DDC-1 Pump noise suggestions?

G

Gorilla

[H]F Junkie
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So I got one of those DDC-1T or maybe it's a DDC-1 (I can't tell) from bmaverick (if you haven't heard, his dad saved a load of them from going to the dump) and he has been selling them for $35. Most people have been thrilled with them as when they are coupled with an aftermarket top they outperform a stock DDC-3.

Anyway, I seem to have gotten a dud in that it has a super loud buzzing sound. You can hear it in my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqJcVy41qTY
The points where it gets quiet is when it is not running. You can hear me slow it down with a controller.

After two days of enduring that awful buzzing (I can hear it over 7 x scythe slipstream 1900rpm fans going full blast) I finally found a way to silence it. I wrapped it in microfiber towels and jammed it into a USPS flat rate padded envelope... yeah, it's ugly as hell but it worked.

Now, that is hardly a viable long term solution. Anyone have any suggestions on a more aesthetically pleasing option?



Note, I have tried decoupling the pump, the noise has nothing to do with vibrations being transferred to the mounting surface. I can hold it in my hand and it is just as loud. I have also disassembled it and cleaned it thoroughly. I've also tried to contact the ebay guy who used to sell custom PCBs for these pumps that are supposed to improve noise and performance but I haven't heard back from him.

My thinking now is that if I can't get a new PCB or get bmaverick to replace mine (I got it from him a year ago but just installed it a couple days ago) I might have to try to build a custom sound proof box for this thing. Not ideal, but I have some sheets of ABS and Acrylic as well as some adhesive backed foam, so I could probably do it, but I doubt that it would be pretty.
 
Asking bmaverick to replace it would be completely out of line considering you bought it a year ago. Sorry man that is just not fair in the least bit.

It may have a worn bearing. But honestly rebuilding it would be a waste of time and money that could just be put toward a new pump.
 
jmilcher said:
Asking bmaverick to replace it would be completely out of line considering you bought it a year ago. Sorry man that is just not fair in the least bit.

It may have a worn bearing. But honestly rebuilding it would be a waste of time and money that could just be put toward a new pump.
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Yeah, I wasn't really going to ask him to replace it but he has replaced pumps for others who have had this noise problem. I had been planning to order a couple more of them from him, but I have no idea if this is normal or not. There is a thread on OCN in which several people have had this problem.

I doubt it's a worn bearing as it has only been in use for a couple days. Like I said, I bought it from him a year ago but just installed it on Monday. It was supposed to have been new.

And the replacement PCBs were only running around $10 shipped, so it wouldn't be a big loss if it didn't help. I just don't actually know what the cause of the noise is.
 
Well, I'm working on an insulated acrylic box. Hopefully that will help. I'm sure it won't be great for pump temperatures, but it can't be any worse than the current towel/bag set up.

I followed bmaverick's suggestions on another forum and used a little 3-in-one oil on the ceramic ball. It does actually seem to have helped a little bit, but not nearly enough.

I'll be done with the box in an hour or so and then I'll post some pics and the results.
 
Well, here it is. My cheap ass sound dampening box (total cost was probably under $1.00 if you don't count the glue that I already had). It doesn't look that pretty, but it's better than my previous flat rate envelope setup. It works pretty well. It actually isn't as quiet as the towel/envelope setup but it's much better than nothing. The pump might get a little warm, but that's ok. I have freaking 7 x 120mm of radiator for a cpu and a single gpu so my loop should be able to absorb a little heat from a pump.

In progress shot:


Finished but not mounted yet.
 
I'm pretty sure thats just how those pumps sound. I remember the videos that Martin uploaded pretty much sounding the same way.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
I'm pretty sure thats just how those pumps sound. I remember the videos that Martin uploaded pretty much sounding the same way.
Click to expand...

You might be right. I couldn't find Martin's videos, but I looked at his sound test results and the ddc-1 with the xspc top was a good 5 decibels higher than most other pumps at any give point.

I just ordered a Swiftech MCP35X which should be quieter. I thought about a Swiftech MCP655 but I didn't want to have to void the warranty to make it usable with anything other than 3/8" tubing. Hopefully the 35X will work well for me as it seems to be one of the best performing, most efficient pumps out there. The ability to control it with PWM should let me get it to a satisfactory noise level.

I'll probably save the DDC-1 as a backup.
 
I ended up picking up one of those ddc-1t pumps from bmaverick too. I never ended up using it after hearing Martin's video.

Just make sure that your motherboard has good pwm controls. The MCP35x is loud as shit at full speed. The pwm controls on my gigabyte board kind of suck but I found a profile to make it work.

Also good decoupling made a huge difference. I love the shoggy sandwich.

I thought that the mcp655 came with 1/2 barbs stock.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
I ended up picking up one of those ddc-1t pumps from bmaverick too. I never ended up using it after hearing Martin's video.

Just make sure that your motherboard has good pwm controls. The MCP35x is loud as shit at full speed. The pwm controls on my gigabyte board kind of suck but I found a profile to make it work.

Also good decoupling made a huge difference. I love the shoggy sandwich.

I thought that the mcp655 came with 1/2 barbs stock.
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#1. Yeah, I hope my motherboard can control it. I've been messing with speedfan to adjust my pwm settings. I'm not really familiar with how pwm works but so far I've found that setting the cpu fan header to 0% will drop an 1800rpm fan to about 800rpm.

#2 We'll see about decoupling. Decoupling actually made no difference with my DDC-1. That or it was already decoupled with the way I mounted it (hooked the DDC-1 onto a piece of foam backed acrylic that I screwed onto my motherboard tray).

#3 Ah, you are right, the D5/MCP655 do come with 1/2" barbs. What I should have said is that I didn't want to have to void the Swiftech warranty to use fittings. Swiftech has made it very clear that taking your pump apart for any reason voids your warranty. Heck, even if you buy the Swiftech MCP35X heatsink to go with your MCP35X pump you void your warranty by installing it (supposedly you are supposed to mail the heatsink and the pump to swiftech and pay them to install it). I've also heard mutterings of warranty void stickers on their pumps (at least on the MCP35X). Regardless, hopefully with the MCP35X I'll never need to take it.
 
I got one of those pumps from him a few years ago to do that "DIYINHK" PCB mod. The sound doesn't get any smoother/less noticeable. I sold that pump and went back to running DDC 3.25s.
 
FaRKle0079 said:
I got one of those pumps from him a few years ago to do that "DIYINHK" PCB mod. The sound doesn't get any smoother/less noticeable. I sold that pump and went back to running DDC 3.25s.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment. I wasn't planning on doing that mod since I've already ordered a new pump and the DIYINHK guy doesn't seem to be selling them anymore, but it is still nice to know.
 
If you are worried about voiding a warranty on a pump by installing a custom top , you shouldn't be watercooling imo. You void the warranty on a $500 video card installing a block, you run the risk of bricking your whole computer if you get a leak which wont be covered under warranty, etc.
 
sok0 said:
If you are worried about voiding a warranty on a pump by installing a custom top , you shouldn't be watercooling imo. You void the warranty on a $500 video card installing a block, you run the risk of bricking your whole computer if you get a leak which wont be covered under warranty, etc.
Click to expand...

BababooeyHTJ said:
Thats kind of true.
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My statements about Swiftech's warranty were addressed less at a concern about failures and more that I find it to be incredibly stupid that just taking the top off of a pump voids your warranty (especially in the case of the 35X, for which Swiftech sells a heatsink that requires you to disassemble your 35X to install). I can totally understand why they wouldn't honor the warranty if they discover that you took it apart and that resulted in a leak that fried the pcb or something along those lines. In other words, in order to install a heatsink on the 35X that is intended to prevent your pump from dying and needing to be sent in under warranty you void your warranty. I just find their blanket warranty void statement too be too broad. But that point is kind of moot as I won't be disassembling my new 35X since it comes ready for g1/4 fittings.
I'm not particularly worried about failures and warranties. I'm pretty sure that I voided my cpu warranty when I lapped it. My point was just that Swiftech has chosen to void warranties for something that a huge percentage of their customers do.

Also, I don't recall anyone ever having their video card warranty voided because they took the heatsink off or installed a block. Yes, companies do put those stickers and warnings on there but there are tons of posts where those companies have said that it's fine as long as you don't damage the product. I suppose that is actually a lot like Swiftech's warranty policy, but I don't have any evidence of Swiftech saying that they don't void your warranty if you didn't damage your part; whereas there are lots of examples of XFX, EVGA, MSI, etc stating that as long as you install the original heatsink before sending it in and don't damage anything then the warranty stands.

Oh and my desktop has come into contact with water plenty of times...
The same day that I built my current system I tripped and accidentally kicked over a jug of water which emptied itself into my case. Nothing fried amazingly.
Last December I was loading my desktop into my trunk and a clump of snow fell from the roof and landed on the side panel mesh and splashed all over my motherboard.
 
You only need to disassemble the pump to install the koolance heatsink. The swiftech heatsink just screws to the bottom of the pump. You don't even need to break the warranty seal.

I do agree that voiding the warranty on a $60 mechanical part should be the least of your concerns. Watercooling can be risky. I've seen quite a few "I've killed my video card and motherboard" posts on the forums.
 
You can greatly reduce the noise by making another box... This time sealed on all sides, about 1cm bigger than your current box.

First, line it with some generic 60c stick on tile, from Home Depot. The cheaper and heavier the better. You'll want to cut the tiles a TINY bit smaller (aka, smaller by the width of each ABS panel) than the panel they're stuck too. Finally, line with foam. You want the pump to float on the foam, not compress it.

I've had a few super noisy pumps for other uses (DIY humidifier comes to mind) which responded very well to this.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
You only need to disassemble the pump to install the koolance heatsink. The swiftech heatsink just screws to the bottom of the pump. You don't even need to break the warranty seal.

I do agree that voiding the warranty on a $60 mechanical part should be the least of your concerns. Watercooling can be risky. I've seen quite a few "I've killed my video card and motherboard" posts on the forums.
Click to expand...

Ha, you're right about how it's attached. I received my MCP35X on Thursday and the warranty void sticker was only half attached so I stuck it all the way on. It shouldn't be a big deal since it's able to take G1/4 fittings. Also, wow is this thing better than my DDC-1. Despite the fact that it's an 18W pump it is so much quieter. I need to figure out a way to decouple it better and then it will be perfect. It's so darn powerful that I had trouble bleeding my loop. The air bubbles would shoot up into my tube res, go all the way to the top and then get pulled back down into the pump. All is well now though.

Arcygenical said:
You can greatly reduce the noise by making another box... This time sealed on all sides, about 1cm bigger than your current box.

First, line it with some generic 60c stick on tile, from Home Depot. The cheaper and heavier the better. You'll want to cut the tiles a TINY bit smaller (aka, smaller by the width of each ABS panel) than the panel they're stuck too. Finally, line with foam. You want the pump to float on the foam, not compress it.
I've had a few super noisy pumps for other uses (DIY humidifier comes to mind) which responded very well to this.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I might give it a try someday, but at this point I'm just going to toss the DDC-1 in the closet in case my new MCP35X ever goes down.
 
I really like my phoyba destructor. It does a great job decoupling. Its pretty much just a shoggy sandwich knock off. I wish that I had just gone with the shoggy sandwich to begin with though.

I'm a big fan of these little ddc pumps too. They do a good job and when properly decoupled are nice and quiet.
 
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