Multi Pump Setups - Parallel vs Series Test Results
Detailed Blog/Review Link
Nothing really new for the majority here on performance, but I have heard the debate more than once on the redundancy of pumps piece. I tested both performance in operation of both pumps and with one pump off for your viewing pleasure..:D
A special thanks to Koolance, XSPC, DIYINHK, and Bmaverick for sponsoring the pumping parts...without their support this test would not have happened..:)
Summary
Parallel
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...pg?w=614&h=443
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...ng?w=612&h=656
Redundancy check
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...ng?w=612&h=656
Series
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...pg?w=614&h=456
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...ng?w=612&h=656
Redundancy check
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...ng?w=612&h=656
Conclusion
Parallel pump setups are very clearly a poor choice for water cooling. Not only is the performance benefit very small and only some benefit for very low restriction loops, it also barely manages to provide enough pumping power for redundancy. Series setups give you double the head pressure of a single pump and that increased head pressure is tuned ideally for water cooling’s high restriction nature. I will caution that running two pumps in series and the resulting increased flow rate does work your pumps harder, so you should consider additional cooling particularly with DDC pumps. I would also advise that dual pumps is not something that will normally net large measurable temperature gains, it’s generally reserved for those that are in search of that last degree in performance…or for those with extremely large, complex, and restrictive loops.
http://martinsliquidlab.files.wordpr...ng?w=612&h=656
Bottom line….Use Series setups in multiple pump configurations, do not use parallel pump setups. There is really no advantage to using parallel over series, series is always better for watercooling.
Of coarse this is assuming you are talking simple series type loops. If you start messing around with parallel loops and parallel pumps things could start looking a bit different since you are altering the restriction scenarios. Regardless, I still doubt there is any benefit to going parallel on pumps in just about any condition. For simplicity, I've stuck with the basics on this and hopefully it's of some use for new users on the fence about the two options.
Cheers!:toast2:
Martin