water cooling circuit order

i was always under the impression you want you cpu first after your pump and your radiator (and tline/reservoir) just before the pump inlet. however, as my parts arival, for my first build, draws near, I am reading instance where people did it differently: being the pump to the rad to the cpu block..

does it matter, if so, which is correct?

Welcome.

As long as your res is before pump, I don't think it matters. I don't know why you would put the rad before the CPU block tho...

i've been watercooling for years now, all my setups have been res>pump>rad>cpu>gpu>res and i've never had temp or flow issues.

admael said:

Welcome.

As long as your res is before pump, I don't think it matters. I don't know why you would put the rad before the CPU block tho...

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If you put the radiator before the block, that ensures that you will how the lowest temperature of the loop going into the CPU. Although, the most it can really vary is in the 1c range.

alright, thanks for the input. i just want to make sure it wouldnt affect flow.

one of the quick question, to use a psu with out it connected to the mobo, is it just simply grounding the 14 pin?

phil178821 said:

alright, thanks for the input. i just want to make sure it wouldnt affect flow.

one of the quick question, to use a psu with out it connected to the mobo, is it just simply grounding the 14 pin?

Click to expand...

Ground green to black.

just wanted to check! Thanks guys..

Building this project ahead of schedule (still at my school dorm) so I dont have my second PSU to run leak test with. That said, I'd hate to blow my one PSU I have here!

thanks again.

Its been proven time and time again that most watercooling loops vary .5c or less across the loop in temps. Ideally, having the order of pump-rad-cpu-gpu-res-pump is optimal, but that is not the only factor to consider. You want your loop to be the simplest possible not using unnecessary tubing, and you want it to go in a simple circular route of bottom to top to bottom. That is far more important than worrying about trying to keep to a specific order.

Most of my loops so far have ended up being pump-gpu-cpu-rad-res-pump due to ease of tubing routing and location of the rad.

You do want the res/t-line immediately before the pump both for filling/bleeding issues and to avoid negative pressure on the pump inlet.

ah.. the things i will do for my water cooling.. just walked like two miles carrying 4 gallons of distilled water.. man i wish i were back in the shape of my football days ..

thanks for the input guys..