New to watercooling - Some advice please!

Mrpiper1980

Mrpiper1980

Mrpiper1980

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Joined
5 Oct 2020
Posts
30
Hey all,

I'm just on the dive board about to jump into the water but need some advice first and hoping you dudes could help...

I've got my main components on the way:
  • Lian Li/EK O11D vertical-side Distro-Plate G1– Incl. Pump
  • EK-Velocity D-RGB CPU Water Block
  • Bykski N-GV3090GMOC-X Block for Gigabyte 3080 Vision OC
  • x2 Black Ice Nemesis Radiator GTS 360mm
Things still to get : Hardline, Heat gun, bending toolkit etc but one thing I'm stuck on are the connectors.

When I look at various builds everyone seems to use different types of connectors depending on how things like the GPU/CPU line up with the distro plate/pump/rad. My question is - how do I know which ones to get without putting the whole thing together first. i.e. do I need extensions so the tubes go over the top of the RAM, do I need 90 degree rotary adapters for the gpu, on this build the connectors on the rads are longer than the ones on the cpu - how come? I'm quite lost right now :-/

Also, what's the deal with pressure testing tools, flow indicators, drain valves etc. Do I need all of these?

Thanks :-)
 
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If you mount everything in place then take a photo it’ll make the loop easier to plan. I’d suggest you find a way to minimise tube bending as you’ll waste a lot of tubing trying to get them right. I’d be tempted to use angled rotary fittings for the 2 tubes running between the CPU and distro plate. 2 on either side with a spacer if you need to clear your ram. Would give you two straight runs if you don’t mind more of the fittings showing.

Id give yourself plenty of time to put it all together and order the fittings only when you’re 100% sure you need them. You’ll save yourself a fortune.

No need for fancy bending kits, pressure testing kits, flow indicators but a drain valve at the lowest point of the loop is useful. You can always use flexible tubing for it if it’s hidden in the case somewhere.
 
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A drain valve is very useful to cleanly empty the system for maintenance. I have never pressure tested, but do like to do a 24hr leak test, with distilled water and tissue and towels to catch any drips.

For your first loop if you want to save some cash and get up and running faster, I’d recommend avoiding hardline and using something like EK ZMT tubing. It looks awesome, doesn’t need bending equipment and you will have a working system hours earlier.

If you do go hardline, I’d personally recommend acrylic, as I found that the range of temperatures that it’s bendable over without getting misshaped is much wider so my bends end up being a lot cleaner with no warping. It will just need another minute or so on the heat gun to get it up to that temp and a hand saw to cut, but the de burring tool is much more effective on acrylic in my opinion.

As for planning the loop I like to sketch things out before getting the parts and plan the loop order and bends. When things arrive and it’s ready to get tubing in sometimes things change in the plan, but it helps me understand how much tubing I need. I’d recommend for your first build to buy 4x the tubing that you need if you have a few runs with two or even three bends in them. Otherwise stick with 2x.
 
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