Planning My Desk Type Build

[mal]

I am planning a desk build. It will be my first foray into water cooling.
I have a question: Is it possible to have too much fluid in a loop? I want to build a custom reservoir along the back wall of the desk below the motherboard. The dimensions @ 36"x6"x2" will hold roughly 1 us gal of fluid. Is that too much? Our wall mounted waterfall holds more than that. Thanks for helping a newb.

Mal

[Vetalar]

no problem here as long as Your loop will be leak-free for performance: loop will get stable temps a little bit longer.

[mal]

Originally Posted by Vetalar

loop will get stable temps a little bit longer.

Thanks Vetalar, but how does that work? I would think the extra fluid would help to prevent the loop from getting heat soak because there is too much for the small heat source. If that makes any sense.

I have been playing with Sketchup. I'll try to get some pics up tonight.

Mal

[jamsand]

Actually more fluid is a good thing i means the loop takes longer to increase it's (looking for the word but basically it overall temp) temp

[mal]

Originally Posted by jamsand

Actually more fluid is a good thing i means the loop takes longer to increase it's (looking for the word but basically it overall temp) temp

Thanks Jamsand. You answered my question before my next post was approved.

Mal

[mal]

Here is my Sketchup model:



It is still a work in progress. I did not put the legs on. Legs are legs. The reservoir will go along the back edge under the MB. One pump pumps water out of the reservoir through the loop and the other will pump water back into the reservoir.

Mal

[mal]

Here is how I want the reservoir to go.

Mal

[mal]

New question. Again forgive my lack of knowlege on the subject.

I read somewhere the Reservoir should always be above the pump, but they did not state why. Could someone enlighten me as to why? What are the drawbacks of having the pumps above the reservoir?

Thanks,
Mal

[dwinsor]

it is to keep a flow of water to the pump so things like air locks and dry pump dont happen. Dry pump and damage the pump and render is dead. have just done my desk and have made sure the top level of water in the Res sits above everything including the Rad and i have had no probs and good temps.

[kinghong1970]

eventually, the temp in the water will be constant and while having 1 gallon will benefit by taking longer time to warm up, but once that point has been reached, the volume of water will not help as much...

personally, if i had that much space, i'd rather invest in putting more radiator surface area to remove more heat from the liquid to get a bigger temp drop from water coming out of pc compared to water coming out of radiators.

as for reservoir being before the pump, well, if you run the pump, you will notice that the impeller will create some negative pressure to pull water to the pump but keeping reservoir before pump will help keep the pump primed...

in a closed loop, you can actually bypass reservoir and go with a T-line to fill... but takes longer to purge all air out of the system.

oh, larger reservoir will probably also help get the air out of the loop as well...

[mal]

OK I adjusted my design. What do you think?



Mal