2 PC Custom Loop Feedback

[SilentTalon]

I tried getting feedback on this on PCPP but I have decided to throw out a line here, where it seems more liquid coolers congregate. This is a really crazy idea I have and want to do my research before diving in and wrecking tons of precious money.

 

The Idea and Background: 

The wife and I game together and when we are not gaming together we are still both at the computers at the same time. Me gaming and her watching movies. We have a nice office where I am planning the joint Desk, with the PC built in. With this PC we will both be going through a upgrade from our current builds which are pushing their limits if we crank the settings past medium. I will edit in the details of the current builds later.

 

The desk is planned in a squarish Boomerang shape with the PC being built into the "corner Section" from underneath in its own dedicated wooden tray maybe in a trapeze shape using PCI extenders to open up the area a bit. Both MoBo's and GPU's will be sharing the space possibly with a wall of plexi between them, this part is not the one I worry having watched the Hive PC build or Linuses PC desk. 

 

The crazy idea is to take the 2 Boards and GPU and limit them to 3 custom loops instead of 4.

In detail each GPU would have its own Cooling loop of Res>Pump>GPU>Rad>Res

The CPU's would share a loop in either.

Possible Loop 1: In line loop so Reservoir>Pump>CPU>Rad>CPU>Rad>Reservoir.

Possible Loop 2: Split joined loop so Reservoir<Rad<CPU<Pump>CPU>Rad>Reservoir

 

The end questions are:

- Would the two proposed Possible loops work in cooling down sufficiently both CPU's (I was thinking quad fan rad since I can make it as much space as I need)

- Do you more experienced liquid coolers out there expect there could be problems since heat spread would be across both systems then.(I could heat her CPU while its not under load)

- Or would it be smarter to just do 2 Large loops one for each PC seperatly (With large loop I mean a Loop that covers both CPU and GPU

 

[RollinLower]

i think it would be awesome to have both chips under the same loop. eventough you might heat up the loop a bit when you have her PC idling when you are under load, you are not putting the hardware into any harms way. the chips temp will always be lower than yours because 1- it's not outputting any heat itself and 2- the liquid that reaches it has been through a radiator.

 

now if you are going to do the split loop with 1 pump essentially feeding 2 loops, you might want to get a DDC model. they tend to get a bit hot, but they push out more overhead and should be better to assure you get proper flow through both loops. 

 

what you also need to consider in this split loop scenario is that liquid will always go down the easiest route. so any more bends or restricting factors in one loop will reduce the flow going through it. best case scenario would be 2 identical 'mirrorred' loops over each CPU.

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, SilentTalon said:

-

 

I would opt having 2 loops, one for each system. Otherwise the assumption would be that the PC that powers the CPU loop would need to be turned on if you want to use the other one. Perhaps both machines are on all the time, but seems like you are introducing a single point of failure for both systems for no obvious gains.

[AngryBeaver]

I would personally try to do a single loop if they are that close together. A single loop is just more effective than 3 smaller loops. You would see better temps across the board.

 

Now as pointed out above if you went this route one machine would need to be powered on to keep the loop going... unless. I would pick up a 3rd powersupply that is low watt and has the connections needed to power the pump and fans. I would then put a switch on my desk that basically just ran to the jumper pins and completed the connection when flipped on. That would make the loop completely independent of the pc power.

[SilentTalon]

2 hours ago, AngryBeaver said:

I would personally try to do a single loop if they are that close together. A single loop is just more effective than 3 smaller loops. You would see better temps across the board.

 

Now as pointed out above if you went this route one machine would need to be powered on to keep the loop going... unless. I would pick up a 3rd powersupply that is low watt and has the connections needed to power the pump and fans. I would then put a switch on my desk that basically just ran to the jumper pins and completed the connection when flipped on. That would make the loop completely independent of the pc power.

Ohh that is a awesome idea I do have a older power supply, even if that is no good I will have our two older PC,s as a option to gut. With one loop that size would i possibly need two pumps to be sure to give the flow a push?

[AngryBeaver]

6 minutes ago, SilentTalon said:

Ohh that is a awesome idea I do have a older power supply, even if that is no good I will have our two older PC,s as a option to gut. With one loop that size would i possibly need two pumps to be sure to give the flow a push?

Depends on several factors, but running 2 d5's for example in series wouldn't be a bad idea regardless as it gives you some redundancy in the event a pump fails.

[SilentTalon]

On 10.4.2018 at 5:07 PM, AngryBeaver said:

I would personally try to do a single loop if they are that close together. A single loop is just more effective than 3 smaller loops. You would see better temps across the board.

 

Now as pointed out above if you went this route one machine would need to be powered on to keep the loop going... unless. I would pick up a 3rd powersupply that is low watt and has the connections needed to power the pump and fans. I would then put a switch on my desk that basically just ran to the jumper pins and completed the connection when flipped on. That would make the loop completely independent of the pc power.

Hate to be such a noob with so many questions but making the move from air cooling with such a ambitious idea (at least for me ambitious), I have been thinking the past few days on the single loop idea due to the incorporation of RGB since my wife wants the personal touch.

 

I assume the RGB fans get their signal and power over the Mobo connector, or is the RGB seperated from the fans power cable. Because if its the case its joined i would need to move fan control to the PC's but keeping pumps on the extra PSU.

 

What would be a good company to source parts from to help a beginner I looked at EK just wondering if there are other good ones, or if to get EK parts then grab other fittings.

[AngryBeaver]

EK is pretty dependable and offers good components pretty much across the board. They might not always be the best option, but they are at least a contender at most times.

 

The RGB thing depends on the setup. Most have a main hub that you connect them to, then it connects to your motherboard to allow control of the RGB feature. In that case you could just make sure the fans she wants control off are linked to her machine... and the fans you want control of are linked to yours.

 

You could still run a separate power supply and switch to power the fans/loop if you wanted, but also have rgb control on specific fans linked to certain systems. 

[SilentTalon]

Okay will keep this in mind, I think I will return when I have a parts list with a pathing design to get final feedback before working on ordering everything, First mock up at EK was 800$ which would mean 1600 for both Pc's so all in all this project could take all of 2018 before moving forward.