# Hailea HC-500A - Optimal Setup for my PC



## newls1

im sorry i dont have an answer to your question, but i too made a thread about using a water chiller, and wondering same thing. what tank did you buy and where are you going to place it?


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## im late

newls1 said:


> im sorry i dont have an answer to your question, but i too made a thread about using a water chiller, and wondering same thing. what tank did you buy and where are you going to place it?


At this stage (since creating the OP) I have removed the chiller from the loop and gone back to my external RAD (for now).

Because the water was heating up too quickly (of course even at idle the CPU and GPU is generating heat), the water temp kept rising too quickly and I was finding with the warmer room temp (summer here) the chiller compressor was kicking in almost ever 5 mins!! lol.

I am still undecided how to approach this efficiently.

I am of the opinion to follow the train of thought like as if I was trying to use this chiller for it's intended purpose - to keep water in a fish tank cool.

OK then, so the chiller specs state between 200 liters and 1200 liters.

So I would assume the tank size needs to be at least 200 liters for the chiller to be "efficient"?

Maybe a tank with a size of about 600 liters?

It does make sense, the bigger the volume of water to absorb the heat, the less work the chiller has to do?

With regards to what tank. I would assume an actual fish take will look way out of place and maybe impractical?

Do we go with an insulated steel tank?

Or a food safe style plastic tank would do?

Anyone can offer some advice/experience?

With regards to where to place the tank in the loop, I would assume just after the parts?

So:

res/pump --> chiller --> GPU --> CPU --> Tank

??


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## im late

So I came across this thread and the member had a 1/2HP chiller and used a 8.5 gallon insulated tank with success (well the efficiency part, many hours before chiller comp kicks in):

https://www.overclock.net/forum/60-specialized-cooling/1578461-penguin-waterchiller-review.html

I read the whole thread, from what I am reading 1/2HP and 8.5 gallons appears to do the trick. And insulated all the way.

Also should be sealed, so no water evap.

I will check out the local DIY beer brewers and see if something suits.

Will report back here.


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## Veltri

I've built a few chillers so I'll chime in here. In an ideal chiller system, you have no reservoir at all. Instead you have a compressor rated for 100% duty cycle and powerful enough to cool the heat load to the desired temperature. You simply run the chiller full time. The only reason for a reservoir is when the compressor can't keep up with the load. In those cases, you chill a reservoir of liquid and then fire up the system and draw from the res to cool your system. This works but is sub-optimal as, even with the compressor running, your coolant is never at a stable temperature. It will always be heating up as the compressor can't keep up. Additionally, it takes quite a while to chill down the massive volume of coolant in the reservoir. This was all found to be true during the golden era over at XS. 



im late said:


> OK then, so the chiller specs state between 200 liters and 1200 liters.
> 
> So I would assume the tank size needs to be at least 200 liters for the chiller to be "efficient"?
> 
> Maybe a tank with a size of about 600 liters?


No, the reason for the 200L to 1200L spec is so that you can match your chiller to your aquarium. If you have less that 200L, you buy a smaller chiller, and vice versa for greater than 1200L. It's not a matter of efficiency.




im late said:


> It does make sense, the bigger the volume of water to absorb the heat, the less work the chiller has to do?


No, the opposite. The greater the volume of water, the longer the chiller has to run to hit the desired temperature. So, more work for the chiller. What is true is that the greater the volume of water, the longer the time between the chiller cycling on and off.


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## Fisbwp283

im late said:


> Hey All,
> 
> I am aware that introducing a tank of water of some sort is the answer here.
> 
> Looking at the specs of the HC-500A I need a tank capacity of at least 200L to be within "efficiency range"?


I've spent the past few weeks messing about exactly with this.
You only need 20-30Litres (but the more you have the less often the compressor will cycle. A small well insulated cooler is ideal.
however i've found you need two pumps for best results.

Pump 1 is the PC loop and tank

Pump 2 in a loop with the chiller and tank.

The chiller is rated for an optimal flow rate for peak efficiency and that flow is different to what you want going through your PC loop, atleast that has been my experience.
You could get away with one pump but you will need to match the flow rate for the chiller efficiency for best results and have the shortest possible run.


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## alxia

Fisbwp283 said:


> I've spent the past few weeks messing about exactly with this.
> You only need 20-30Litres (but the more you have the less often the compressor will cycle. A small well insulated cooler is ideal.
> however i've found you need two pumps for best results.
> 
> Pump 1 is the PC loop and tank
> 
> Pump 2 in a loop with the chiller and tank.
> 
> The chiller is rated for an optimal flow rate for peak efficiency and that flow is different to what you want going through your PC loop, atleast that has been my experience.
> You could get away with one pump but you will need to match the flow rate for the chiller efficiency for best results and have the shortest possible run.


Impressive


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## newls1

im wanting to pursue this idea again for the upcoming summer months ahead. Can someone who has done this successfully please post all parts needed and which chiller to go with? That would just make life so much easier!


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## Butanding1987

Also looking at a chiller. Is 1/2 hp the max a custom loop can handle (with an overclocked 5950x and 6900 XT, for instance) or will 1 hp work better?


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