is bigger really better?

I have never done water but I am getting closer and closer. I keep reading the forums tho and know which stuff to get. A couple days ago I saw a graph that you click a certain waterbloack and it plots it on the graph. Well, I saw the SwiftTech MCW6000 or MCW6002 getting really close to the performace of a cascade ss.

Now I see most of you have large tube (1/2) and I think the SwifTech MCW6000 are 3/8, right? If it performs almost as good as a cascade why get bigger tubes?

For the small gain in performance.

It may only be a few C but people pay large amounts of money to get an extra few C so if it can be had by simply using slightly larger tubing then its a damn good idea to use it. Every few C you can gain will add up in the end.

FYI, the MCW6000 does not performance near SS levels unless your flow is around .5GPM (really low). However, it does perform between Cascade (not SS) and WW levels (very close to WW past 1.5 GPM). However, since it's more restrictive than WW, you need a higher head pump to keep up the flow rate.

Your question: Bigger tubes = less pump power spent on tubes alone.

Ok let's forget the Cascade SS, Cascade, and Little River Whitewater. Based on this chart below it shows the SwiftTech beating all the other blocks on the market in it's price range.

It may only be a few C but people pay large amounts of money to get an extra few C so if it can be had by simply using slightly larger tubing then its a damn good idea to use it. Every few C you can gain will add up in the end.

Click to expand...

But in the graph I provided using bigger tube doesn't provide lower temps. I picked the most popular used blocks and it shows that the 3/8' SwiftTech MCW6000 outperforms all of them. Care to comment?

nissmo300 said:

But in the graph I provided using bigger tube doesn't provide lower temps. I picked the most popular used blocks and it shows that the 3/8' SwiftTech MCW6000 outperforms all of them. Care to comment?

Click to expand...

There's no mention of tubing size on the graph you showed.. actually the total system flow depends on tubing size, 3/8" is more restrictive than 1/2" so total flow will be lower, thus you'll "climb" up the curves, thus losing a bit of performance.
As how much is lost it depends on a lot of other parameters, on of them is the pump. With high head / low flow pumps the loss is minimal and couldn't be measured with 'conventional' CPU diodes. With more common low head / high flow pumps the impact is measurable, still not a lot.

As stated on a lot of other topics it's mainly a matter of convenience. Pick up tubing that matches your blocks / rads / reservoirs / fittings.

Exactly. That graph shows how flowrate effects how the waterblock works it has no relevance to tube size

Basicly the bigger the tubing the less restrictive the loop will be and therefore the higher the flowrate will be. As you can see from your graph every waterblock on there works better at high flow than low flow. From that i conclude that bigger tubing gives better performance. Problem is is it worth the hassle of bigger tubing? I think yes

If you start bringing the block into the equation things get more complex but the it still remains the case that the bigger tubing will be better. Your right tho, in the case of the swiftech block it will not be a noticible improvement and thats why swiftech use 3/8". (this is because swiftech blocks donot require a high flowrate to work well (see graph))

Yup, convenience is right. If billA tells me that a system with the same components switch from 1/2" to 3/8" only gains minimal temperature drop(which he did post btw), I'll believe him. My currect project is to switch 1/2" tubing in my system to 3/8". It's just a lot easier to route in a closed case. I never was a fan of external watercooling.

from this thread:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=313618&page=2&pp=30

BillA said:

same components: 1/2" vs 3/8" ID = -0.009°C/W for 1/2", for most perhaps 1°C

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