Installation

Regardless of whether you plan on using the Glacier R160 as a standalone reservoir or a reservoir/pump combo, some aspects are common to both. Begin with aligning the RGB LED strip with the LEDs facing into the reservoir on the side with drilled screw holes (opposite that of the inlet/outlet ports). Peel off the covers from the sticky tape on the PCB and glue it in place. The width of the PCB matches the gap between the foam pads in the provided mounting bracket, which also adds vibration-dampening for when in use. Take the four shorter hex head screws and put the two shortest ones through the PCB and into the reservoir, with the two longer ones going through the bracket as seen above. This now allows you to mount the product face up at a right angle to any single 120 or 140 mm fan hole—be it on a case or a radiator alike. Connect the small male connector on the RGB cable to the female end on the PCB and connect this to the RGB motherboard adapter cable, which would allow you to connect it to a compatible 4-pin RGB LED header on your motherboard (or elsewhere, as applicable). There are spare connectors, which makes daisy-chaining other Phanteks products possible, such as their water blocks with the integrated RGB lighting we saw before.


If you are using a DDC pump with this reservoir, you presumably already have one. I noticed I have a lot more of the D5 pumps here as the D5 has been getting a lot more popular within recent years. As such, the pump I used here came as part of another reservoir/pump unit with a removable reservoir tube. The relevant section here is the body, which is made out of aluminum in this case, with another aluminum heatsink as well. Note also that the thermal pad is showing signs of wear, which means that it was doing its job while also acting as an electrical insulator to prevent shorting of the PCB if it touches the metal heatsink, and perhaps the case via the mounting bracket. Remove the top and O-ring here, as it is recommended to always use the one that comes with the pump top.


The pump body fits perfectly, but given the nature of this body with an exposed bottom, I had to use the provided thermal pad. I later found another DDC pump with a plastic body that is closed on the bottom too, and this is how Phanteks intends you use it as most pumps are sold this way. So let's clarify things—the configuration shown above with the thermal pad will perform better regardless of whether you use the stock pump bottom or Phanteks heatsink cover. The default Laing DDC with the plastic PCB and no thermal pad in between is not going to perform as well here.


With the pump installed, the Glacier R160 is no longer flat on the bottom as the pump juts out as seen above. It still looks great, and this has no effect on the mounting of the reservoir covered previously. The pump impeller sits flush in the volute and works great with the channels cut into the acrylic body for the provided inlet and outlet port options. The channel from the reservoir to the pump inlet is also angled steeply, which will act as an anti-cyclone assuming one could even form, but it also lowers the potential of air bubbles going through and getting into the pump, which definitely helps with bleeding the loop and also minimizes chances of the pump running dry due to a gargantuan air bubble trapped in between.