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Bugsmasher · 12-03-2004, 07:32 AM

Just guessing here but...

For the heat radiated into the surrounding its fairly simple with a few decent case fans to move that heat out of the case. If you think about it most cases are sub 2 cubic feet of air. A standard 80mm fan moves nearly 15 times that volume of air in a single minute. Throw in a 120mm fan and you are moving anywhere between 20-50 times that volume of air every single minute. I understand those flow rates are determined under optimal testing situations but the radiated heat from a pump gets moved out rather fast.

The heat that goes into the loop however is different. Obviously the warmer your loop is the warmer your CPU/GPU will be. Stacked on top of this is the fact the warmer your loop is the less efficient your loop will become. As the temperature of the coolant rises less heat will be transfered to each volume of coolant as it passes through the waterblock. While the amount of heat released by the coolant will also be somewhat higher when it passes through the radiator/heater core it will require more airflow through the radiator/heater core to achieve the cooling of a lower over all temped loop.

Watercooling is used because it can pull more heat off of the CPU faster than most air cooling options. With this in mind avoiding heat buildup in the loop is extremely important. Its also the reason that balancing a loop is very important. Someone can go out and get a monster MD20RZ but if they dont have a radiator/heater core or fans that can remove the heat from the loop that monster pump is a waste. Ditto on getting a monster rad and fans that could power a 747 if your pump isnt capable of pushing the optimal amount of water through your waterblocks.

You can see the benefits of low pump-to-loop heat transfer in Cathar's post about pumps. There is a very good reason the very low wattage MCP600 performs so well. By adding the least amount of heat to the loop better overall cooling can be achieved assuming you have a radiator/heatercore and fans that are in balance with your system. The net result is the lowest temps by using a pump that adds the least heat to the system while maintaining a fairly impressive flow.

12-03-2004, 07:32 AM	#2
Bugsmasher Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Oklahoma Posts: 43	Just guessing here but... For the heat radiated into the surrounding its fairly simple with a few decent case fans to move that heat out of the case. If you think about it most cases are sub 2 cubic feet of air. A standard 80mm fan moves nearly 15 times that volume of air in a single minute. Throw in a 120mm fan and you are moving anywhere between 20-50 times that volume of air every single minute. I understand those flow rates are determined under optimal testing situations but the radiated heat from a pump gets moved out rather fast. The heat that goes into the loop however is different. Obviously the warmer your loop is the warmer your CPU/GPU will be. Stacked on top of this is the fact the warmer your loop is the less efficient your loop will become. As the temperature of the coolant rises less heat will be transfered to each volume of coolant as it passes through the waterblock. While the amount of heat released by the coolant will also be somewhat higher when it passes through the radiator/heater core it will require more airflow through the radiator/heater core to achieve the cooling of a lower over all temped loop. Watercooling is used because it can pull more heat off of the CPU faster than most air cooling options. With this in mind avoiding heat buildup in the loop is extremely important. Its also the reason that balancing a loop is very important. Someone can go out and get a monster MD20RZ but if they dont have a radiator/heater core or fans that can remove the heat from the loop that monster pump is a waste. Ditto on getting a monster rad and fans that could power a 747 if your pump isnt capable of pushing the optimal amount of water through your waterblocks. You can see the benefits of low pump-to-loop heat transfer in Cathar's post about pumps. There is a very good reason the very low wattage MCP600 performs so well. By adding the least amount of heat to the loop better overall cooling can be achieved assuming you have a radiator/heatercore and fans that are in balance with your system. The net result is the lowest temps by using a pump that adds the least heat to the system while maintaining a fairly impressive flow.