EKWB's EK-DBay Spin Reservoir Aims To Cure Your Flow Anxiety
If you have flow anxiety, EKWB's Spin Reservoirs may be the cure you're looking for.
While EKWB's main focus remains on water blocks, that doesn't mean that the company isn't giving any attention to its other water cooling parts. The latest new product is the EK-DBay Spin Reservoir -- more specifically, the third revision of that product.
The EK-DBay Spin Reservoir fits in two of the 5.25" drive bays of your case, and unlike some other bay-mounted reservoirs, this one does not contain a pump.
It features an Acetal casing, with threading for four G1/4" fittings at the rear. One is the inlet, whereas the other three are outlets. The front of the reservoir is made of an acrylic plate, which is covered by another black anodized and brushed aluminum bezel. The top of the reservoir has a G 3/8" plug, which should be removed only when filling the loop.
Being a Spin reservoir, the fluid flows through a small impeller, which you can see spinning from the front of the case when the liquid is moving. It isn't meant for you to measure how much fluid is flowing – it's just there for looks, and to make you panic when you don't see it moving but your system is switched on.
That's all there is to this product. It is available immediately from EKWB's webshop for $81.99, and it will probably be making its way to U.S. distributors soon. If you want to change the impeller color, you'll be able to do so by buying this kit for $6.99.
______________________________________________________________________
Niels Broekhuijsen has been with Tom's Hardware since 2012, and works as a Contributing Editor on the news team. He covers mostly hardware, components, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Outside of work, he likes to travel, cook, and fix things that are broken.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
You can follow him at @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.
Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
-
Darkbreeze Worried about enough flow, great, let's add further resistance to the mix. I think I'd be looking to decrease resistance to flow, not add things that increase it. Increasing resistance would seem to increase stress that the pump must overcome, possibly decreasing it's useful life cycle. Unless I'm missing something here, regardless of how minimal the additional resistance is, it's seems like an unnecessary addition.Reply -
toddybody @darkbreezeReply
My thoughts exactly. Though, I wondered at first if the reservoir's "spin" designation implied it had a low lowered pump that "helped out".
IMO, bay rez look dated as well...I rarely see them in high end custom loop builds. -
JackNaylorPE Many folks remain averse to bay reservoir due to past leakage experiences (perhaps a thing of the past now, perhaps not) as well as vibration. Seems if you were gonna put it there, you would have it measure flow, especially for $80+. Flow resistance is no concern on a D5 or DDC pump, it's minimal ... it's not as if it were being used on a CLC pump which can't afford any resistance whatsoever.Reply -
crashburn162 This thing will make you bold from frustration. I have Zalman Resarator XT which had same flow indicator as soon as there is some tiny bit of gum the propeller stopped and so did the cooling since it's thinking it's leaking or there is not enough flow, even though you couldn't see nothing. Ultimately I had to dis assmble it and grind off 2mm of the fins so it can spin freely. And from what I see it's the same design and it will be a lot harder to dis assemble this since it's inside your case.Reply -
JackNaylorPE If you have "gum" clogging up your paddlewheel, I'd be worried aboutwhat is stuck between your block's microchannels. The openings here are far smaller than the fin clearance.Reply