Three branch water cooling?

doctoe2260

doctoe2260

doctoe2260

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Okay dudes and dudettes (if there are indeed any ladies on this board), I have an idea I would like you to pull apart.

I'm planning on building a BIG water cooled rig (so space not an issue) and was thinking of using a car radiator to provide HUGE heat dissipation (and lots of water for thermal capacity). Thing is, the hoses to these rads are very big. So I was wondering, would it be possible to have three branches, rather than a single loop? Branches would split shortly after the pump, one going to CPU, one to GPU and one to northbridge. The branches would then rejoin at the rad through some sort of custom 3-way cap sort of thing.

If you're thinking 'Why?', the answer is it would look cool.

If anyone has tried this, has any theories as to how well/badly it would work,problems etc. Please let me know.

P.S. the pump would be a central heating pump chucking out around 2000 l/hr

Cheers guys
 
Something like that yeah, only that guy has simply fitted an adapter to the pipework to make it fit large pipe diameter, I'm intending to fit three tubes in there.
 
It is indeed a very good idea if plumbed up right.

Using Swiftech F-fittings, and using smaller bore tubing to NB/SB etc means water flows to the path of least resistance. More flow would be going to the CPU/GPU (as these will have large bore tubing) and least flow to the NB/SB.
 
I reckon it would work as planned.

big bore from rad > CH pump > 3 way split 1/2 inch to 3 blocks >rejoin big bore into rad.

The central heating pump will have so much pressure it will feed all 3 blocks in parallel no problem. Who cares if the NB or GPU get more than the CPU? The CPU will still have a ton of flow.

The routing problem is only really an issue for our low powered pumps. If it is a concern, put a tap on the NB block so you can increase flow resistance.

I think the biggest problem will be leaks do to the pressure. No acrylic tops and decent hose clamps will be a must..
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll have to either use huge clamps, or not bother with pretty transparent hosing and do as much as possible with plumbing supplies. Third option is to put a resistor in series with the pump so I can run it at reduced voltage (less noise, less pressure) and see if I can find a happy medium!

Thanks again dudes!
 
I think some of those central heating pumps have different flow settings.

Be careful, most of them can pump out more pressure than blocks are tested to :eek:

Tubing is only rated to about 25psi too.....

Chose your components carefully. The good news is the weaker pumps will be cheaper.
 
I had a Ford Sierra rad running passively from my old rig, I'll try and dig up a picture.

All I did was run 2 CSP 750s internally and have the tubing exit the case through a PCI slot going to 1/2" barbs screwed into 1" adapters for the rad. No need for anything complex :)

I was running a Mobile XP 2500 @ 2.7 Ghz, a 9800 AIW running at XT speeds, DD NB block and two HDD coolers and the temp was arounf 40 degrees with no fans running at all.
 
Awesome advice guys, much appreciated! Glad to hear that you don't need anything fancy to link 1/2" stiff to big bore rads. Hadn't thought about the tubing though - doe! Guess I'll have to do without pretty UV stuff then!

Cheers guys
 
Central heating pumps are designed for huge pressure which I really doubt is suitable for PC water-cooling. Anyways, it's unnecessary; you simply don't need a pump that powerful, just use something like a D5 or an 18W DDC.
 
It does sound like a great project, but there are a couple of problems that stem from the fact that a lot of watercooling is actually counter-intuitive (hey - fluid-dynamics is complex stuff :p )

Branching:
Seems like a good idea, but actually all you're achieving is turning a system in series into a system in parallel, and unfortunately this does not work well in watercooling as your different blocks have different resistances and so you will get uneven flow through the 3 'systems' (Good cooling in one of the blocks, but rubbish/stagnant flow in the others.) - There are methods of 'load balancing' out there, but I'm not convinced it's worth the hastle (plus it's one more bit of kit to buy!)

Radiator
Used to be a really good idea - the watercooling community sprang up from guys tearing heater-cores (matrixes) out of cars and using them to cool their rigs - then they started building custom ones - then they did some research, and now we have the PA series (PA120.3 ans PA160.1) - there are lots of reasons why you should just get these, but if you have the space, there is no reason not to use the heater-core, especially as they can be had for about £15 from your local scrap yard - just try to get a copper cored one to save on corrosion.

-Just for nostalgia's sake, here's a shot from when I plumbed in my 'Loo-Blu' system a couple of years back and used 2 Ford Heater-matices to cool my system via the toilet (you can see one in the cistern and the other is behind the fans:

radcis.jpg


Pumps
Unfortuanately, bigger is not better, after a certain point the advantage from increased flow is negated by the increase in heat dumped into the system by the pump itself - as above - those pumps are the best available (the 18W DDC with the replacement top is supposed to be awesome, but I love my D6 vario!)- stick to them and you won't go far wrong - had a link to the 'definitive work' on pump size/efficiency by Cathar - will dig it out if you like.

That said - Watercooling is about having fun as much as improving performance, so keep the wacky ideas coming - we'll try to help every time :D
 
Last edited:
cavemanoc said:
had a link to the 'definitive work' on pump size/efficiency by Cathar - will dig it out if you like.
Click to expand...

Yes please :D. Just finished got my air cooling efficent and wisper quiet (if not quieter) - bored now so looking at water cooling. Just can't keep my hands out of the case - *must resist the urge to fiddle*.
 
you may have a problem containing the pressure of a CH pump, the slightest movement could cause a leak.
fingers crossed for you ;)
 
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