- Joined
- Jul 24, 2002
- Location
- Seattle, WA
Over the last 3-4 years that I've been watercooling, I've often been frustrated by the entire setup. I'll quickly concede that aircooling is much easier to use than watercooling, and sometimes my watercooling system demands attention that I just don't feel like giving it. That said, I thought I'd share some tips to keep a watercooling system nice and simple...tips I wish I'd listened to a while ago when first setting this thing up.
1. Tubing.
Flexible tubing is incredibly important. I'm noticing right now that my Clearflex 'remembers' where it's been, and insists on pulling in that direction all the time. Try to line up your tubing so that it bends in the direction you want it to go. This reduces stress on the waterblocks, makes for less kinking, and makes the whole routing process simpler.
Some have also pointed out that heating the tubing in boiling water, bending it, and cooling it in the shape you want it to bend works too. I know this works for vinyl tubing from experience, and it could work with other types as well.
Another way to keep the tubing easy to manage is to get smaller tubing. A bit ago I went weird/obsessive with flowrates, and my current (soon to be changed) system has two different types of 3/8" tubing, 1/2" tubing, and 5/8" tubing. I used to have 3/4" tubing too. Geeze. My next system will have thinner walled 7/16" tubing - a perfect balance between size and ease of use. You can get this size from McMaster under the Masterkleer tubing. Page 82 or something. Great stuff, I like it a lot better than my 1/2" ID clearflex, and its much lighter...again, this reduces stress on your blocks.
2. Waterblocks.
Why I got a DTek WW I will never know. Performance is great, but having an additional Y in the tubing has made routing annoying for my setup. I decided to run my NB and GPU blocks in parallel after the WW, which doesn't help either...now there's tubing going everywhere. Any block that has one inlet and one outlet is a great choice. You're removing an unecessary Y from the setup, which takes up more space than you might think, and you can just run a single tube in, a single tube out, and get on with it.
It's also a good idea to always run your waterblocks in series, not in parallel. This is a general rule of thumb. You're not improving your overall flowrates a ton by putting blocks in parallel, and you're roughly (depending on the blocks' individual resistances) halving the flowrate to each. Not good.
Lastly, get a waterblock with a metal top. Countless others and myself have enjoyed one of these acrylic/lucite tops cracking and spilling water everywhere. It ruined the AGP slot on my motherboard. The money you save isn't really worth it, either. Blocks like the MCW6000/6002 are a great design, since the thing simply won't leak.
3. T-Lines, Reservoirs, and Various Other Valves.
I personally don't like the idea of a reservoir, unless it's very simple to add to the setup. Filling with a T-line is very convenient, and I feel that a reservoir adds a lot of additional tubing and hassle. This is a case-by-case situation, however, and if you can get a nice res into your setup without a lot of additional tubing, go for it. I just find T-lines much more convenient.
Build in a drain valve! This has made my life so much easier when performing maintainence on my system. Little spigots and t-splitters can be found at Home Depot for only a couple bucks. I added a drain valve with a handle to the bottom of my setup, and now to drain the system I only have to attach a tube to the nozzle, put the other end in a bucket, and open the valve. The whole thing just empties right out. This is much simpler than pulling tub connections apart and hoping it spills into your container, or other such nonsense. I love my drain.
4. Radiators.
Condense! It's much easier to route a single larger radiator setup than trying to route two in parallel or series. While putting two radiators in parallel has some flowrate gains, you also need to worry about Y's going in and out. I see lots of people who want to add another radiator to an existing one, or just purchase two from the onset. I would recommend modifying your case instead...just save yourself the trouble.
5. Order of Components
Route your system for convenience, not performance. The order of your components makes about a .5C difference, at most, to your CPU temp. Putting your CPU block first in the series is helpful, but not vital to your setup. Fortunately, that usually ends up being the most convenient way to route your tubing.
Having the pump right before the CPU isn't going to hurt anything. While pumps do add significant heat to the water, they do this over time. Water coming out of your pump is less than half a degree celcius warmer than the water going in. Same deal with your radiators. Whether it's before the CPU or right after isn't going to make a whole lot of difference.
What WILL make a difference is tubing length. Tubing adds restriction and makes working on your system much more frustrating. Instead of bending over backwards to get your components in the "right" order, just tube in a nice, simple, circular manner.
That's all I can think of right now...maybe I'll come out with more later. I'm working on my setup as I type, so I just thought I'd share my frustrations with you all before going back to all that junk.
1. Tubing.
Flexible tubing is incredibly important. I'm noticing right now that my Clearflex 'remembers' where it's been, and insists on pulling in that direction all the time. Try to line up your tubing so that it bends in the direction you want it to go. This reduces stress on the waterblocks, makes for less kinking, and makes the whole routing process simpler.
Some have also pointed out that heating the tubing in boiling water, bending it, and cooling it in the shape you want it to bend works too. I know this works for vinyl tubing from experience, and it could work with other types as well.
Another way to keep the tubing easy to manage is to get smaller tubing. A bit ago I went weird/obsessive with flowrates, and my current (soon to be changed) system has two different types of 3/8" tubing, 1/2" tubing, and 5/8" tubing. I used to have 3/4" tubing too. Geeze. My next system will have thinner walled 7/16" tubing - a perfect balance between size and ease of use. You can get this size from McMaster under the Masterkleer tubing. Page 82 or something. Great stuff, I like it a lot better than my 1/2" ID clearflex, and its much lighter...again, this reduces stress on your blocks.
2. Waterblocks.
Why I got a DTek WW I will never know. Performance is great, but having an additional Y in the tubing has made routing annoying for my setup. I decided to run my NB and GPU blocks in parallel after the WW, which doesn't help either...now there's tubing going everywhere. Any block that has one inlet and one outlet is a great choice. You're removing an unecessary Y from the setup, which takes up more space than you might think, and you can just run a single tube in, a single tube out, and get on with it.
It's also a good idea to always run your waterblocks in series, not in parallel. This is a general rule of thumb. You're not improving your overall flowrates a ton by putting blocks in parallel, and you're roughly (depending on the blocks' individual resistances) halving the flowrate to each. Not good.
Lastly, get a waterblock with a metal top. Countless others and myself have enjoyed one of these acrylic/lucite tops cracking and spilling water everywhere. It ruined the AGP slot on my motherboard. The money you save isn't really worth it, either. Blocks like the MCW6000/6002 are a great design, since the thing simply won't leak.
3. T-Lines, Reservoirs, and Various Other Valves.
I personally don't like the idea of a reservoir, unless it's very simple to add to the setup. Filling with a T-line is very convenient, and I feel that a reservoir adds a lot of additional tubing and hassle. This is a case-by-case situation, however, and if you can get a nice res into your setup without a lot of additional tubing, go for it. I just find T-lines much more convenient.
Build in a drain valve! This has made my life so much easier when performing maintainence on my system. Little spigots and t-splitters can be found at Home Depot for only a couple bucks. I added a drain valve with a handle to the bottom of my setup, and now to drain the system I only have to attach a tube to the nozzle, put the other end in a bucket, and open the valve. The whole thing just empties right out. This is much simpler than pulling tub connections apart and hoping it spills into your container, or other such nonsense. I love my drain.
4. Radiators.
Condense! It's much easier to route a single larger radiator setup than trying to route two in parallel or series. While putting two radiators in parallel has some flowrate gains, you also need to worry about Y's going in and out. I see lots of people who want to add another radiator to an existing one, or just purchase two from the onset. I would recommend modifying your case instead...just save yourself the trouble.
5. Order of Components
Route your system for convenience, not performance. The order of your components makes about a .5C difference, at most, to your CPU temp. Putting your CPU block first in the series is helpful, but not vital to your setup. Fortunately, that usually ends up being the most convenient way to route your tubing.
Having the pump right before the CPU isn't going to hurt anything. While pumps do add significant heat to the water, they do this over time. Water coming out of your pump is less than half a degree celcius warmer than the water going in. Same deal with your radiators. Whether it's before the CPU or right after isn't going to make a whole lot of difference.
What WILL make a difference is tubing length. Tubing adds restriction and makes working on your system much more frustrating. Instead of bending over backwards to get your components in the "right" order, just tube in a nice, simple, circular manner.
That's all I can think of right now...maybe I'll come out with more later. I'm working on my setup as I type, so I just thought I'd share my frustrations with you all before going back to all that junk.
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