• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.
  • The forums have been upgraded with support for dark mode. By default it will follow the setting on your system/browser. You may override it by scrolling to the end of the page and clicking the gears icon.

Flow Sensor - Pro or Con?

mama

mama

Joined
Nov 15, 2020
Messages
1,015 (0.61/day)
System Specs
System Name 1. Glasshouse 2. Odin OneEye
Processor 1. Ryzen 9 5900X (manual PBO) 2. Ryzen 9 7900X
Motherboard 1. MSI x570 Tomahawk wifi 2. Gigabyte Aorus Extreme 670E
Cooling 1. Noctua NH D15 Chromax Black 2. Custom Loop 3x360mm (60mm) rads & T30 fans/Aquacomputer NEXT w/b
Memory 1. G Skill Neo 16GBx4 (3600MHz 16/16/16/36) 2. Kingston Fury 16GBx2 DDR5 CL36
Video Card(s) 1. Asus Strix Vega 64 2. Powercolor Liquid Devil 7900XTX
Storage 1. Corsair Force MP600 (1TB) & Sabrent Rocket 4 (2TB) 2. Kingston 3000 (1TB) and Hynix p41 (2TB)
Display(s) 1. Samsung U28E590 10bit 4K@60Hz 2. LG C2 42 inch 10bit 4K@120Hz
Case 1. Corsair Crystal 570X White 2. Cooler Master HAF 700 EVO
Audio Device(s) 1. Creative Speakers 2. Built in LG monitor speakers
Power Supply 1. Corsair RM850x 2. Superflower Titanium 1600W
Mouse 1. Microsoft IntelliMouse Pro (grey) 2. Microsoft IntelliMouse Pro (black)
Keyboard Leopold High End Mechanical
Software Windows 11
I have been thinking about installing a flow sensor into my loop. Presently I regulate my pumps via the BIOS and guesstimate the flow. I am assuming there is some flow interference simply by adding another device to the loop. My question is is it worth installing? If so, are there better ones?
 
Why do you wanna know the flow rate? If the pump fails it will be a quick indicator but otherwise the flow rate doesn't matter much.
Also I don't think the interference would be a big deal.
 
its small enough i really don't see it hindering the impedance of the flow rate. i think it would be cool to have one, as long as its affordable, but also agree with joemama mama.

only time on this site i will ever be able to use that pun ^ lmao. 10/10
 
Hi,
I've always just used a water temp sensor and just look at the reservoir for movement from leak testing times.
Reservoir activity shouldn't change and if it does water temp will go up as well.
 
joemama said:
Why do you wanna know the flow rate? If the pump fails it will be a quick indicator but otherwise the flow rate doesn't matter much.
Also I don't think the interference would be a big deal.
Click to expand...
Just to know stuff. Is "Yourmama" taken? :D
 
mama said:
I have been thinking about installing a flow sensor into my loop. Presently I regulate my pumps via the BIOS and guesstimate the flow. I am assuming there is some flow interference simply by adding another device to the loop. My question is is it worth installing? If so, are there better ones?
Click to expand...
I'd just get a flow indicator instead. At least then if your rpms are too low you can visually see it and your indicator might stop spinning. When I redid my loops with adding a new rad and 2 sets of QDC's the flow indicator was enough to show me increased flow restriction based on lower rpm spin that I could visually see. When I reversed the QDC's I could see them spin faster and realised the QDC's have a preference for least flow restriction.
 
in bios you can view flow if you click on rpm on some boards
 
mama said:
Not mine unfortunately.
Click to expand...
If you've got the scratch...

It certainly won't hurt anything and it sounds as if you'd enjoy having one. I say do it up, it's your loop afterall.
 
I use a combined temp/flowrate sensor. It has two wires. One for the temp sensor input on your motherboard/controller, the other goes to a fan header and reports rpm like a fan. There is a table included to convert rpm to flowrate. If there is any restriction from having that sensor installed, it is negilible. My loop still manage well over 200l/hr.

There is no reason to not have one imho. If you monitor your fan speeds you can tell if something is wrong. Maybe you got contamination in your loop, that cause congestion over time for example.
 
The best flow sensor is not cheap but is useful as it has a temp senor on it, and can be used to trigger a power off in case of pump failure, it is a high flow next.
 
Fwiw I use the Alphacool ES HighFlow sensor in the above mentioned build. It is far from cheap, but the detailed data you get from it beats the old rotors you can install in a loop by a mile.
 
Space Lynx said:
i think it would be cool to have one,

joemama mama.

only time on this site i will ever be able to use that pun ^ lmao. 10/10
Click to expand...
Ummm, since this topic is about cooling systems, that's two puns in one! ;)

To the question, if you have ample flow now providing sufficient cooling, I don't think adding a flow indicator will affect cooling significantly - assuming it doesn't fail and then block the flow.

But how do you install it? Cut a hose and insert it in-line? My concern there is adding two new potential points for leakage and/or for air/contaminants (including mold spores) from getting inside the loop. For what? Something you will only look at occasionally (once the novelty wears off)?

I personally like to pay attention to what's on my monitors and don't want to be distracted by something happening in my case. So having my CPU temp displayed in my System Tray is enough "real-time" monitoring for me.

And what happens if your flow sensor stops working, or senses no flow - is a fire alarm going to start blaring and wake you up?

Will it improve the performance of your computer?

Aesthetics are nice, but I'm more of the practical type. I just don't see the practicality or value for such a device.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top