1st loop advice

Nick Lipinski · 3 May 2017 at 13:13

I am building my second rig and am looking into water-cooling (mainly as I live in a hot country) and was looking for some advice on the set up I have here.
I am primarily wondering how many fittings I will need, and looking for advice for building (I have researched quite a bit but I still would like clarification and reassurance on what I am doing as I know you can never be too prepared!)
As well as cooling the CPU I will be cooling a GPU.

Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Edit: just to add I will likely be buying extra tubing as I anticipate messing up the first few bends.

paradigm · 3 May 2017 at 21:37

I'd definitely recommend getting a mandrel set rather than attempting to go freehand with your first hardline build, I think I'd also change to a 16mm tubing also.

I've done my first two hardline builds in the last month or so, and have not wasted a single piece of tubing (still got an unopened pack of monsoon 16mm PETG, bought two to do a single build, used one pack to do two builds!)

Take your time and watch the monsoon hardline bending videos a few times to get a feel for the lengths of time to heat the tube before trying to "work" it.

haszek · 4 May 2017 at 12:06

You can have a look at my build and how I saw it while building first hardline loop https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/one-of-those-first-hard-line-build-threads.18776488/

As minimum you need 2 fittings per component, +some angled fittings (depending on the design of your loop or difficulty)+valve for drain port.

Nick Lipinski · 5 May 2017 at 07:14

Thanks guys. Will the triple rad be fine? or too much? I recall reading that you should ideally have one fan per cooled piece (in this case GPU and CPU) and one extra, is this right?

Aberfala · 5 May 2017 at 10:26

Nick Lipinski said:
Thanks guys. Will the triple rad be fine? or too much? I recall reading that you should ideally have one fan per cooled piece (in this case GPU and CPU) and one extra, is this right?

That's the standard rule of thumb however more rad space allows you to achieve the same cooling performance with lower fan speeds so it depends if you intend to run your fans slow or not really.

haszek · 5 May 2017 at 10:41

Exactly what Aberfala said above;]

What case do you plan to get?

Aberfala · 5 May 2017 at 11:02

To add a little context to my previous comment as it didn't offer any sort of example to help guide you.

My loop consists of a CPU and GPU cooled by both a 240 and 360 rad with Corsair SP120 fans running at 800RPM to keep it both cool and quiet.

oldbanana · 7 May 2017 at 15:01

Save your money, and stay air.

Nick Lipinski · 8 May 2017 at 08:46

oldbanana said:
Save your money, and stay air.

Not gonna happen

As mentioned I live in a country where it easily reaches 40 in the summer and I want to keep my temps as low as possible.

Thanks everyone for your advice, I've ordered everything now

red eye · 13 May 2017 at 05:58

If you go hard line get a metre of soft and two fittings for emergency.

I had to remove a gpu from my xfire setup if I didn't have some soft tube I would have to order out of stock tube and bend new tube

hrockh · 16 May 2017 at 15:38

Just wanted to point out that EK has a very good database of tips for watercooling, available here.
https://www.ekwb.com/guides/

VKleita · 17 May 2017 at 08:38

hrockh said:
Just wanted to point out that EK has a very good database of tips for watercooling, available here.
https://www.ekwb.com/guides/

For new users that actually quite useful info in there.
Ill scribble that down for next person who asks me