Welcome
Welcome to my website. This site is dedicated to busting out the science behind liquid cooling, and becoming a resource for those willing to go to extremes and mix water and electricity. I have been a water cooler for some time now, living an extensive part of my free time on liquid cooling forums and learning more about this hobby. As any regular water cooler, I have one bad case of tinkeritus and really enjoy understanding the technical side of how this stuff works. Over time I've ran a number of different experiments with flow rate and decided I would start collecting my test results and experiments here.
News and Updates
- 5-13-08 D-Tek Fuzion V2 full review posted.
- 5-12-08 Updated the DDC 3.2 pump top testing with both inlet and outlet pressures measured for total pressure head results.
- 5-11-08 Updated the flow rate estimator to V2.9.
- 5-5-08 Another preview, this time the XSPC Edge Acrylic CPU block review. By popular demand, I included both pressure drop and thermal testing.
- 4-27-08 Top Secret Danger Den CPX-PRO pump testing complete, check out this great new competition for the DDC/D5.
- 4-25-08 Posted some of my experimental fan testing here.
- 4-23-08 Complete pressure drop testing on the XSPC X20 Delta Chipset block as well as the XSPC Razor 3870 full coverage GPU block.
- 4-20-08 Made my first round of radiator thermal testing and have completed the Thermochill PA120.3 thermal testing here.
- 4-17-08 Pressure drop testing done on the massive HWlabs 480GTX, thermals are next.
- 4-11-08 Finished up my XSPC RS240 and the XSPC RS360 radiator pressure drop testing.
- 4-9-08 I put the Thermalright XWB-01 waterblock on the pressure drop test bench
- 3-31-08 Just got my heaters for raditor thermal testing, just need to pick out my fans and build my testbox/sensor strings and I'll be ready for a new testbed!
- 3-26-08 Pump testing of the Iwaki RD-30
- 3-23-08 Pressure drop tested the famous Thermochill PA120.3!
- 3-22-08 Released the latest flow rate estimator V 2.7 which added the XSPC block, radiator, and pump. Also included a new flow rate effects chart to help with effects scale.
- 3-17-08 Complete Pump testing for the XSPC Dual Bay Reservoir Pump just released!
- 3-15-08 Flow Rate Testing for the XSPC RS120 Radiator is complete.
- 3-9-08 Flow Rate Testing for the XSPC X2o Delta CPU V2 out!
- 2-26-08 DDC3.2 Pump Top Shootout, 10 tops go head to head.:)
- 2-22-08 Aqua Computers Double Impact PD results are up, gearing up for some pump testing this weekend...
- 2-15-08 Danger Den 8800GTX test results are up.
- 2-13-08 EK FC 88 GT/GTS flow rate testing complete.
- 1-28-2008 The Danger Den IONE pressure drop testing.
- 1-21-2008 Posted the review page for the Danger Den TDX block.
- 1-20-2008 Been busy milling on a TEC chiller block, click here for more info.
- 1-11-2008 Photos and Pressure Drop testing done on the Danger Den MC-TDX, see the review here.
- 12/23/07 AlphaCool AP1510 pump testing done.
- 1/6/2008 Just finished the Danger Den MPC-Universal Water Block review, check it out here.
Lab Toys Tools
I call them toys, because I have so much fun using them, but I've actually started to gather a few good tools for testing and fabricating my ideas.
For flow rate testing I finally landed on a King Instruments 0 - 5 GPM, 250mm scale 7520 series flowmeter. This has been an extremely pleasant addition to my testing tools. Prior to this, I was measuring flow rates using a graduate 4 gallon bucket and a stopwatch which is accurate, but very time consuming. This flowmeter with the larger 250mm scale is supposed to be accurate within 2% of full scale and I have confirmed this with some bucket tests. The 0-5 GPM seems to be just the right range, although most water cooling will never see beyond 3GPM, it's nice to capture a few points up the the 5GPM range when possible.
PRESSURE AND DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE
My
next favorite tools (or was that toys?) are my Dwyer digital manometers. My first is a Dwyer Series 475 Mark III digital manometer. It
measures pressure differential between two points from 0
- 200 inches of water at .5% of F.S. accuracy. This is a great range for testing
pressure
drop on common water cooling products although it's a little short on
the maximum when testing larger pumps. I've also since acquired a second Dwyer for more heavy duty pressure testing. A Dwyer Digital Manometer Series 477 Mark V.
This is the same family/brand manometer, but rather than 0-200"
of water pressure, it's capable of reading 0-553" or 0-20.00 PSI which
is more than enough range for any water cooling pump even dual DDCs or
Iwaki pumps.
I've since ran both
manometers together side by side on a few tests and pleasantly suprised
to see they
are spot on calibrated the same. At 150" of water pressure, I get
readings
from both manometers within about 1" which is less than 1% so I'm very
happy with the quality and accuracy of these Dwyer manometers. A
good digital manometer is an excellent tool for both pressure drop
testing and pump tests. The only thing better than one...is two
of them!..:)DC POWER SUPPLY
I've also have a Samlex PSA-305 variable DC powersupply that is capable of producing 0 to 30 Volts at up to 5 amps and infinitely variable. This is a must have for pump testing. There are alot of pumps that can be run at voltages other than 12 volts, and a variable DC powersupply is the only way to explore those other areas and ensure testing is done at accurate voltages. Typical pump testing I can very accurately tune and monitor the voltage of a pump to within about .03V.
AC POWER SUPPLY & RADIATOR HEAT LOAD
I've
also aquired an unbranded 3amp AC variable autotransformer
(Variac). This will allow me similar
flexibilty in a variable AC power supply which is particularly usefull
for my future thermal testing. My intent with the
variac is to power aquarium heaters in my test reservoir to apply
varied amounts of heat load to a radiator and better understand how it
performs with different loads. I can alos use it to power
canister heaters for a CPU testing die I have plans
for. MULTI-METERS
I have three, nothing terribly fancy but they do a reasonable job. One I hook one in series to the pump for measuring current draw in amps, and the second is parallel to monitor voltage. These meters are your basic types with current resolution to .01amps and voltage to .01V resolutions. I also have one multimeter with sound level capabilities for very rough sound level measurements.
MACHINE SHOP
I call it my machine shop, but it just my garage, my haven to fabricate and make substance of my many ideas. I have a Central
Machinery
mill/lathe combo that does the job for most of my needs, it's
really a fun tool and I've been slowly collecting the
tooling I need for different projects. I spent a good portion
of
my younger years working for my father in a machine shop, so
fortunately I've had a fair amount of experience already to "get back
on the bike" and machine again. I also have a number of
tools like a drill press, buffers, grinders, belt sanders, band saw,
table saw, table router, miter saw ect. that I have collected over the
years for home improvement projects. These all seem to come in
handy for one thing or another in fabricating special parts or testing
tools. I've also tried to make a few
waterblocks with my mill and did so successfully, but I can honestly
tell you it takes WAY too much time to ever be worth your while unless
you really need something custom and don't mind spending all day or all
weekend machining on one block, it really takes way to much time to
ever become profitable. But regardless, it does provide me an
invaluable tool to experiment with or fabricate that special
"something" you just can't buy anywhere. You can never have TOO
many tools!!
Here is a night shot of my water cooled tubing forest. Evga 680i motherboard P28, Intel C2D E6600 overclocked to 3.3 Ghz @ 1.38 Vcore, 2 GB Corsair Dominator Ram, Evga 8800 GTX video card, OCZ gameextreme 700 PSU, Thermaltake Armor case. Water cooling consists of three loops: CPU loop has a Danger Den MC-TDX, Laing D5 pump, MCR320 radiator with Yate Loon D12SL12 low speed fans. GPU loop consists of a D-Tek GFX on the 8800gtx, a Laing D5-B pump, and a MCR320 radiator with Yate Loons. The third chipset loop is Danger Den MCP-680i on the northbridge, a Danger Den MCP-Universal on the southbridge, another Laing D5 pump, and an MCR-220 radiator with yate loons. It's alot more pump and radiator capacity than needed, but someday I hope to add another 8800 gtx to the gpu loop and some mosfet block to the chipset loop. I figure water cooling is an enthusiast hobby, may as well keep it extreme!..:)
CAMERA EQUIPMENT
Another side hobby of
mine is photography. I've been shooting
digital SLR's ever since 2003 and have litterally taken tens of
thousands of pictures learning how to use the tool. I
currently
have a Canon 20D and have a good supply of prime lenses, filters,
adapters, flashes, etc. I also have a small lightbox for
taking
small product photos. This is just another great tool in
taking
high quality photos. You'll notice I'm a visual person and prefer
to keep most of my testing narration short and consice with a heavy dose of pictures and
charted results. A pictures is worth a thousand words right?..:)
About Me and My Mission
I'm
an engineer that likes to tinker, test, and more than
anything...learn and understand. When I started watercooling I was
completely lost and confused trying to make sense of what and how
things work. Nearly a year later, I'm even more lost!!
No
not really, but I learn new things everyday and we're seeing great new watercooling products everyday. My mission is to
tinker, learn, and share my findings. I take pride in helping other people learn and better understand our hobby.
Disclaimer
This site is intended to be a collection of educational documents only. The flow estimator spreadsheet and any other tools should be used for information and educational purposes only! The owner and author is not responsible for accuracy of the information, I provide this information to you as-is, without any guarantees. I do appreciate any and all feedback, a big part of why I do this is for my own learning experience, so if you see something you feel is in error, please let me know and I will immediately correct it.