Probably a Stupid Question...

[Stu55]

How do waterblocks with 3 barbs work? What is the advantage of them?

 

[DFI Daishi]

no intrinsic advantage, just another way to tweak the flow. cathar has shown that there are ways to get the same performance out of two barbs, but it takes a bit of design work, which wasn't done in some previous blocks.

center inlet, two outer outlets, just BTW.

 

[Stu55]

Oh, I get it, and those 2 tubes go into a Y fitting into the res or whatever is your next item in your system right-o?

 

[arnemetis]

correct, a y fitting is typically used, unless you are doing something crazy, like say splitting it off and then having each go to a gpu block in an sli setup and then into a y...but I digress

 

[DFI Daishi]

correct, a y fitting is typically used, unless you are doing something crazy, like say splitting it off and then having each go to a gpu block in an sli setup and then into a y...but I digress

drive it with two small pumps like DDCs and two moderate rads like PA120.1s and you can keep the two streams seperate most of the way through. maybe come back together into a res with three barbs?

no reason for it other than asthetics.

 

[JOKER_JOKER]

Umm, I'm no expert by any means, but wouldn't the outlet flow be the same as the inlet flow, just divided between two hoses? Because the outlets can only push out water as fast as it can be pumped in.

 

[DFI Daishi]

Umm, I'm no expert by any means, but wouldn't the outlet flow be the same as the inlet flow, just divided between two hoses? Because the outlets can only push out water as fast as it can be pumped in.

think about the flow paths for a bit.......

if you have an inlet centered over a symetric grid, then given the choice, water is going to flow equally in all directions. if you then limit the flow to one direction, water is naturally going to follow the path of least resistance, and follow the three least restrictive paths, in preferance to the fourth path, being longer than all of the others. if tyou have two outlets, then there are two highly conductive paths, and two moderately conductive paths, eliminating the highly non-conductive path.

it takes some elegant design to make the longest path as low resistance as the others. the complexity of the RBX vs the G4 shows that. it takes a complex internal structure to make the long way around as unrestrictive as adding a barb in order to make additional short ways around.

 

[Mysterae]

It is a good question, personaly I just thought they looked like they'd be better but that's hardly scientific.

 

[Pherret]

Its pretty much one of the easier manufacturing methods to allow active flow over more of the blocks surface area while still "blowing" the water directly center over the cpu die.

 

[Stu55]

But wouldn't the Y fitting slow it down then making the 3 barbs restrictive? 4 barb would be pretty tight though

 

[Stu55]

Ok, as well as I have this thread going...I can't seem to find how to start up a watercooling system without anything besides the system and a psu. All I usually find is people saying: Do the old psu trick . How do I do this?

 

[DFI Daishi]

get out your motherboard's manual and look at the diagram of the ATX molex block.

on the PSU's connector, you have to jump the PS-ON pin to ground. a paperclip works.

edit: the motherboard manual was just a handy reference. the board should not be connected to the PSU when you jump the pins. you jump the pins with the PSU disconnected from everything but your pump and the wall.

 

[Justintoxicated]

typicaly i think it is green to com (grd) which is black, but def check your manual first!

 

[Stu55]

There was nothing about the atx connector specs in my mobo manual? The mobo is a Abit AA8XE. The psu is a 24 pin Fortron 500 watt blue storm though. Shouldn't all psu's 24 pin layouts be the same though?

 

[DFI Daishi]

There was nothing about the atx connector specs in my mobo manual? The mobo is a Abit AA8XE. The psu is a 24 pin Fortron 500 watt blue storm though. Shouldn't all psu's 24 pin layouts be the same though?

yes, they should be the same. there are also several places that you can find the pin layouts online. all of my motherboard manuals have the ATX diagram, and that's why i mentioned looking there, thinking that it was a reference that everyone should have handy.