Hose routing/sequence (a little long)

Hello,

This will be my first water cooled setup. I have bought all the parts (I’m waiting for the water blocks still) but was having trouble trying to figure out which hose setup to use. I could figure out what would work best for me through trial and error but I thought asking these questions here would save me LOTS of time.

Here are the specs of my system:
P4 2.6’C’ @ 2.9GHZ (will over clock more when water setup is done)
Asus P4P800 Deluxe
GeForce4 Ti4800 SE
WD 120GB, 7200rpm, 8MB Cache
2x512 Kingston HyperX PC3200
Temps at idle – CPU 30, NB 30, Air 23
Temps at load – CPU 43, NB 34, Air 23

And for my water system:
Swiftech MCP600 Pump
Swiftech MCW5000-P (CPU Block)
Swiftech MCW50 (GPU Block)
Swiftech MCW20 (NB Block)
Koolance HDD Block
DangerDen Black Ice Extreme II
Dual 3.5” Bay Reservoir
1/2", 3/8”, 1/4" Tygon tubing

The rad, res, and pump are external in a wooden box I made. The main problem is that the HDD water block has 1/4" i.d. barbs where everything else is either 1/2" or 3/8” i.d.
The pump, res, and rad have 1/2"
The CPU, NB, and GPU blocks have 3/8”
The HDD block has 1/4"
I know a 1/4" to the system can decrease flow tremendously especially with so many other blocks in the system.

Here are pictures (excuse the crudity) of different setups I had come up with and just wanted your input as to which would be the best, number 1, 2, 3 or 4. Keep in mind the most important thing is noise reduction with cooling be the second most important. Because noise is the first concern I’ll have the two 120mm fans on the rad running off the 5 volt line instead of the 12 volt line.

Setup #1
Setup #2
Setup #3
Setup #4 – I would install a second rad (RAD #2) WITHOUT a fan. The outgoing flow from RAD #1 would create an incoming flow for RAD #2 (both rad’s and the pump and res would be in an external wooden box.)
The reason I thought up of setup #4 is because I was concerned that the two 120mm fans running only on 5 volts might not be enough cooling alone.

Thanks for reading all this and any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated!

If i were you, I would try and cancel the order for the HD block. It's usuless and is just going to add unnecesary heat to the loop and be a HUGE restriction on flow. But if you can't return it and can't sell it to someone else, I would say go for setup 3. You won't have much flow going through the HD block but who cares, they don't get that hot anyway. I have 2 Raptors in raid 0 with no fan on them and they dont even get that hot.

I know a HDD block is almost useless except for me. Because noise reduction is the goal I'll be putting the hard drive into another sealed box with sound dampening material inside. The reason for this is because my hard drive is LOUD!!! The HDD bloack is to keep it cool while in the box

Also, I already got the HDD block I'm just waiting for the others.

My best advice, after going through all the blocks, put it through the radiator. You should only need a single radiator (as in the night I have a switch for the fan to turn it off) and even though it hits about 55-60C, it even still runs fine. The reasoning behind this is you don't want the resevoir water to mix with incoming warm water. When the water is the hottest, the radiator can do the most. That way, the water in the res is as cold as possible, right after the radiator. I'll be honest, it'll only make a 1-2 degree difference, but it keeps thing efficient. Despite the fact people tell you the HD block will do more harm then good, it might give the drive an extra year of life, it's just getting the block in good contact is what you'd have to worry about. Get some JB Weld and use only the metal resin, it's cheaper than artic silver and does a little less, but it'll work pretty well. If you're not familiar with this, it's just a metal epoxy, you can pick it up at Wal-Mart or even a local auto parts store. I've heard a lot of hype about flow rates and convection, but my experiences prove it's not a big deal. I upgraded from a 120gph pump (extremely quiet) to a 300+ one, and i noticed no difference but the extra decibels. I don't even like the idea of high power magnetic devices in my case either, even though it's minor and water insulated, when overclocking, the smallest things can make a big difference. Other than that, you put a lot of money into this and you're gonna be happy with the results. I wish you well.

I'd go with setup #2 over #3 to keep the NB block from restricting flow through the CPU and GPU. It doesn't produce that much heat anyway. You're right, setup #1 would be a serious flow killer with that 1/4" ID HDD block. You could always add the 80mm radiator later if the NB/HDD loop was too warm.

ok, forget about the 1/2" tubing first of all...

now with the 3/8" ID tygon, heat it in very warm water for a few minutes then you should be able to get it on the 1/2" barbs, for the 3/8" parts don't heat it, the push fittings don't need anything special.

Also do the standard res > pump > rad > cpu > northrbridge > GPU > HD setup.

Now this next part will take some work and some guts as is voids warrenties, be warned though, I void warrenties before I read em ). Unscrew the 1/4" barb on the HD block, go to your local hardware store with the block and find a barb that is 3/8" x X/X" with the X/X" being the ID of the barb and 3/8" being the OD, now the X/X is dependent on the opening for the old 1/4" barb, basically just hunt through the barbs that start with 3/8" until one will screw into the hole in your block (I'm really sorry for not knowing the specifics here) and buy 2 of em (make sure they are the same, sometimes barbs go in the wrong section)... Now take those barbs and wrap the threaded part with Teflon tape (when you wrap it the 'wrap' should end going in the same direction that you will turn the barb to screw it in) and screw the barbs in, be sure to use a wrench so that the barbs go in nice and tight. and BOOM, you're whole system now fits 3/8" tubing...


Another way to do this thats far less complex but it will kill flow more would be to get 2 3/8" to 1/4" adapters and the rest is pretty straitforwards...

ideally you just forget about the HD block but it sounds like your set in that idea...