Watercooling Loop Order... Does it REALLY matter?? Here's Proof
Watercooling Loop Order... Does it REALLY matter?? Here's Proof
2018-04-27
what's up guys geez two cents here and
it should come as no surprise to my
long-term viewers that I am a huge
advocate for water cooling it's it's not
necessary but it's fun and it definitely
allows you to get more out of your
components by overclocking them and
keeping them cooler keeping your
components cool extends the lifespan but
one of the most common comments I get on
my videos especially from people who've
not really done water cooling before is
Jay you're you're doing it wrong you're
putting things in the wrong order you
should have a radiator in between your
CPU and your GPU or you know your GPU
going into your CPU is gonna heat it up
and you're just putting hot water into
it it's unnecessary and hopefully by the
end of this video I can prove that what
I've been saying all along that loop
order for components doesn't matter
with the exception of the reservoir has
to feed the pump but other than that it
doesn't matter if you go CPU to rad or
CPU to GPU to rad or CPU to rad the GPU
whatever it doesn't matter it doesn't
matter let's why I might try and prove
by the end of this video and hopefully I
can stand by my my claims for all these
years we know it does matter
protecting your internet experience
that's why Nord VPN has sponsored
today's video and right now they are
offering my viewers seventy seven
percent off a three year membership and
they are adding more servers across the
world every single week in fact right
now they are up to four thousand forty
eight servers in 62 countries including
the Middle East Asia Europe and the
Americas
now VPN stands for virtual private
network and that is important to all of
us because it keeps people from being
able to spy on our information and Nord
VPN doesn't keep any logs so there's no
log whatsoever of what you are doing on
the Internet when connected to Nord VPN
so start taking your internet privacy
serious with Nord VPN and save seventy
seven percent off a three year
membership by using offer code J's two
cents at checkout see the link in the
description for more details
so what we're gonna be doing right now
is a couple of different tests we are
gonna see what our aisle temps are and
this has been running now for a couple
of hours actually and for about an hour
and a half we've already done some load
tests and we've let it come back down to
idle to see what our temperatures are
and things are pretty damn impressive so
in terms of our baseline just to see
where these components sit right now
under idle conditions it doesn't matter
what or order they are obviously under
idle nothing's pumping heat into the
loop we are sitting at 20 see idle on
the GPU I don't if you guys can see this
or not 20 see obviously we've got a some
chill in the room right here it's only
at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit in this
room sorry I don't know if the Celsius
is I'm so American I can't help that our
CPU is idling at 27 C so as you can see
things are running extremely cool this
is just distilled water also there's no
coolant there's no air no additives no
anti corrosives we're not leaving this
loop together it's just got a little bit
pink dye in there so that you guys can
see the fluid obviously a little bit
better and it looks better on camera so
that is our baseline now the order that
we're going right here is we are going
hump to CPU CPU to GPU and GPU back wait
hold on how did I have this going in
terms of loop order we are going out
from the pump into the CPU out of the
CPU into the GPU out of the GPU into the
radiator out of the radiator back into
the reservoir which is I think a very
typical loop someone would run CPU gets
cooled first GPU second than the red
sometimes CPU then the rad than the GPU
but this is our condition and these were
our idle temps so what I'm gonna do
first is I'm gonna load the CPU up we're
gonna let it run for 10 minutes under OC
CT if you guys have ever run OC CT you
know that this can absolutely hammer a
system and I'm running the medium data
set small data sets just overheats the
CPU just instantly and that's part of
the nature of that test that'll be good
for like ln2 testing but we're gonna be
doing medium data sets what we're gonna
be looking at here is to see under load
what happens if we run the CPU into the
GPU while the CPU is under load is a GPU
temp going to come up well it probably
will but not because of the fact that
the CP
was heating up the GPU but because of
the fact that the CPU is heating up the
loop as a whole remember my claims have
always been and this is the way that
thermodynamics actually works this isn't
just a claim the total temperature of
the loop is gonna be controlled by the
thermal capacity of the radiator
regardless of where the radiator is in
the loop the rat is responsible for the
temperature of the loop as a whole this
is not like a car we have a thermostat
closing off the flow to let it sit in
the radiator longer it's just constantly
cycling what I would have loved to have
done has had temperature probes on each
one of these you know outlets to be able
to see what the coolant temperature is
but unfortunately I don't have any of
those sensors so we just have to go off
component temp at the end of the day
that's what actually matters
now with the Vardar fans running at a
hundred percent in this to 40 by 40 mil
read I don't think the CPU is going to
be enough to heat up this loop as a
whole and to you know have there be
drastic changes on the total temperature
of the system but you can see our CPU
cores maybe you can't see it's really
small where our CPU cores went into the
50s and our GPU did jump up one see but
I guess we're gonna see what happens at
the end of the ten minute tests so we'll
let it run for 10 minutes I think that's
gonna be enough to equalize this loop
and we'll see what the temperatures do
okay so we've been running for over 12
minutes 12 minutes and 20 seconds now in
our GPUs temperature remember it's under
none under load at all when from 20 into
24 now on the surface that's when
someone would say see see it heated up
the GPU but we obviously have to reverse
this test to see if the same if my claim
is true that the temperature as a whole
went up which means if we then go from
GPU to CPU and then to radiator to
reservoir and the temps do the same
thing then you can see that well hey if
the CPU was after the GPU how is it
heating up the GPU but we noticed
something here when we started to take a
look at our temperatures look at this
this is our GPU line right here every
few seconds something is triggering the
GPU to go under a little bit of load up
to about 20% load so right about here we
are sitting at 11 7 10 so it's like 15%
11% you'll notice as I move the mouse
around to look look at the GPU usage the
GPU has actually got a part in rendering
the mouse so as we move the mouse at
or more load but with it just sitting
here we noticed these intervals of the
GPU doing something I'm not sure if OCC
T is pinging the GPU for information or
if it's putting some sort of a slight
load on the GPU it's possible I mean is
GPU 3d tab right here but yeah it's it's
not doing anything with the GPU
whatsoever in this test so this could
very well be what caused the GPU temp to
go up and not the CPU at all because the
CPU has been sitting steadily at 6261 C
so if you look at our CPU temperature
line right here you can see the curve
where it came up and then this is the
test kind of doing its thing and it
actually came back down slightly so our
temperatures have been extremely
consistent on the CPU which means that
our loop temperature is equalized and
it's not getting any hotter that means
we have not exceeded the cooling
capability of our radiator but that's
why how well these quick disconnects on
here because now I can rearrange the
loop how I want it
after I go ahead and stop this test and
let the temperatures come back down to
normal before I do that though I want to
point out when I stop the test you can
see this interval pinging on the GPU
stopped it's now pretty consistent right
here at 0 or 1 so I again I don't know
what OCC T is doing I didn't want to use
prime95 and I didn't want to use a 264
because I don't have a key for it right
now so OCC T I just want to use it to
get heat in there but obviously it's
doing something with the GPU but our
temp though did come back down to 21 C
already in the last like minute or so so
this is why we're using quick
disconnects obviously because we can
just push the button and then check that
out we got what one little drop of
coolant right there I like to use OCC T
because as you can see it literally
hammers the CPU we've got the order now
switched around so just like before we
are going to start our test we're gonna
run it for at least 10 minutes to let
the temperatures kind of go up my
prediction on this is that we're still
gonna see 24 C on the GPU which then
would be good enough to just say hey you
know we are we're done but then adds a
new GPU tests everyone knows GPUs put
way more heat into a loop than a CPU so
as expected we've been running for 12
minutes and 30 seconds the same as
before look at that 24 C on the GPU and
our CPU is sitting at 62 C
sixty-five of course it's fluctuating
but you can see the curve is definitely
like flattened out here are those were
strange intervals again but Phil and I
were talking we don't think this is
enough to actually make the GPU
temperature go up because the core speed
doesn't increase is just a random like 2
or 3% up to 10% worth of load for like a
split second so what we're gonna do now
is we are going to go ahead and let's
stop we're gonna stop this test and we
are going to let the temperature
equalize now we're gonna let it come
back down to its idle temperatures and
then we're gonna run a GPU load to see
what happens to the CPU how much does a
CPU come up and then we're gonna switch
the order back to the way it was where
the GPU is not directly feeding the CPU
like it is now and see if the
temperatures have changed I think based
on the test we've just seen though you
guys know what to expect we'll probably
see this the CPU temperature come up
because of just the increased
temperature of the loop as a whole Wow
that's stupid wire and then we're gonna
run a GPU test we're letting the GPU
loop heav'n benchmark and get nice and
hot fine it's max temperature record the
CPU temp versus idle and then we're
gonna switch it back to where the CPU
goes into the GPU and do the same you
know test again based on what we've
already seen I think you guys can can
kind of already form a hypothesis and
what's gonna happen we're gonna see the
CPU temperature come up slightly but I
think we're gonna see it come up
slightly when we reverse it as well
because again the entire temperature of
the system as a whole is coming up so I
guess a good testament to the fact that
we have a good controlled environment is
once again we let everything sit our CPU
hit 28c and our GPU is back down to 20
see idle yeah those are pretty
impressive temperatures I think given
the fact we only have a single 240 read
something else I should have probably
mentioned before all the CPU tests it is
overclocked to 4.3 gigahertz on all
eight cores at one point three five
volts so we were pumping more heat into
it on purpose so we're gonna to let
heav'n run now for however long it takes
for the GPU temperatures to stop
increasing so this might take longer
than 10 minutes so what we're gonna
actually be checking here is again our
max GPU temperature I think we know
that's gonna be the same no matter what
we want to see what our max CPU
temperature average is under loads
remember this is still putting a slight
load on the CPU not a huge load but a
slight load
we want to see if this temperature comes
down because member we currently have it
feeding GPU to CPU back to radiator so
then if we switch that order we go CPU
GPU to radiator does the overall CPU
temperature come down and then I guess
vice versa does the GPU temperature come
up with the CPU feeding it based on our
previous test which was on a smaller
scale I think you guys already know how
this is gonna turn out but if I don't
actually complete the test then it gives
you guys room to kind of challenge the
results I guess you guys are gonna
probably challenge it anyway but that's
okay I've been doing this now for like
15 years and I already know what the
results are going to be but I wanted to
at least give you guys a video that you
can reference when you see people talk
about this on forums and read it and
stuff to be like hey go and check out
this video done by this guy who knows
nothing in a very unscientific way that
proves a point it's we were running for
about 15 minutes maybe a little more
you can see our GPU temperature is
sitting at 33 C it's been going between
32 and 33 and that's pretty much where
it's maxed out but the CPU temperature
this is gonna be kind of hard to gauge
the maximum templating so much right
depending on what the scene is doing how
much FPS because right now it's 150 fps
so obviously this is gonna fluctuate but
I guess what we can look at here is our
GPU max temp was 33 so we know that but
I guess this isn't even that helpful
though because it still shows 72 max
which from our previous test I forgot to
clear this so let's just go with I mean
I guess if it goes any hotter than like
47 48 C I don't know I I don't think
anything's gonna change to be honest
with you but now we have to flip that
order around after we let it cool down
so much waiting in doing these tests I
mean it's cool and all it takes forever
to just like equalize let it cool down
for you guys it's like only a few
minutes for us it's like hours worth of
stuff so I'm running for about another
15 minutes and look at the temperature
came up about one and a half see because
it'll go between 34 and 35 where before
I went from 32 to 33 sitting mostly at
33 so we came up about 1 1 and 1/2 C
temperatures are the same GPU
temperatures are like I said up about 1
C CPU temperatures are doing the exact
same thing as before so doing the GPU
test now again the same result with a
difference of about 1 C and actually
think that that might be the temperature
in the room came up ever so slightly
is getting pretty warm here in
California but as you can see right here
the tests don't really lie the order of
the components like I've been saying all
along make absolutely no difference to
the temperature the radiator is going to
control the temperature of the loop as a
whole so if you were to measure the
temperature that's going into the
radiator and the temperature of the
fluid coming out of the radiator you
would find they'd probably be one or two
C difference at the hottest and the
coolest point of the loop and that is
not enough to make one part heat up
another what's heating up is the fluid
as a whole well that means that you
don't have to worry about trying to hit
a particular loop order it means that
you can actually run components in the
order that makes them cleanest route if
that's what you're looking for unless
you want a really busy loop that looks a
lot like this you could then cross over
tubes and maybe make that look cool but
don't rack your brains over trying to
find the right loop order just have your
reservoir feeding the pump and
everything else just whatever is the
cleanest and easiest to route so I'm
going to put this to rest I'm not going
to revisit this topic anyone that wants
to basically make the comment of hey you
know your loop borders wrong just share
them this video if you guys have seen
any one on forums claiming hey you can't
do that you're gonna heat up your CPU
with your GPU if you go that order share
them this video so that once and for all
people will shut up and not pass around
false information physics art physics
they don't lie guys I'm gonna go thanks
for watching and putting up with this if
you've already known this then no
surprise to you maybe you learned
something here today if you did once you
give this video a like and now I've
gotta tear this monstrosity apart thanks
for watching guys and as always we'll
see you in the next one you really want
me to just connect one while it's
running but I'm not gonna
but now
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.