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Two pumps in one loop, advice

F

FinalSight

n00b
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Messages
20
I'm still working on a computer that I posted about here many months ago, unfortunately the fall semester put a stop to my efforts. So now that it's the break, it's time to buckle down and finish my beast. But of course, 4 months of playing with new ideas has led me to one that I want to talk about with you all, since I'm not sure how well this will work.

The original plan was to use an MCP655 pump for my main loop. I was always worried about this, since it will go through 4 waterblocks and two radiators. Res -> pump -> D-tek fuzion v2 -> ek gtx 260 full coverage -> gtx 240 rad -> apogee (original) cpu block -> dangerden 8800gtx full coverage -> gtx 240 rad -> res. This is a hell of a loop, with two restrictive blocks before each dual pass rad. Yes it cools two separate computers.

So I had the idea of putting another mcp655 in my loop, just to keep flow rates up. I was already worried a bit about temps if both machines were stressed at the same time, so I figured if I'm putting another pump, why not just throw in another radiator to be safe. The pump will add it's own heat as well that I don't want to have to worry about.

So this plan was supposed to add one more mcp655 and a 120 gtx rad to the center of the loop, between motherboards. Now I'm rethinking that.

It may look a bit messy, so I tried to find a cleaner way of doing this. I can only think of one, using the Koolance in top rad/res/pump combo (the INX-720). However:

This concerns me because then I'll have two pumps, each pumping from a different resevoir, in the same loop. I'm assuming that the Koolance pump isn't quite as nice as the mcp655, but I can't find specs on it anywhere. So my question is: if this combo is introduced into the center of my loop, won't more liquid be pulled out of my first res and into the second than will be pumped out of the second and back into the first? Wouldn't that cause a bit of a backup and negatively impact my cooling performance? Is this a very bad idea and I should avoid it at all costs?

Or one pump should work totally fine with that huge loop, don't waste my money? Or Using the two different speed pumps will be fine, the first just won't be able to pump to it's potential?

One other thing worth noting is that my mcp655 has adjustable speeds. I also thought about just lowering it to try to match the speed of the Koolance, but just having numbers 1 2 3 4 an 5 isn't incredibly precise and won't leave me feeling very confident...

Sorry if that was a bit of a read, and I don't really have to time to proofread it so I hope it all came out making some sort of sense. Any help is appreciated! Thank you!
 
Just to clarify: you're talking about one loop containing 2 CPU blocks, 2 GPU blocks, 2 reservoirs and 2 radiators (i.e. two computers). And now you're considering two pumps.

There are plenty of disadvantages and no advantages to having one loop for two computers that contains the same number of parts as two full loops. You're not saving anything and are adding complexity.

Perhaps I'm missing something really obvious here, but based on what you've said, I recommend you just build two loops, one for each computer. Also, you didn't mention what type of CPU'd be using, but if you're looking at an overclocked quad, you need to get more cooling power than one double rad per computer - either a bigger rad or more rads.
 
It's one loop that cools two motherboards contained within a single case, with ONE reservoir. I'm considering two pumps in one of my loops to keep the flow rates up, yes.

I don't really have room for another reservoir (it wouldn't look nice beside the other one). This case has a bit of a gimmick which I'm not going to mess with as far as the single reservoir is concerned.

One machine uses an e8500 and a gtx 260, the other is an e6420 and an 8800gtx. I'm (pretty) confident that one black ice gtx 240 each with two 60 cfm fans per system is enough to cool them.

The ram, northbridge, and southbridge of the faster machine are cooled on their own loop with their own small pump, by the way. It also shares the common reservoir. But I'm not concerned with that loop.

I am open to the idea of two loops, though. If I had the koolance system, I can dedicate it to the e6420 + 8800 gtx system. However then one of my gtx 240 rads becomes overkill for whichever loop I put it on... Two gtx 240 radiators cooling a dual core and single graphics card, or the koolance system and a dual 240 cooling a dual core single graphics card system. Meh. Using two different color liquids might be neat though, if I go with that idea.

But do you have any ideas about my original suggestion? Or any further questions/ideas for me?
 
Two motherboards in the same case? Jesus christ what case are you using that is allowing this.
 
There are several cases that can do it. I'm not sure what he is using, but its definitely not unheard of. Mountain Mod's UFO-Duality comes to mind right away (I'm looking at it for a combined gaming rig/file server build), but I've seen a few others while doing research for this build.
 
Oh, cool. I have never heard of cases that allow that :). I will look at the duality, although I am not a fan of Mountain Mods.
 
It's a lian-li v2000b that I've chopped to hell and back. I cut the hard drive cages and moved them over the psu, which is using a 24 pin Y-splitter to power two motherboards. It's a silverstone 1000 watt single 12v rail psu. One motherboard in the usual spot, and one mounted on a mobo plate I made myself out of a sheet of lexan in the bottom of the machine.

I've added a lexan window so you can see both motherboards, there are white cathodes spaced out to show them off (but not obnoxiously).

Both systems use x-fi sound cards, I cut up a pci bracket to fit front panel cabling which I have run down to the lower motherboard. This gives me access to microphone, audio out, and two usb ports for the lower computer. In addition, one vga cable was run using the bracket off of an old graphics card. I simply ran a vga extension cable down to the 8800gtx.

Using pci risers and a cheap NIC, I ran a cat6 cable from the upper machine to the lower machine, and will just share the connection between the computers so the lower machine still has internet.

My gaming headphones will always be hooked to the faster machine, while my speakers will be hooked into a switch that allow me to have audio coming through them from either computer. A KVM switch will allowing me to control which computer I want to use with my G15 keyboard and G5 mouse.

The setup utilizes one Viewsonic graphics series monitor, soon to be replaced by an fw900 (I can't game on an lcd...), and two 20.1 lcd monitors on either side. The left two monitors will be dedicated to the upper machine, and the right one will be hooked to the lower machine, but I'll also have it on a switch so I can use triple monitors on the faster machine. Note that it has a geforce 8400 in addition to the gtx 260.

The point of all this? I had most of these parts already and wanted to do something neat for my next upgrade. Unnecessary/pointless? Check. Over the top? Check. Super cool? Check, but only to my fellow geeks. This certainly won't help me score points with the ladies.
 
I would say that 1 MCP655 or MCP355 with mod tops should be enough. If not then you can always add a 2nd pump if necessary.
 
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