Quote:
Originally posted by MadDogMe
I still think that block design is'nt the way forward.
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Okay, I'll express my problem with this statement with hard data.
My CPU is hot. Putting out around ~80W under full load (real watts - ~140 according to "Radiate" which is a joke).
Depending on what water-block I'm using, the CPU will run anywhere between 16C and 22C above the water temperature.
I have a large dual fan radiator. Running the two fans on it at a quiet 7V, the water climbs to a mere 2.8C above the radiator air intake temperature. If I run the fans at a noisy full blast 12V, it holds the water at around 2.0C above the radiator air intake temperature.
Not a whole lot to gain there. Double the radiator size. Get down to a 1C above radiator air intake water temperature.
Now I have 3 pumps here. The Eheim 1048, 1250 and a Pondmaster 4200, rated for 10W/600lph, 28W/1200lph, 90W/4000lph respectively.
What's the best pump to use? Currently the Eheim 1250. Why? Because although the Pondmaster pushes nearly double the flow rate through a waterblock that the 1250 can push, and improves water-block efficiency by around 0.75C on average due to the extra flow rate, the extra pump heat added into the water with my radiator fans at 7V heats up the water by about an extra 0.7C over the Eheim 1250.
ie. next to no net gain whatsoever for sucking down an extra 62W of power and a what's now an audible pump (the Eheim 1250 is silent).
So what does this leave us with?
A radiator that has nowhere to go. Can't get the water temperature much closer to ambient unless we go to a stupidly large radiator, and even then, we only have at best 2C to gain with a "perfect" radiator, but realistically, more like a 1C gain.
Pushing up the pump size doesn't help us any. At best you'll see maybe a 0.5C gain over a 1250 with an optimally balanced pump for wattage and pressure which I described above after taking extra pump heat into account.
What does that add up to? 1.5C (1.0C for the radiator, 0.5C for the pump)
What did a water-block redesign buy me? 4C
Water-block design IS the way forwards. Pump and radiator technology while still possible to improve in small ways, are well known technologies that are pretty much at their limit.
Water-blocks are still in their infancy with respect to what we can get out of them performance wise.