How much fluid is needed in a loop?

madindehead

madindehead

madindehead

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Just wondering, how much fluid do you really need for a water loop? I am looking at buying the EK 250ml reservoir.

So, if I have that, a CPU block, GPU block, a triple and a dual rad, and a bit of tubing between that of course, how much fluid do you need?
 
Don't bother with overpriced cooling fluids that perform worse than pure water, cost an arm and a leg and clog up your system with dye residue that'll be a nightmare to get rid of. Get a 5l bottle of deionised water from halfords for a few quid instead. :)
 
I really wanted fluid. But in the end, I got distilled water, pt nuke, and a silver coil all for under £10.

Not only that, but it's 5 litres of water, so I don't even have to worry about how much I need ;)
 
JeffyB said:
I got through 5L of distilled flushing my rad, blocks and finally filling the loop.
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Really? How did you use that much :confused:
The blackice team told me that I didn't need to flush the rad. I did anyway, and not much gunk was in there at all, so after I used tap water, I only ended using about 700ml of distilled. Then it won't take a lot to clean the rest of the blocks, so I imagine I'll have plenty left over.
 
well distilled water won't do damage, as long as it's when you're leak testing. You wipe it off and dry the area very thoroughly.

If it's when the pc is running, then even nano fluid will kill your components.
 
For madindeheads' loop I would say about litre and half, maybe a little more.

Deionised/Distilled is so cheap though I always buy about 3L in one go so got some spare whenever needed
 
Also you don't really need to get the 250 version of the res. Its only advantage over the 150 or smaller is that you can get more fluid into when initially filling your loop, such that you won't have to blip the pump so many times before the loop is full of water. They don't have any other noticeable benefits, i.e. they definately don't improve your cooling potential just because you have a slightly bigger volume of fluid sitting in the res, which is a fairly common asumption made by those getting into water cooling. I personally prefer the smaller res's as they take up less space and look tidier imo, though if you prefer the look of one then go for it.
 
mine uses exactly a litre with a quad rad in the loop. going to need about a 1 1/3 of a litre for when i put the double rad in again.

i had to use more when i went from the v1 to the v2 ek res as it holds more fluid :)
 
PaulyD said:
For madindeheads' loop I would say about litre and half, maybe a little more.

Deionised/Distilled is so cheap though I always buy about 3L in one go so got some spare whenever needed
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Thanks :)

Bubo said:
Also you don't really need to get the 250 version of the res. Its only advantage over the 150 or smaller is that you can get more fluid into when initially filling your loop, such that you won't have to blip the pump so many times before the loop is full of water. They don't have any other noticeable benefits, i.e. they definately don't improve your cooling potential just because you have a slightly bigger volume of fluid sitting in the res, which is a fairly common asumption made by those getting into water cooling. I personally prefer the smaller res's as they take up less space and look tidier imo, though if you prefer the look of one then go for it.
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Thanks for the info regarding the reservoir size. I wasn't sure if bigger was better or not :) I did like the look of the 250ml reservoir, but to keep costs down for now, I may buy the 150ml one. It looks quite nice too :)

I will just need to find the best way to fill it :)

rjkoneill said:
mine uses exactly a litre with a quad rad in the loop. going to need about a 1 1/3 of a litre for when i put the double rad in again.

i had to use more when i went from the v1 to the v2 ek res as it holds more fluid :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info on that Rich.
 
I'd say 1-1.5l for that setup, depending on the thickness of the rads (oddly enough double thickness rads hold about double the volume of water).

Also with regards to flushing radiators, I'll probably get crucified for this but I don't bother flushing with distilled/deionised, I just use tap water :o I figure that since the water isn't endlessly circulating through the rad for extended periods of time when you flush it the chances of any significant deposits from the tap water building up are pretty much nil.
 
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