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Help Improve Waterblocks!

A

aaronbp

n00b
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
8
Over the past year, I've been working on designing a new type of waterblock for computer liquid cooling. If you could please take five minutes to fill out this eight-question survey about your waterblock preferences, it would be enormously helpful in my efforts to bring my invention to market. If you have any questions, please contact me at abatkerpritzker@hmc.edu.

Survey link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDA5Z2prUEZ4YWItY01DU0lfRzRNSnc6MQ

Thanks!
Aaron Batker Pritzker
 
Hrm a Harvey Mudd student. Should be an interesting project. Although I am wondering why he wasn't on here before.

I think your "On a scale of 1-7 how important is waterblock performance to you?" question needs a relation to something. There's no reason for anybody to pick anything other than a 7 since there's no tradeoff in the question, and therefore I don't think it's a very helpful question for you.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the feedback. I've updated the blurb for that question to reflect the fact that I'm looking for importance relative to other components of the liquid cooling system.
 
OP, note it isn't just about thermal performance. Almost all blocks these days are well within the margin of error of a good/bad block mount or the margin of error of your thermometer/thermostat. It is also about restriction or the lack thereof, depending on if your cooling CPU-only or CPU+GPU etc.
 
All waterblocks I've seen (note that I mean just the blocks, not self-contained cooling systems) work with CPU-only or multi-block systems. Can you please clarify what you mean by "restriction?"
 
aaronbp said:
All waterblocks I've seen (note that I mean just the blocks, not self-contained cooling systems) work with CPU-only or multi-block systems. Can you please clarify what you mean by "restriction?"
Click to expand...

Flow restriction.
 
aaronbp said:
Can you please clarify what you mean by "restriction?"
Click to expand...

Oy.

This is a topic of plumbing and covered in many physics textbooks. In lay terms, restriction describes the loss of pressure (or flow rate) through a given fluid system. The higher the restriction, the harder it is to move a given fluid through a restriction. For example: air through a radiator, or water through a water block. The higher the restriction the slower the rate of flow. There's a balance, as you can force any fluid so quickly through a given path restriction (radiator or block etc) that it doesn't have adequate time to pick up heat sinked from the heat source.

Or if you have a CPU-only loop restriction doesn't matter much within reason

Or

If you have my setup in my sig below the Apples-Apples difference between the ultra-low restriction channel block I have (DT5Noz) and the highly-restrictive micro-pin block I used to have (Swifty Apogee XTv2) is 2C on the CPU thermal sensors and5-7C on my GPU thermal sensors. 2C off my CPU for a $90USD CPU block "upgrade" seems silly, whereas getting my GPU 5-7C cooler makes it worthwhile.
 
Skripka said:
Oy.

This is a topic of plumbing and covered in many physics textbooks. In lay terms, restriction describes the loss of pressure (or flow rate) through a given fluid system. The higher the restriction, the harder it is to move a given fluid through a restriction. For example: air through a radiator, or water through a water block. The higher the restriction the slower the rate of flow. There's a balance, as you can force any fluid so quickly through a given path restriction (radiator or block etc) that it doesn't have adequate time to pick up heat sinked from the heat source.

Or if you have a CPU-only loop restriction doesn't matter much within reason

Or

If you have my setup in my sig below the Apples-Apples difference between the ultra-low restriction channel block I have (DT5Noz) and the highly-restrictive micro-pin block I used to have (Swifty Apogee XTv2) is 2C on the CPU thermal sensors and5-7C on my GPU thermal sensors. 2C off my CPU for a $90USD CPU block "upgrade" seems silly, whereas getting my GPU 5-7C cooler makes it worthwhile.
Click to expand...

Minimal flow restriction is important in improving thermal performance of the system as a whole. I'm not trying to gauge people's priorities in terms of CPU vs GPU cooling with this survey; I'm trying to figure out how important block "performance" (consisting of thermal performance and optimal flow restriction) is compared to other parts like pump or radiator choice.
 
In a CPU-only loop, the pressure-drop isn't as important assuming one has adequate pumping power to nearly reach the potential performance of the block.

In a loop cooling more than just the CPU, one would need to consider the performance of all blocks WRT flow-rate.

Obviously a high-performing, low-loss block will be more versatile, and thus more desirable. Most of the top-performing blocks flow quite well right now.

Radiator: As big and as many as you can fit w/o needlessly wasting money. Fins Per Inch: Matched to your fans / noise-tolerance.
Pump: size and noise-tolerance...again. Decouple on something like egg-crate-shaped material for noise-reduction.

If you haven't already, read through Martin's Liquid Lab.
 
USMCGrunt said:
That looks great....the only question I kept asking myself is....wouldn't the o-ring melt to the processor over time? Guess he could always switch to a paper gasket like they use in engine blocks but that would probably require quite a bit more mounting pressure between the IHS and block, more than would be possible.
Click to expand...

Probably not, the temperature in waterloops doesn't really get that hot. Something like 30c?
 
Depending on the loop and ambient temps, anywhere from 5 to 15 C over ambient. Ambients typically max out around 30 C, so a max water temperature of 45 C.
 
I've been running the DT Direct 2011 block for months now with no issues related to o-ring melting or leaking. If the plan is to create a competitor for the DT Direct block, I would definitely buy one.
 
USMCGrunt said:
That looks great....the only question I kept asking myself is....wouldn't the o-ring melt to the processor over time? Guess he could always switch to a paper gasket like they use in engine blocks but that would probably require quite a bit more mounting pressure between the IHS and block, more than would be possible.
Click to expand...

I'd pretty much require at least a PTFE seal before I'd go to something like direct-IHS cooling.
 
It's a nice idea...but the performance gain would be minimal if not zero...because just having water on the IHS won't cool enough because there isn't enough surface area to dissipate the heat

and having to drain my system each time I change my CPU is more of the dealbreaker for me.
 
The performance gain is basically zero - the advantage of direct contact pretty neatly cancels out the disadvantage of low surface area in my tests. Manufacturing cost is where my design really shines.
 
aaronbp said:
The performance gain is basically zero - the advantage of direct contact pretty neatly cancels out the disadvantage of low surface area in my tests. Manufacturing cost is where my design really shines.
Click to expand...

post pics of it/ send samples to me to beta test it:)
 
aaronbp said:
The performance gain is basically zero - the advantage of direct contact pretty neatly cancels out the disadvantage of low surface area in my tests. Manufacturing cost is where my design really shines.
Click to expand...

would it be under $35? as I can get myself a nice hassle free EK waterblock for that price..

I'm not trying to bring you down or anything...but there must have been a reason it didn't catch on in the past..:(
 
il_napoletano said:
would it be under $35? as I can get myself a nice hassle free EK waterblock for that price..

I'm not trying to bring you down or anything...but there must have been a reason it didn't catch on in the past..:(
Click to expand...

Ew, EK? Don't buy from a shit company.. or have you forgotten how they handled their nickle plating fiasco?
 
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