Liquid Flow Restriction

I use a Xylem D5 pump with a standalone reservoir, with the pump being powered through a direct SATA connection from a PSU used only for watercooling components and not part of the test system. The pump is controlled by an Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 XT in PWM mode. There is a calibrated in-line flow meter and Dwyer 490 Series 1 wet-wet manometer to measure the pressure drop of the component being tested. Every component is connected to the manometer by the way of soft tubing, compression fittings, and two T-fittings that have been accounted for when it comes to the liquid flow restriction in the loop.


I have removed all the older CPU blocks from the database, including some that were designed for the Intel LGA 1200 socket but could still work on LGA 1700 with adapters. We see that a slightly revised cooling engine here, compared to the already efficient one used in the Core 1 series, combined with the relatively thicker fins occupying a smaller, more concentrated area, results in the Apex 1 being slightly less restrictive than the Alphacool Core 1 series, and certainly among the least restrictive blocks tested so far. The actual differences are minute, however, but I'd certainly classify the Apex 1 as a low-medium restriction CPU block thus and not one that will be a bottleneck to your standard D5/equivalent pump.