Best orientation for liquid cooling radiator

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Karsten75

Karsten75

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In a closed-loop liquid cooling setup, I just thought of something and now it bothers me a lot.

It is not, as far as I can tell, possible to see which of the hoses is the inlet and which is the outlet to the pump or radiator.

My most common orientation for the radiator is with both hoses at the bottom and the radiator mounted either at the front or the rear of the case - mostly a space issue.

In one case (that's a good pun!) I mounted the radiator horizontally at the top - venting up and out of the case.

Now a buddy has started with a thing that he wants to mount the radiator with the hoses on the side - the inlet being at the top and the outlet at the bottom. According to him that would be less stress on the pump since it would not have to force the coolant through multiple up/down loops inside the radiator and gravity would assist in the flow.

Has anyone ever considered this and come to any conclusions?

I can see that it might look nice to put the hoses at the top of one mounts the radiator at the rear, but I'm thinking that it's never a good idea to have an inlet for liquid being at the top of a reservoir - any shortfall and the pump will sick air - or vacuum.
 
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ihog

ihog

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May 22, 2012
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It has to push it against gravity one way or another. They're called loops for a reason.
 
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J

jonboy79

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Mar 23, 2012
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Think about it, a 8 pipe radiator positioned like a w will have to push water up 4 times, turn it on it's side like a z and gravity will do the work.

 
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csboardon

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I don't have time to explain physics here but whoever posted about it being the same either way is correct. Even on its side, upside down, or backwards...The same volume of liquid/weight that gravity is helping to "pull" down will have to be "pushed" up again. I would not worry about orientation of your radiator (except as it pertains to allowing air to enter your line) as much as the number of bends/fittings you have installed. These bends and fittings each create resistance in your lines and added load to your pump. Most newer cooling pumps are strong enough that this won't matter either unless you have a huge network of hoses and components being fed.
 
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P

prow

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No actually it's not the same, though there is no head pressure loss in a closed system, there is friction loss. The more tubbing, curves, angles, connections ect all cause friction which reduces flow rate. Usually it's minimal! But to check, There are calculators that can do the math, just google head pressure loss calculator and put in zero for tubbing length. After putting in all the other data it gives you your flow rate. Your radiator should have a flow rate range. It's a way to just make sure after whatever elbows and connections you added did not reduce the flow below the minimum flow range for the radiator. It's also a good tool to use if you decide to add a GPU block or something, checking to see the pump will handle the add on, or let you know if you need to bigger pump too.

Also, It's always best to use the least amount of Tubbing, connections, elbows ect, so your pump will run as efficiently as possible, reducing the work load on the pump, thus, decreasing the amount of heat your pump will add to the system.
 
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LESBER

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Yea I have had the same problem with my Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro Radiator.
Mounted it one way to the inside back of my casing so that the reservoir chamber with the two hoses was coming out from the bottom up to the CPU Block Pump Unit. Checked the flow and temperatures. and then mounted the whole unit so that the reservoir chamber with the two hoses was coming out from the top down to the CPU Block Pump Unit.
This being touted by the majority of others as the unconventional way as
the pump has to work against gravity. But in all honesty I could not detect any difference in flow or temperature changes in either scenarios.

My hunch from this is that in a small closed loop LCS such as mine or similar it wouldn't matter much if at all.
 
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