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krazy · 02-23-2004, 01:08 PM

Welcome to procooling, Kristos! I just went through the great pump search, after debating and researching a whole lot of properties about different pumps. i ended up with a Danner Mag 3, but your ideal pump could be just about anything.

The main things to look into strictly for performance reasons are head and flow. With these two criteria the same, pumps perform almost identically. Head seems to be a little more helpful than tons of flow these days because of the highly restrictive blocks coming into play.

Looking slightly more into the long-term, you'll also want to care about duty cycle of te pump. Is it designed to run continuously? A non-contunous rated pump is a very bad idea for a watercooling project. Stay away from sump pumps and bilge pumps, as they are usually designed to pump for short perods of time and then sit for a while and cool off.

Some pumps may be rated for continuous duty, but will wear out much sooner than other pumps. Be wary of pumps that use motor brushes. Every second the pump is running, the brushes are just wearing thinner and thinnner. Stick to pumps with brushless motors if at all possible unless you understand what you are getting into.

The criteria that pertain least to performance are things like how much noise the pump makes, how it looks, or what kind of power it runs off of. Generally, quieter pumps are preferred, but going with a louder pump seems to allow you to get more performance for less money.

AC pumps have the advantage that you don't have to drive them off of your power supply or have a dedicated transformer or separate power supply in the machine. AC pumps theoretically make more noise than an otherwise identical DC pump because of the alternating current pulling the impeller in 60cycle jogs instead of smoothly, like DC can. With an AC pump, you also have to find a way to get power to it. Some people just plug the pump in separately, and some people wire it into the power coming into their PSU with a relay, which can be triggered by the PSU coming on.

DC pumps can usually be hooked right onto your power supply, but be ready for the noise they can induce and the power they can draw. They should be a little quieter than AC pumps, but you need a separate power supply to run them when the computer is shut off. An AC pump could have a bypass switch wired in to keep the water circulating while the PSU is powered down or for testing purposes.

In the end, it all comes down to how much money you want to spend versus how well it needs to perform and how quiet it needs to be. I hope this is helpful.

Krazy Karl

02-23-2004, 01:08 PM	#2
krazy Cooling Savant Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Posts: 123	Welcome to procooling, Kristos! I just went through the great pump search, after debating and researching a whole lot of properties about different pumps. i ended up with a Danner Mag 3, but your ideal pump could be just about anything. The main things to look into strictly for performance reasons are head and flow. With these two criteria the same, pumps perform almost identically. Head seems to be a little more helpful than tons of flow these days because of the highly restrictive blocks coming into play. Looking slightly more into the long-term, you'll also want to care about duty cycle of te pump. Is it designed to run continuously? A non-contunous rated pump is a very bad idea for a watercooling project. Stay away from sump pumps and bilge pumps, as they are usually designed to pump for short perods of time and then sit for a while and cool off. Some pumps may be rated for continuous duty, but will wear out much sooner than other pumps. Be wary of pumps that use motor brushes. Every second the pump is running, the brushes are just wearing thinner and thinnner. Stick to pumps with brushless motors if at all possible unless you understand what you are getting into. The criteria that pertain least to performance are things like how much noise the pump makes, how it looks, or what kind of power it runs off of. Generally, quieter pumps are preferred, but going with a louder pump seems to allow you to get more performance for less money. AC pumps have the advantage that you don't have to drive them off of your power supply or have a dedicated transformer or separate power supply in the machine. AC pumps theoretically make more noise than an otherwise identical DC pump because of the alternating current pulling the impeller in 60cycle jogs instead of smoothly, like DC can. With an AC pump, you also have to find a way to get power to it. Some people just plug the pump in separately, and some people wire it into the power coming into their PSU with a relay, which can be triggered by the PSU coming on. DC pumps can usually be hooked right onto your power supply, but be ready for the noise they can induce and the power they can draw. They should be a little quieter than AC pumps, but you need a separate power supply to run them when the computer is shut off. An AC pump could have a bypass switch wired in to keep the water circulating while the PSU is powered down or for testing purposes. In the end, it all comes down to how much money you want to spend versus how well it needs to perform and how quiet it needs to be. I hope this is helpful. Krazy Karl __________________ Abit NF7-S ... xp1800+ ... Abit GF4ti4200 ... Maxtor 120gb SATA150 Currently gathering parts to water cool everything! (read about the project)