Need opinions on Tubing.

Hey all. I'm ordering parts after a week of research and forum readings. Thanks for those who have been helping me out. These are my final list.

Copper TDX Block for Athlon64 754/939/940
Low Profile Acetal Version MAZE4GPU
Danger Den DDC-12V
Black Ice Pro Radiator
Danger Den Dual 3 1/2" Floppy Bay Reservoir

All of these have 1/2" ID Tubing and 1/2" OD Fitting except the pump which has 3/8" Fitting. Is this okay or I have to buy something. The tube I'm looking at is Tygon® Laboratory Tubing 1/2" I.D. 3/4" O.D. and 1/8" wall. I have few questions regarding of tubes.

1.) Is this good for my set up? I have heard that the thicker the wall the better. ANd I also like the look of really thick tube, is this the thickest tube with 1/2" ID?

2.) How many feet of tubings should I order? I have Antec P160. Im going to watercool cpu and gpu.

Coolermaster Aerogate 1
Panaflo 120x38mm Medium Speed (Radiator Fan)
Delta 120x25mm Triple Blade Low Speed (Front Intake Fan)

3.) Do you think that 1 rad and 2 case fans are enough to cool sufficiently with little oc? For now I'm looking more toward noise/looks side than performance.

4.) What else I'm missing here? I think I need hose clamp, shroud, UV Dye, water additive, anti-freeze. Do I need those fitting thingy? (elbow tube or alikes)

I think I'm pretty set with the whole thing but I might miss out some stuff. Please let me know. Thanks

Edited: Do I need one of those arctic cooling thermal grease compound stuff??

what i'd recommend to you is to search www.mcmaster.com for part number 5233K44 and get 25' of it. it's cheap, has a great bend radius, and is much smaller than 1/2" id tubing. it is tight over 1/2" barbs (a good thing) and i run mine without clamps. for the 3/8" barbs you'd need clamps.

for 1/2" id tubing 1/8" wall is the good stuff. your fans are not the issue here, the issue is that the BIP is a little weak for cooling a processor and video card.

you've listed everything you need, but the shroud is optional (i don't know if one is made for the BIP anyways). You definitely want to get AS5 paste.

1/2" ID x 3/4" OD (1/8" wall) Clearflex60 is my suggestion - its sold @ mcmaster under the name Chemical PVC Tubing (same page as Tygon R-3603)

FYI You can get all the DD components with 3/8" barbs.

They do make shrouds for the BIP.

A BIP will work for cooling both GPU and CPU although don't expect anything special out of it. A BIX would do a better job. But ideally somethnig in the 120.2 range would do you better. Or dual Rads if you just can't fit a rad that large in yoru case.

1/8" wall tubing is what you want.

Check my tubing stick for some info on tubing. Price/performance clearflex and masterkleer are the most popular.

Sheer performance TYGON.

The tygon is nice for really tight bends. Clearflex60 bends very well, but Tygon is more flexible. Unless you have some tight bends, go with the Clearflex 1/2"ID 3/4"OD mentioned above on mcmaster (catalog p 85) for .68 cents a foot. Their "Type 430 Stainless Steel Nonperforated Worm-Drive Hose and Tube Clamps" on page 213 are really good also btw.

i'm curious if you guys recommending 1/2" have tried the 7/16"?
don't take it the wrong way, i'm genuinely curious.

I haven't yet, but I think my next rebuild I will probably order some, just to check it out. For my particular setup I don't know that it will do much for me, I have very gentle curves in my setup, so not sure the added pressure would do all that much.

But I do want to give it a try just to see how easy/difficult it is to work with and any pros or cons there may be associated with it.

The only 7/16" tubing I have seen is medical grade Tygon from usplastics for $2.18 per foot. Is there some other kind or place to get this? I don't know if it is worth the price difference compared to .68 for 1/2"ID 1/8" walled Clearflex60.

Thanks for all the replies. As for radiator, I cant fit anything bigger than single rad and I'm planning to use low noise fan; therefore, BIP is a better choice for me here. I know that this set up will not give me any extraordinary performance but it will be quiet and still yield better result ocing compared to air cooled, hopefully. I'm just stating my reasons, not being arrogant or anything.

For tubing, I'm going for this one, 5233K68, Masterkleer General Purpose Clear PVC Tubing 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 1/8". The reason I choose this is because Tygon is wayyyy expensive, close to $100 at 25', and Masterkleer performs as well as Clearflex but looks better. I also like the look of thick tubes better.

I'll be trying out 7/16" tubing in my next setup. Mcmaster.com #5233K44, $0.37/ft, 25ft. minimum, great price.

Should be sweet.

I read the tubing stickied, but it didnt say too much about the difference in performance between 1/2' and 7/16'. Can someone elaborate on that please?

I don't know how committed you are to Danger Den, and 1/2" tubing, but you might want to check out the Corsair Cool kit. It has the same pump, same radiator, and a comparable CPU WB. You'd have to add a GPU WB, and it comes with 3/8" tubing, but its only $170 shipped on pricegrabber. And it comes with a radbox for mounting the radiator outside the case's exhaust port and a 5.25" reservoir. This is likely the set-up I'll get, for a total of $210 including a Swiftech GPU WB. Just a suggestion.

Wireless-G said:

I don't know how committed you are to Danger Den, and 1/2" tubing, but you might want to check out the Corsair Cool kit. It has the same pump, same radiator, and a comparable CPU WB. You'd have to add a GPU WB, and it comes with 3/8" tubing, but its only $170 shipped on pricegrabber. And it comes with a radbox for mounting the radiator outside the case's exhaust port and a 5.25" reservoir. This is likely the set-up I'll get, for a total of $210 including a Swiftech GPU WB. Just a suggestion.

Click to expand...

That is actually a good deal but I want 1/2" tubing and I am trying to fit everything inside my pc. Plus, I already ordered my parts and I think I'm going to stick with it. DD has good gpu block if you are upgrading to SLI later though. Thanks for suggestion.

well here's the deal on 7/16":
i have had tygon and clearflex 1/2" id, thin walled and thick. i've always thought it too bulky, never had too much trouble with bends. one day cathar recommeneded 7/16" id tubing out of the blue, and it stuck in my mind. he was saying that 7/16" id perfectly matches the 1/2" barbs we use (in terms of inner diameter) and that causes less friction of the loop (wrong word i know) and the size is between 3/8 and 1/2 so it's almost no loss from 1/2" id.
I got 50' of it because it was only $22 shipped. i love it and won't go back to "bulky" 1/2" id tubing

I don't see how you could wrong with 7/16" tubing. I'm definitely looking forward to using it...