Miscellaneous watercooling setup questions

[Aepytus]

Hello - I'm building a first time watercooling setup for my 900 MHz T-Bird. Before I burn the bridges and start drilling into my copper block I had a few questions about the block and general setup. I've read the excellent articles on this site for drilling one's own waterblock and would like to try my hand at it, but I still have a few questions.

First of all, what is the best method for arranging the waterblocks (CPU and GPU)? I was thinking a 1/2" pump split into two lines, one 1/8 inch for the GPU and one 3/8 inch for the CPU. Is this necessary, or should I just split it evenly?

Second, how should the sum of the diameters of the collector channels within the waterblock compare to that of the intake and outake channels; more, less, or equal?

Finally, a question on cooling the water. Somewhere I saw a picture of a setup in which someone had mounted several feet of metal tubing in an 'S' pattern on the side of his case, the idea being one could let the water cool outside the case without using a fan. Comments?

Thanks,
A

[ButcherUK]

1/8" line is far too thin for the gfx card, if you're going for split I'd say 1/2" and 3/8" or just both 3/8", you don;t want to reduce to less than the 1/2".

Sum of channels should be equal as near as possible.

S-Radiator, might work for small load (say 30W or less), for a larger load a heatercore with low speed fan is better.

[Aepytus]

Thanks a bundle, but the next question is, what's a good 1/2" pump. I've got a pretty small case (mid-tower) and I'm hardly floating in cash :(

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Maxijet 1200 is only 3/8". I guess I could plunck down the money for an Eheim, but alternatives would be appreciated.

A

[UserName]

As long as you’re asking for opinions

3/8 is plenty. Note that 1/2 need not be any more flow than 3/8. It only has the POTENTIAL to flow more. The pump behind it makes a big difference. Also note that the bigger the pump the more heat it will make. Heat your cooling system is going to have to manage.

I would put the blocks in series not parallel. It is simpler and the water out of the CPU block is not going to be noticeably higher. At most 1 degree F.

[GoldenTiger]

It's best to use a Y-splitter. Otherwise, the GFX card heats up the CPU a lot, or vice versa. A Y-splitter is very inexpensive (1/2" on all lines), and a second one to recombine it at the radiator (split it in and out at the radiator). I'd recommend an Eheim 1250 pump. It will provide the GPH you need as well as being silent and highly reliable. It's very well-regarded :). It can be bought for $63 USD at DangerDen.com... not too bad.

[UserName]

I dissagree. Tiger here (http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?threadid=57679) says he had a rise of 0.2 degrees.

[ButcherUK]

Eheim 1048 is a nice 1/2" pump, highly recommended.