Doin' the Loop...

The question has come up time and time again, about the order of the parts in a H20 cooling system. This by all means is not the only way to do the order, but after a few systems and having experiencing my share of sucesses,failures,leaks and hassles, this is what I come up with.

First off I'll start with the "reservoir". This is obvious to me, because this is where the coolant is first intoduced into the system. Brand new and assembaled, here is where it all begins. It is a good Idea to locate at the highest point in the loop, not absolutly nessasary but if you want keep the air out of the system, it really should be. Also because it feeds the pump higher is good, gravity sux.

Next in the loop is where I place the pump.
The obvious purpose of the pump is to circulate coolant through the system. This happens by the impeller that spins inside. It creates a low pressure on the intake side, and a high pressure on the outlet side. Most of the mag drive pumps used today in H20 cooling, are powered by a motor that spins either way. If the outlet of the pump you use is centered over the intake, you can be certain of this. If the outlet is off-set like on a BlueLine or Ilwaki it turns only in one direction. This makes it easy to tell which is the intake and which is the outlet. Intake is always in the center inline with the motor. Now that we have the direction of flow correct, we have coolant in motion.

We need to get the coolant ready to do it's thing next. We need to pass the coolant through the radiator. To me I belive the longer the coolant can stay in the cooling area of the radiator the better. The heat from the coolant is transfered there and the fans have a chance to do their thing. If you have adjustability with the fanz you can pretty much tell when you get good smooth airflow through the radiator. I have tried force feeding pushing, pulling, pushing and pulling. I have come to the conclusion, that pushing air through the radiator with a duct at least 1-2inches off the fins of the radiator, will produce as good as results as any.

Now that we have coolant ready to do it's thing, it's on to the blocks. Oh the blocks. Big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinny ones, blocks with two or three barbs...all the same as far as the loop is concerned to me.I pesonally run Impingent on the CPU, copper mass full flow on my North bridge and mid-mass medium flow on the GPU. In that order as well. In,out,in,out,in,out. And then of course we have coolant that has done it's job and through the wonders of science and turbulation, the coolant has absorbed adaquate heat from the blocks and is now being routed back to the reservoir. I would also like to add that a vent is a good Idea. A closed loop system builds pressure and pressure equals heat. Well now that the coolant is back in the reservoir, it can do the loop again and again, Ain't that cool?

Remember that pure H20 distilled or de-ionized is the best. I use Zerex racing coolant additive and it's function is to lower the surface tension of the water, and it contains an anticorrosive as well. Test your connections, use common sense, and enjoy...
To quote a friend of mine,
...WATER the gift of life and MEGA O/C's
Well there you have it, hangin' out, being cool, doing the loop de loop ZENNZZO style

Great write-up.........I even copied this for my personal files for future reference.

I want water cooling so bad, but its so expensive, but this article helped if I actually do get around to it.

I knew you were a wild man but now I know why!!! (that is a joke in ref to loop which is aka pcp)

Hey Zen, I do not use a res as I have been told that they reduce flow, have you found this to be true?

very nice write up Bro!!!

One of the mods here needs to create a sticky with all these write ups for watercooling. I have seen noobs asking the same questions over and over, and a nice collection of info would reduce the redundant questions.

Nice writeup...just have a few comments if I may...

Why put the rad directly after the pump if you're going for the "longer in rad is better" theory, as that is where you'll have the greatest head?

How about including something about using the largest inlet fitting on your pump that you can? Going from 1/2" to 5/8" can make quite a difference.

And what about including something about reaching equilibrium temperature of the coolant after prolonged usage, pretty much independent of system order?

And if you're talking about loop order, or just watercooling articles in general, wouldn't it be beneficial to the readers to state all the different viewpoints/theories and describe the merits/faults of each and then which one you specifically prefer so they can make their own decisions based on their individual components?

Awesome Job Brother Zenzz
only one thought though
Fan placement has given me many options as well....
I have always found for me anyway its better to pull the air through the radiator then to push the air down onto the radiator.....Granted this doesnt look as cool in the case to see the radiator at the opening and not the fan...however it doesnt create a nice backpreasure of air in the fan from the air that didnt race through the fins.....Now this can vary susbatantially on the rad type and fan type as well...but What works best for me has always been to pull the the air into the case through the rad ....no real benefits to switching that around...
just my thought any takers?
Digi

Digi, you mean as opposed to pushing through a rad placed at the top of the case or you mean the same rad location in both instances and compareing the fans pulling in one scenario and pushing in another?