1 pump or 2?
Hey everyone,
I'm after a bit of advice...
So I built this water cooling set up a couple of years ago and it fundamentally "works". It's pretty custom, as in I took the bits I wanted from old cases and wood etc and then made a PC that sits in a cupboard with a pair of 280mm radiators under the desk (the PSU lives in the cupboard below where there is a power socket).
I recently made some modifications to the pipework because I had a few kinks and there were parts that weren't quite as good to look at as I thought. Also made a new 3D printed radiator mount to get better airflow (the old one was the top of an old case with some holes drilled in it - not ideal).
The issue here is that I'd always had flow that was not great - about 120l/h at peak, but after modifying it I'm now down to 80l/h having added more 90 degree and 2x 180 degree connectors, plus there's about 3m of pipework (maybe more) and something like 800mm top to bottom. The pump is a Alphacool VPP Apex at the bottom of the distro plate roughly in the middle.
I'd like to improve the flow rate so I came up with some ideas...
- Add a second identical pump, either just after the existing one or at the exit of the radiators to help with getting the water back up to the top.
- Replace the current pump with one with a bit more power (like an Alphacool VPP655 which should be a drop in replacement).
- Some combination of the above or a total redesign.
I just thought I'd see whether anyone had any other ideas about what I could do... preferably without spending vast amounts of cash :)