Undervolting AIO pump safe?

thingi

Weaksauce
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May 15, 2006
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I recently got a Silverstone TD-02 but the pump noise was pretty offensive.

The pump is spec'ed to run at 2700ish rpm, but I've stuck a spare fan reduction cable on it and it seems to be happily running at around 1500rpm now. The pump noise is no longer offensive (no huge drop in performance either).

Now that it's been volt reduced my machine is quiet enough that I can now hear my 1070's Arctic Hybrid III-140's pump too.

The question is:- is this a 'safe' thing to do?

Common sense implies that the pumps will last longer since not being thrashed so hard. Is this something people usually do in pursuit of AIO quietness?
 
I recently got a Silverstone TD-02 but the pump noise was pretty offensive.

The pump is spec'ed to run at 2700ish rpm, but I've stuck a spare fan reduction cable on it and it seems to be happily running at around 1500rpm now. The pump noise is no longer offensive (no huge drop in performance either).

Now that it's been volt reduced my machine is quiet enough that I can now hear my 1070's Arctic Hybrid III-140's pump too.

The question is:- is this a 'safe' thing to do?

Common sense implies that the pumps will last longer since not being thrashed so hard. Is this something people usually do in pursuit of AIO quietness?

In my experience I don't think it will hurt the pump, but your thermals might suffer from it.
You have basically put a governor on your pump. I usually hook mine up to the CPU header on the mobo and configure it in the BIOS to run at a given speed based on temperature. When it's idle, the pump is at low speeds, when the CPU gets warmer, the pump speeds up like a fan would. No resistor needed.

Mabey the header you have your pump plugged into is running at full speed? I would go into the BIOS and adjust the % as needed instead of using the said cable.
 
In my experience I don't think it will hurt the pump, but your thermals might suffer from it.
You have basically put a governor on your pump. I usually hook mine up to the CPU header on the mobo and configure it in the BIOS to run at a given speed based on temperature. When it's idle, the pump is at low speeds, when the CPU gets warmer, the pump speeds up like a fan would. No resistor needed.

Mabey the header you have your pump plugged into is running at full speed? I would go into the BIOS and adjust the % as needed instead of using the said cable.

Cool, glad someone else lowers their pump volts :)

Temps really aren't an issue in this build (Ivy Bridge 3770s, 4.6Ghz @ 1.184v stable) - If I need more cooling I'll delid/relid it with some spare thermal grizzly Conductonaught).

The Gene V BIOS is a bit of a pain for fan speeds. I don't like the Q Fan stuff on it much. The other fan headers on it can't be set lower than 60% :(

I've got the two rad fans coming off the CPU Fan header via a splitter (max 40% speed, min 20% depending upon load - I like quiet!), The TD-02 pump is connected to the CPUAux header, it ignores the Q-Fan settings and just goes hell for leather, but with the 7v cable all it quiet with it @ 1500ish. My other AIO is for my GPU, it's an Arctic Cooling Hybrid III-140, The pump is annoyingly Molex powered so I'm going to take the spare hidden SATA connector behind the mobo where my ssd's are and plug in a SATA to Molex cable I have hanging around but wired for 7v).

Then I can remove the PSU Molex cable for a more tidy looking build (and do a bit more cable tiding while I'm at it too).

IMG_20170506_201216.jpg
 
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Cool, glad someone else lowers their pump volts :)

Temps really aren't an issue in this build (Ivy Bridge 3770s, 4.6Ghz @ 1.184v stable) - If I need more cooling I'll delid/relid it with some spare thermal grizzly Conductonaught).

The Gene V BIOS is a bit of a pain for fan speeds. I don't like the Q Fan stuff on it much. The other fan headers on it can't be set lower than 60% :(

I've got the two rad fans coming off the CPU Fan header via a splitter (max 40% speed, min 20% depending upon load - I like quiet!), The TD-02 pump is connected to the CPUAux header, it ignores the Q-Fan settings and just goes hell for leather, but with the 7v cable all it quiet with it @ 1500ish. My other AIO is for my GPU, it's an Arctic Cooling Hybrid III-140, The pump is annoyingly Molex powered so I'm going to take the spare hidden SATA connector behind the mobo where my ssd's are and plug in a SATA to Molex cable I have hanging around but wired for 7v).

Then I can remove the PSU Molex cable for a more tidy looking build (and do a bit more cable tiding while I'm at it too).

View attachment 24313

Why don't you just switch headers and use the 7v cable for the fans? Or alternatively get a fan controller for them and your other AIO.
Slick build by the way. :)
 
As long as it's got enough voltage to actually spin, it won't hurt the pump at all.

As long as it's spinning fast enough to actually move water through the loop, your cooling will be affected, but it probably won't break anything else either.
 
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