SWC DDC TOP comming up - tests prove better than Alphacool, DDCT-01s, XSPC

[Mord]

OK, friends, long time we haven't seen some new DDC tops. This is about to change soon, very soon.

SWC comes from Sugar4o Water Cooling - Sugar4o is water cooling guru here in Bulgaria. He has been designing and producing water blocks, modding pumps, etc. since the dawn of water cooling. Quite many people had/have his cpu, chipset, gpu blocks. Including me. Some few weeks ago he bought a DDC pump from Laing Hungary Inc. He just couldn't resist to modding it.

Enough of the man, let's talk pump tops!

Testing methods:

High restriction system, consisting of a SWC block (very low restriction), some thermaltake vga block (highly restrictive), and restrictive barb at the end. Test is filling a 2 liter bottle.

Free flow - only pump with some tubing. Test - filling a 5+ liter bottle.

Barbs used are the the gray plastic you see in the pictures - 8mm inner diameter, 11mm outer. Only Petra's top was tested with D-tek's (should get some advance from that).

Pump was DDC 3.2, 18W, blue impeller

RESULTS

Restricted system......................................Free flow






The top has some major differences on the inside chamber. It's only a prototype - even the chamber is not polished. So even better results are expected after finishing the insides!

The reservoir is also a prototype - it's glued with the top with some chloroform. In high flow conditions a huge whirlpool on horizontal axis is formed and is the next thing to fix. This should improve flowrate quite a lot. The finished product should be optional and easy to mount and rotate to suit different needs.


HERE ARE SOME PICS:
(idiot taking pictures, pls don't kill me)

THE SWC DDC TOP


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19

THE SWC DDC TOP WITH RES


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19


Shot with DMC-FZ7 at 2008-05-19

[DeathSpreadeR]

Well done. I really like to see guys from my country doing research work in water cooling. It's easy to see that the new SWC top is well performing one but that's not all - it's even better performer than tops from Petra and Alphacool Congratulations, Sugar4o, nice stuff from you

[Vapor]

Minor pet peeve of mine...charts scales (no, doesn't always have to go down to 0, but in this case, 0 is the floor of plausible results).



That said, looks like a good performer, hopefully it'll be a publicly available product/visually improve.

[Giannis86]

That said, looks like a good performer, hopefully it'll be a publicly available product/visually improve.

+1

looks kinda horrible at the moment but it seems to perform well.. i was about to place an order for some XSPC restops..i think i'll wait a bit and wait for some news on this.

[aspire.comptech]

+1

looks kinda horrible at the moment but it seems to perform well.. i was about to place an order for some XSPC restops..i think i'll wait a bit and wait for some news on this.

+1

It does look pretty hacked together at the moment, is that epoxy I spy on the inside?

[iandh]

Fugly but a good design.

For those of you that didn't notice, the top is two pieces. That way there is more of a seal against backflow along the impeller outlets. That IMO is what gives it a slight edge over the XSPC top. The main reason why those two are so close in performance is because they both have spiral volutes.

I actually have a slotting cutter that could do this same thing as one piece and much less fugly.

[Xilikon]

Yes, there is a nice spiral volute and this really help with performance.

[Martinm210]

Very nice!

I like the two layered top, this gets around the o-ring limitations and provides more room for the spiral shaped volute. Good work!

I think I saw an email from him in the middle of my bios formatting. Hopefully he'll give me a chance to test it.

Always good to see some competition!

[Pedalmonkey]

SEND IT TO MARTINM!! just too measure it on the same accepted test bed that all the others r rated on.

[Mord]

Thanks, DeathSpreadeR, for the nice words!

First - it's not two pieces, but three. And yes it's quite bulky at the moment, it's definitely not the finished product.

It's not only the spiral - there's another tweak in there, that does the job. That's all I can say.

Things are getting arranged so we can send it to Martinm210 - it should happen soon. But maybe it'll be this very top - not polished, just like that. Again - expect even better results with the end user product!

Martinm210, yes the e-mail is about this top - the man himself contacted you. If you have the interest - you get one!

As to mass production and availability - it all depends on you, guys! If there's enough interest - so be it! The price... I cannot comment on that, but it should be quite tempting!

[Mord]

+1

It does look pretty hacked together at the moment, is that epoxy I spy on the inside?

Hehe, there's no epoxy - pieces are glued with chloroform. And if you ask if there's something in the chamber - no there isn't anything there.

[Pedalmonkey]

well if you need interest, and it really does perform that well, you have one customer for 2 or 3 right here. plus an entire forum board to recommend it to future buyers. but thats only if it performs well for martinm

[Martinm210]

Martinm210, yes the e-mail is about this top - the man himself contacted you. If you have the interest - you get one!

Thanks!

Out of town on business at the moment, but I'll get back to catching up on my email when I get back later this week.

[Giannis86]

well if you need interest, and it really does perform that well, you have one customer for 2 or 3 right here. plus an entire forum board to recommend it to future buyers. but thats only if it performs well for martinm

exactly my plan too i need 3 for a 3loops config...thats if it looks good as an end product though. Where will those be available? I'd love to see those at Petras..

[Waterlogged]

*sigh*

Sorry to say this and dampen all the enthusiasm but, I don't see this top being any good in the category we've come to judge a pump by...pressure. The bores on the fittings look way too big (what are they..10-11mm?) to allow any kind of decent head pressure. I see this top about as effective as the original Radiical top (hint: it got stomped by AC and Petra's) that also out flowed every other top. Tighten up the bores on those fittings and it'll fall in line with the rest of the tops on the market.

[Mord]

exactly my plan too i need 3 for a 3loops config...thats if it looks good as an end product though. Where will those be available? I'd love to see those at Petras..

SWC comes from Sugar4o Water Cooling - Sugar4o is water cooling guru here in Bulgaria

Be patient guys! Let's see if Martin can test it, and the "official" results of course.

Also there are some more things to tweak and it'll be in production!

Waterlogged

Barbs used are the the gray plastic you see in the pictures - 8mm inner diameter, 11mm outer

All but Petra's top were tested with these!

[Waterlogged]

Waterlogged

Barbs used are the the gray plastic you see in the pictures - 8mm inner diameter, 11mm outer

All but Petra's top were tested with these!

Whoops, missed that. I still think it'll have lower pressure compared to the AC and Petra. I have an AC and the holes in it are all 7mm, I also have both versions of Petra's top and the inlet is 9.5mm on both and 7.2mm on the original and 7mm on the "s" model. It's just simple fluid dynamics, put your finger over the end of a garden hose...what happens?

[Mord]

Some new tweaks, change in looks a bit. Both prototypes are going to Martin very soon! Hopes are to bring the DDC to it's maximum capabilities!

[Kayin]

Martin will be receiving one of my prototypes as well soon...

We should do a user-created shootout, though I seriously doubt I would win...

[Martinm210]

Very nice! I look forward to testing them..

I'm going to have to put my CPU block testing on hold as I resolve my motherboard issues, so I'll try to get caught up on my pump testing for a while.

[iandh]

It's not only the spiral - there's another tweak in there, that does the job. That's all I can say.

I already mentioned it in my post above. The bottom section of the top seals against the bottom edge of the impeller outlets to prevent backflow from the widest part of the volute under the impeller body.

[Martinm210]

Yeah, it's a great idea. I was always thinking some sort of special rounded/T like endmill would be needed to do that, never thought of making it in more than 1 piece. This should really help direct the flow off the impeller vane plane and concentrate it to the outlet. It's also a great way to get around the diameter limitations of the o-ring.

[iandh]

Yeah, it's a great idea. I was always thinking some sort of special rounded/T like endmill would be needed to do that, never thought of making it in more than 1 piece. This should really help direct the flow off the impeller vane plane and concentrate it to the outlet. It's also a great way to get around the diameter limitations of the o-ring.

It is called a radius keyseat cutter. This design could easily be done in one piece with the right tooling. Honestly I've already seen how high the impeller outlets sit out of the housing on the DDC's; I've considered something along these lines before.

An intersting note... this design change will only benefit spiral volute designs; IMO there is not enough pressure differential around the impeller on a round "high-flow" style design to cause a major performance increase. There isn't enough propensity for backflow.

[Mord]

I already mentioned it in my post above. The bottom section of the top seals against the bottom edge of the impeller outlets to prevent backflow from the widest part of the volute under the impeller body.

Yes, that's it! But the two part top is only for fast production of prototypes.

It is now being arranged to have the finished product molded. That is if test show good results. And, of course, if there's interest.

[PonDTranG]

Good work