Pump Questions

eander315 · Post by **eander315** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:32 am

I've been looking at several options to replace the little Eheim in my Reserator, and I've come up with more questions than answers. Perhaps someone has info on the following:

- Is the Eheim 1060 a viable option? Too noisy, too much heat? Assuming size isn't a factor (that thing is HUGE).

- What happened to the Innovatech HPPS (Eheim 1046 12V)? Is it still available? Is the 12v converter card available anywhere?

- What's the consenus on Hydor pumps? Are they as quiet as an Eheim 1048? I've found several conflicting posts on this subject; no one seems to really have a good answer. Are they reliable?

- Is there a silent-centric list somewhere of viable pumps for water cooling? The Eheim 1048 ans possibly 1250 appear to be the favorites on this forum, with the Liang DDC coming in 3rd. Are the other pumps like Iwaki, Hydor, etc that much noisier, or are the Eheims recommended more on their reliability or cost over their quiet operation?

Some of these questions have somewhat been answered already in the ProCooling forums, but they don't really address the silent PC side of the story enough.

phextwin · Post by **phextwin** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:33 am

1060 makes too much heat for the amount of water it can push through a restrictive environment such as a watercooling loop. If you want a huge pump an IWAKI MD-20RZ is a good choice, powerfull, reliable, and from what i hear, very quiet.

As for noise:

- Iwaki MD-20RZ as above.
- Eheim 1048 is well respected for being essentially silent, while still having respectable power. Think of a 1250 as a 1048++ in all respects (ie more max head, max flow, dBA, heat, size). Much the same with a 1046 (ie 1048--)
- MCp650/Laing D4 is not silent, stay far away if low noise is your goal.
- mcp600/AQ-EX 50Z is quiet, but not silent.
- March 893-09 is quite a nice little 12VDC unit, not silent, but undervolts splendidly - havn't really experimented with mine yet.
- DDC is an excellent pump from what i hear, and the stats certainly are impressive. Virtually silent.

From a silent perspective i would go with a 1048 or DDC. If you have money to burn and want a lot more power, bust out for the md-20rz

Have had no experience with hydor pumps, so i can't help you there sorry.

eander315 · Post by **eander315** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:00 am

Thanks for the answers. After reading through several pages of posts over at Procooling, I found a few references to Hydor pumps not being very reliable. Not sure if they're quiet, but either way I won't be buying one of those.

Guess it's down to the 1048 or 1250 (can't afford an Iwaki, unfortunately).

snutten · Post by **snutten** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:47 am

phextwin wrote:- DDC (....) Virtually silent.

Not true. Be prepared to isolate it.

fierce_freak · Post by **fierce_freak** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:25 am

My ddc (mcp350) is more than acceptably quiet once the loop's been completely bled of bubbles unless you have the most strict standard for silence (granted that no other site has standards as strict as spcr). I've read some posts saying that it's rather noisy. With mine sitting on about an inch of foam, I can't hear it over two Nexus 120's @ ~7.5v and my power supply (Fortron 350 aurora or somesuch) with my hard drive unplugged and my vid card's fan (vga silencer 5) stopped.

snutten · Post by **snutten** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 3:37 am

Of course your're right. It all comes downs to your standards. But when saying a pump is quiet it sort of assumes it's quiet compared to other pumps. And compared to the favoured pumps here at SPCR, the standard size Eheims, it's very noisy. A very good pump in every other respect!
I use both pumps and compared them.

I'm still in the process of finding something heavy enough to fully isolate my DDC. That pump is by a big margin producing the most annoying sound in my whole setup. Turning it off sort of halves the total noise impression even though it's already shielded with some noise dampening material.

fierce_freak · Post by **fierce_freak** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 10:27 am

Yeah, it always comes down to what you can stand, noise-wise. I can't hear mine at all @ ~1.5 meters with nothing else running (all fans stopped, hd unplugged).

Maybe the background noise is higher where I live. Maybe my tolerance of certain frequencies is different.

If the eheims don't give enough head for your setup (gutter, anyone?), the DDC is probably the best you're going to do noise/performance-wise (aside from say the Iwaki MD-20RLT or RZT, size concerns forgotten). Just make sure you have a listen to the DDC before you make a decision, if possible

bobkoure · Post by **bobkoure** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 7:31 pm

eander315 wrote:- What happened to the Innovatech HPPS (Eheim 1046 12V)? Is it still available? Is the 12v converter card available anywhere?

The HPPS is still being made. I believe highspeedpc.com has 'em in stock. AFAICT they're even quieter than the 1046 Eheims.
The 12V converter was for 220VAC pumps so we've never had 'em in the states.
If you're looking for really quiet, I'd think about this one - and also remember that you can get decent cooling with the 1046 if you use a block that doesn't really need much flow or pressure (like the Swiftech 6000).

eander315 · Post by **eander315** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:31 am

I decided to go with the Swiftech Laing DDC. I just installed it a couple days ago, and I'm very pleased with the extremely low noise/vibration output combined with fairly good flow. I have it encased in foam, but I don't think that was really necessary. It's not silent, but it's VERY quiet in my opinion.

DGK · Post by **DGK** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:07 pm

eander315:
I plan on getting the same type of pump, may I ask what kind of foam you are using to encase it?

You said it really isnt necessary but I think I may try it anyway

eander315 · Post by **eander315** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:43 pm

The foam is some kind of high-density packing foam that Dell and HP/Compaq use to send replacement parts. Not sure where you could buy it, perhaps UPS, FedEx, or another packing store.

I was wrong about not needing the foam in my earlier post. When I first started the pump, the ambient noise was loud enough that I didn't hear the pump at all, but now that I've had a few days to listen to it, the pump does make enough noise to require sound insulation. In fact, it will need more soundproofing than I am currently using with just foam. It's not loud, but I can definitely hear the hum when the room is quiet. I'll probably either build a wooden divider into the radiator box or add some dense rubber around the existing foam.

Lliam · Post by **Lliam** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:27 pm

I've had an Eheim 1048 in my acoustifoamed case for about 2 1/2 years. It has been semi isolated with some spare foam underneath. I replaced the feet on my Lian Li with four rubber door stops - very squashy rubber! This appeared to decouple the pump vibration from my wooden floor and made a great difference. Putting my hand on the case I can feel the pump vibration (very slightly) but can't hear it.

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