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 recently updated my CPU block testing on the LGA 1700 platform and the recent round up involved only new blocks that have not been previously covered. This also allows for all these blocks to have up-to-date pricing including various logistics and material costs so that I can generate performance per dollar charts again. Apologies then, to other manufacturers, but to be fair, I don't have your LGA 1700 versions either. The one entry here that is not specifically supporting LGA 1700 is the EK-Quantum Velocity² for LGA 1200, as marked above, but fits well enough although the mounting pressure could be better. Regardless, we see that the new cooling engine of the Alphacool Core 1 lands it squarely in the middle of the pack. The relatively thicker fins and channels help reduce coolant flow restriction although the 3D-Jetplate and the larger cooling area counter it to an extent. I'd classify the Core 1 as a medium restriction CPU block thus and not one that will be a bottleneck to your standard D5/equivalent pump.