Just hit 1000 RPM on my custom loop and it felt weirdly significant

I've been fiddling with my water cooling setup for like two years now, mostly trying to find that sweet spot between noise and temps. Last week I finally landed on running my D5 pump at exactly 1000 RPM, which is way lower than I thought I'd need. I was surprised because I always assumed you had to crank these things to 2000+ to get good flow, but my CPU never goes above 65C under load now. Has anyone else found a random pump speed that just worked better than the aggressive settings?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellafisher18d ago

Lowering the pump speed that much really makes you question why we all chase those high flow rates in the first place. I dropped mine to 1200 RPM after reading some tests showing that turbulent vs laminar flow barely matters for single component loops. Now my system is basically silent and the temps only went up by maybe 2 degrees. What made you finally try going that low?

derek93918d ago

RIGHT? Same here, saw almost NO difference and it's SO quiet now.

nathan_bailey10d agoMost Upvoted

yo have you seen that one gamers nexus video where they tested pump speeds on a custom loop and found basically no difference between 1000 and 2000 rpm? i remember watching that and it blew my mind lol. i always assumed more flow = better cooling but apparently once you have enough flow to move heat away from the blocks the rest is just noise. i actually read some forum post from a guy who runs his D5 at 800 rpm on a 5900x and 3080 and gets like 70C on the gpu under load. makes you wonder why everyone cranks their pumps to max for that extra 1 degree lol.