View Full Version : does adding water volume to a loop increase performance?
I have been running a T-Line on my setup since I started w/cing. I read an article, from a link here, about the restrictiveness of 90 degree angles in a loop. In it he changed out the inlet of the pump, and built a sealed resevior that was attached directly to the inlet.
Now, Im not worried about 90 degree angles, nor do I have a pump that I could mod like he did. However, I did like the ease that he had in filling his system, and how quick he got rid of his air.
So, Im curious if making this resevior as big as possible, so as to increase the amount of water in the loop will help the performance. I dont really have a lot of room, but Id use every bit of it, if it would help.
And, would this increase pressure, or decrease flow, or anything unproductive in my loop? Cant see how it would, but Im not the smartest guy in the world.
Thx for your thoughts
Fairydust
08-24-2005, 11:37 PM
It will take longer to reach working temperature, but unless you want max performance for a short benching session, there is no advantage of more water volume.
If you go overkill and use a rain barrel as res, it will take several hours to reach working temp and a some extra cooling is gained by evaporation and radiation/convection from the barrel.
Ancient_1
08-24-2005, 11:40 PM
The simple answer is no, but if you had a res of like 50 gallons it would be able to dissipate enough heat that it would make a difference but making a res from 1 pint sized to maybe a gallon size would have no basic performance advantage, it would just take a little longer to reach the same temp.
Are these thoughts just guesses? Or from experience?
BGP Spook
08-25-2005, 08:24 AM
i9']Are these thoughts just guesses? Or from experience?
They are based in the laws of physics.
It takes more heat to raise the temperature of a greater volume of water.
For a casual analogy. (One that bends, breaks, or ignores several laws of physics. So please don't pick this apart too much.)
Think of the reservoir as a heat warehouse.(Bigger reservoir + more water = bigger heat warehouse.)
All the heat still exists it just isn't where it was manufactured, which is your CPU. The water carried it away form the CPU to your reservoir. Where the heat is stockpiled before it is shipped out to go though your radiator and what not.
The only way to lower your water temperature (that is the amount of heat in the water) is to remove the heat.
By increasing the reservoir volume you increase the amount of heat that you can "store."
If your surface area is great enough, and the surrounding air temperature is less than the water temperature then the heat will "leak" out.
Either by the transfer of heat through the walls of the reservoir or though evaporation of the water.
What the reservoir is made of also has an effect.
This is why we tend to use heator cores and blocks made of copper, because copper transfers heat very well.
In merchandizing it is called shrinkage which is bad. But for us in water cooling it is good. :D
However, the increase in surface area for going from one pint to one, two or even three gallons probably won't dissipate enough heat to be noticable in any way.
Heater cores and radiators act as a way to drastically increase the surface area on which air acts. Furthermore, fans increase the amount of air which acts on a given surface area.
In short increasing the size of your reservoir shouldn't cause a noticable change in your water temperature.
FrozenPC4Brain
08-25-2005, 08:46 AM
This question is the reason I started my "BIG COOLER" system.
AWC-1 had less than 1 cup of water in the whole thing.
I didn't see how that could cool anything.
I added 1 302 core, then another 302 and the pump didn't cut it, (test runs)
Added a 350 pump, then added two ac pumps.
I still don't know how much water it holds but am sure it's closer to a gal.
Bloody_Sorcerer
08-25-2005, 09:21 AM
massive resivoirs aren't so useful in a normal watercooling loop, where water temp is no more than 1 or 2 C above ambient. However, in water chillers, massive volumes of water = massive capacity, because no matter how much hotter that water's getting at the CPU, theres still a reserve of freshly chilled water to draw on.
a big res in a normal loop probably wouldn't help much, unless it was just of a downright silly size (swimming pool anyone?)
hmm. I appreciate the thoughts guys. I think Im gonna go with the resevior/filler idea, but for ease of use.
thx
saratoga
08-25-2005, 08:27 PM
massive resivoirs aren't so useful in a normal watercooling loop, where water temp is no more than 1 or 2 C above ambient. However, in water chillers, massive volumes of water = massive capacity, because no matter how much hotter that water's getting at the CPU, theres still a reserve of freshly chilled water to draw on.
a big res in a normal loop probably wouldn't help much, unless it was just of a downright silly size (swimming pool anyone?)
Thats wrong. Adding more water doesn't help with chillers anymore then with a typical loop. If anything it increases the amount of insulation needed to hold a given temp since you now have more water bleeding off capacity into the air.
how portable can a chiller be? Still LAN party-able?