Hi All,
I'm beginning a long-delayed journey into custom cooling. I first wanted to make sure the XD5 would be quiet enough. Meaning, quieter than an AIO pump. That did indeed turn out to be the case. I filled it up with distilled water and looped it back into itself for an out-of-case test, and even at 100% speed it was indeed much quieter than the Corsair H150i Elite LCD in quiet mode. As soon as I plugged in the PWM cable (even with external motherboard off) and restarted it, it was nearly inaudible (it was clearly running at slower speed since the water at the top of the reservoir was much less disturbed).
And yet. . . I did notice a resonance/hum in the table and audible in the room which went away completely when I lifted the XD5 off the table I was using. I had it mounted to the included rubberized mounting hardware, into the included fan mount (140mm) which was resting on some towels. . . yet vibration was still making it through to the wood table and causing a (not unpleasant, but clearly audible) hum.
I've seen some decouplers/mounts from competitors, included with their pumps but also sold separately, consisting of what looks to be just a thick rubber strap. Might this isolate things better? It almost looks like it would fit around the round portion of the d5 pump on the XD5 itself. Has anyone tried it?
Any other additional advice would be appreciated if anyone else has gone the extra mile in further isolating/decoupling/quieting the XD5. I'm tempted to buy a competing brand and then use whichever one mounts better/quieter. But returning one seems wasteful/extravagant and I really like/prefer the aesthetics of the XD5.
Thanks for your time!
--H