3/8" vs 1/2" system

[JML]

Which would perform better- 3/8" maze2, dd cube w/ 3/8 tubing (this is standard for the dd cube yes?) and a mag drive 7 running 3/8" tubing

OR

1/2 Maze2; 1/2 supercube (or blackice xtreme), mag drive 7 running 1/2 tubing

I ask cause I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading from all my 3/8" stuff to 1/2" stuff

[Warlord2]

yes if you started a new system from scratch yes 1/2" maybe just a tad bit better

no I would not replace your current system just for 1/2" sense it would hardly make a difference if any

I have also found that 3/8" hoses are much easy to work with thin the 1/2"

[Voodoo Rufus]

Warlord 2 is right. It's not worth it to upgrade tubing unless you've got time on your hands. Go with 1/2" if you start from scratch.

[JML]

I have 3/8 stuff. Oh well, learned something new today

thanks guys

[UnaClocker]

You already buy the pump? That thing is going to be hard to seal with all the backpressure 3/8" tubing will place on it. At least, that's what happend to a friend of mine. He ended up having to coat the front end of the pump in a thick layer of epoxy. Not to mention the pump itself was flaming hot to the touch. Not a good thing if it's inside the case. And the water does make contact with that heat while it's inside the pump, albeit briefly. I'd recommend a much smaller pump, like a model 3.. I run a model 2 with 1/2" tubing my flowrate is excellent, and my pump doesn't even get warm to the touch. (I think it's rated 15watts). Just my oppinion.. :)

[ol' man]

Guess my submersible is in my cryo cooler and if the temps increase then that cools it off:( Not good though! mIght extend the life of the pump though:) But it also does not allow me to hit the low temps I may like but -12 deg. C isn't bad.

[JML]

I already have the pump

[Stephen Castles]

i'd say it you have a pump well over 300gph you need 1/2. I had to put marine goop over the seam between the impeller housing and the pump because it wasn't sealing, i do realize there is some pressure but i think it's better to have some pressure to move the water through the block quickly, since the radiator is at the top of the case, the water has slowed down. I heard you want the water the go through the water block fast, but for it to move through the radiator slower. i have a marineland 1140 300gph pump, it's barely noisy, and gets a little warm, bought it at petsmart for $30. Still need a good block to complete the system.

[Christoph]

That's somewhat accurate. You do want the water to spend as much time as practically possible in the radiator, but no matter what you do, the amount of water going into you water block must always be equal the amount leaving the radiator. I'd recommend that you not bother with trying to get the water to travel more slowly through the radiator. If your temps aren't close enough to ambient, just go to an auto parts store and get a heater core (just as good as the Blackice and much cheaper) as a second radiator.

[Stephen Castles]

thats what i have, a heater core out of a 1991 ford escort i bought from auto zone for $29.99, i put some 3/8 fittings on it to make it work.

[JML]

I'm gonna try my rio 600 again, I just finished sealing it up a bit with ribbon dope. Oh yeah, I have a maze2 and the cooling cube.
Christmas is coming up, I'll prob ask for a maze2 w/ 1/2" connects and a new radiator w/ 1/2" connects. I'll throw the rio and the 3/8" stuff in a different case or sell it to a friend if it doesn't work out the way I want it to in my full tower.

I'm goin back to the junkyard today too; I'll see what I can come up with.

*update*- Just been running the rio w/ the maze2 and dd cube by my bathroom sink, with everything in the same spot as they would be if they were in the computer. I believe all the air is out, however I picked up the return line to see how fast the water is flowing and it appears to be very slow. I'm gonna try the mag drive in this set-up and see how that goes (I'll leave it running for about 2 hours to see how hot the pump gets in the 3/8th set-up)

[SUlfUR-CyCLoNe]

My friends water cooling system uses all 1/2" tubing and he has a 300gph pump from petsmart and it works perfect for him. i'm looking into 1/2" silicone tubing with a 500gph water pump (not sure which model yet, though) which is the best for the rig I'm putting together (I need a powerful pump because I'm gonna try and expand this to a full liquid system, cooling the cpu, gpu, north/south(maybe) bridge, and anything else that needs cooling..maybe ram too if I can figure out a way to do it).

What turned me away from a 3/8" setup is that the back pressure can be really bad and powerful pumps can blow the tubing right off of your nozzle's! Which is very, very bad! From the research i've done on waterblocks is that sure, the slower the better, but there is no way to slow down the water flow without serious risk of backpressure. Besides, there isn't much of a difference between a slow flow and a fast one. At the most extreme there's a ~10% difference, definitely not worth the risk. If your going to build a new rig then definitely go with a 1/2" setup, but I don't really see the point in upgrading your cooling setup unless your waterblock, reservoir, radiator, and pump are all way out-of-date. That's what i've come up with, but it's really up to you man. Godd luck either way!

-SUlfUR

[Stephen Castles]

i know my system is under pressure, just not that much. I've never even come close to blowing a line off, and i bought enough hose clamps for every connection, and all the connetions are either flared or barbed so i cant blow a line off and have a meltdown. the outlet on the pump is 5/8 so if you think about it, even 1/2 is gonna create some pressure also. I dont know of anyone that uses 5/8 tubing in their system.

[JML]

just got in today, tried 3/8 tubing with the mag drive 7, doesn't seem like a good idea ;). Good thing christmas is coming up, I'll just get the 1/2" stuff; save the rio and the rest of the stuff for a second system. I'll Tell ya how it turns out.

thanks all

[ol' man]

Originally posted by SUlfUR-CyCLoNe
My friends water cooling system uses all 1/2" tubing and he has a 300gph pump from petsmart and it works perfect for him. i'm looking into 1/2" silicone tubing with a 500gph water pump (not sure which model yet, though) which is the best for the rig I'm putting together (I need a powerful pump because I'm gonna try and expand this to a full liquid system, cooling the cpu, gpu, north/south(maybe) bridge, and anything else that needs cooling..maybe ram too if I can figure out a way to do it).

What turned me away from a 3/8" setup is that the back pressure can be really bad and powerful pumps can blow the tubing right off of your nozzle's! Which is very, very bad! From the research i've done on waterblocks is that sure, the slower the better, but there is no way to slow down the water flow without serious risk of backpressure. Besides, there isn't much of a difference between a slow flow and a fast one. At the most extreme there's a ~10% difference, definitely not worth the risk. If your going to build a new rig then definitely go with a 1/2" setup, but I don't really see the point in upgrading your cooling setup unless your waterblock, reservoir, radiator, and pump are all way out-of-date. That's what i've come up with, but it's really up to you man. Godd luck either way!

-SUlfUR

Since they are cheap this is why I use hose clamps;) A bag of 8 that will fit on the 3/8 or 1/2 tubing will cost ya like $3. Wither $3 here or maybe the cost of your whole system if there is a leak.

One other note with a cryo system the tubes turn rock hard so they is no way they are going to slip off:D I have to heat them up to get them to come off the barbs. I am using a 500GPH pump with my system and I think the main problem is the cryo liquid is too thick but you know since it is working quite well I odn;t see it as a problem.

With the computer off the coolant stays around -20. When chip is under 45w of load for 8 hours it has went up to -12~-15 deg. C. Not bad. Better than I htough i8t would do. I was hoping for it too chill the res to around 10 deg. C under load. This is nutz;)

[SteenkyBastage]

i'm using a mag 7 with 3/8" tubeing. i have no problems, i dont even bother on some of the tighter fittings to use the clamps to tighten them down.

there is no problem at all with pressure, and 1/2" wouldn't help one lick if you're like me (and by your post you are) and have a maze2 block (which has smaller than 3/8" inner diamater).

you're gonna have pressure or lacktherof depending on the smallest size tube/part in the loop, not by your tubeing size. ex: if you have 1" tube and at the end have an adapter to 1/4", you'll still get the buildup of pressure.

the mag pumps, however, aren't pressure driven. if you back them up they simply dont pump the water, you wont be able to "force" them to pressureize enough to pop a line off.

where you would get a benefit is when your system (waterblock, radiator, etc) is larger. if you upped your radiator to a 1/2" tube and waterblock, then removed any couplers, yes, you may get the benefit from 1/2" tube. but until then, it's not gonna matter.

[JML]

steenky- that's good to hear, I'll give the mag a shot in my system see how it goes

[Stephen Castles]

the only problem i see with my mag drive pump is that it heats the water a few degrees while running, the fix for this is, instead of have the water flow pump>block>radiator>back to pump, you run it, pump>radiator>block>back to pump. this will fix the water heating problem because the water going though the pump will always be hot because of the CPU and wont get much hotter and gets cooled down by the radiator anyway. With the first design i described, cold water will aways be going through the pump, but the pump can heat the water up and theres nothing to cool it back down before it gets to the block. So pump>radiator>block>back to pump should be a better and more efficient design. If i can afford it, i will get a EHIEM 300gph pump, and upgrade the radiator and block fittings to 1/2 since they are threaded, but with the current pump, the fittings are epoxied into place so it's 3/8 or nothing, but since the EHIEM cost $70, i think i'll stick with my $30 Marineland 1140 300gph pump.

[Christoph]

I got me Ehiem 1250 for US$58 plus shipping, but they are rather spendy.
I doubt that you'll get much of a change in tempsby moving the parts around since there's no significant change in the system, but it's one of those rare free mods, so IMHO it's worth a shot.
Tell us hoiw it goes.

[SteenkyBastage]

true, the mag7 can get a bit warm. my solution was just to submerse it. my res is about a gallon and a half or maybe two. cant change the temps by pump heat much with that size.

[Stephen Castles]

i really cant tell you how the different setups work, because i dont have a block yet, i haven't had time to make one. I did make a block i call "the blob". it's a couple of tubs coming off a piece of plastic over aluminum, the top area is covered in the blob of marine goop adhesive. I dont have a digital camera but i will try to use my friend's camera to get a picture of this blob, it's more like a K6-2 cooler, or a chipset/video cooler, i will test it out on a K6-2 400 OCed to 500, no radiator, just a bucket of water. with a small socket 7 cooler, MBM 5 reads 29, but the heastink feels slightly warm so it may be the right temp(add a few degrees). this is the temp while typing this meassage.

[Silver]

I'm running the danger den 2/1 with a 500 gph danner. The DD block has 1/2 inch fittings but I would really like to know if the channels are truly 1/2 inch. The reason that I suspect this is I built a water sink using three 1/4 inlets and three 1/4 outlets and I could open up 40 more holes in my water head (read shower head) that previusly I had nail polished shut in order to get a good spray pattern. This would indicate to me either less than 1/2 channels or a highly restrictive flow pattern in the block. Soon I think the stove will get the better of me and I shall open the block to have a look see.

[SteenkyBastage]

well, i cant say this for a fact, but i am 95% sure that when you get 1/2" fittings on the DD maze (or any waterblock), that means the OD (outer diameter) of the barb fits the ID (inner) of the tube.

for instance, my maze2 came with 3/8" barbs, which i use 3/8" ID tubeing to fit onto that.

maybe i'm wrong, and am just forcing smaller tube on it, idunno, but it seems to fit fine for me.

if what i think is right, then you have to subtract the ammt of metal making up the barb to figure out what the ID is of the maze block. (ex: only measure the hole instead of the circumference of the barb)