Stren's D5 Top Testing (EK, Alphacool and Koolance so far)

[stren]

Updated all the posts with missing data plots now that all data is complete. Here are the comparison plots:

Performance Curves

Only Tops with D5 Vario:



Tops + Reservoirs and Bay Reservoirs with D5 Vario:



Only tops with D5 Strong:



Tops + Reservoirs and Bay Reservoirs with D5 Strong:



"Flow in a Simulated Loop"

These are expected flow rates for each top vs pump setting for a simulated loop that's made from flow rate data from various parts. In this case the simulated loop is the same as the "Medium Restriction" orange lines on the pressure/flow plots. This just attempts to show the kind of differences you might see with the tops:



And because the differences are small, here's a zoomed in version:



Noise

This was an attempt to plot noise vs flow for the medium restriction loop. This is less useful here as all the tops are very similar but will be more useful when comparing to other pumps. Bear in mind this is noise measured when the pump is isolated from a chassis. Chassis vibration and resonance can cause large amounts of noise and increase these numbers by 6-10dB. It should be noted that the Monsoon is the only part supplied with a vibration reducing mount. This should help, but every case and build will resonate at slightly different frequencies and changing your pump speed either up or down may reduce noise.

Also bear in mind the ambient noisefloor varies between 32dB and 35dB. For the lower noise numbers I often have to wait a while in order to get a good reading. Even though 32dB is about the limit of my meter, if you have sensitive ears you can hear a bit quieter than that. I.E. you can hear a difference between setting 1 and 2 on a pump if you listen carefully and if the room is quiet. However it's extremely hard to hear setting 1 at all unless it's resonating with something else. For most users with a well isolated pump and modestly quiet ambient noise it will be hard to hear any of the pump settings below 4 on a vario.



Conclusions

- For performance avoid bay reservoirs
- A good top will increase performance slightly over the Laing top
- The Koolance and EK tops are both good choices, they perform well and are priced fairly for their features
- I'm not comfortable with the torque required to avoid leaking with the Alphacool top
- Both the XSPC and Monsoon bay reservoirs perform decently. The Monsoon has more features, but a higher cost