T-Line from res?

[WoZZeR999]

I decided I'm going to make a MM-UFO CYO build once I can start saving money. It's going to be a 3 loop build, and I was wondering if I had a single EK res (the one with a few outlets on the bottom), do you think I could T-Line each loop, but have all 3 T-Lines end at the res? I'm not going to be running anything except distilled + PT-Nuke, so I don't see color bleeding being an issue, and the heat should not transfer up the T-Line and into the res.

I was just wondering if any of the GURU's can see a potential problem with having 3 t-lines going into a single res. The only problem I see is if I need to re-do a loop, all of the water in the res is going to be drained out when I do the loop.

In a crude ascii drawing
| RES |
/|\
1 2 3
(with 1, 2 and 3 being the tubing from the T-Line on loop 1, 2 and 3)

[Xilikon]

As always, you will run into the issue of mixing water and impacting temps a lot. If you want 3 loops, try to not mix the water between them and if you have issues with room, just run 3 T-lines or 2 T-lines and 1 reservoir for the biggest loop ;)

[Sam__]

sounds like it could be a good idea. or you could just run sepearat small res s, three swiftech micros or summit.

[WoZZeR999]

I don't know if I was clear in my post, but all 3 loops are basically isolated (I'm not using the input on the res, only the outputs to feed the T-Lines), there would be a lot of unmoving water that the heat would have to pass through. It's not really a matter of space (it's going to be a UFO-CYO case), it's more about design. I was also thinking of just having 3 T-Lines go to the case top, but a single T-Line feed would be a lot more convenient.

[[XC] NetburstXE]

I think it would work.

[Soulwind]

I guess I'm not seeing the point here.

If you're running seperate t-lines, then why bother with the res?

If you're using a common res, then you'll be mixing water between the loops, so why bother with t-lines? (except maybe one for draining purposes)

One way or another you've got to have the water coming back into the start of the loop somewhere.

I guess I'm just not visualizing how this proposed set of loops would be running?

[WoZZeR999]

I guess the easiest way to visualize it, is to picture a build with 3 loops that each use an individual T-Line going to the top of the case. The only difference, is instead of having to cut 3 holes in the top to fill the each loop individually, is have 1 fillport that would feed water into the 3 loops.
The basic loops would be:
>>T-Line>>Pump>>Rad>>Blocks>>

This is a res's less loop, but the T-Line from each loop would be fed from a single res.

[Giannis86]

he wants to connect 3 tlines to a res and the res to the top of the case. so instead of 3 fill ports he will have just 1.

personally i doubt you will have any problems (if the temp difference between the loops isnt much then i doubt it would make a difference. If you are concerned about heat issues you could put 3 valves on the tube connecting to the res from each t-line. however you would have to open your case to open the valves in order to fill your loop when necessary (should take some months anyway)

[Soulwind]

Ahh, OK I see what you're going for now.
Yeah, that should work.
I think it might be more hassle to do it that way than it's worth for the small amount of time it takes to fill the loops anyway, but it should work.
(after you're filled and bleed, you'll only be adding more water to the loops on a pretty infrequent basis anyway).

[Xilikon]

Giannis86, thanks for the clarification, I now see the point to have a common fillport into 3 loops. This would work since you are basically bleeding 3 loops into 1 reservoir without really mixing water. However, thre is still some mixing and the associated heat transfer that only experimentation will indicate.

[WoZZeR999]

Yeah, My plan is more of a design thing than anything else. I just wanted to know if people though that even without moving water that there would be a large amount of heat exchange between loops. If it was 3 loops with a common res, then I would see problems with it as the water from all 3 loops is mixing. Also, since it's a large case, I don't think simple tilting it is going to be as much of an option.

I will have 3xMCR320s, so having 1 fill place that is at the top of the case would be very helpful.

EDIT:Thanks for helping me explain it. I'm not going for absolute lowest temps, but with a 320 in each loop after the pump, any heat dump from another loop should be negated. I will have a 320 for a Q6600, a 320 for a single GFX card (8800GTS512 ATM), and a 320 for NB/SB/Mosfet.

Yes, it's a little overkill, but this is Xtreme forums.

[Soulwind]

Well remember that unless you seal the t-lines after filling/bleeding, you WILL have at least some mixing.

If the top of the t-line is open to the res, then water will be moving up the t-line while the pump is running....

In fact, now I wonder if it wouldn't be "the path of least resistance" compared to your regular loop and end up allowing all the water to push
into the res rather than your loop. (if you leave the lines open that is, and if not, then you still have to go into the case to open/close the t-lines
during maintenance).

[WoZZeR999]

I don't *think* it should go up the tube, because the t-line will be at the pump inlet. I will have 3 D5's, so the inlet should have the same amount of force applied to each T-line. The only way water would travel up to the res, would be if one of the pumps was weaker.

If water was pulled from the T-Res, that water would have to be taken from somewhere else to replace the new water. The force applied to each t-line should be close enough that it would cause almost no movement.

[Soulwind]

You could be right, I think I'm just confusing myself (not that it's that hard to do).

If you give it a try though, be sure and post some pics. I'd really like to see the end result :)

[eddyr]

I like the idea, and dont think there will be much heat transfer either, but like has been said without thorough testing theres no way to know for sure how much.


Anyway I was thinking, one way you could try to minimize heat transfer would be to have something like a washer style plug made from 'insulating stuff' with a small hole in the middle, the smaller the hole the better, in each loops t-line. That will allow the res water to maintain the loop water level, while also trying to minimize heat transfer.:yepp:

[Zaskar]

The res idea is nice though, but don't leave it connected. would be an easy way to fill and bleed the 3 loops at once, then shutdown, disconnect the 3 tubes and cap them.

Wouldn't do 3 at once personally, but getting a inexpensive res to connect to the end of a single t line temporally to help bleed is not a bad idea.

[WoZZeR999]

I like the idea, and dont think there will be much heat transfer either, but like has been said without thorough testing theres no way to know for sure how much.


Anyway I was thinking, one way you could try to minimize heat transfer would be to have something like a washer style plug made from 'insulating stuff' with a small hole in the middle, the smaller the hole the better, in each loops t-line. That will allow the res water to maintain the loop water level, while also trying to minimize heat transfer.:yepp:

That is an excellent idea! as long as water can drip through (think spong-like) then it should also stop the flow. I just have to make sure that air can get back into the res, so nothing too restricting.

Zaskar: The res is part of the design (I think I'm going to have an EK res half in and half out of the case through one of the fan holes).

[adpr_02]

I guess the easiest way to visualize it, is to picture a build with 3 loops that each use an individual T-Line going to the top of the case. The only difference, is instead of having to cut 3 holes in the top to fill the each loop individually, is have 1 fillport that would feed water into the 3 loops.
The basic loops would be:
>>T-Line>>Pump>>Rad>>Blocks>>

This is a res's less loop, but the T-Line from each loop would be fed from a single res.

This is exactly what I plan on doing, only with 2 loops. I do not see why it wouldn't work.

[Martinm210]

It should work fine, although you might get a little heat transfered between loops, but if they are truely T-lines where very little flow occurs up in the T line portion, I doubt it would be much.

[WoZZeR999]

Thanks for the info guys. I didn't think it would cause too much of a heat problem, I just wanted to make sure. Once I can get started on the build (still have to buy parts), I'll post a log.

[Xilikon]

If the heat transfer will occur, it will be more by conduction than by mixing water. If you have a high flow rate, most water will remain in the loop with some stray water going into the t-line, which get heated a bit.

Like Martinm210 said, the overall effect should be negligible as long as you have enough radiator surface to dissipate heat ;)

[WoZZeR999]

Right, with a MCR320 per loop, I don't think radiator real estate will pose much of a problem at all.

[[XC] NetburstXE]

Remember to post pics when you are done. This is definitely an interesting idea.

[WoZZeR999]

I will, but since this build will cost a decent amount of money, it will probably take a while to get the parts needed. I think I've decided to go with a bigNG for fan control (I will be basing fan speed on loop temp). So I'll probably by buying things in pieces. Once I have a majority (I have nothing outside of what I have in my current build) of the parts, I will start to get things together and post some pics.