Computer off Pump On?

N

Nomad

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I am considering setting up a water cooling system and trying to decide if I should go with a DD12V or one of the better Eheim or Hydor pumps. I do not leave my gaming machine on all the time (too loud in my office - problem might be solved with the water setup).

Is it better for the water to be moving all the time? i.e. install the Eheim or Hydor and let them run 24x7 or would I be better suited with a 12V model (or PCI relay card) that was only pumping water when the machine is up and running?
 
Well there's not really any reason for your pump to be running when your PC is not. If it were to do so, it would also heat up the loop while the PC was off, assuming your radiator fans were also off.
 
i agree with zero, theres no reason it should but it certainly isnt going to hurt it. the only issue i can think of is the waters going to be really warm, possibly considered "hot", when you turn the computer on, becuase the whole time the pump will be dumping heat into the water, and the lack of fans to remove the heat from the radiator will just mean its builds up. nothing threatening though, just expect times a few degs higher when you start ;)

you can use a relay to start both with the normal computer switch but dont ask me how to hook that up, still trying to find out myself.
 
Most pumps dump a minimal amount of heat into the water. Even though there won't be forced air through the radiator, it will still be transferring heat to the air around it. End result - not a lot of heat built up in WC loop. In practical experience I had a chevette heatercore mounted in a YY cube case with an eheim pump and ran the pump 24/7 whether the computer was on or not. No problems with heat buildup, and it helped processor coold down faster on power off.
 
Xeese said:
Most pumps dump a minimal amount of heat into the water. Even though there won't be forced air through the radiator, it will still be transferring heat to the air around it. End result - not a lot of heat built up in WC loop. In practical experience I had a chevette heatercore mounted in a YY cube case with an eheim pump and ran the pump 24/7 whether the computer was on or not. No problems with heat buildup, and it helped processor coold down faster on power off.
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when i leak test i notice the water gets very warm. thats with either a single or double heatercore, or a hydor or mag 3
 
bah! We are back to the official answer of - it depends on your specific setup. I am positive that if I hooked up my quietone 4000 HH that the water would be pretty darn hot when I came back without a large passive radiator (reserator, innovatek external, etc)

I will change my answer to if you aren't building for passive airflow pump heat may be a concern and use the relay or turn it off. :D
 
Well, the DD 12V Laing D4 pump has a better PQ curve than the hydor or eheim pumps, its a lot louder. I can't really hear my friend's Eheim 1048 at all, and my Laing makes this kind of loud buzzing/whine sound thats very audible sitting next to the computer. So that is something else to consider. Heres a thread at procooling discussing this exact issue:

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=8957

You can see the PQ curve of the D4 in that thread too (although its on Danger Den's site as well).
 
Does anyone know a good way to wire up an AC pump so that it goes off when the computer is shut down? Or is there any way to do that through the PSU? I suppose I could just turn it off everytime I shut down, but that gets kind of annoying...
 
stumpy said:
Does anyone know a good way to wire up an AC pump so that it goes off when the computer is shut down? Or is there any way to do that through the PSU? I suppose I could just turn it off everytime I shut down, but that gets kind of annoying...
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A lot of retailers sell relay kits to make your own relay to do this, and you can also just buy the parts at an electronics shop to make your own relay too (for like 1/4 of the cost of the kits). Criticool also makes a PCI card that you can hook your pump to that acts as a relay to turn the pump on and off with your computer. Criticool Powerplant I believe is what it is called. You want the second revision though... first one had problems with shocking the hell out of people! :eek:
 
Would anyone be interested in a system that starts a mains voltage/12v pump when the pc is switched on then when the pc is switched off it keeps the pump going till the water drops below a certain temp? I'd make a schematic and parts list for anyone that fancies building one.
 
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