How loud are water pumps?

J

JamesL

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Joined
Nov 7, 2007
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657
I'm thinking that I want to get a water-cooling rig, with little other reason than to,
1 - reduce dust intake into system..
2 - quiet down system, without sacrificing cooling.

I know air cooling is preferred over wc for ultra-quiet pc's, but I don't want to sacrifice too much cooling either.

Is this a direction to think of, or should i stick with air cooling?
 
My 1200rpm Scythe Slipstream is louder than my pump at its highest setting of 5. I don't have the decibel rating but that should give you an idea.
 
It depends on the flow capacity of the pump usually. Pumps that have a higher flow have more vibration due to the increased intake and output of water. You can reduce pump vibration by putting some padding or foam underneath the pump to reduce case vibrations. Pumps that I know are quiet are the DangerDen CPX1 and the DTek DB1 which have some pretty good output to noise ratios. The advantage I can see (in terms of noise) with water cooling is that you can eliminate some smaller case fans. Instead, the focus will be on cooling the radiator with larger quieter fans (you should still have some fans circulating air through your case though but with fewer fans). Water cooling can reduce the noise and dust compared to air cooling if you have the right balance of components.
 
to be honest when you go water cooling ur not really reducing much noise as it does still require fans, and involves using a pump, which do intent to build lots of noise depending what pump and how much ur willing to spend ( i use to have a via aqua 1300 pump. it works hella good but the noise was riddiculous had this buzzing sound) but wat i wanted to say is that if ur taking the plung in water cooling let it be for increasing your computers Current OC to achieve higher oc's at a more lesser temperature, i dont know ur intention for the water but if u dont oc much save ur money =)
 
^---- disagree somewhat

I used to be a die-hard air cooler. Buying case fans, best copper sinks and best case to handle all that... Since I started going watercooling, I found many benefits. While I don't recommend it for everyone, I do think that it's more than just raising the OC bar.

1. The key to many CPU coolers isn't necessarily the cooler itself, it's also dependent on the fan you use. When your are doing a lot of gaming and/or multitasking you may notice that your cpu fan revs up. While 120's aren't THAT noisy, it is still annoying to have a fan rev in and out of audible range. 80-90mm fans are the worst, ie those zalmans..

When you watercool the first thing you will notice is that there is a steady 'air' noise. There's no more cranking of the fan on either the CPU and or the video card (if you w/c the gpu as well).


2. Some radiators don't perform as well as others under certain conditions. Pumps may/may not be as loud as others. Some blocks suck compared to others... these are the factors that you look at.


3. The only time I hear my D5 Variable Pump is when I put my ear right next to it, and that's at the maximum setting of 5.


I still run about 5-6 120mm fans in my case. Are they audible? Heck ya! I can hear them humming along, but that's ALL I hear. It's steady and constant and eventually my ear just cancels them out and it's silence. With my music or gaming going, I don't even notice it at all.

4. Unlike past systems I've built, or even my brother's heavily air cooled rig, where going full tilt on Crysis, it feels like a jet engine about to go.


5. Maintenance and dust intake is still a factor in watercooling. I still have to air can the inside of my case from time to time, especially through the radiator fin areas. Also keep in mind that watercooling rigs aren't as mobile as an air cool rig. You can't just pick it up and go... some larger setups require you to drain the loop before you move it around.


Overall I think that watercooling has it's benefits over aircooling but initial cost also factors into the equation. A good system can run you anywhere from $200-400 dollars depending on the size and the complexity of your loop. It's definitely more expensive than going the air cooling route. It also requires a lot more thought as you will need to think about how it will all fit in your case. The smaller the case, the lesser your options may be on equipment.

If you accept all those terms then I think watercooling is a great improvement over air.



Sorry I got off on a little tangent there about going watercooling.. to answer your question:

A: It depends on which you buy, lol.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
^---- disagree somewhat

I used to be a die-hard air cooler. Buying case fans, best copper sinks and best case to handle all that... Since I started going watercooling, I found many benefits. While I don't recommend it for everyone, I do think that it's more than just raising the OC bar.

1. The key to many CPU coolers isn't necessarily the cooler itself, it's also dependent on the fan you use. When your are doing a lot of gaming and/or multitasking you may notice that your cpu fan revs up. While 120's aren't THAT noisy, it is still annoying to have a fan rev in and out of audible range. 80-90mm fans are the worst, ie those zalmans..

When you watercool the first thing you will notice is that there is a steady 'air' noise. There's no more cranking of the fan on either the CPU and or the video card (if you w/c the gpu as well).
Click to expand...

To fix the cranking of the fans from automatically spinning fast and be consistant. it can be set via the bios (depending what mother board) the auto fan speed regulator in ur bios settings. or with a simple fan speed program that is compatible with your mobo =), or a fan controller.

@Wshmaster0

Ur not really pointing out the benefits. seems like to me your just water cooling for fun. and not utilizing its benefits (overclocking with water cooling to lower temps). like i said in my other post if your not planning to overclock theres no real big thing moving to water cooling. SAVE UR BUCKS =)
and you still didnt answer his question about weather he should stick to air cooling or go water cooling.
Its good that you did rounded out his equation for him tho.
 
Primu$ said:
To fix the cranking of the fans from automatically spinning fast and be consistant. it can be set via the bios (depending what mother board) the auto fan speed regulator in ur bios settings. or with a simple fan speed program that is compatible with your mobo =), or a fan controller.

@Wshmaster0

Ur not really pointing out the benefits. seems like to me your just water cooling for fun. and not utilizing its benefits (overclocking with water cooling to lower temps). like i said in my other post if your not planning to overclock theres no real big thing moving to water cooling. SAVE UR BUCKS =)
and you still didnt answer his question about weather he should stick to air cooling or go water cooling.
Its good that you did rounded out his equation for him tho.
Click to expand...

It's true that you can control the fan speed via controllers, bios and/or programs. However in a standard setup you will face these problems that isn't present in a watercool system. Not to mention, running your CPU fan at a slower RPM than what it should be at higher usage can adversely affect performance and running it at high output all the time will not fix any noise issues.

Watercooling for fun? lol, hardly. While it is 'fun' in a sense, I didn't spend $300+ bucks on the wc setup so I could sleep at night or not get annoying shrills ;)...

Going watercooling or not, is his decision to make. While I lean towards watercooling, I'm not going to recommend it either. You can't tell someone oh yeah get a turbo charger in your car because you can run it faster. He's obviously got to look at it from all angles and do a bit more research.


If the OP wants pros and cons of watercooling:

PROS:
- Looks
- Improves overall heat transfer (with a good setup).
- In most cases noise will be reduced.
- Dust accumulation will slow down a little (but will not completely negate it)
- Overclocking potential is increased (with a good setup).
- Less expensive over a longer period of time because you don't have to keep buying bigger and better heatsinks (there are exceptions with full cover gpu blocks and changing out the cpu type, but for the most part simply buying adapter plates and/or changing a few screws is all you need).

CONS:
- Maintenance
- Harder for people who likes to take parts in and out constantly.
- More expensive intitially due to price of equipment
- Can potentially increase air noise.
- Water and electric components don't always mix (potential to leak and damage parts)
- Less mobile.

There's plenty more reasons for either side but hopefully that will give the OP enough to go on.
 
Wshmaster0 said:
Going watercooling or not, is his decision to make. While I lean towards watercooling, I'm not going to recommend it either. You can't tell someone oh yeah get a turbo charger in your car because you can run it faster. He's obviously got to look at it from all angles and do a bit more research.
Click to expand...

Your quote there was all i was getting at as well.

JamesL said:
I'm thinking that I want to get a water-cooling rig, with little other reason than to,
1 - reduce dust intake into system..
2 - quiet down system, without sacrificing cooling.

I know air cooling is preferred over wc for ultra-quiet pc's, but I don't want to sacrifice too much cooling either.

Is this a direction to think of, or should i stick with air cooling?
Click to expand...

Obviously its his decision man, but im just trying to answer his first post. you disagreeing with my post wasnt much better answering his question than mine was
 
Pumps are generally quiet little pieces of hardware if properly maintained. The Laing V5 Vario and the Laing DDC pumps enjoy the better flows and least amounts of noise.

Pumps do not like to pump air and water. If they do, you will hear gurgling noise. This can be very annoying.

Pumps do not like pain water. Adding a minimum of 10% propylene glycol will make any pump happy and quiet. The lubrication properties of PG are a real plus.

Pond pump that are AC powered will have that fish tank sound to them. Some are very stealth low dB while other cheaper units can be annoying.
 
JamesL said:
"How loud are water pumps?"

I'm thinking that I want to get a water-cooling rig, with little other reason than to,
1 - reduce dust intake into system..
2 - quiet down system, without sacrificing cooling.

I know air cooling is preferred over wc for ultra-quiet pc's, but I don't want to sacrifice too much cooling either.

Is this a direction to think of, or should i stick with air cooling?
Click to expand...

On the first question, pumps are very quiet as long as you keep them isolated from the case itself. In addition to using a Petra "Gel-Stuff" pad to rest my pump on, I also use acoustimas (sp?) padding. However you could probably just use any vibration absorbing material and get similar results. Whatever method you use, if you are successful in isolating pump vibrations from the case, it will be extremely quiet - fan noise will be a bigger issue. If you fail, the pump will be most noisy part of a quiet, water cooled system.

You will not reduce dust intake because watercooling uses fans as well. However, if you use filters, regardless of whether it's air or water, you will reduce dust intake.

On the third question, water is not always better than air to quiet down a system without sacrificing cooling. The type of system you're building makes a big difference. Many people on SPCR, with their low powered "non-gaming" undervolted PC's believe that air is better than watercooling. And they are completely correct, for a low powered budget builds. This may also hold for some of the low powered budget gaming builds. But water is clearly superior to air for a quiet high end gaming or high performance PC that would normally run hot and noisy under air. And that's even before you consider overclocking.
 
i got an MCP350 with Petras pump top , sits on that black foam padding that came with...cant hear the pump at all.
 
With water you don't need high output fans. My fans are on a controller at about 1000 RPM. I can barely feel the air through the radiator. Even overclocked it still performs better then any air cooler at the same decibel level or even with the same RPM's. My laing D5 is inaudible at the #4 setting. I've used the same block, pump, and rad in three separate systems so far.
 
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