Thoughts on re-plumbing this layout?

[muffles]

So I've been putting together my watercooling loop (first one) slowly, and I had an idea in my head how I wanted it laid out & how I expected it to look. Putting it together, I'm getting a feel for how the tubing behaves when bending, and essentially my layout isn't quite as good to me in the flesh.

I don't think it's awful, but I'm looking for opinions on how I could re-do it to make it look a little better.

I really like having straight lines, or neat lines wherever possible, so I was really not a fan of the (seemingly) random loops that curve around cases. Hence my use in a couple of places of 90 and 45 degree fittings.

I mainly am not happy with the tube going from the GPU block bridge to the front rad (because it's *almost* level it looks even worse I think). But I also don't feel I have got that much neatness with the two tubes going to the pump, or the one going from (bay) res to CPU block.

Also worth mentioning that I had to plumb this together going clockwise, where the GPU and CPU blocks were both more suited to going anti-clockwise (CPU block is upside down btw). Problem is that I wanted a bay res and I wanted to insulate my pump, so it means the res -> pump is always going clockwise, which then conflicts with the natural order of the CPU/GPU blocks...

Anyway picture:

Spoiler

 

[WJA96]

The only suggestion I would make is to change the CPU block so the outlet is above the inlet. That makes it much less likely to have any air in it.

And the right angles will be costing you on back-pressure, but so long as temperatures aren't a issue, why change it?

 

[muffles]

Hey - thanks, I may change the CPU block. I understood the right angles wouldn't really affect things with the quantity I've got, and to do it without right angles means random-loops-in-case

Actually, although I appreciate that feedback, I'm actually interested in opinions on the visuals of course will listen to other points but what I'm trying to "solve" here are the visuals.

 

[Danm54]

Not sure if you'll have the space for this but here goes!

Spin the pump top 90 degrees clockwise with an elbow on the inlet, not ideal I know but not bad.

spin the front rad 180 so the fittings are at the bottom and the pump goes into the rad. May be a bit more difficult to bleed but will work fine.

Front rad into the gpu from the bottom, then cpu, top rad and back to the res.

With me?

Edit, on looking at the pic again maybe go gpu, top rad, cpu then res.

 

[muffles]

Not sure if you'll have the space for this but here goes!

Spin the pump top 90 degrees clockwise with an elbow on the inlet, not ideal I know but not bad.

spin the front rad 180 so the fittings are at the bottom and the pump goes into the rad. May be a bit more difficult to bleed but will work fine.

Front rad into the gpu from the bottom, then cpu, top rad and back to the res.

With me?

Edit, on looking at the pic again maybe go gpu, top rad, cpu then res.

Yeah I see what you mean. Think I would keep gpu -> top rad -> CPU as you mention. Will have a poke about and see if I can do that with the pump top, I think it might be possible as I have a spare 45 fitting. But I'm not sure what the tube from front rad to gpu would look like (I mean whether I'd like it).

 

[Danm54]

Yeah I see what you mean. Think I would keep gpu -> top rad -> CPU as you mention. Will have a poke about and see if I can do that with the pump top, I think it might be possible as I have a spare 45 fitting. But I'm not sure what the tube from front rad to gpu would look like (I mean whether I'd like it).

You'd have to take it straight down from the GPU then across the case floor, assuming the tube will go around the PSU ok.

 

[muffles]

Got it, that makes sense now, I Was thinking behind the pump but you mean in front, right?

I've done some thinking today and I suspect I'll end up keeping the front rad this way up and try to follow the blocks (anti-clockwise) instead of the res/pump (clockwise).

The basic problem seems to be where I've decided to mount my pump, really to make the loop as neat as possible I would need to have the pump up near the res. Then everything would run anti-clockwise.

However I wanted my pump insulated hence where it's mounted. So here are a few options I've come up with, where I run the loop anti-clockwise instead of clockwise - I think I'm favouring #4, because if you look at it, it's an actual circular loop, other than the pump has been "pulled" down from the res so tubes go down to it and back up. #3 is almost the same but has the straight tube between GPU and front rad and since that isn't perfectly straight, I think I'd rather not have it...

What do you think?

Spoiler

Option 1:

Option 2:

Option 3:

Option 4:

 

[muffles]

Well, I've redone it in the layout from #4 It actually meant I needed less 90/45 fittings than before, even though I seem to have ended up with a layout that has more random looping

Still it's probably the best layout from a functional point of view. Haven't started testing it yet as I took out the PSU, decided to switch to a modular one so now waiting on an AX850 to be delivered!