DDC questions..

Bluntwrapped · 26 Sep 2016 at 20:58

Hey guys, I'm looking for some feedback on DDC pumps.

Up until now D5 has been my choice but I want rebuild my current rig and save space as much space as possible. I'm thinking I could hide a DDC , which would look much neater than having a D5 on display in a small case.

I'm thinking about this pump/res combo. It's pretty much a perfect fit for behind the motherboard tray, if I can hide both the pump and reservoir, double bonus

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...-537-ek.html?gclid=CNGejtnarc8CFQVuGwody4QGfg

Having never owned or used a DDC pump I have a couple of questions..

Does anyone own this pump/res combo and can provide a brief review? I can't find one anywhere.

How noisy is the DDC and will I need to reduce the speed so I can't hear it? Is it loud at full speed without adjustment? I'll be running three single restrictive 120mm rads, a CPU and GPU block. If I can find a balance of performance and silence I'll be happy

Last but not least, how warm do these run and do they need additional cooling?

Any user experience and feedback would be great. Cheers

Bluntwrapped · 27 Sep 2016 at 13:30

Thanks for your reply LePhuronn. One thing I didn't appreciate is the number of different DDC pumps there are. The EK version seems to be the most expensive but looking at the specs it appears to be much more powerful than the others.

While the EK pump/res combo I linked above looks great, looking at the alternatives, EK seem to be taking the absolute **** with the pricing

Think I'll have another look at the pump top options before I make a decision.

Bluntwrapped · 28 Sep 2016 at 13:25

Cheers Cenedd. I'm thinking with the rads being pretty much top of the chart in terms of restriction, the 18W would be a safe bet and I can always drop the speed if required. The upgraded 10W versions look good, the selling focus seems to be on silent running while maintaining decent flow and pressure. I wouldn't want to end up with something under powered for my loop then try and go through the hassle of returning it. Another possible issue is that I don't have enough space for both a pump top and heatsink. I would need to run it without the added heatsink and hope for the best

Looking at the mod tops, the Aquacomputer variant looks to be pretty good and a decent price https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aqua-computer-aquacover-ddc-wc-104-aq.html. It's a shame the fixed barb versions only come with 8/10mm barbs. I can't find any tubing with these dimensions that isn't plasticiser heavy. The bulk of the build will be hardline tubing but I'm prepared to cheat behind the motherboard tray and use flexible tubing.

Bluntwrapped · 29 Sep 2016 at 08:16

Thanks again for this guys. Really appreciate the info from both of you. This section of the forums seems to have gone a bit quiet of late!

Most of my loop parts arrived from Germany yesterday. I'll need to borrow a rule from work and have a proper measure up tonight. Will see how much room I've got left to play with on top of the unmodified pump dimensions and order something up tomorrow.

This loop building OCD is no good for the wallet! I started thinking last night, maybe if I replace my PSU with a SFX version I might be able to cram the D5 in the leftover space lol

Bluntwrapped · 29 Sep 2016 at 10:00

Cenedd said:
You wait til you get something in your head like the need to have all your soft tubing runs straight. Looks nice but you end up needing a lot of fittings with esoteric angles!

Ha ha funnily enough.. I have just spent £200 on hardline fittings for the very same reason. Been looking at my soft tubing for the last year thinking while it looks pretty nice, it's all a bit haphazard compared to the hardline builds I keep seeing. Have never tried hardline tube bending so that'll no doubt be another expensive learning curve!

By the time I'm finished it should look awesome, but the more I think about it the more I need

So much for paying off the credit card lol.

Bluntwrapped · 29 Sep 2016 at 13:04

Ha ha, dangerous things so they are.

I've been watching a few of JayzTwoCents hardline videos, he seems to be pretty good at freehand bending. Pretty much echos your advice above, getting the balance of heat seems to the toughest thing to master. I'm thinking I'll order up plenty of spare, see how I get on freehand and if I really need the mandrels I'll order up a set of the Barrow ones.

The tubing is a bit of an odd size 13/16mm but I've just seen Monsoon do a 13mm insert.

I'll need to buy a heat gun too. The shopping list gets longer and longer as the days go on!

Bluntwrapped · 29 Sep 2016 at 13:35

I'll maybe have a word with my old man and see if hes got a spare heat gun in his garage, he seems to have pretty much every tool I ask to borrow.

I used to work for Black & Decker. I really should have pinched one while I had the chance lol.

The direct threading is a great idea. I can see how that could potentially save a small fortune in fittings.

Bluntwrapped · 3 Oct 2016 at 19:11

Thanks again for the input guys, much appreciated. Think I've got it covered now. I ended up buying a SFX PSU so I should have room to to squeeze in the D5 in the space left over

will need to book a holiday off work just to get everything done lol. Will hopefully have a build log up shortly.

Bluntwrapped · 4 Oct 2016 at 08:39

Haha, should be good to go with the D5! I've had it for my last 3 builds, it's pimped out with the Bitspower top and pump kit :cool:

It seems a shame to hide it after paying for the extras, but I've changed my mind about this build at least 10 times now lol. I had my heart set on how I was going to set everything up until about a week ago, then had a eureka moment which meant spending another £400+.. Seems the more you think about it, the more it ends up costing lol.

Will get some photos up and start the log as soon as I can. I'm sure my first adventure into hardline tubing will be entertaining, for everyone but me!

Bluntwrapped · 4 Oct 2016 at 13:15

It's hard to put a price on perfection, until you check the credit card bill that is!

I'll not give anything away before I can set up a log, but with the space being so limited I've had to have a re-think at pretty much every step of the way. My 'temporary' loop has been going for 2+ years now, quite a bit longer than I originally hoped for. The hardware has aged a fair bit since then but the CPU I'm using is a golden sample, a 1/10000 maybe so it should hopefully still be interesting to see.

Bluntwrapped · 4 Oct 2016 at 19:03

Drangueos said:
I have 2 DDC pumps in my system.. 18 and 10W, both with EK heatsinks, 10W is in a bay reservoir and the 18W is using a pump top, both are running at 10.5V and I can not hear them... if I go over 11V the 10W is actually noiser than the 18W.
At 12V you can hear them, but mind you my case is on my desk, on my ear's level and only 50cm away from me.

10W CPU + MB + 480 rad loop
18W 3xGPUs + 360 + 240 + 120 + 120 rads loop

Thanks for this. While I think I'm sorted now this is all good to know for the next time. It'll probably not be too long before I put all the spares I've managed to accumulate into another system. Will likely be a HTPC so a DDC will be in with a shout.