Core Distro Plate Direction Label confirmation.

[chrisgre]

Hi folks, I apologize in advance, this is going to be completely obvious to a lot of people, bear with me?

I have a 360 distro plate. It is the variety with the pump on the left side, and the g1/4 ports (mostly) on the right.

In the manual, the combination of the arrows and labels are what are confusing me.

Radiator IN <---- o o o <---- Radiator Out
CPU OUT     ----> o
CPU IN.     <---- o
GPU OUT     ----> o
                  o
                  o
                  o
SLI Config <----  o [Pump]

On the profile view, there is a:

Drain Port ----> o

This how I interpret the mirror:

Radiator Out ----> o o o ----> Radiator IN
                       o <---- CPU OUT
                       o ----> CPU IN
                       o <---- GPU OUT
                       o
                       o
                       o
                [Pump] o ----> SLI Config

At first, I thought the arrows were indicating direction of flow, but the Drain port has the arrow pointing towards it, which would be the opposite of draining.

Here's what makes more sense to me, and I hope someone can confirm:

TO RAD ----- o o o ---- FROM RAD
                 o ---- TO CPU
                 o ---- FROM CPU (nice n' warm)
                 o ---- TO GPU
                 o ---- FROM GPU [opt]
                 o ---- FROM GPU [opt]
                 o ---- FROM GPU [opt]
          [Pump] o ---- FROM GPU [opt]

Then the profile:
TO FLOOR (because you forgot bucket) || Drain ---- o

Is this the correct interpretation?

I really don't know much about fluid dynamics, but I'm assuming that the long, 4-port SLI chamber should only have water flowing INTO it, and you really wouldn't want to.. for instance, have an output from port 3 of the CLI chamber to something (another rad, a flow meter, etc) with the output of that thing flowing INTO port 4 of the SLI chamber. I'm really not able to explain why I think you _shouldn't_ do this, but in my head it translates into something like "no chris, that will confuse the water".

Apologies for the text wall, I appreciate someone setting me straight. Thanks peoples!

 

[Eddy]

Hi,

The arrows do not directly show the direction of flow, but only example configurations. Whether you really connect a CPU to CPU IN or OUT, for example, is completely irrelevant. A distroplate only diverts the water at these connections.
It should only be made clear here how the water flows. The arrow at the drain port only shows where the drain port is. Of course, the water flows out there when you want to drain the system.

However, I don't understand your concerns about the water outlet at the SLI ports. So, actually, I don't understand what concerns you could have here. Can you please explain this in more detail? The water only flows out of the SLI ports.

You either use it as an output for several GPU coolers in parallel flow, which I don't recommend. Or you only use one of the outputs, depending on the position of the second graphics card.

 

[Vanzin]

Hi,

that the manual is very difficult and confusing is something I complained about a lot. Maybe following drawing will help, which shows a pssoible setup if you are using more than 3 components. The arrows also shows the water flow. THe 4 ports in the bottom are all outs and only one of them can be used.

 

[chrisgre]

However, I don't understand your concerns about the water outlet at the SLI ports. So, actually, I don't understand what concerns you could have here. Can you please explain this in more detail? The water only flows out of the SLI ports.

You either use it as an output for several GPU coolers in parallel flow, which I don't recommend. Or you only use one of the outputs, depending on the position of the second graphics card.

Yeah, I figured this wouldn't make much sense. Sorry for that.

I think Vanzin's drawing (which I'm going to put on my fridge) slapped a bit of sense into me. I wasn't really thinking logically about where the pump would be pushing water first. If I change my perspective to water being pushed out of the SLI chamber first, and water sorta flowing "up" from there, things make sense.

SLI Chamber is the first out of pump, and gives an option of parallelizing the flow, (which can be tricky if the "resistance" of components on that loop are different). Eventually, the flow should come to the port next to the fill port, which refills the reservoir, and continues the cycle.

I think the diagram and my own smooth brain just had me completely locked. Thank you very much.

If my understanding is still incorrect, feel free to correct me.

 

[chrisgre]

Hi,

that the manual is very difficult and confusing is something I complained about a lot. Maybe following drawing will help, which shows a pssoible setup if you are using more than 3 components. The arrows also shows the water flow. THe 4 ports in the bottom are all outs and only one of them can be used. View attachment 6159

This helped me tremendously. Just the idea that the R1 was the "first" thing in the loop made me consider where the pump was _actually_ pumping, and lead me to better understanding. I appreciate that.