Howdy! (the newbie needs suggestions)

[LabRat]

Hi all! I’m starting a new project, which is a clear acrylic chamber that will sit under my full tower and hold my WC set-up (currently not built, still in planning/ordering stage). Well, if it’s going to be hanging out in the open like that, it had better be impressive (as a girl once said). For pumps I’ll have two, running separate loops from the same reseviore: a smallish pump for the radiator (Eheim 1046 or el cheapo Rio) and a monster for the waterblocks (Ehiem 1060 or an old HydrothrusterQ I have in the shed somewhere). I'll need a largish pump for the waterblocks as I may end up with 3, and the loop will be about 30" vertical.

Seen the Hydrothruster? http://www.lockepet.com/itm00855.htm I’m an idiot if I use that thing, but it could be fun to try. Looks good, anyway.

I haven’t settled on a radiator yet. Is it possible to find one that is fully aluminum, so that I can have it anodized? The bigger the better, too; I have 4 aluminum Panaflo 120mm fans I could make use of .

Also, any comments about the two-pump system? UnaClocker mentioned it in another thread somewhere; has anyone tried it/done a write-up? Any suggestions or critcism is appreciated. Sorry for the long noob post.

[gmat]

Sounds interesting Couple that with a nice reservoir (like turbokeu's, look down further in that forum) and you may have some impressive setup.
You might want to limit total water height, so i guess you'll place that rad just below the tower, right ?

[UnaClocker]

Mmm.. 4 120mm fans to use.. I'd go buy 2 audi heatercores.. They're always big, so you should be able to fit 2 fans on each. Or if you just want 1 heatercore, you can put 2 120's on each side, push pull kind of deal.
As far as the multiple pump ideas. They're still running theories, I haven't had a chance to test them, and I haven't seen anybody else try yet either.

[gmat]

Basically it would cool down water in reservoir. Having a separate loop for the rad is a good idea to keep high flow through the waterblock chain to remove heat efficiently, while having low flow through the rad to make sure water is properly cooled down...
Let us know how it comes out (and yah we want pictures, ya know, we're simple guys after all)

[futRtrubL]

I find 2 faults with your system, unfortunately they are your most anticipated bits.
Rads; Anodizing them entirely will seriously retard efficiency, it creates a layer more insulating aluminium oxide. Also copper rads have better conductivety than Al rads, and if you're going to use a Cu water block then the Al may start the battery effect. You san get plated copper rads to get a silver finnish but I don't know if its Al that you can get anodized or if it's galvanized.
2 Loops; This will unfortunately not help with cooling over a single loop. You'll be mixing that lovely cool water from your rads with the hot water from your CPU, this warm water then gets sucked back to your CPU. Better would be to have your rads in parallel, this will reduce velocity in each rad while not reducing flow. See my post in the other thread.

My disclaimer, I'm working on a completely internal low noise system, so my main priority is efficiency, and definately not asthetics as everything is hidden. Yours is also for show so the above may not be as important for you.

Edward

[LabRat]

Thanks for the replies! I'm currently designing the wc chamber, but it is getting really complex. I want to get it right the first time; this much acrylic will cost a bit and the time taken to bend/bond it is going to be immense. So I've decided I should test the plumbing in a ghetto-rig first. fut, you're right, I can't use an aluminum rad. I thought I could get it anodized to protect the system, but anodizing the inside is going to be too tough. And since copper is better anyway, well, I'll just make a pretty aluminum shroud for the thing and get that anodized . As for the issue of the cpu not getting the coldest water possible, I'm hoping that a tall resevoire will help with that. I expect to get a layering effect of water due to differing temps. I'll pull water from the top of the res. to go to the radiator, and water from the bottom to go to the waterblocks.

Using the hydrothruster is a no-go, as it is an open motor design and is just too damn big. I picked up a big heater core from autozone this weekend. It's ugly, and will get uglier when I mod it, but it'll fit 2 120mm fans (I'm going with the push/pull you suggested, Una.)

I'd like to get some decent data out of this, so is there anything I should incorporate into the plumbing, such as ports for temp sensors (sorry if the terminology is wrong)? Also, what cpu waterblock would you reccomend for this setup (I should be able to get high flowrate for it)? Thanks!

[Kevin]

Originally posted by UnaClocker:
I'd go buy 2 audi heatercores..

Damnit I like my GEO heatercore!
-Kev

[redleader]

I'm hoping that a tall resevoire will help with that.

While that may help out waterblock temps a little, it will still significantly retard the cooling ability of the radiators because you are dispersing your heat thoughout a much larger volume of water (and thereby reducing your delta T across the radiator). I know what you're thinking, but this setup will perform worse then a conventional setup. A much better approach is to put the two radiators in paralell with each other then serial to the CPU.

[Butcher]

Yes, go with parallel rads and a single pump.

[simon]

I don't know if this is would be better or not but you could run the hotter water form the waterblocks straight into the intake of the less power full pump which would push it into the radiator and then back to the resevoir. I dunno how much this would affect the flowrate? Overall you should get better flow through the whole system. Try it and let us know if it works?