Distro Plate 240 - Design Error?

[mobile1]

So I got the distro plate 240 and it seems this thing is designed completely wrong. So the cool water goes into the gpu1 then the HOT GPU1 water goes next into the CPU and then it goes back to the radiator?

Why on earth would the CPU get the hot water from the GPU.. shouldnt the distro plate take the cold water and split it up and supply cpu and gpu independently with cold water then bring it together to a hot water tank and then send that one out to the radiator.

I am literally dumbfounded why Alphacool would design a distro plate that feeds that hot gpu water into the cpu!! Can anyone explain the rational behind that, when a slight change would provide much cooler water to the cpu??

 

[Luckystricker]

Hi @mobile1

Many distro plates from other manufacturers are structured like this. On the one hand, to enable clean hose or tube routing, and on the other hand, the order of the components does not really influence the cooling performance of a water cooling system. Unless you use several high-end GPUs, for example, then there should be a radiator in between.

Ultimately, the water temperature in the entire circuit levels out over time and, depending on the component, there may be a 1°C temperature difference between the respective IN and OUT of the individual components.

However, if the case allows it and there is enough space, you can mount a 120 or 140mm radiator on the fan space on the back and then go from the OUT of the GPU into the radiator and then back to the distro plate. This allows you to dissipate some heat straight away, but this may have a negative effect on a clean appearance.

Best Regards

 

[mobile1]

hmm ok thx. Strange though - the number of hoses would be exactly the same, however cooling performance would be much better for the following reasons. Generally it seems to me that the pumps are much stronger than what can be sent through one tube With this current design the waterflow through the system is limited by the size of one tube since it's a loop... if the distro plates were designed where gpu in and cpu in - is in parallel coming out of the same "cold-water-tank" and then both gpu out and cpu out again would both come into the same hot water tank (which then goes through a radiator to the cold water tank) - you would literally get double the water flow... so in addition to the 1 or 2 degree celsius for the cpu, you would also get double the waterflow to cpu and gpu - using same amount of hoses. Would be interesting to see what the impact is of such a design.

 

[mobile1]

one could add 2 radiator in and out's ... then you'd have double the flow to every part.

 

[Luckystricker]

Hi @mobile1

Unfortunately, connecting the GPU and CPU in parallel will not work because both coolers have different resistance to water. This means that the cooler with the lower resistance lets more water through, and the other with the higher resistance gets less and then cools worse.

Every component in a water cooling system has a certain resistance and that adds up in the end. If you use a high-performance pump that claims to achieve 400l/h, you can expect a real flow rate of +/- 200l/h in a normal circuit . And today's coolers can handle a flow of 40-50 l/h without any problems for cooling performance (an AIO usually has a flow of around 60 l/h).
It doesn't matter how large the diameter of the pipes are, it doesn't matter whether it's an 11/8 or a 19/13 hose. What matters is how many coolers, how many radiators, which connections (straight or angled) that influence the flow rate more.

In my system, the GPU is currently in front of the CPU and then in the radiator (previously it was cpu, radiator, gpu, radiator), and whether I now run the pump at 2500 RPM or at 4500 RPM changes the CPU Temperature doesn't really matter, just that the temperature at the radiator input is a little higher.
Since the water in a normal cycle is still cooler than the components to be cooled, you have a certain buffer here. The heat transfer from the DIE via the head spreader and to the cooler itself fails. At full load I get a water temperature of a maximum of 35°C with a room temperature of 20°C, the GPU reaches 45°C (hotspot 60°C) and the CPU 55°C.

Best Regards