Good afternoon.
Curious to see if anyone here has experience with the X4 Photon Pump/Res combo. I installed my custom loop over the weekend, and while all seems well with the PC, this pump doesn’t seem to have much power behind it. It’s circulating the water for sure and I am positive my components are in correctly installed. Perhaps I should look at another option? I haven’t tested the thermals yet, so it might be too early for a verdict?
Any thoughts? Thanks!
The X4 should be similar to the D5 pumps performance wise, it’s not a “real” D5 though. That being said most pumps shouldn’t have an issue with most standard loops.
It depends on how many components and restriction you have in your loop.
Also the flowrate doesn’t matter all that much in a watercooling loop as long as the water is moving at all.
By any chance do you have a flowmeter? If you do and are willing to put some time into testing you “could” disassemble the whole thing and test the flow with a pump/res -> flowmeter -> pump/res loop. According to the specs it should be somewhere around 600 lph. If it’s not getting anywhere near that you might have a defective pump.
Thanks for the response. I don’t have a flowmeter unfortunately, may look into getting on though given your recommendation. My loop is pretty straightforward; Res/Pump > Rad > CPU > GPU > Res. I am using soft tubing, with no highly complex bends or twists for the hose.
I went ahead and ran a few tests last night to see if the thermals got out of hand, but everything seems to check out just fine. Perhaps I am stressing over nothing. I was just expecting to hear more noise from the pump and see water flowing quicker through the loop. I am using a clear blue coolant in there, perhaps that color is throwing me off, not sure. But i can definitely see movement through my Vega GPU block.
Thanks again for your assistance. 
Wow, some people complain over too much noise, some over too little huh 
Definitely keep an eye out for the flow though (regardless if you have a meter or not). Also how did you connect your pump? Straight via Molex/SATA or do they have a 3/4-Pin Fan-plug? Can you plug it into the motherboard? If you can I’d recommend doing that (provided your motherboard headers have enough Amps to support it). If you plug it into the motherboard you can watch the RPM of the pump via software and warn/shutdown on a failure.
You should have one that you can visually see. Although helpful, do not always trust software. D5 pumps are no longer all created equal, you have to read the specs. Many are cutting it down to be quieter. I prefer more flow.
A D5 PWM pump takes power via sata or molex, not from the board. So boards amps do not matter.
Well yeah PWM, but aren’t there pumps that work just like the AiOs? Granted I have never really looked at those, mostly just D5s and DDCs.
There are no end now to different types of pumps. No one can know them all. But I would never recommend anything but a D5 and the OP has a D5 so was limiting convo to that.
I edited my post just before you posted your response.
I do not use XSPC. Not that it is a bad product.
Nope apparently the X4 is not a “real” Laing D5. It’s similar in design, but some custom thing (accoring to reddit at least)
Read my reply to the OP. I said not all D5s are created equal now. It is still a D5, just a different circuit board.
Hm ok my bad then. I read it as if it were completely custom.
Marketing. “Our way is better”. Same thing they did when they were all Laing D5s. They lower watts used by circuit board, so lower RPM and flow. Benefit is quiet operation. Take a Laing Vario D5, select 2 or 3 and that will be around the flow OP is getting.
While I don’t run one, a flow meter is nice to have. If you pump dies, you have a means to see it easily.
While I cannot speak for your particular pump, I can speak to my D5 PWM. I am running two 360mm Alphacool rads, EK southbridge block, EK vrm block, XSPC raystorm CPU block, EK full cover block for GTX980, and a monsoon dual bay res. I am running 1/2 inch soft tubing. I run my pump at 30%; I have had zero issues with flow rate. Without knowing your specific pump, YMMV. But, I think your probably fine.