Larger reservoir = Better cooling performance

[Emohippster]

This was just a thought I had in my head but I think this would be an interesting experiment to do who knows? But really, is having a larger reservoir in you loop going to make it preform better? Personally I don't think it will make much of a difference, but still a cool thought. lol

[Curufinwe_wins]

Just now, Emohippster said:

This was just a thought I had in my head but I think this would be an interesting experiment to do who knows? But really, is having a larger reservoir in you loop going to make it preform better? Personally I don't think it will make much of a difference, but still a cool thought. lol

No it won't. People have done it, and the thermo calculations are trivial. But either way the steady state performance will be EXACTLY the same. It just will take longer to get to that point.

[Bananasplit_00]

its just going to take longer for the liquid to heat up and cool down, its going to get the same temperatures unless the reservoir is so big it can be considered a radiator of sorts

[W-L]

8 minutes ago, Emohippster said:

This was just a thought I had in my head but I think this would be an interesting experiment to do who knows? But really, is having a larger reservoir in you loop going to make it preform better? Personally I don't think it will make much of a difference, but still a cool thought. lol

As said it just increases thermal mass so it takes longer to reach equilibrium, larger or multiple reservoirs are mainly for aesthetics.

[ARikozuM]

Zalman Reserator?

[AlexTheGreatish]

I've been kinda curious if deleting the rad entirely and then using an absolutely massive res (like 55 gallon plus) could work.  Doing some calculations it'd take about 25h to start overheating and that's assuming the res is perfectly insulated.

[For Science!]

9 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

-snip-

Perhaps in a practical sense it may work? I guess its a question of "how long can you hold off the inevitable". Also depends on the surface area of the "reservoir", because if it ultimately has enough surface area exposed, then it is not too different from a radiator.

 

If we flip the thought around, a radiator is also a reservoir, just one that has a very high surface area and is optimized for heat transfer

[W-L]

13 minutes ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I've been kinda curious if deleting the rad entirely and then using an absolutely massive res (like 55 gallon plus) could work.  Doing some calculations it'd take about 25h to start overheating and that's assuming the res is perfectly insulated.

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

Perhaps in a practical sense it may work? I guess its a question of "how long can you hold off the inevitable". Also depends on the surface area of the "reservoir", because if it ultimately has enough surface area exposed, then it is not too different from a radiator.

 

If we flip the thought around, a radiator is also a reservoir, just one that has a very high surface area and is optimized for heat transfer

It certainly works it was done as a proof of concept I remember a while back where the glass of the fish tank acted as a way to dissipate heat into the surrounding air.

 

[Bananasplit_00]

7 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I've been kinda curious if deleting the rad entirely and then using an absolutely massive res (like 55 gallon plus) could work.  Doing some calculations it'd take about 25h to start overheating and that's assuming the res is perfectly insulated.

I'd love to see that video, but don't just try one big res, first try some smaller ones and also try finding one with some finns 

[rasmuskrj]

15 hours ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

I've been kinda curious if deleting the rad entirely and then using an absolutely massive res (like 55 gallon plus) could work.  Doing some calculations it'd take about 25h to start overheating and that's assuming the res is perfectly insulated.

I have to ask: Why though? I can't really see how this ever would be practical

[Leonard]

You  can have a reservoir and radiator as large as busty hart's boobs you still won't go lower than the ambient, the only way to do that is to use like phase change or peltiers and then there will be the condensation issue but they will go loser than ambient or with a large reservoir or radiator. 

[AnonymousGuy]

Large reservoir will help if you have a lumpy workload.  It would enable you to get away with having less radiator space, since the mass of water can absorb the heat that exceeds your radiator's capacity for a few hours (dozens of gallons) and then bleed it off over time when the load goes under your radiator's capacity.

 

Practical considerations: dozens of gallons of water is no joke, it can wreck your house if it fails.  You also need to have anti-growth and anti-particles.  How are you going to fill it?  How are you going to drain it?

 

I converted a laundry sink to act as a 20-25 gallon reservoir.  It's a very expensive very space-consuming project.

[The Benjamins]

 

[AnonymousGuy]

39 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

 

You don't watch jayztwocents videos if you want an actual knowledgeable answer.  See my previous reply, that's the correct answer because it's a nuanced question.  Jay's reply: no difference whatsoever.

[KWelz]

32 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

You don't watch jayztwocents videos if you want an actual knowledgeable answer.  See my previous reply, that's the correct answer because it's a nuanced question.  Jay's reply: no difference whatsoever.

I love replies like this.  They help us weed out the elitist "I know more than anyone else" people here on the forum.  

 

[AnonymousGuy]

30 minutes ago, KWelz said:

I love replies like this.  They help us weed out the elitist "I know more than anyone else" people here on the forum.  

 

Just don't be too quick to not realize when you are talking to a subject matter expert

[KWelz]

I know a lot of SMEs who fall into the exact category I stated and I stand by what I said.  I didn't say you don't know water cooling.  I said you are a know-it-all who think they are the all knowing font of knowledge.  You take the time to make an idiotic comment like you did above and disparage someone who has done a lot to bring water cooling to more people because his answer wasn't nuanced enough for you.   

 

When it comes down to it, he gave a practical answer.  You gave one that may apply to a small percentage of users.  If you had left it at that then nobody would have thought anything of it.  But you felt the need to make the comment. 

Quote

You don't watch jayztwocents videos if you want an actual knowledgeable answer.

Which just shows you are more concerned with denigrating others than actually being productive.  

[Ben_the_average]

On 7/19/2017 at 3:59 PM, Leonard said:

You  can have a reservoir and radiator as large as busty hart's boobs you still won't go lower than the ambient, the only way to do that is to use like phase change or peltiers and then there will be the condensation issue but they will go loser than ambient or with a large reservoir or radiator. 

yes and no, it depends on how far you are willing to go setup wise and its about relativity.

 

If you are going for a definite fixed location for your PC and are willing to relocate your res and rads in another room and have a long pipe run then you can get the internal loop of the PC running at the temp of the other room so whilst no the loop can't drop below ambient of the cooled side you can get the loop to run below the ambient of the room the rig is in so lower than the ambient of the room you are in, as long as the temp difference isn't huge then condensation won't be an issue and you will get lower temps and noise levels.

 

To take it a step further you could even use a ground source heat pump loop if you are doing a new build house, if the loop goes down far enough the temps are stable and will be comfortably lower than the living area of your home, with the amount of water in a setup like this you wouldn't need any rads at all and can remotely locate the circulation pump so have a silently cooled PC.

 

A bit extreme I know but still possible.

[Blue4130]

19 hours ago, Ben_the_average said:

yes and no, it depends on how far you are willing to go setup wise and its about relativity.

 

If you are going for a definite fixed location for your PC and are willing to relocate your res and rads in another room and have a long pipe run then you can get the internal loop of the PC running at the temp of the other room so whilst no the loop can't drop below ambient of the cooled side you can get the loop to run below the ambient of the room the rig is in so lower than the ambient of the room you are in, as long as the temp difference isn't huge then condensation won't be an issue and you will get lower temps and noise levels.

 

To take it a step further you could even use a ground source heat pump loop if you are doing a new build house, if the loop goes down far enough the temps are stable and will be comfortably lower than the living area of your home, with the amount of water in a setup like this you wouldn't need any rads at all and can remotely locate the circulation pump so have a silently cooled PC.

 

A bit extreme I know but still possible.

You necro'd a 4 year old thread for this as your first post? Ok, so you have half a PC in one room and half in another room, You still aren't going below ambient. The PC cooling is part of the PC, so whatever room it is in is also the basis for the ambient.