First time water cooling

artus

artus

artus

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8 Dec 2006
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177
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Cardiff
Ok ive decided to take the plunge into water just a simple CPU set up for now until I get my 6950/6970 then will add that to the loop too, I have been doing a bit of research and the items I am thinking of going for are as follows

EK-Supreme HighFlow CPU Block - Acetal 775/1156/1366/AM3
Laing DDC 10w Pump
EK-DDC X-TOP Rev.2 Acetal
Swiftech MCR320-QP-K Triple 120mm Radiator or EK-CoolStream RAD XT (360)
EK Multioption RES 250 Rev2 or XSPC Single 5.25" Bay Reservoir
Masterkleer 7/16" Tubing UV Black
Akasa Apache Blacks x3

Now a couple of questions compression fittings or barbs, im leaning towards barbs as they seem easier and not as much risk of leaking. The 2nd question. If I was to fit a T conector on the lowest piece of tubing then place a short piece of tubing off that and fit it with a Fill/Drain Port Sealing Plug w/ 1/2"ID Tubing Barb(copy & pasted from another site) to make draining the system easier would I come across any problems ?. Will be fitted in to my HAF 932 but at some point going to be looking at a 800D if they update it with a sata 3 back plate. Just thought of another question and its quite a silly one will be fitting the 3 fans inside so I have them pulling air in from outside the case? reason I ask is as you know on HAF you have the front and side 230mm fans drawing air in, but if I do have the rad fans drawing air from outside I could maybe get rid of the side 230mm?.
 
One end of the tubing is fine with compression fittings, it's when you try to tighten up the other end and it unscrews the first that you start to wish you'd gone for barbs.

I like compression fittings in that once you've got the tubing to the right length you can screw the fittings down damned tight on both ends, and you've then got a flexible pipe with threads on the end. Said pipe isn't easy to fit, and is damned close to impossible if the tubing is short, but it feels very secure. I've picked my case up using a compression fitting, the tubing just isn't going to come out of one.

But then, barbs wont unwind and start to leak when they get warm, and compressions might.

edit: The more experienced guys tend to recommend barbs. I'm still using compression fittings because I started with them and I'm stubborn, not because I think they're the better idea.
 
both are good, i've got both in my case and only had issues with screwing the barbs in tight enough (cause the first set i got i over tightened and snapped)
 
If barbs are user friendly > The Centurion > why this thread > 7/16" tubing very loose on 1/2" barbs?? Urgent help please
 
That was just bad luck, if the tubing and barbs are different sizes then it wont work out well. However compression fittings are easily as intolerant of the wrong sized tubing if not more so.

You have to get inner diameter and thickness pretty much right for compression fittings, for barbs it's only inner diameter. 7/16" fits over 1/2" barbs, 1/2" also fits over 1/2" barbs. I believe 3/8" will also work on 1/2" barbs if you put enough effort in. In contrast getting 11/8mm tubing into 10/8mm compressions has caused me no end of stress.
 
JonJ678 said:
That was just bad luck, if the tubing and barbs are different sizes then it wont work out well. However compression fittings are easily as intolerant of the wrong sized tubing if not more so.

You have to get inner diameter and thickness pretty much right for compression fittings, for barbs it's only inner diameter. 7/16" fits over 1/2" barbs, 1/2" also fits over 1/2" barbs. I believe 3/8" will also work on 1/2" barbs if you put enough effort in. In contrast getting 11/8mm tubing into 10/8mm compressions has caused me no end of stress.
Click to expand...

Well most of your statement is pretty obvious, as for your 11/8m tubing into 10/8mm l would have got a 10.5mm drill and opened the diameter of the hole slightly, if it was that hard.

If you have taking great pains to get the inside of your case looking neat and tidy[ cable's + tubing ]Barb's plus clamps look terrible compared to compression fitting's and beside that there old tech....
 
OLDPHART said:
If barbs are user friendly > The Centurion > why this thread > 7/16" tubing very loose on 1/2" barbs?? Urgent help please
Click to expand...

That's been taken out of context. If you read the thread, you'll find that it was in fact due to the fact that the tygon I had is soft, thin walled tygon, and I have in fact run my system using that tubing and those barbs, with hose clips on and there have been no leaks.

Compression fittings are excellent as well, no doubt about that, but I think that for a first time watercooler, barbs would be better.
 
In all honesty from reading round with before building my loop I found people who swore by one type of fittings and problems with both. I think if you do either right and take your time you will be fine.

Regarding your second question regarding fan direction. I asume you are using the rad in top of the case in which case. Pulling cooler air from outside the case should help keep your cpu cooler but there shouldn't be a temperature difference from using it as an exhaust. I have my triple rad as an exhaust with cpu and gpu in my loop without problem.
 
I'm using my rad as an exhaust. I used jubilee clips for peace of mind...

Make sure you run the system outside the case for about 24 hours to check for leaks. Plan out the lengths you'll need before fitting it together, too.
 
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