Flow rate issues.

[BreaK-]

Hi guys im in need of some help regarding the flow rate in my WC loop. First of all here are the components in loop arder.

Res - EK Spin Bay
Pump - Laing D5 Pump
Rad - Phobya G-Changer Rad
GPU - EVGA Hydro Copper 2 GTX580
CPU - EK HF Supreme Full Nickle
Res.

1/2" OD 3/8" ID Primochill Tubing

The D5 has variable speeds, at the minute its on full, and the spin indicator is hardly moving. If I turn it down to the slowest speed, the flow indicator stops all together. Im aware that my loop is quite big, and there are 3 90° fittings linking the tubing together, but surely the flow should be better than this?! The res is at the highest point in my loop. Im now aware that the pump should be low down being gravity fed. (My pump is almost level with my resevoir, pulling directly out). Surely this cant make too much of a difference.

ATM idle temps are around 30°
Load temps rarely go above 40° - 45°

Here are some pics of my build to show the loop. ATM im running distilled water with a little bit of feser one. This is only temporary until ive worked out the loop problems. Then I'll add some primochill PC Ice. I added a little bit of green feser 1 too see how fast the flow was, expecting it to be sucked straight out from the res and into the pump....this didnt happen...It stayed in the res and gradually coloured the water as it was pumped back into the res. Im just concerned that I may have a bad D5, (2nd one). Or Ive majorly done something wrong. Any help would be awesome! Cheers guys!

 

[BreaK-]

Bump. Anyone???

 

[DeathPrincess]

Is the loop completely full? (from the pictures it looks otherwise) have you made sure all the air is out the loop?

What is the pump attached to (fan header/molex?)

Did you flush the radiator before you began? (fill up the components like the rad/gpu block with distilled water, cover one end and pour out the other).

Are any of the tubes kinked/flattening (doesn't look like it)

 

[BreaK-]

Is the loop completely full? (from the pictures it looks otherwise) have you made sure all the air is out the loop?

What is the pump attached to (fan header/molex?)

Did you flush the radiator before you began? (fill up the components like the rad/gpu block with distilled water, cover one end and pour out the other).

Are any of the tubes kinked/flattening (doesn't look like it)

Yeah the loop is now completely full.

The pump is attached to a molex, with 4 other connections. Ive tried running it on a molex on its own but theres no difference. Thought the fans ect might be drawing power away, but doesn't look like it.

Flushed the rad before i put it in, and the others have been flushed too.

No tubes are kinked. Ive seen videos on youtube of the D5 pushing huge amounts of water around a loop. Its hardly noticable on mine. This is my 2nd D5, heard they're hugley reliable too. Im stumped.

Thanks for the reply too.

 

[DeathPrincess]

Tip the case on its side and wiggle the pump around to make sure there isn't a giant airbubble in there (if it did have it would be noisey though). This would also test if it was because the pump wasn't receiving enough water. Is it noisy at all? If thats the case you could drop it down into a lower drive bay or something.

Could try and see how quickly it drains a big jug of distilled water and measuring that against its rated LPH/GPH. (Make sure you never run it with no water however).

Otherwise i'd RMA it (again).

 

[Falokis]

did you try removing the water blocks one at a time for a test run to see if any of them are clogged?

 

[AdvanSuper]

Do you have intake and outlet right on the pump?

Do you have a better shot of the pump behind the res? How is the pump being fed? If the pump is above the res port or feeding in a straight line to it that's not nearly efficient. You also have bubbles in the whole loop so that tells me the pump isn't being fed properly from the res because it's picking up air.

The pump doesn't suck the water in, the water is fed through and the pump spins up which pushes the water out. I think your problem is where/how you have it mounted.

Drain the loop, mount the pump at the bottom of the case and feed the line from the res to it so the water is pushed down by gravity into it.

 

[BreaK-]

Thanks for the suggestions and help guys.

Ok well, I've re-located the pump to the bottom of the case. Its now fed by gravity to from the res and into the rad before hitting the GPU and CPU. However theres still not difference at all in flow rate.

Ive uploaded a video to youtube of the situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoqH_xgK_VY

You can see the flow indicator is struggling to move. I know they are a little gimicky....but surely somethings wrong. I just want to know the parts I've spent a lot of money on are in full working order. :S

Is it possible that my rad/gpu block/cpu block are THAT restrictive its affecting the flow of the water? Like I said my pump is on the highest setting and the flow of the water is not even able to carry dislodged bubbles round in the tube. A few have come out of the CPU block and just sit there in the tube before the Res. I have to tap the tubing for them to move....

Any help is hugely appriciated. Cheers.

 

[FaRKle0079]

Is it possible that my rad/gpu block/cpu block are THAT restrictive its affecting the flow of the water?

Definitely not. You're not using any QD's and only have two blocks. Does your pump have an rpm wire and if so can you hook it up to your mobo to see what it's running at?

 

[AdvanSuper]

You could have damaged the pump previously as it could have been struggling to get water where it was mounted previously. Are you sure the speed is turned all the way up? I made a mistake of reading the switch wrong on my MCP655 vario pump when I first got it. I doubt it's the blocks as well.

Few things you can do.

-Check the speed setting to make sure it's right
-Get another pump and test it in the new location it's mounted
-Disconnect the pump from your loop, you'll need two buckets and one of them should have like a tap at the bottom so you can feed the water into the pump through a tube and the other bucket empty so you can feed an outlet tube to it and see the flow rate for yourself.

Another thing to note is that it looks like your res is filled to the top ( I can't see too clear because it's very dark), so it could be causing false flow rate readings. Think of it like a garden hose at the bottom of a pool, it's on and filling it up, but you can't see the flow of it as opposed to if it was at the very line of the water and pumping water in.

It should look like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb1zfhIPFAY

If it was actually moving that slowly like in your video I don't think you'd be getting the temperature you're getting.

 

[BreaK-]

Thanks again for the advice guys.

FaRKle0079

Nah the pump does not have a RPM wire. (To my knowledge). Dont even know what one is...its just got a molex connector.

AdvanSuper

The speed setting is correct, its at max.
Ive disconnected the pump from my loop once.
First time I made a loop just using the pump and the res. Once the air made its way out of the loop it was flowing very fast like in the video above. I then introduced my GPU block into the loop and struggled to get good flow. Though I did not really persist with this, and will give it another go. (I have 2 days off work from tomorrow).
Other than that I can buy another D5 and hook it up to my EK top and see what happens. Might just have to swallow the £60 for the new pump. Eurgh.

As im fairly new to WC is there anything else needed on my loop? I was thinking of adding another 120mm rad after the 360 as I've heard that 1 360 rad may not be enough for a CPU and GPU loop?

Thanks again guys!

 

[AdvanSuper]

Thanks again for the advice guys.

FaRKle0079

Nah the pump does not have a RPM wire. (To my knowledge). Dont even know what one is...its just got a molex connector.

AdvanSuper

The speed setting is correct, its at max.
Ive disconnected the pump from my loop once.
First time I made a loop just using the pump and the res. Once the air made its way out of the loop it was flowing very fast like in the video above. I then introduced my GPU block into the loop and struggled to get good flow. Though I did not really persist with this, and will give it another go. (I have 2 days off work from tomorrow).
Other than that I can buy another D5 and hook it up to my EK top and see what happens. Might just have to swallow the £60 for the new pump. Eurgh.

As im fairly new to WC is there anything else needed on my loop? I was thinking of adding another 120mm rad after the 360 as I've heard that 1 360 rad may not be enough for a CPU and GPU loop?

Thanks again guys!

So you're saying you had good flow prior to introducing the GPU? It could be something with the block. That is an EVGA Hydro 580, right? IIRC they use swiftech water blocks for them and I think EVGA would only take it apart to inspect it. I also don't know how restrictive or not those blocks are.

It's a bit of work, but you can test each block individually to see how the flow rate looks. Make sure to not fill the res too much so it doesn't affect the meter.

You don't need another rad for your setup.

 

[DanNeely]

Swiftech's MCW80 waterblock was highly restrictive, but unless it's clogged just having on in your loop shouldn't be a problem.