Laing DDC-1 & DDC-1T

Yes that’s right, we’re taking a step back in history due to finding a source for new old stock DDC-1 pumps manufactured in 2003. bmaverick from overclock.net and xtremesystems has boxes full of these. Perhaps I’ve been in the water-cooling hobby too long, but I was pretty excited to get my hands on these guys especially since they were in new condition.   bmaverick explained to me that he and his father acquired a whole lot of these (a few hundred) prior to their heading for the scrappers.  What a save!

He went into more details about the history behind the various companies that were involved with the development of these pumps that now shape a big part of what water cooling is today.  That includes Delphi Electronics Cooling, Laing and ITT.  I don’t quite understand all the various historical details, but I do know this DDC-1 pump was one of the first in the extremely popular DDC series we use today in various flavors.

bmaverick was interested in verifying the PQ performance curve and I was happy to do so.  I also figured I will include this for some additional pump noise work later.

OVERVIEW

DDC-1s ready for action!

The black impeller with the larger inlet is the key identifying feature

DDC-1 PCB

DDC-1T

My sample plug pinout

These pumps were destined for OEM use, so you will need to solder/crimp on your own molex connections.    The DDC-1 only has a power/ground,  but the DDC-1T includes four wires.  As the photo shows above, #1 was power, #2 was RPM sensor, and #3 was ground.  I found the RPM reading was high using my crystalfontz by what I believe may be a factor of 6.  RPM would read around 22,000RPM, but when divided by 6, it gives more reasonable 3600-3800 RPM.  This pump also does not have any voltage protection to prevent over volting.  You probably could experiment with 14V or more which would get closer to DDC2 performance levels, but I’m not sure what that would do to life span.  These are a piece of watercooling history for me that I wanted to keep in perfect condition, so I didn’t want to push overclocking the pumps for testing purposes.

TESTING

First I tested both pump models with the factory top and they both performed the same. The two wire model (DDC-1) was easiest to wire as it was fairly intuitive that red = +, black = ground. I just recycled an old fan molex adapter and made a molex out of it. The DDC-1T took a bit more work figuring out the wiring, although the above pictures should make that pretty easy now. Here is how the pumps tested with the factory top:Even in stock top form, the pump is very powerful. An average restriction system will still see just over 1 GPM, and a low restriction system will see around 1.4 GPM. In addition the pump is extremely efficient in power consumption and heat dump. About 9 watts is all it consumes which leave the pump base feeling cooler than the higher speed models.To add to the testing, I ran a quick test on the XSPC top. Here is how it looks with that top installed:XSPC top, DD fatboy barbs, and soldered molex

With the XSPC top, it does have a fair performance boost along with some additional power consumption/heat at higher flows.   With the top in place the pump will have enough power to maintain 1GPM for medium/high restriction loops to low restriction loops.  A low restriction loop could see around 1.75GPM.

The following is a compilation of the above two tests along with my previous DDC3.1 testing.

In stock top trim, the DDC-1 is actually a touch more powerful than the DDC3.1, particularly for higher restrictions. When the XSPC top is installed the tables turn slightly as the DDC3.1 has a slight advatage at lower restriction conditions.   The top is just slightly more tuned for the newer pump model and the smaller impeller it seems.  Both pumps perform very similarly well and most people would not tell a difference thermally.

HEAT

After testing, I did notice some warmth to the base of the pump, but nothing as extreme as the current 18watt models.  The base was warm to the touch, but much cooler than the current DDC3.25 or MCP-35X pump models drawing 18+ watts.  The pump typically draws around 9-10 watts, so it has about half as much heat to dissipate and does a good job at that without any extra cooling.  As always, it never hurts to have some airflow over the base, but these are not nearly as warm as the higher watt DDC2, DDC3.2, DDC3.25, DDC35X pumps.

NOISE

I will be doing more on this later, but I think these are a touch noisier than your current generation DDC3 series but still good for most water-coolers which likely have multiple case fans driving radiators.

OVERALL

The price is amazing for purchasing a piece of history like this and these little pumps are plenty of reliable power for most users.  For those looking to put away some history or for those that simply want a very reliable and strong pump at an amazing price, look no further.

WHERE TO BUY NEW OLD STOCK

Head over to bmaverick’s for sale thread.  He is selling these privately at OCN here for an amazing price…get them while they last!

Or you can contact him via email here:

bmaverick@juno.com

Or one of his sites here:

http://bmaverick.jufreeservers.com/index.html

http://bmaverickddcpumps.wordpress.com/buy-ddc-pumps-here/

http://bmaverick.jufreeservers.com/BUY_PUMPS.html

Prices may change, so check with him prior, but his latest for sale thread had them for $35 shipped to the USA.  That’s about half price of the new generation pumps, so that’s a heck of a deal!