Martin's Koolance RP-402X2 Review (Working Thread )

[Johnny87au]

Looks good martin, has the res got enough for 2x LED's? Would be good have 1 led for each loop.. would look quite impressive..

[Johnny87au]

Looks good martin, has the res got enough for 2x LED's? Would be good have 1 led for each loop.. would look quite impressive..

[Martinm210]

Yes, it actually has 4 spot, two on bottom and two on top, 3mm in size. I only had 5s for this test, so I just ran a strip of electrical tape around the perimeter to hold them in place and block off some of the stray light.

Anyhow, I'm not very good with these, but here is an attempt to show two different colors. You do get a little bleading across the reservoirs, but it looks good. Again the long exposure time makes these alot brighter than they appear. Since everything is black, the lighting is very mild.

[Johnny87au]

wow best bay reservoir out atm imo, Can you take a picture with all 4 ports being used? Wanna see the difference and how bright the res appears...

[Martinm210]

The first two had all four ports going, but this picture is with just the top two. That's all I had for green.



For brightness, it's hard to define, but I would suggest getting fairly strong LEDs if you want brightness. With the ones I was using, I probably would like it a touch brighter. It looks just about right in the dark, but fairly faint with much ambient light present.

Overall good, but I do like it better with the electrical tape band around the edges to block light from leaving there.

[coolhandluke41]

"I can't remember who wanted an LED shot, but here is one. Only thing I did differently was put a little electrical tape on the side to minimize the perimeter lighting."


O Yeaaa that's what i want to see,looks sweet ,very nice unit,definitely getting one for my 655, thanks Martin

[Defoler]

Nice.
Now I know where to put the leds I have around

[BrokenArrow]

Performance PQ Chart Comparsion
In single pump mode it produced slightly less performance than the COV-RP400, but still a fair amount over the stock top.

When you tested the single pump with COV-RP400, was it with the top inlet (pictured above in red?) or front inlet? Previous experience shows a big difference when fighting the 90° turn on the inlet side.

However, I guess this new unit also has the 90° turn into the volute as well. Not sure if you can see inside enough, but is this turn a "sharp" turn or more gradual like a BP 45° elbow turn? Probably just drilled at 90° angles. Thanks.

[shazza]

Nice job, Martin. I've added this to the info/guide Sticky - changed the name of the pump section to "Pumps, Tops, Combo Units with Reservoir."

[Koolance]

One thing with lighting on these units-- it will look better if colored coolant is used (especially UV-reactive stuff) and the LED's have good ambient spread. The LED's we carry on our website are the bright spotlight type, which shoot into the rear of the black aluminum bezel and won't get reflected into the reservoir as well... might be time for us to experiment with some tin foil on our bench here.

Tim

[NaeKuh]

might be time for us to experiment with some tin foil on our bench here.

Tim

u know what i miss...

The OG EL Wire..

What happened with these guys?

I think a res would look speachless, if the window had a EL wire going around it.



Call it the Koolance TRO.. errr PRON edition? :P

[Church]

Naekuh: Tron intestines in one of black market organ shop.

[Martinm210]

When you tested the single pump with COV-RP400, was it with the top inlet (pictured above in red?) or front inlet? Previous experience shows a big difference when fighting the 90° turn on the inlet side.

However, I guess this new unit also has the 90° turn into the volute as well. Not sure if you can see inside enough, but is this turn a "sharp" turn or more gradual like a BP 45° elbow turn? Probably just drilled at 90° angles. Thanks.

Yes, top inlet as pictured. I plan to do the alternates in my stand alone noise and more bit next. It looks like two drilled or milled holes intersecting, but I should note that the intersection is about 1.5" away from the pump volute. That should theoretically be better than the same 90 elbow right at the pump inlet because it allows the water to straighten out some before entering the impeller. I'll explore this some next round.

Nice job, Martin. I've added this to the info/guide Sticky - changed the name of the pump section to "Pumps, Tops, Combo Units with Reservoir."

Awesome, thanks!

As always, appreciate the site and having a place to share this stuff. I like this living review format a lot. It gives me a chance to interact more and get after the bits I would have otherwise missed doing it alone.

One thing with lighting on these units-- it will look better if colored coolant is used (especially UV-reactive stuff) and the LED's have good ambient spread. The LED's we carry on our website are the bright spotlight type, which shoot into the rear of the black aluminum bezel and won't get reflected into the reservoir as well... might be time for us to experiment with some tin foil on our bench here.

Tim

For sure on the UV fluid, I'm just a water guy, so I wanted to share how I would use it. I'm happy with the light level in water although some more dispersed "flood" type LEDs may me interesting to try.

I almost forgot about the LEDs, but after trying them..I think I will use them in my build for the long term..

[Church]

If someone as pragmatic and experienced as Martin considers bling, Koolance has made real fine job in looks department

[bundymania]

Thanks for this Review, Martin ! Especially with Leds installed, this new Reservoir looks very nice!

[NaeKuh]

Naekuh: Tron intestines in one of black market organ shop.

imagine a res with EL wire around the window tho.

[konkhra]

About the led's, Feser has some radial beam leds which can be found on their website or Sidewinders, but they are 5mm. Does anyone know if there are 3mm versions like them?

I'm using the Feser ones now for my XSPC res and my EK blocks(modded the acrylic top in a corner to accept them). I have tried looking for them and only found companies who sell the leds only. Might be something Koolance could look in to as a company to manufacture them already made like the ones they offer now.

[matari]

One thing with lighting on these units-- it will look better if colored coolant is used (especially UV-reactive stuff) and the LED's have good ambient spread. The LED's we carry on our website are the bright spotlight type, which shoot into the rear of the black aluminum bezel and won't get reflected into the reservoir as well... might be time for us to experiment with some tin foil on our bench here.

Tim

I bet it would look cool with colored coolant. I would like to see blue and purple. However, I am done spending hours trying to clean my acrylic items.

[SpuTnicK]

Hey Martin, when you are done testing rx-402x2, can you try to disassemble it as much as possible?
For example, to remove that faceplate to give the inner look of the reservoir with and without pumps installed. I think this would be helpful for some modders ready to get their hand on it as well as plain users.

[Martinm210]

FYI,

I added this configuartion option for series pumps. You don't have to connect the two pumps with a loop immediately one after the other, they can also be connected like this which would give you the same performance and redundancy benefits:

I'd probably put the radiator before the VGA blocks instead of how this is shown, but the intent was to show how to do series without trying to do that at the pump.

[JoeBar]

A very nice res and review Martin!

However i'm a bit skeptical on the whole pump res, all in one, solution despite being neat and clean. The lack of airflow on the pumps (when installed in a case) plus the possible heat transfer between the two res parts in dual loops concern me...

[Martinm210]

A very nice res and review Martin!

However i'm a bit skeptical on the whole pump res, all in one, solution despite being neat and clean. The lack of airflow on the pumps (when installed in a case) plus the possible heat transfer between the two res parts in dual loops concern me...

Those are good questions, I'll see if I can add some sort of heat measurement series in my other pump thread. I suspect a big part of any heat related issue is when the base is insulated on foam/gel. The bottom surface is the best place for heat to escape from the FETs, so when we insulate it for noise decoupling, it's probably not helping the heat dissipation. In these drive bays, there is at least 8mm of space for air to flow up and along the base of the pump. I would think that's better than planted on a piece of foam on the bottom of a case, but that's just guessing.

I also noticed the newer PMP-400(DDC3.25) is much better in keeping max power consumption at bay. This is comparing to my old DDC 3.2 test. I think we all assumed the revision was for more performance head, but I think it was specifically to reduce heat.



I suppose there is some heat transfer across the reservoir wall, but plastic is much more of an insulator than water is and most loops are probably only a few degrees different anyhow.

[Nasa]

Hi Martin, great review!
About the RP-452X2 could you check if is a single block of acetal or 2 blocks, because there's a "line" between the reservoir block and the pump block, i can't see if it's a milling by cnc work or a junction of two shares.
This line...


Thanks

[JoeBar]

Those are good questions, I'll see if I can add some sort of heat measurement series in my other pump thread. I suspect a big part of any heat related issue is when the base is insulated on foam/gel. The bottom surface is the best place for heat to escape from the FETs, so when we insulate it for noise decoupling, it's probably not helping the heat dissipation. In these drive bays, there is at least 8mm of space for air to flow up and along the base of the pump. I would think that's better than planted on a piece of foam on the bottom of a case, but that's just guessing.

I also noticed the newer PMP-400(DDC3.25) is much better in keeping max power consumption at bay. This is comparing to my old DDC 3.2 test. I think we all assumed the revision was for more performance head, but I think it was specifically to reduce heat.


I suppose there is some heat transfer across the reservoir wall, but plastic is much more of an insulator than water is and most loops are probably only a few degrees different anyhow.

Of course it's better than placing on foam cause it's bad, bad, bad for DDC's....

However i don't know whether on the long run it'll have an impact on pump's life compared to a descent cooled ddc. User opinions will surely enlighten this in the future...

According to my pumps, 3.25 runs quite a bit hotter than 3.2...

As for heat transfer do u think that, let's say, a 5'C difference between loops wouldn't bother...?

[Martinm210]

Hi Martin, great review!
About the RP-452X2 could you check if is a single block of acetal or 2 blocks, because there's a "line" between the reservoir block and the pump block, i can't see if it's a milling by cnc work or a junction of two shares.
This line...


Thanks

It's definitely one solid block, that line is just a cosmetic groove. The acetal portion of the unit is all one solid block, no joints. The only joints that exist are with the acrylic window, and then o-rings for the ports and pumps. Here is a picture of the top. That groove looks like it was cut with a little tiny ball endmill just for a visual breakup of the two shapes, but it's only 1-2mm deep.

Of course it's better than placing on foam cause it's bad, bad, bad for DDC's....

However i don't know whether on the long run it'll have an impact on pump's life compared to a descent cooled ddc. User opinions will surely enlighten this in the future...

According to my pumps, 3.25 runs quite a bit hotter than 3.2...

As for heat transfer do u think that, let's say, a 5'C difference between loops wouldn't bother...?

LOL! Definitely a long term user based piece for sure. I'm guessing a few degrees difference isn't going to transfer much. I was trying to look up thermal properties yesterday, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. It appears something like acrylic has about 1/3rd the thermal conductivity as water, plus the surface is smooth and the wall is thick. I would assume acetal is similar or better. I'm sure there is some transfer there, but I'm just guessing it's not enough to worry about with the small delta we're talking about.

Unless you had the reservoir cross port opened up, then water would move freely across and transfer heat.