sit down and think out the best layouts

 

[Mcnumpty2323]

Yeah good point
Just drained mine to rearrange stuff yesterday
While replacing my fans with some al120
Having 2 reservoirs holding 600ml total certainly does
Make refilling faster
And bleeding the air out easier
But do have 2 X 360 and 1 X 240 rads in mine
And a case large enough to fit as large a reservoir as I like