High Performance, yet Silent Pump?

[Stocky]

I've been interested in this DDC2 ultra top pump which everyone was raving about a little while back. I was just wondering how quiet it is? Is it any good for a super-silent system? If not, what is?

Any advice welcome, cheers

[Herr Brun]

With the alphacool plexi top mounted with dampeners, it's dead silent.

[calvin]

Been wc'ing for several years now and the best solution IME for super silent is a submerged pump res combo as these can be truly dead silent. Placing a pump inside a sealed box surrounded by water provides for rather effective noise dampening! Since these are AC based solutions should be partnered with a low res block such as Apogee etc.

As far as DC pump solutions the DDC2 Ultra is very good. Especially with one of the aftermarket tops fitted, however, as I find the pump to be somewhat whiny in its stock configuration. I cant speak for the new Petra top as have not tried one (but should offer a similar benefit I would imagine) but fastening an Alphacool top to one of these pumps I found definitely lowered its noise footprint. Whether or not it meets your definition of super silent cannot say, but it is very quiet.

And assumes a good quality mounting pad to eliminate case resonances - also very important for quiet operation.

[septim]

if ever you hear any noise from the ddc ultra from fully bled out loop, then your pump has a problem. (whining, burping, clicking etc noise...)

otherwise its pretty silent on top of a gel pad/rubber/neoprene cushion decouplinged...

[Mankz_91]

My original DDC is silent. Its mounted with 4x rubber washers and a 3mm thick bit of neoprene.

With my fans @ 7V, they still make more noise than the DDC, and they are supposed to be silent.

[pumbertot]

my 2 ddcs with petra tops(EK) mounted on the gel pads that Petra sells are prety much silent. less noise than low cfm fans on 7V. the way to go if you need complete silence.

[Freebo]

Petra top all the way although not sure how silent they are.

[Fameless]

Originally Posted by Freebo

Petra top all the way although not sure how silent they are.

If you're not sure how silent petra's top is, how can you recommend it?

[NickS]

AquaXtreme 50z or Laing D5/Swiftech MCP655 with a Petras Gel Pad.

[Stocky]

Thank you for the responses

I'm running an AquaXtreme 50z at the mo, I was just wondering if there is anything even quieter.

I'm a little dubious over this Petra top; I don't quite understand why it makes such a large difference. I have had a read through that relevant test thread. If someone could explain what it is about the top that makes the pump perform better I'd appreciate it

[Pete]

Flow and head are even and what's better stuited for us and 90% of the block out there. I use the 50Z my self, silent once air is out and on some foam. If thats ones going spear let me know Stocky!

[Shpoon]

I wonder if I have a defective pump...everyone keeps going on about the Ultra being silent; it's far from silent...it's "quiet" and with my fans at 5-7V, NB/SB down to inaudible, it's still not bad, but it's definitely not silent...

(fully bled, directly from DD, sitting on a gel pad).

[spudnik]

Originally Posted by Shpoon

I wonder if I have a defective pump...everyone keeps going on about the Ultra being silent; it's far from silent...it's "quiet" and with my fans at 5-7V, NB/SB down to inaudible, it's still not bad, but it's definitely not silent...

(fully bled, directly from DD, sitting on a gel pad).

From the Swiftech site:

"A Note of Caution! the MCP355 generates higher audible noise than the MCP350 and MCP655 pumps. This product is not recomended for users seeking silent operations."

but then again, most people here are probably half-deaf from loud rock music or from sitting within a close proximity to a multitude of Delta fans for an extended period of time...

[Petra]

The D5 Vario (MCP655), at setting "5", is not quieter than the DDC-2 (MCP355) at 12V, regardless of what Swiftech claims.

The problem here is that "silent" and "quiet" are very relative terms... What is quiet/silent to one person may not be even close to that for someone else. Sound quality also plays a pretty big role--see here for some audio clips and dB measurements: http://www.cooling-masters.com/articles-33-14.html

My personal (subjective) observations are as follows (in order from quietest to loudest):
DDC-1 (MCP350) < DDC-2 (MCP355) < D5 Vario (MCP655 - setting 5) < 50Z-DC12

As for the performance gain from the custom DDC tops, the increase in flow is the result of removing the 90-degree bend before the pump's inlet and increasing the diameter of said inlet. The rest of top design focuses on minimizing max head pressure loss as a result of the increased inlet size and simplification of the impeller housing (really, there's only so much you can do with a CNC mill without making the part unrealistically expensive).

[Stocky]

Are these funky tops available to us folks over the pond?

[pumbertot]

Originally Posted by Stocky

Are these funky tops available to us folks over the pond?

petra will ship to anywhere.just email for shipping quote(very reasonable). im from across the pond but im now in Ozland.