Water temp probe and flow meter, how do you minotor/utilize them?

[Hoki]

I have a monsoon temp sensor fitting and a bitspower flow meter.

I know they plug into fan slots, but I don't know how to utilize and monitor them.

Also since one loop will be cooling both cards and CPU eventually, whats the best way to throttle the fan speeds on my radiator?

Should I go by hottest component, or temperature of the water? I'd find it intuitive to base it on tempurature of the water to keep it below a certain temp, for turn fans to full speed.

For the flow meter I'd like to just turn the system off if detected to be not flowing.

But the videos I've watched on the flow meter seem use the CPU_FAN header, and I need that to control the speed of my radiator fans.

Also, with FAN Xpert+, I don't even see an option using a heat sensor other than the CPU temp for the CPU_FAN PWM fans. Would I need to get special software to do that?

[Hooded]

What motherboard are you using?
I generally don't plug my flow meter to the cpu header. I use it strictly as visual flow indicator.
I run my fans off my CPU header and adjust auto speeds as the CPU gets warmer or cools down.
Most machines these days shut off when CPU gets too hot.

The temp of the water is nice to know but it really only indicates whether another rad is worth adding to the loop.
My water temp is usually a degree or two above room ambient temp at idle and as much a 10°c warmer under 100% load.

Or you can buy a controller like the Aquacomputer Aquaero 5 XT or Koolance that let you run everything from them and allow you to adjust pump and fan speeds depending on the cooling curve you setup with the sensors. This is quite expensive to do.

[nass]

ya most just use these sensors to show changes, ie hardware changes (say u added another rad and dropped your fan speeds and wanted to monitor results), manually setting fan speeds via a controller or fan xpert from your board for example. As Hooded already mentioned you could automate all this but gets real pricey. Honestly not worth it in my opinion. Software setups like realtemp can shut your system down if setup and are running idea if temps go south idea but they use onboard sensors though not the ones u installed. There more of a guide line to see if changes are working better for what u are doing idea.

[bungwirez]

Yep. its always interesting to see if you can optimize things in your setup.
but I'm really a Set-It-And-Forget-It kinda guy.

That said, there is nothing wrong with being cautious and adding some level of protection for your own peace of mind.

but to me, the only thing worth "adjusting" is the rad fans for noise.
maybe pump speed if you really think its worth it.

a visual flow indicator is fine, but I've run my system without one, and just watched the Rad return...
once when I had a serious blockage, I knew the flow was no longer optimal when I saw this vortex



surely "monitoring" temps is great - and the easiest way to do both temps and fan speeds is via a good fan controller display.
otherwise, the easy way is from fans plugged to MOBO and using a fan curve setup in FanExpert, or some other software that monitors your PWM's.

for "emergency shutdown" the best solution is in BIOS. once you get a good baseline of 100% core work vs temp, set the safety switch for 10 degrees higher FTW.

remember that perfectly watercooled CPU's get 30C over air cooled systems,
and CPUs don't generally "die" until you get over 100C.... and I've tried.

[Hoki]

Hooded, my mobo is p9x79 pro. Its got a CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT header that are both PWM. Then its got CHA-FAN 1 through 4 of the normal +5 volt variety.

Mobo came with two relevant programs, FAN Xpert+ and Probe 2.
I'm not sure how to use them yet, they don't seem to reflect the correct speeds, but I think it may have something to do with y-splitting some of them.

Thanks for advice guys. I originally thought I'd just get a flow meter to turn off PC, in case a pump died. (lots of people using 2 pumps for redundancy) I'd rather know that the pump is dead than use two pumps.

I guess this stuff isn't a waste, I could remember what the water temps and flows are when I first get the loop fresh and healthy, and if that changes over time, I may need to look into whats going on.

Either way the meter looks cool at least.

[xmanrigger]

Just food for thought.

Q:When air cooled, what was going to shut down a PC if the CPU fan failed?

A: Nothing.

So why worry about a water pump failing? Both end results would be the same. Odds of it happening to one or the other are about the same I would guess.

[Bartacus]

I have 2 water temp sensors and one digital flow meter, but I don't use of them for shutting down the system in the worst case. Like Xman says, no need to worry about that. Most modern systems with auto-shutdown when they reach critical temps anyway. But they sure do provide some good information. I've already been tipped off to a flaky D5 vario because of fluctuations in my water flow. Personally, I prefer LED displays, since there's no hassles with monitoring software, etc, not to mention needing to buy extra crap (Aquacomputer I'm looking at you).

[Hoki]

Heh, good point xman.

Bartacus, oh man the amount of extra crap that I've bought.



If I could do this all over again, I'd have bought a WC friendly case to save about $200 on tools and mats, and gone a completely different route with the parts that I use.

If I ever WC another system I'll definitely follow a guide, or not fight nature and not spend a $1 extra on bling factor.

Spending a little extra on bling factor is infectious! I thought, well maybe just on this component... ($500 later) WHAT HAVE I DONE??

[bungwirez]

so sorry Hoki.

The first question I always ask before starting a customer build... what case? and can I talk you into something else?

otherwise... get into it for the long mod

[Bartacus]

Plus you can always sell off the parts you don't end up using and recoup some of the cost. I'm building up a spare parts collection too, as is every regular on these forums.