The assembly instructions supplied with the Eisdecke D5 are printed on nice glossy stock in a multi-language format which is very easy to follow. There is the occasional “lost in translation” moment and a couple of things which are in German only but we had no troubles following along. There is a picture provided for each of the assembly steps, so even first time D5 pump users should have no problem with the installation. It really is quite straight forward.
If you had a look at the instruction sheer spoilered above, you may have noticed an accessory checklist at the very start. It lists 2 x “screens” or which we assume is some kind of Anti-Vortex device to be installed when fitting the matching Eisdecke reservoir. Why two might be needed in anyone’s guess, but our sample was not packaged with them. Missing from the checklist are the 4 x 40mm screws for attaching the reservoir which was in our package and which thought was an odd inclusion during the un-boxing. Maybe these were in fact not supposed to be there.
Let’s now have a go at assembling our Eisdecke D5 top with a pump following the steps as detailed on the supplied instruction sheet which we have spoilered above.
While the safety instructions might be worth a read, we didn’t bother before assembly.
Of course you’ll be needing a D5 pump for the assembly process.
Did we not say it was easy? The 2nd step done and so far all we’ve had to do is put the top down on the table.
The 3rd step Alphacool have combined two jobs into one step:
1st – place the supplied o’ring into the groove inside the pump cover.
2nd – place the pump into the pump top, onto the o’ring that you just placed inside the top.
Step 4 is another easy one; feed the pump collar over the wires and motor to place it in position so that the screw holes line up with the top underneath.
Tighten up the pump collar screws alternately in a “star or cross” pattern to keep even pressure on the o’ring as the pump is tightened down.
Attempting to “overtighten” will lead to the threads stripping in the pump top, potentially rendering it useless. Once the collar is flush with the face of the top (and all screws are tight), that’s it, the pump has been installed to the pump top.
We have to assume that by this stage you have a fairly good idea of which ports you want to use for inlet and outlet. Step 6 really takes us back to basics and reminds us that unused ports need to be capped off leaving one inlet port and one outlet port remaining open for the tube fittings of your choice. Of course having those additional ports leaves options for a drain valve to be fitted to one of them depending on your installation orientation.
The last step on the Instruction Sheet is fitting the brackets to the pump top.
The default installation has the stands positioned vertically for installation onto the floor or mid-shelf of the chassis, however it could just as easily be mounted to a chassis’ vertical panel, although a vibration absorbing mount would be trickier that way.
Above we mentioned “default installation” and we probably should clarify that a little. As pictured is the only way that both stands can be attached. Without drilling an addition hole in each of the stands, the pump top can not be orientated and fixed vertically to a horizontal surface.
Whichever orientation you select to install the Eisdecke D5 into your chassis, you will almost certainly need to be drilling at least 4 holes to fix the pump stands to a panel.
Here we see the unit fully assembled and all those unused / unnecessary holes that we mentioned earlier. They attract attention and (in our opinion) are an eyesore that detract from what would otherwise be a clean, slick looking pump top.
To finish off the assembly we would suggest fitting a decoupling kit to stop pump vibration from resonating through the chassis. We suggest a decoupling kit with M4 x 5mm posts on one side and M4 female threads on the other. The decoupling kit we had on hand had posts which were excessively long, but was effective to show what you need to be shopping for.
Alternate Mounting.
As mentioned in the un-boxing the brackets have potential to mount the pump top vertically if the end user is willing to make an additional hole in each bracket. In the following photo we have not drilled the addition holes, but simply “mocked up” how the end result would look utilizing the one existing hole that is usable on the bracket.
Drive Bay Installation.
Mounting a pump / pump top combo in a drive bay can be a very efficient use of space, particularly if the assembly is installed behind other shorter hardware such as a fan controller or flow indicator. So we wanted to see if we could do a drive bay install for the Eisdecke D5 combo.
While successful, we are the first to admit that we didn’t quite have the most appropriate hardware to do a perfect job, however it was functional enough for a couple of photos and was not a complete eyesore. The main problems we had was that the M4 posts on our decoupling adapters were too long and the rear of the drive cage side panels were not fixed to anything. Adding to the flexy side panels issue, our screws from the drive cage side into the decouplers were too short which caused the sides of the drive cage to start bending in a little. Be prepared to source custom lengths screws (or hacksaw) if you are intending this type of installation. You will of need to source your own M4 decoupling kit, as pump resonance through drive cages is likely the biggest cause for people complaining about noisy pumps.
The assembly takes up slightly more than 2 bays worth of height when the stop plugs are fitted, so realistically it would be most practical to install into the very bottom two bays with the capped off ports facing down (drain valve opportunity). This is actually how the cage was set up for the photos (with DVD drive on top) but the DVD drive had to be facing down to get any effective photos of the pump assembly.
In the photo above the pump assembly was all the way towards the front of the case, while below it has been re-positioned as far into the chassis as the drive bay brackets would allow. This shows us there is plenty of room (~ 70mm) for other hardware in front of the pump, a fan controller and perhaps a pair of side facing SSD’s in an appropriately modded cradle.
We also had some success in determining that a horizontal drive bay mount is achievable, although a little more work will be required. In the picture below you can see we had to mount the decoupling adapters right next to each other which is not ideal for even weight distribution. For this to work better drilling another hole in each of the drive bay side panels is probably the best course of action. Doing so will mean that a decoupling adapter can be screwed into the front and back on each side of the pump top. Installation of the pump assembly orientated this way leaves 60mm – 65mm space at the front of the case and it can just fit in the height of 2 bays if the pump wires are flattened over.
The Eisdecke D5 is a pump top loaded with port options but is lacking any alternate mounting options with the supplied installation kit. Additional mounting options become available for those willing to do a little extra work, but we wonder if these should already be incorporated into the deign. Perhaps we overreacted a little about too many unused holes being machined into the top, however not having a central vertical inlet port is still annoying, as is the fact that a decoupling kit is not supplied.
Let’s see how the Eisdecke D5 pump top performs.
