Best AC pump?
 

It seems lately everyone recommends the MCP650/muffled D4. But I dont want to put my pump or fans on my PSU, would actually be easier for me to go AC b/c of how Im going to set things up.

I want to run everything in series.

2 x fedco 2-215
2 x mcw6002s (havent really decided on the CPU blocks yet but this is my 1st choice)
Maze 4 NB block
Maze 4 GPU block (maybe the new 6800 block but I havent read enough on it)
and some HD coolers that I'll end up making but very low resistance (just a long copper block with two passes and wide channels).

Im going to put a lot of effort into really clean tubing with as few turns as possible.

Im guessing if I wanted a DC pump people would recommend dual MCP650s in parrallel, correct?

Is there a single AC pump that would give me enough head?? I guess I could get an Iwaki but those things seriously scare me =\ Maybe a eheim 1260?

edit---

actually someone just gave me the idea of using a 12vdc power brick to power my fans and Pumps off of. Would getting two MCP650s be a better idea then using a AC pump? It seems that AC pumps suck a lot of watts...

I'd go iwaki for AC, 2x MCP650s in series for DC

dunno why you're so scared to put them on your PSU

I thought pumps in series = more flow
and pumps in parrallel = more head.

Dont I need more head because I have a single loop with everything in series = larger pressure drop?

I was using a PC P&C 510XE and the board was very very sensitive to rail variations.

Dont want to have to get a larger, more expensive PSU for my next system.

Series = more pressure
Parallel = more flow AT ZERO HEAD, parallel pumps are generally not advised unless you are stubborn ;)

Yes you want more pressure so series is the way.

PC power an coolingshould hold your rails way tighter than they ever have to be

if you're having problems, return the PSU, or investigate.

series is more head, parallel is more flow.

dang, you beat me nikhsub1

I know I was just putting a large stress on it. It wasnt the PS (monitored my rails with mbm5, logged it for a week and they stayed within +/- 0.03v for each rail). Awesome PS but the e7505 board I had just sucked and was very picky.
Im hoping that wont be a problem with whatever new board I get (tumwater maybe) but getting a 12vdc power brick to throw two MCP650s on and two 172mm dc fans sounds like a good idea to me. Put a 12vdc relay inline with the PSU switch and I'll be good to go. The brick would be cheap and would make bleeding easier.

Im glad I'll go in series then, thats easier to route and run a fill and bleed setup.

Thanks again.


Edit---------
When is parrallel pumps ever a good thing?

I do that for testing

For water cooling a computer? I'd have to say in very few instances.

From looking at the flow charts two MCP650s in series will give me more head than a Iwaki 20RX correct? Im trying to compare head and power consumption...

Get a Mag 3. It's a beast and you can get it for $40. It's got like 9' head if I remember correctly. Absolutely destroys anything remotely close to it's price range.

Should put a little * in there.

* May begin to leak.

And it's 11' of head according to Danner. :)

I think when pHaestus tested it it was about 9', slighly lower than the new Swiftech pump, but with much higher gpm. Besides, a little JB Weld on your pump never hurt anyone.

True, it's just good to give potential buyers a heads up before their purchase.



Where did pH test the mag3? His pump roundup doesn't include the mag3, though he does show a graph with manufacturer data. With a 2nd order polynomial the two ends of the graph come in short which makes it look like it's a bit below 10'. With a third order it smooths out nicer and comes to about 10.5'

I do have to admit the Laing D4 is a good pump and proven very reliable.

Though for the price you could buy two Mag 3's and keep one as backup.

Yes, a backup pump is really good to have when then first pump leaks, the cooling system runs dry, the GPU and CPU overheats, melts the tubing onto the barbs causing a leak at barb points resulting in superheated water dripping all over the motherboard internals just before the CPU and GPU fry themselves.

At about that time, one would be very glad that they had a second pump handy that was also prone to leaking, and be most thankful that they didn't waste their money spending twice as much for a quality pump in the first place.

Custom Sea Life Velocity T3

Although CSL closed shop a some time ago, Champion Lighting still distributes these pumps.

They have a pretty fair price of $160 here (Tech specs and graphs on this page as well).

I found one of these pumps on ebay for $120 a couple years ago (a bit much, but they were scarce at the time). $160 seems a lot for a pump, but they are well built and are backed by a two year no-fault warranty. The performance is also decent.

My only beef with these pumps is that they can get quite hot and *do* add much of this heat to the cooling loop (power consumption is 140W).

My own use of this pump was limited to about 4 months (DD RBX mounting issues destroyed 2 cpus, drips shorted vid card, lost all desire to watercool). I am planning to put it back into service when I can afford a system worth watercooling again. The new system will actually justify the head afforded by the T3 (remote radiator).

Two running MCP650s (4 amps) is about the same load as four running 7200 RPM hard drives on the +12V rail. Start up current may be two times (or more) higher than running current. I'd use at least a 460W PSU (>20 A on +12V rail) assuming you are only going to have one or two hard drives and an optical drive.

Just get an iwaki. If u dont like it for ur computer u can always use it to water ur lawn... Cathar knows what im talkign about..

Think Im just gonna get two 350w's. One just for the board, and another for the pumps, optical drives, HDs, and fans.

Ouch.

Well, I was personally thinking of applying a liberal amount of JB Weld or RTV sealant to the o-ring area, that being the problem area. Of course, replace the screws with metal ones and you're good to go. Though I think you'd be fine just using JB Weld.

Using two 350W PSUs would certainly work.

My Mag5 came with metal screws. :shrug: Do Mag3's have plastic screws or is this something they've changed in the last 2 years?

My last 3 Mag3's had metal screws and the screw on fittings have changed, if im not mistaken along time ago when you screwed on a barb on the outlet it was crooked ( seen it I believe ) well the new mag's fixed that. Also none of my 3 leaked with the stock O-Ring.

My Mag5 developed a very slow leak, about a tablespoon a day, but it was slow enough that the water that leaked out evaporated and didn't pool in the bottom of my enclosure. I think I topped it off every couple days for about a month till I decided to rebuild the system and use temporary air cooling. The main problem I see with the Mag housing is that the four corner locations contact the face before the center sections thereby putting less pressure on the o-ring in those positons. I wonder why Danner doesn't just make a revision that fixes that. :(