res. WHY?
i've been doing some thinking about the methods people use in designing h2o systems & the subject of "res" has come to the forefront. i just knew this was the best forum to post this thread, so here goes:
i'm somewhat confused why so many ppl call anything containing a large amount of water a resevoir. some of these "resevoirs" are actually sumps & some are more so expansion tanks, but i have rarely seen a true res in a PC. from my understanding, a res is not a part of a flowing loop, but more so a stagnant "side storage" that allows for expansion & gives evaporation replenishment. the key in the definition, is that a res does not add to the effective cooling mass. therefore we should all say that resevoirs bite, but sumps & e-tanks own.
secondly, i'd like to ask a question about water mass (below). i was wondering if the water mass contained in a typical inline watercooled tower (only effective mass is in the ~10' of lines, rad, pump, & blocks) is enough to eliminate thermal spikes. if for some reason the rad could not remove the heat faster than the blocks add it, having extra cool water in the loop would give headroom that will allow me more time to react to the situation before the water gets too hot & things start to fry.
i wasn't sure if the small mass of h2o held in my inline system is already well into the law of dimishing returns or not (10' of 1/2" line, pump, blocks, rad). if not, i thought about adding an inline tank to add to the effective cooling mass. this would of course have no trapped air, but it will more so be a "fat" region in the loop that does nothing more than increase the total mass of circulating water. i know i could calculate the time rate of change in temperature using fancy math & detailed specs, but i just want preliminary thoughts on this subject.
please give reasons:
more mass is usually needed?
or
typical inlines already have mass overkill?
|