I am looking for a silent pump. Most pumps don't come with sound ratings so I'm hoping the experience of others can help.
If I decide to enclose the pump to quiet it, should I expect that an inline pump would be cooled by the water passing through it or might the pump overheat?
Is a pump like this suitable if I'm just cooling a hard drive:
http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?pn=3050345
Water cooling - pump recommendations?
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Gooserider
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That pump doesn't impress me very much. It looks like a peristaltic type pump, which tends to wear out the pump hoses. Also the head pressure and volume are marginal at best, though they MIGHT be OK if you had a very low restriction block on the HDD and a high flow rad.
I'm more curious as to why you'd just want to cool the hard drive - most water coolers don't bother, as the hard drive is generally considered the about lowest heat load producer in a typical system. (typical priorities are CPU, GPU, NB, HDD - in that order) a modern 3.5" HDD is only about 18W or there abouts, so it doesn't take much to cool it.
Noise is pretty much of a non issue for any of the name brand centrifugal 'aquarium pumps' that are normally used by water coolers. I would say that any of the smaller Eheim's or Danners would be fine. You might want to sit the pump on a block of noise absorbent foam, but there shouldn't be a need to enclose it.
Gooserider
I'm more curious as to why you'd just want to cool the hard drive - most water coolers don't bother, as the hard drive is generally considered the about lowest heat load producer in a typical system. (typical priorities are CPU, GPU, NB, HDD - in that order) a modern 3.5" HDD is only about 18W or there abouts, so it doesn't take much to cool it.
Noise is pretty much of a non issue for any of the name brand centrifugal 'aquarium pumps' that are normally used by water coolers. I would say that any of the smaller Eheim's or Danners would be fine. You might want to sit the pump on a block of noise absorbent foam, but there shouldn't be a need to enclose it.
Gooserider
hard drive cooling
I'm interested in water cooling a hard drive in an external enclosure so that the drive can be very well soundproofed. In particular, this is a 10000 RPM SCSI drive. It generates a great deal of both heat and noise. If I enclose the drive in soundproofing, I need a way to cool it. Water cooling seems to be my only option.
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silvervarg
- Posts: 1283
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- Location: Sweden, Linkoping
About 15 watts.
I don't have size requirements, I'm just trying to keep things small so as to not limit what sort of enclosure I put this in. I want the pump (and reservoir if I use one) to be inside the enclosure. I probably will have to use an external power supply. I've given up on using the original enclosure.
I havn't decided on a water block for the hard drive, but I will probably use a commercially produced one. If I can find bendable copper tubing, an appropriate bracket, and some sort of thermally conductive electrically insulative pad, I will construct one.
Avoiding leaks is top priority, above all else. Is there any non-conductive coolant that I could use?
A radiator with a fan is acceptable, as I expect quite a slow fan would still be sufficient. I would like to find an attractive radiator of an appropriate size. The radiator will be visibile so I don't want to just pull something out of a junkyard.
I would absolutely love to use heatpipes. In fact, what started me on this project was the hope that heatpipes were the answer. But I can't find out where to get them from. I see that there is a heatpipe hard drive cooler available now that can't possibly work as described in everything about heat pipes I've read (as both ends of the tube are connected to the hot drive). I would salvage the heat pipes from it but I don't even know that they are real considering this questionable design.
A source for heat pipes would be much appreciated.
I don't have size requirements, I'm just trying to keep things small so as to not limit what sort of enclosure I put this in. I want the pump (and reservoir if I use one) to be inside the enclosure. I probably will have to use an external power supply. I've given up on using the original enclosure.
I havn't decided on a water block for the hard drive, but I will probably use a commercially produced one. If I can find bendable copper tubing, an appropriate bracket, and some sort of thermally conductive electrically insulative pad, I will construct one.
Avoiding leaks is top priority, above all else. Is there any non-conductive coolant that I could use?
A radiator with a fan is acceptable, as I expect quite a slow fan would still be sufficient. I would like to find an attractive radiator of an appropriate size. The radiator will be visibile so I don't want to just pull something out of a junkyard.
I would absolutely love to use heatpipes. In fact, what started me on this project was the hope that heatpipes were the answer. But I can't find out where to get them from. I see that there is a heatpipe hard drive cooler available now that can't possibly work as described in everything about heat pipes I've read (as both ends of the tube are connected to the hot drive). I would salvage the heat pipes from it but I don't even know that they are real considering this questionable design.
A source for heat pipes would be much appreciated.
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silvervarg
- Posts: 1283
- Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:35 am
- Location: Sweden, Linkoping
I think you would do fine with the Zalman harddisc heatpipe cooler, possibly with some slight modding.
There is no problem with generating heat on both ends of a heatpipe.
When the fluid in the heatpipe warms up (at both ends in this case) it turns to gas and start to raise to the highest point in the heatpipe. In this case this will be the middle of the heatpipe in normal mounting. So the middle of the heatpipe will act as a small heatsink. As soon as the coolant cools down a bit it becomes a fluid and it starts to sink down again.
If you want twice the efficiency you can mount 2 of these harddisk coolers. You would mount one on each side of the harddrive mounted outwards like this:
This will make the enclosure quite wide, but still keep it very low.
Note that the Zalman cooler comes with press-fit only, so the efficiency can be increased a lot if you put some cheap TIM between all contact areas. E.g. HDD side to aluminum side and at all ends of the heatpipes.
I think you should be able to keep your harddrive in the 45*C range with this low cost passive cooling.
There is no problem with generating heat on both ends of a heatpipe.
When the fluid in the heatpipe warms up (at both ends in this case) it turns to gas and start to raise to the highest point in the heatpipe. In this case this will be the middle of the heatpipe in normal mounting. So the middle of the heatpipe will act as a small heatsink. As soon as the coolant cools down a bit it becomes a fluid and it starts to sink down again.
If you want twice the efficiency you can mount 2 of these harddisk coolers. You would mount one on each side of the harddrive mounted outwards like this:
Code: Select all
|-----| HDD |-----| Note that the Zalman cooler comes with press-fit only, so the efficiency can be increased a lot if you put some cheap TIM between all contact areas. E.g. HDD side to aluminum side and at all ends of the heatpipes.
I think you should be able to keep your harddrive in the 45*C range with this low cost passive cooling.
I started a pump survey thread a while back:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8141
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=8141
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Gooserider
- Posts: 587
- Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2003 10:45 pm
- Location: North Billerica, MA, USA
- Contact:
I don't think trying to do WC for just an HDD is worth it, you would be introducing a great deal of complexity for very little benefit. Among other things, just about any pump you chose would need more cooling than the drive would.
If it were me, I would try getting a couple of big sections of finned aluminum heat sink material and making a "drive sandwich" as discussed in some of the drive quieting areas. Stuff some vibration damping rubber (the 'carving rubber' some folks have used to make enclosures perhaps?) around the edges to help damp vibrations. Put this in a box wth possibly suspended mountings and a small undervolted fan (if needed, which I doubt) and you should have silence with lower complexity.
Gooserider
If it were me, I would try getting a couple of big sections of finned aluminum heat sink material and making a "drive sandwich" as discussed in some of the drive quieting areas. Stuff some vibration damping rubber (the 'carving rubber' some folks have used to make enclosures perhaps?) around the edges to help damp vibrations. Put this in a box wth possibly suspended mountings and a small undervolted fan (if needed, which I doubt) and you should have silence with lower complexity.
Gooserider