Dual Rad?

[darkstar782]

I'm looking at a custom water loop (still), and I'm wondering, if I were to buy two triple 120mm Rads rather than a single one, split the tubing with a Y piece, and run them both in parralel, surely the flow rate through each would be halved (and the coolant moving slower through the Rad is surely a good thing?) and the 'restrictiveness' would also halve, the overall heat dissapation capacity should double.

Has anyone tried such a system? Or am I missing something?

 

[Cabletwitch]

It might help heat dissipation from the rad, but a slow flowrate will not help with the heat removal from the waterblocks. The idea is that you get as much coolant through the blocks as possible in the shortest time.

You might get away with using a dual pump setup in that case, but imo it wouldnt be worth it.

I would think that radiators in series would be more effective, as the coolant is losing heat in 2 stages, instead of only the one. Also, as its still only the one route, you wont be losing as much pressure.

I admit I have little experiance in the watercooling department, but from what I have seen, series is the better way to do it.

 

[phreejak]

I am assuming that you are looking at a dual-pass triple 120mm rad.

I wouldn't use a splitter to divide the rads like that because the idea is to maintain as much movement as you can. In the rad (especially a dual-pass rad) it is most important that you have good airflow through the fins to remove the heat. While the fans are removing the heat, the better flow is putting it back into the fins to be removed again. The lower the flow rate, the greater chance you have for buildup of heat in your waterblocks.

Ideally, if you use two rads and have two waterblocks (let's say - CPU and GPU), it would be more effective to have alternating rads like this:

reservoir - pump - CPU water block - rad - GPU water block - rad - back to reservoir

This way, no one single component is bearing the burden of heat more. Also, with the rising energy consumption of GPUs and their subsequent rising heat output, they are becoming the single greater source of heat generation over the CPU (depending on your setup of course - and overclocking aspects).

dual pump parallel loops - very awesome - I have something like that in my cooling solution

 

[darkstar782]

It is my understanding that in Hydraulics you normally have a higher diameter outlet than you do an inlet, and I assume that this is what you are trying to accomplish whe you have the 1-in 2-out CPU waterblocks I have seen, lower outless pressure.

Two outputs lends itself quite nicely to two Rads imho, with a Y conector reconnecting them AFTER the rads rather than straight away.

While the fans are removing the heat, the better flow is putting it back into the fins to be removed again. The lower the flow rate, the greater chance you have for buildup of heat in your waterblocks.

But the flow rate through the Waterblocks would be the same, the flow rate through the Rad would be slower but I dont see how spending more time in the Rad can do anything other than result in more cooling, especially as the surface of the Rad is being doubled by having two of them.

Basically I figured that running 2 Rads in series is like running a 6*120mm Rad, while running two in parralel is like running a 3*120mm Rad with 1" fittings and less resistance...

I was thinking of:

Reservoir-->Swiftech MCP655 pump-->Swiftech Storm V2 CPU block-->Swiftech MCW60 VGA block-->Y-Connector-->Two Swiftech MCR320 Rads-->Reservoir.

Would I be better putting one Rad between the CPU and GPU blocks? I figured this would impede the flow...

 

[phreejak]

Well, you do have the raw heat coming off of the CPU and going into the GPU. You'll get all kinds of effects when you are performing high component usage like gaming, burning media, virus scanning, encoding, etc. If you overclock anything that is only going to add to the issues - in your desired loop, the GPU is going to be affected the most. As things are now, the GPU is fast becoming the component that is going to generate the greatest amount of heat depending on what components you have and whether you overclock.

The way you've got those rads with the Y connector really only serves to benefit the CPU waterblock while asking the GPU waterblock to bear the brunt of the heat. You won't get as good results in your configurations for the GPU temps.

 

[wun911]

Put them in line and just get another pump to keep the pressure up.

But honestly 1 BIX3 is good for a CPU and GPU....

 

[darkstar782]

Meh, I'll just buy a 2nd MCP655 pump and have a 2nd loop for the GPU, that seems the best solution!