I'd put one pump and a rez with the rad in the basement and the 2nd pump up in your case. Definitely liking this idea. I've been toying with this for mine, my wife's, and the kids systems. Keep the noise and heat out of the main part of the house. The basement sits at a near constant 62F all year round.

To caveat, I have no water-cooling experience but I did study physics a long time ago...

Assuming your basement is located at least one storey below your PC office space, running your water-cooling loop across such a vertical distance is going to create a considerable amount of hydrostatic pressure at the bottom end- somewhere in the region of 30kPa (assuming a 3m drop). You'll need to make sure your pump is powerful enough to overcome this, with enough headroom to ensure that the water is still decently pressurised when it gets back up to the CPU/GPU blocks. The connectors at the bottom end will also need to be very secure to ensure no leaks or blow-outs.

sfryers wrote on 2025-07-30, 06:50:

To caveat, I have no water-cooling experience but I did study physics a long time ago...

Assuming your basement is located at least one storey below your PC office space, running your water-cooling loop across such a vertical distance is going to create a considerable amount of hydrostatic pressure at the bottom end- somewhere in the region of 30kPa (assuming a 3m drop). You'll need to make sure your pump is powerful enough to overcome this, with enough headroom to ensure that the water is still decently pressurised when it gets back up to the CPU/GPU blocks. The connectors at the bottom end will also need to be very secure to ensure no leaks or blow-outs.

Two D5 pumps in series can over come that distance easily and with a good flow rate. The G1/4 fittings can handle the 4.5psi pressure if it's even that high. This is quite common with people in the aquarium hobby which use similar fittings and pumps.

sfryers wrote on 2025-07-30, 06:50:

To caveat, I have no water-cooling experience but I did study physics a long time ago...

Assuming your basement is located at least one storey below your PC office space, running your water-cooling loop across such a vertical distance is going to create a considerable amount of hydrostatic pressure at the bottom end- somewhere in the region of 30kPa (assuming a 3m drop). You'll need to make sure your pump is powerful enough to overcome this, with enough headroom to ensure that the water is still decently pressurised when it gets back up to the CPU/GPU blocks. The connectors at the bottom end will also need to be very secure to ensure no leaks or blow-outs.

It's circulating, not lifting from a well, assuming the loop is properly filled, the weight of water on the pump outlet will be matched by the weight of water on the inlet. The bottom end will definitely put more stress on the seals though. Also, if the tubing is thin, that will add flow resistance, so a more powerful or push pull pump setup may be needed. But the static pressure is balanced out

sfryers wrote on 2025-07-30, 06:50:

To caveat, I have no water-cooling experience but I did study physics a long time ago...

Assuming your basement is located at least one storey below your PC office space, running your water-cooling loop across such a vertical distance is going to create a considerable amount of hydrostatic pressure at the bottom end- somewhere in the region of 30kPa (assuming a 3m drop). You'll need to make sure your pump is powerful enough to overcome this, with enough headroom to ensure that the water is still decently pressurised when it gets back up to the CPU/GPU blocks. The connectors at the bottom end will also need to be very secure to ensure no leaks or blow-outs.

The tubing runs will be shorter then the runs inside the case. its going under the office's floor, not on the basement floor. FYI my case is massive with a 360 and 2 480s rads and about 15 foot of tubing. and I'm only using one d5 as of now.
also the loop is a loop, its not flat out pulling up form the basement so its less for the pump to handle. 2 d5 pumps will handle it without a problem granted I may have to put on in the basement with the rad. I thought about putting both D5 pumps in the basement too so I would have less noise in the office but a single d5 is rather silent and my case is made with 14g steel plate so anything I put in it is hard to hear. i also have a 24v step up transformer and my D5s are the older type that can run up to 6500rpm at 24v vs the max of 4900rpm most newer D5's run at.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2025-07-30, 09:58:

Two D5 pumps in series can over come that distance easily and with a good flow rate. The G1/4 fittings can handle the 4.5psi pressure if it's even that high. This is quite common with people in the aquarium hobby which use similar fittings and pumps.

g-1/4 fittings can handle a shit ton more then 4.5psi, g-1/4 used in some pneumatic systems. I have 2 xspc 1/2 barbs on my compressor that runs at about 150 psi. I have 2 1/4 barbs on a can crusher and those get around to around 200 psi. the 1/4 barbs are bone stock PC fittings too.

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-30, 13:31:

The tubing runs will be shorter then the runs inside the case. its going under the office's floor, not on the basement floor. FY […]
Show full quote

sfryers wrote on 2025-07-30, 06:50:

To caveat, I have no water-cooling experience but I did study physics a long time ago...

Assuming your basement is located at least one storey below your PC office space, running your water-cooling loop across such a vertical distance is going to create a considerable amount of hydrostatic pressure at the bottom end- somewhere in the region of 30kPa (assuming a 3m drop). You'll need to make sure your pump is powerful enough to overcome this, with enough headroom to ensure that the water is still decently pressurised when it gets back up to the CPU/GPU blocks. The connectors at the bottom end will also need to be very secure to ensure no leaks or blow-outs.

The tubing runs will be shorter then the runs inside the case. its going under the office's floor, not on the basement floor. FYI my case is massive with a 360 and 2 480s rads and about 15 foot of tubing. and I'm only using one d5 as of now.
also the loop is a loop, its not flat out pulling up form the basement so its less for the pump to handle.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2025-07-30, 09:58:

Two D5 pumps in series can over come that distance easily and with a good flow rate. The G1/4 fittings can handle the 4.5psi pressure if it's even that high. This is quite common with people in the aquarium hobby which use similar fittings and pumps.

g-1/4 fittings can handle a shit ton more then 4.5psi, g-1/4 used in some pneumatic systems. I have 2 xspc 1/2 barbs on my compressor that runs at about 150 psi. I have 2 1/4 barbs on a can crusher and those get around to around 200 psi. the 1/4 barbs are bone stock PC fittings too.

Oh I know I was just saying they will be fine. I've seen the crazy stress that Jayztwocents has done with those fittings. Your setup will work quite well and keep the heat and excess noise out of your room.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2025-07-30, 13:34:

Oh I know I was just saying they will be fine. I've seen the crazy stress that Jayztwocents has done with those fittings. Your setup will work quite well and keep the heat and excess noise out of your room.

IDK who that is but you are right, the fittings will be fine. The only problem I foresee is filling/priming the loop. sometime on longer tubing runs air can get trapped in a loop or rad, but I gotten around that by putting a vacuum in the tubs and sucking the air out as I fill the loop. I not put a rad so low in a loop befor so IDK what it will be like to prime. That was why I'm thinking of putting a second pump next to the rad with a rez. Ideally I would like to just have the rad/fans in the basement as I plan to furnish off the basement and would like to have as little in the ceiling as possible.

However I was also thinking of moving the rad into a utility room in the basement as it has a floor drain, dehumidifier and its were my HVAC is, but that would be a long tubing run and I would need something like a eheim pump.

Years ago, I considered using an actual living room radiator as the radiator for a water cooled build - rather than using purpose-built water cooling radiators ..

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-30, 14:32:

Years ago, I considered using an actual living room radiator as the radiator for a water cooled build - rather than using purpose-built water cooling radiators ..

you mean for like a steam/boiler system ? The base board ones like this would work and I thought about it too. not very well but it would work.

I've collected a few snow mobile radiators with the idea of making a custom case out of them. They are about an inch thick, over foot wide and 4 feet or so long. Basically a large hollow aluminum heat sink. Don't think I'll ever get to it.

CwF wrote on 2025-07-30, 18:33:

I've collected a few snow mobile radiators with the idea of making a custom case out of them. They are about an inch thick, over foot wide and 4 feet or so long. Basically a large hollow aluminum heat sink. Don't think I'll ever get to it.

neat idea. reminds me of that old SFF case that was a heatsink

I have a similar problem with my home flight simulator. 5 PCs with 3d graphics cards running a 42" 4K TV, three 27" monitors, two 21" touchscreens and one 32" touchscreen. I think it must be drawing 2kW, but never measured it. All I know is that the room gets hot fast. I plan to pump the heat into loft space above my room

All this talk about moving heat elsewhere reminds me of the cooling solution I "engineered" into my electronics closet a while back.

I have an A/V receiver, some power amps, a gaming-capable HTPC, networking equipment, and a couple other (low wattage) players/streamers rack-mounted in a closet that would get frightfully hot with everything running at the same time. So when I was renovating the room several years ago, I ran two flexible ducts—one from the main supply duct nearby; the other to a return duct—to a pair of large registers I installed behind the equipment rack. In the summer, I open the supply register to shower the equipment with ice cold air. That brought down the temperatures reported in HWMonitor by 16 degrees! The tops of the power amps are no longer finger-sizzling hot either.

Thing is, every winter I have to remember to fully close the supply register, so that the electronics don't get hit by a stream of warm air. That's where the second register—connected to the return—comes in. It promotes air flow whilst sucking warm air right out of the closet and back to the furnace, which distributes it to other rooms. In autumn and early winter, when using the heat pump instead of gas heat, I'd imagine that bringing preheated air back to the evaporator coil likely boosts efficiency a bit, especially during defrost cycles!

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-30, 15:05:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-30, 14:32:

Years ago, I considered using an actual living room radiator as the radiator for a water cooled build - rather than using purpose-built water cooling radiators ..

you mean for like a steam/boiler system ? The base board ones like this would work and I thought about it too. not very well but it would work.

In Denmark it's more common worth wall mount types, but yes. 2-3 square meters of heat conducting surface 😀

FWIW, in my shed, I'm considering gutting out an old cast iron fire place, put in a Prescott system and have dual use of it 🤣

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-31, 05:46:

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-30, 15:05:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-30, 14:32:

Years ago, I considered using an actual living room radiator as the radiator for a water cooled build - rather than using purpose-built water cooling radiators ..

you mean for like a steam/boiler system ? The base board ones like this would work and I thought about it too. not very well but it would work.

In Denmark it's more common worth wall mount types, but yes. 2-3 square meters of heat conducting surface 😀

FWIW, in my shed, I'm considering gutting out an old cast iron fire place, put in a Prescott system and have dual use of it 🤣

Prescott's are not really that hot TBH they are on pair with a 1.4ghz Athlon in that cooling form the time could not handle them. Put any modern cooler on ether of those chips and they run rather cool. I mean most Prescotts are a 84w cpu, that's nothing on a most modern chips.

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-31, 13:56:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-07-31, 05:46:

old school gamer man wrote on 2025-07-30, 15:05:

you mean for like a steam/boiler system ? The base board ones like this would work and I thought about it too. not very well but it would work.

In Denmark it's more common worth wall mount types, but yes. 2-3 square meters of heat conducting surface 😀

FWIW, in my shed, I'm considering gutting out an old cast iron fire place, put in a Prescott system and have dual use of it 🤣

Prescott's are not really that hot TBH they are on pair with a 1.4ghz Athlon in that cooling form the time could not handle them. Put any modern cooler on ether of those chips and they run rather cool. I mean most Prescotts are a 84w cpu, that's nothing on a most modern chips.

I know, but it would be such a cute gimmick using a Prescott, dubbed "a space heater" as an actual space heater 😉

ohh I get it now 😂