Quick watercooling question?

geordie56

geordie56

geordie56

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Could anyone give me some views on the best size tubing to use for cooling is it the larger the better for more water therefore better cooling and easier to bend or is it slightly smaller and a better flow? any opinions pls, thanks.
 
Slim tubing gives a faster flow... This may be better but is more restrictive... Large tubing gives a slower flow but I think its preferable and it looks better.
 
So which would actually cool more efficiently and better then? 1/2" or 5/8" im on 10mm at the moment for cpu and want to up it.

x3 Samsung T260 HDs
Abit IN932X-MAX Mboard, Intel 6850 Quad Core Extreme
OCZ PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series Ram 8Gb
2 300gb sata Hard Drives, 2 NEC DVD re-writer drives
1 Samsung 1TB spinpoint hard drive
Coolermaster 1000W PSU, x2 BFG 8800GTX Overclocked and Watercooled
Thermochill 3 Fan Rad + Laing Pump with XSPC clear top + XSPC Drive Bay and 1/2" Tygon Hose running 2 GPUs
Thermochill 1 Fan Rad + Aquaero Pump + Aquatube Res + 10mm Hose running CPU
All controlled via Aquaero monitoring system running Vista 64bit
 
Conan257 said:
Slim tubing gives a faster flow... This may be better but is more restrictive... Large tubing gives a slower flow but I think its preferable and it looks better.
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I'm sure you actually mean velocity, i.e. the instantaneous water velocity in a tube will be faster in small bore tube compared to large bore. Flow rate on the other hand with smaller bore tube will be ever so slightly lower than large bore tubing due to a miniscule extra drop in system pressure in small bore tubing assuming the same length. The drop in flow is really quite insignificant, unless you have yards and yards of tubing. For me 3/8" ID 1/2" OD tubing is a fair bit easier than 1/2"ID 3/4"OD to work with, especially if you plan on doing a dual loop system.
 
The smaller the tubing, the tighter the radius you can bend it in, so in my chipset loop, I use thin-wall Tygon 3/8" inner diameter on 3/8" high-flow barbs and for the other parts of my loop I use XSPC 3/8" ID tubing which is thick walled (5/8" OD) and I stretch that across 1/2" high-flow barbs without clips as it looks good and doesn't ever leak.

The latest thinking is that tubing size has a negligible effect on loop temperatures but I think it is worth it on high-restriction loops eg. with the AquaComputer Cuplex XT di block the extra flow velocity helps the block work at it's best.
 
WJA96 said:
The smaller the tubing, the tighter the radius you can bend it in, so in my chipset loop, I use thin-wall Tygon 3/8" inner diameter on 3/8" high-flow barbs and for the other parts of my loop I use XSPC 3/8" ID tubing which is thick walled (5/8" OD) and I stretch that across 1/2" high-flow barbs without clips as it looks good and doesn't ever leak.

The latest thinking is that tubing size has a negligible effect on loop temperatures but I think it is worth it on high-restriction loops eg. with the AquaComputer Cuplex XT di block the extra flow velocity helps the block work at it's best.
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So you use quite thin tubing? Can i ask why you use thin tubing
 
ConTRo13R said:
So you use quite thin tubing? Can i ask why you use thin tubing
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Because I can bend it tighter. Try putting 3/4" OD tygon across 4 motherboard chipset blocks - it's nearly impossible to bend in a tight arc and it's physically difficult to get clamps over the barbs because the blocks are so small. The original D-Tek FuZion was notorious for being almost unusable with 1/2" ID tubing as the gap between the inlet and outlet pipes was so small.

I like the look of fat tubing, it just doesn't work well for smaller, cramped, setups.
 
Yep the issue with the original Fuzion block and 1/2" was annoying.

4 chipsets? like two mofsets, NB, SB.

I using 7/16th tubing all over bends perfectly well, 2 GFX, CPU, NB, SB yet to do the Mofsets on my 680i

7/16 over the original Fuzion block looks so much nicer and fits so much better!
 
ConTRo13R said:
7/16 over the original Fuzion block looks so much nicer and fits so much better!
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It's OK - but the XSPC 3/8" ID 5/8" OD stuff is soft as butter, looks like full-size tubing and it's an even tighter fit over the barbs than 7/16". And it's cheap too. Especially compared to Tygon.

It's the new thing;)
 
there's no "better" and any measurable difference in temps would be more than made up for in natural fluctuation in the ambient temp of the air getting to your rad, I'm almost completely convinced of that.

The only concern is the tightness of bends and even that doesn't have a flat answer on tubing size, its often as much to do with the quality of tubing.

I remember after seeing all the hype about tygon I got some off the bay, 1/2" but it turned out to be the thin wall stuff which is complete toilet, the thick walled, much more expensive is the real top end.

However masterkleer 7/16 tubing seems to be a good compromise, likewise I am using XSPC 7/16 at the mo and it bends very well.

Really there is no better, just whatever you fancy using. Unless you're using a tiny case good planning will avoid any tight bends anyway.

And don't ask about loop order either, that makes next to no difference either :) just make sure your res is before your pump as that makes it all a lot easier to fill.
 
I doubt that the flow through any block is any higher than it is through 3/8ID tubing anyway so I don't see any benefit in having anything larger.

Tubing that can bend tighter makes loops shorter too. That's of more benefit.

Still it's all irrelevant if you're blowing warm air through you rads!! :p

Is that true about loop order Matt?
 
Another vote for 7/16" over 1/2" barbs. If you're starting from scratch though 3/8" is perfectly acceptable provided your other components are up to the job.

That 3/8" XSPC stuff sounds interesting though Walter ;)

P
 
@wolver69 yes it is. It doesn't matter in what order the components are in the loop it has no detrimental effect over temperatures.

But as Matt says pump after res for easy filling
 
WJA96 said:
The smaller the tubing, the tighter the radius you can bend it in, so in my chipset loop, I use thin-wall Tygon 3/8" inner diameter on 3/8" high-flow barbs and for the other parts of my loop I use XSPC 3/8" ID tubing which is thick walled (5/8" OD) and I stretch that across 1/2" high-flow barbs without clips as it looks good and doesn't ever leak.

The latest thinking is that tubing size has a negligible effect on loop temperatures but I think it is worth it on high-restriction loops eg. with the AquaComputer Cuplex XT di block the extra flow velocity helps the block work at it's best.
Click to expand...

Yep, i'm currently running XSPC 3/8" ID tubing over two loops and i think its great stuff for the price, very flexible, doesn't seem to kink even on very tight bends.

I think its more a case of matching the ID size of your tubing + length to the flowrate of your pump and waterblock restrictions, bigger isn't always better particually when you have the restriction of a block / rad in the loop.
 
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