Watercooling hose clips

setter · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:01

Starting to gather bits for a wc loop, got hose clips along with the bitspower barbs i bought, am i better off using theese hose clips, or using cable ties, any advice is appreciated, ive been doing a lot of research on watercooling, im gonna go with 1/2 bitspower silver diamond barbs with 7/16 id, 5/8 od xspc tubing, the barbs i bought came with 2 hose clips marked 1 and 2, assuming each clip per barb is for different outer diameter hose., im no watercooling expert, but still researching the whole subject. Any advice is appreciated.

Danm54 · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:08

I bought 1/2 barbs, 3/8 tubing and 1/2 clips, the clips were too big and didnt tighten up enough, with the 3/8 tubing you get a real tight fit on a 1/2 barb so clips aren't needed.

setter · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:15

Ive seen ypur build Danm mate, lian li case, im gonna be putting mine in a lian li a70f, gonna use 7/16 inch tubing over 1/2 inch barbs, ive heard it makes a really nice tight fit, heard from users on here that they had to soak the end of the tubing in hot water, so as to soften it to fit onto the barb then clamp it with cable ties, hose clips etc. Any advice is much appreciated.

Bradley8988 · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:19

The ones with bp barbs arnt the best looking. Cable ties have worked perfect for me with the 7/16" tubing on 1/2" barbs. You will most likely have to cut the tubing off in the future.

Danm54 · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:27

setter said:
Ive seen ypur build Danm mate, lian li case, im gonna be putting mine in a lian li a70f, gonna use 7/16 inch tubing over 1/2 inch barbs, ive heard it makes a really nice tight fit, heard from users on here that they had to soak the end of the tubing in hot water, so as to soften it to fit onto the barb then clamp it with cable ties, hose clips etc. Any advice is much appreciated.

Sorry, my mistake, it was 7/16th tubing i bought, it was hard to get the tube on the fittings but i didnt soak in warm water, i used a tiny amount of silicone grease on a couple and it made it easier, didnt have a problem with leaking and i think it looks nicer without clips/ties as well

Marine Iguana · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:29

7/16 tubing over 1/2 barb will be ok i haven't had any problem with it apart from when dismantling it got to cut it off.

setter · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:37

Thanks Bradley, ive heard that 7/16" on 1/2" inch barbs is really tight, the bp hose clips do look a bit ugly. im thinking of going with uv blue tubing and deionised water for coolant, (ive heard, and seen that the fancy uv fluids can leave blocks full of gunk), i can get lots of blue cable ties from work, some nice blue ones that will be more subtle, got in touch with the "cool pc shop" to cut my lian li top panel to fit a triple rad, just deciding now on what pump and res to go with, looked at the D5 with the ek rev2 top along with the swiftech micro res, or the laing ddc with xspc res top, its just finding what wil fit best in my current lian li a 70f, the case has lots of room.

How it looks at the minute.

Current vid card is an asus 8800gt (non standard cooler), im currently waiting on a new gtx 275 as an rma replacement. Not really interested in water cooling a video card, i tend to upgrade cards pretty often, and full cover bocks for video cards are pretty expensive from what ive seen, besides, graphics cards can run high temps for extended periods on high fan speeds, i have a hearing issue so this doesnt mater.

setter · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:43

Danm54 said:
Sorry, my mistake, it was 7/16th tubing i bought, it was hard to get the tube on the fittings but i didnt soak in warm water, i used a tiny amount of silicone grease on a couple and it made it easier, didnt have a problem with leaking and i think it looks nicer without clips/ties as well

Thanks mate, i really liked your build log in the lian li, theyre really great cases, i came from an akasa eclipse 62 very spacious case), the lian li full towers are in a different league, size wise and the quality of them.

Danm54 · 27 Feb 2010 at 00:59

setter said:
Thanks mate, i really liked your build log in the lian li, theyre really great cases, i came from an akasa eclipse 62 9very spacious case), the lian li full towers are in a different league, size wise and the quality of them.

This is a massive case, im back on the H50 currently but im hoping to get a CPU loop back in there soon.

You started a build log yet?

setter · 27 Feb 2010 at 01:09

No, nothing yet mate, the only things ive decided on so far is the barbs and tubing, rad wise im gonna go thermochill pa 120.3, this means sending the top panel away to get cut, lian li only currently supply a triple panel for the earlier version of this case, rad wise its grand, but the A70F has an extended top panel switch and usb setup, recent inclusion of esata on the top panel means that the older panels dont fit now, unless your prepared to cut the usb, firewire, esata part yourself, space wise its fantastic, i shouldnt have any issues with radiator fitting, i noticed on earlier versions of this case, the top mounted hdd bay had small holes, on mine it's one large hole, should make tube routing easy enough.

Danm54 · 27 Feb 2010 at 01:26

Awesome, look forward to seeeing it take shape, think Lian Li are on the money with the simple modest looking cases, there are some ugly ones out there now!

setter · 27 Feb 2010 at 01:36

Ill definitely take some pics along the way, when i got the A70F, i thought that adding a triple rad would be straightforward, unfortunately lian li havent caught up yet, but i gotta admit, the build quality of their cases is fantastic, ive definitely got the room in the top for a triple, just remove the top hdd cage. I actually considered the corsair 800d case, but it was too expensive, but it looks like a great case for a watercooled build.