Testing a pump with just a bin of water?

Hurin · January 18, 2023

Hi All,

I've always wanted to do a custom loop but have instead gone with Noctua air coolers for the ease of install and lack of maintenance. Now that I have a i7-13700K, however, air cooling isn't cutting it. And the (admittedly mild) noise from the Corsair H150i Elite LCD's pump (even at "quiet") I find annoying. Not so much objectively, but just annoying in that it's new and louder than I used to have in my old rig.

It would be a shame to order everything I need for a full custom loop only to find that a D5 pump has a similar noise profile (even at low rpm) to the Corsair AIO (at "quiet"). So, can I instead just order a pump, a couple fittings, and some tubing, and run the tubing into an open bin of distilled water as a noise test? I'd be controlling and powering the pump from a nearby computer. I can't imagine why this wouldn't work. But then again, I'm not all that bright. . .

Thank you for your time!

--H

For Science! · January 18, 2023

1 minute ago, Hurin said:

Hi All,

I've always wanted to do a custom loop but have instead gone with Noctua air coolers for the ease of install and lack of maintenance. Now that I have a i7-13700K, however, air cooling isn't cutting it. And the (admittedly mild) noise from the Corsair H150i Elite LCD's pump (even at "quiet") I find annoying. Not so much objectively, but just annoying in that it's new and louder than I used to have in my old rig.

It would be a shame to order everything I need for a full custom loop only to find that a D5 pump has a similar noise profile (even at low rpm) to the Corsair AIO (at "quiet"). So, can I instead just order a pump, a couple fittings, and some tubing, and run the tubing into an open bin of distilled water as a noise test? I'd be controlling and powering the pump from a nearby computer. I can't imagine why this wouldn't work. But then again, I'm not all that bright. . .

Thank you for your time!

--H

Noise is somewhat of a delicate beast given that how it sounds to you will differ on its location and what its touching. So a D5 pump out in the open not resonating against anything may be quieter or noisier than if its in a enclosed case. Having said that I don't see any issue with testing it out, just be aware that you may not know what speed you are going to run your pump at, you need a suprisingly low flow to be adequate, and that can be achievable with relatively low D5 pump speeds,

Hurin · January 18, 2023

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

Noise is somewhat of a delicate beast given that how it sounds to you will differ on its location and what its touching. So a D5 pump out in the open not resonating against anything may be quieter or noisier than if its in a enclosed case. Having said that I don't see any issue with testing it out, just be aware that you may not know what speed you are going to run your pump at, you need a suprisingly low flow to be adequate, and that can be achievable with relatively low D5 pump speeds,

Thank you! Understood. If it's quiet outside the case, I won't "blame" it for whatever it does when it's in its home!

My googling seems to show there's nothing wrong with the Corsair XD5 since it's Xylem-made like pretty much everyone else. Though I'm planning on going EK for blocks.

The overall plan is to quiet down and cool this CPU. Then find a 4080 or 4090 with no/minimal coil whine (Zotac or an FE seems best bet in the US), and then replace the louder fans (especially on Zotac) with water cooling as well. I've become a bit obsessed. And finding out if the pump is quieter than my AIO (and moderate gpu coil whine) is the first step in determining if this will be worthwhile. If it is. . . I'll finally be able to check "custom water loop" off my bucket list!

Thanks!

--H