WC Layout Opinions

[Luke122]

Here's a water cooling system question for anyone who has experience with them:

Is a series system less efficient than a parallel setup?

I understand that in series, the heat of the first device is carried to the second, and so-on, so that makes me think less efficient.

A parallel system has a separate run to each device it cools, keeping the heat from each separate until it hits the rad... but with all that extra length of tubing, wouldn't you need more pump capacity?

Basically I'm thinking of cooling CPU, GPU, and chip set with an experimental cooling system, but would like opinions on series vs parallel from people who use either.

Any thoughts?
-Luke

[silverdemon]

though I do not watercool my own rig, I think the most commonly used method is series. I think this is the best way to do it, because when you have parallel flow you need to be sure that every tube gets enough flow. This might even mean you have to use not only a bigger pump, but maybe two or three pumps. Also, like you mentioned it will be a mess in your case with all tubes and stuff...

I say go for the series-layout, but then again, I'm not an expert...

[Spawn-Inc]

you will have to keep each set of tubes equal or they will not get even flow. even if you have a relatively good pump the water will go by so fast that it will not make a difference on where things are in the loop. its why you will see little difference in a system like below.

Res>Pump>Rad(120mm)>GPU>Rad(120mm)>CPU>Res

VS.

Res>Pump>Rad(220mm)>GPU>CPU>Res

[silverdemon]

you will have to keep each set of tubes equal or they will not get even flow...

It's not only the tubes that have to be equal. You have to make sure the internal friction of every route from pump to rad is equal. This includes the friction in the cooling blocks. Since none of the blocks will be exactly the same I think you will at least get some problems with different flowspeeds in the tubes. I can not say wether the difference will be too big to cause temperature problems though.

[Luke122]

Res>Pump>Rad(120mm)>GPU>Rad(120mm)>CPU>Res

VS.

Res>Pump>Rad(220mm)>GPU>CPU>Res

Your descriptions confuse me a bit.. dont you want the heat to go through the rad before the it goes back to the res? Otherwise the res will be filling with hot liquid, which would raise the ambient temp inside the case.

I would think it should be like this:
res>pump>gpu>cpu>rad(size to be determined later)>res

..but I havent built a WC setup of my own yet, so I'm not sure.

[crenn]

The pump can add heat (very little though) to the system.

[Spawn-Inc]

Your descriptions confuse me a bit.. dont you want the heat to go through the rad before the it goes back to the res? Otherwise the res will be filling with hot liquid, which would raise the ambient temp inside the case.

I would think it should be like this:
res>pump>gpu>cpu>rad(size to be determined later)>res

..but I havent built a WC setup of my own yet, so I'm not sure.

thats what i first thought as well, get your res nice and cool but most people put the rad before the cpu/gpu to get rid of the heat from the pump like crenn said.


ya even though english is my only language, i suck at it, sorry.



i am trying to say that no matter where you put things in the loop*, it won't change the temperatures by any real difference. i always thought that having a rad then a water block then a rad again and another water block would out perform a system with just the rad at the start followed by 2 blocks.

the reason i was told and believe is because the water flows through the system so fast it won't make a difference where the water blocks and rads are in the loop.

* always put a res/tline at the inlet of a pump.

[Scotty]

Go series, end of :)

I just want to see how our idea turns out.