Spec me a pump please!

samzetec-s · 2 Oct 2007 at 23:13

Pump has always been noticeable to say the least on my thermaltake bigwater watercooling. Will be going for a new case soon so looking at getting a new pump at the same time. Any recommendations to whats quiet and small ideally?

gurusan · 2 Oct 2007 at 23:27

Laing DDC + a top of your choice. I've just picked a DDC off the MM and ordered an OClabs plexitop elsewhere.

Purdy ehh? Small, quiet, great head rating.

WJA96 · 3 Oct 2007 at 04:43

D-Tek DB-1 - half the price of the Laing and with a BigWater you'll never notice the difference in performance.

Cupra · 3 Oct 2007 at 05:00

id go for the ddc 18w with the alphacool plexitop due to it having a lot more fitting options

try and get a good pump save you buying another if u upgrade block/ rad later

stinka · 3 Oct 2007 at 07:00

agreed i use a ddc and plexi top namely the swiftech mcp 350 and the alphacool top

its inaudible and super powerfull for big loops

WJA96 · 3 Oct 2007 at 07:17

Cupra said:
id go for the ddc 18w with the alphacool plexitop due to it having a lot more fitting options

You make a good point, but the Bigwater system is 3/8ths throughout, so the plexitop is not actually required.

Cupra said:
try and get a good pump save you buying another if u upgrade block/ rad later

It's a valid point, but you can have too much pressure.

Stinka said:
super powerfull for big loops

And where does all that power go when you have a small loop? Horses for courses I say. Small loop, small pump. If you like the DDC, then get a 10W for a Bigwater rig. It is quite possible to blow the seals on a waterblock with overpressure. And a 10W DDC or DB-1 would still be more than oomphy enough for a full system if you upgraded.

That said, I must confess that all my rigs run 18W DDCs

stinka · 3 Oct 2007 at 07:24

WJA96 said:
And where does all that power go when you have a small loop? Horses for courses I say. Small loop, small pump. If you like the DDC, then get a 10W for a Bigwater rig. It is quite possible to blow the seals on a waterblock with overpressure. And a 10W DDC or DB-1 would still be more than oomphy enough for a full system if you upgraded.

That said, I must confess that all my rigs run 18W DDCs

just make your hoses a bit longer to compensate and it makes **** all difference to temps having a big or small loop

w3bbo · 3 Oct 2007 at 07:27

1. Take the bigwater out of your pc.
2. Put it all in a binbag
3. Place said binbag in the bin.
4. Buy a decent watercooling setup.

I know thats harsh but honestly m8 each and every part of the bigwater is outdated - especially if its not the 745 kit as the SE even uses 6mm tubing! The block, although pretty, is not good at all at cooling.
The rad is dire.
You already know about the pump.
As you now have experience of using watercooling the bigwater has served its purpose so don't look upon it as a waste. Its just time to move on. A new pump alone will have little/no benefit to your system as the block isn't restrictive or impingement in design. If you can't afford it right now then wait till you can as upgrading the pump for a bigwater kit will have make no difference to temps.

WJA96 · 3 Oct 2007 at 07:37

stinka said:
just make your hoses a bit longer to compensate and it makes **** all difference to temps having a big or small loop

Ah - OK - So all he needs is to buy a £60 pump that's too powerful and 10 feet of spare tubing to dump off the power. Of course. It all makes perfect sense now. A couple of right-angle barbs too maybe?

WJA96 · 3 Oct 2007 at 07:39

w3bbo said:
If you can't afford it right now then wait till you can as upgrading the pump for a bigwater kit will have make no difference to temps.

I thought it was the noise that was bothering him? The pump is arguably the best bit of a Bigwater kit.

w3bbo · 3 Oct 2007 at 09:06

Theres a 'best bit' to a bigwater?? :confused:

I guess it depends on which bigwater we are talking about. I am assuming he means the SE not the 745. The D-tek is a fair stop gap but when he upgrades other parts it may be lacking in power and prove false economy. I used to have a bigwater kit (yes I admit it) and imo the pump was the weakest link as although it had good flow rate its head pressure was abysmal.

gurusan · 3 Oct 2007 at 10:51

the 745 pump is decent actually....400lph and 2.1m lift. Nothing amazing but does the job just fine.

samzetec-s · 3 Oct 2007 at 13:24

The kit is the 745 with the extra 2x120RAD. Temps are fine under load (about 50C) at 3.2 GHz , that is enough for me. As said it is the noise thats bothering me but i wouldnt mind a new kit. Ideally needs to be smallish so it will all go into my new case (PC7).

Tubing is 3/8

Gregster6 · 3 Oct 2007 at 13:33

I've had a small amount of success with this bad boy!

Also has a great head rating...

stinka · 3 Oct 2007 at 16:53

WJA96 said:
Ah - OK - So all he needs is to buy a £60 pump that's too powerful and 10 feet of spare tubing to dump off the power. Of course. It all makes perfect sense now. A couple of right-angle barbs too maybe?

well right angle pieces made no difference to my loop

i think you'll agree those temps are sound, not bad for a single block loop with 90 bend and ddc pump

Raikiri · 3 Oct 2007 at 16:58

Well, it's not bad but it's also not great considering you have a better pump, block and a far better rad than I have yet your temps (at 300mhz more admittedly) are about 4-6c higher than mine.

@OP the DDC is probably overkill for your system however it would be a good investment for any future setups and it isn't going to hurt performance at all. Plus the 10w version is very quiet.