Hi guys doing some spring cleaning on pc today and my pump died on me. got all refilled and went to turn pc on properly and no pump working.. So here goes. I have a triple rad and only a cpu block on loop. I have £80-90 to spend on a pump, res, fittings and fan controller for fans and maybe a pump that can be controlled by fan controller. Could you recomend a new one for me? my tubing size is 8mm inner 10mm outer. small i know but for only cpu block it works..
Laing D5 for quiet operation and unrivalled reliability, DDC Pro (10w) for tucking away in a small space and high pressure (useful if your block is a restrictive model). Anything less than Laing for watercooling is poor investment imo.
i'd agree with the overall premise of this (though the DDC's are also very reliable), however the D5 is probably going to be out of your budget with a res & fittings since it's £80 by itself... Now, whilst the DDC Pro would be good enough for your current setup, for the extra £9 (inc the XPSC top which is highly rated) i'd consider this which is exactly what i use, completely within budget, & would allow you to add extra blocks into the future whilst retaining the 8mm ID tubing... Not that the DDC1+ Ultra isn't great (imho at least) with standard 3/8" or 1/2" tubing when you've got multiple components (so you're restricting the flow in an alternative manner) of course...
You'll want a laing DDC with small diameter tubing like that. I would also consider buying an EK DDC top for the improved flow rate.
Aye, I keep forgetting how much they've risen in price since I was watercooling. I remember getting my first DDC Ultra for £55, back then D5's were under £65. :S As for the the pro vs ultra argument, i've owned 3 pro's and 2 ultra's and to honest not once have I found the extra head pressure a benefit over the slight increase in noise and extra heat dump. They have their place in loops involving multiple restrictive blocks, ie completely watercooled motherboards, but for 90% of users the pro is the better choice imo.
These are pretty good for the money with decent flow rate and head pressure http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/EK-DCP-40-(12V-DC-Pump) However I find then noisy at 12v but they will start up at 8v and the 2 I've had would run at 5v. At 5v they're pretty quiet and can be run off a decent fan controller like the Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme (30W per channel) or the Lamptron FC2 (45W per channel).
Sorry - had completely ignored that for some reason... Free solution 1 - does you mobo not have the option to either have the fans slow based on temps in the bios or through Windows software? You've not listed your mobo so i can't check, but most have the former & certainly the modern(ish) Asus boards have the latter (Q-fan, Fan Xpert, etc). Free solution 2 - rewiring the fans so that they use either 7V or 5V instead of 12V. A quick search & there's some easy to use pictures here. if you don't fancy rewiring them yourself, you could also buy ready-made adapters for around £2 a piece (inc postage) based on a quick eBay search. Oh, & i wouldn't bother attempting to slow whatever pump you get as the noise they make is so minimal (if you go for one of the Laing options)... Yeah, choice is choice re the pro vs ultra... Really depends whether you're going to add more blocks (esp if you're keeping the 8mm ID tubing) or externally mount a rad (longer tubing -> need for more head) or... So, my only point was that, for an extra £9, why not have that extra head pressure in case it's needed in the future...
If you do get an EK pump I would bother slowing it down to reduce noise levels unless you have other noisy components in the system, it'll still provide decent pressure and flow rate. You'd also save a minimum of £25 as well compared to a DDC.
According to the user guide for nTune (link to the site rather than the pdf) you can use that to alter the fan speeds on a 750 mobo - so potentially a free solution for that issue that won't involve any hard rewiring.
Ummmm... but that's without a res so not exactly a fair comparison, is it(?). Well (ignoring fittings & p&p in all cases), using the 'recommended' res for the EK then you've got £36.26 for the pump & £25.81 for the res = £62.07. Whereas the Ultra with the (highly rated, since it has a comparatively minimal impact upon flow rates/pressure, XSPC res/top) i'd recommended is £78.15 (only £16.08 difference)... ...or the DDC-1T Pro (again with the XSPC res/top) is only £69.04 (only £6.97 difference). Not only that (so the OP would be getting a better pump & res) but, d.t. the set up of the EK pump/res, you've got a much larger item to fit into a case compared to either of the Laing combos that have been suggested... ...'a' reason why the OP is using 8mm ID tubing 'could' be d.t. space in the case.
Ah - the pictures on that site are a little shonky in showing the res... it actually has a large screw in 'plug' (for lack of a better term) on the top so, other than it being much easier to have a funnel & a shortish length of hose to facilitate pouring the coolant/fluid/water/whatever in, there's nothing extra required. Quick google search & this shows the top from a more useful angle. On both of mine the 'plug' is black rather than clear/white, but i doubt that's your most important concern...
PocketDemon - My mistake, I missed that the OP also wanted a res. Your solution is a very good price.
No worries - simply trying to get the best solution for the OP Well, i'd also managed to (originally) not read that he also wanted a solution to lowering the speed of his fans, so it's easily done.
hey thanks pocket demon and big elf i think i will get the DDC-1T Pro with the XSPC res. I will order friday when paid and let you know how i get on and post if have any problems lol
hi guys thanks so much for the help i have fitted all pump and stuff but sounds like its having a wee... the res has tiny bubbles round the walls of it will these go? will the noise go i have got rid of all the large bubbles its just the small ones round the res an noise.. I have no leaks anywere and no kinks please help (again...)
It can take a while for the bubbles to go. Shake the case and also trying pinching the tubing for a brief while.
