Drain line

Ok so i'm about to start my first WC build within the next two days. I'm trying to out how I want to setup my drain. These are the options I have come up with.

Link for res i'm using: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8..._Reservoir_12_ID_and_38_ID.html?tl=g30c97s165

Option one:

take a 1/2 inch barb, zip tie it to about a foot of tube and screw it in to the top port of the res when I want to drain it.

Option two:

setup a t-line a little after the res with about 6" of tubing with a cap to close it off and drain from that tube.

I'd like to go with option two is so when I hook up my intake and outake barbs to the res I'd like to use the top port as the intake so I can get a small waterfall effect/flow meter out of it. I'd like to hear what everyone thinks is the better option and any pros and cons you can think of. Also if you like option two could anyone recommend a good way to cap off the t-line? Thanks.

typically fillports are on the res and drainports are at the lower point in the loop so gravity can help as much as possible.

That said, of the given options I would put it on the res so that you can just drain out the res and then take everything else out...I can't really annunciate my envisioned method.

Using the top port will create turbulence. Meaning bubbles probably. Meaning you'll never be able to bleed the loop. You can try it if you like.

A tube from the bottom of the res with a tube to something like this is common, but there are many different ways. There is a thread/poll here on how do you drain your loop. Lots of pics etc.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...oduct_info&cPath=59_346_344&products_id=20601

I was thinking about bubbles being an issue, so I was kind of leaning towards option one. I just don't want to use any type of flow meter. I've heard too many horror storys, but at the same time it sounds like it would be helpful to have one. I was looking at this as an option with the add on to plug it in to the mobo.

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=740

Few use them. Just not needed. If I remember right you picked parts carefully and will have no problems with flow rates. You do know any flow meter availible to us normal users actually restricts flow rates? You could buy one like Skinnee uses, a lab flow meter.

The Koolance one will restrict flow, look at it (pics close up) and think about it.

Cold71 said:

I was thinking about bubbles being an issue, so I was kind of leaning towards option one. I just don't want to use any type of flow meter. I've heard too many horror storys, but at the same time it sounds like it would be helpful to have one. I was looking at this as an option with the add on to plug it in to the mobo.

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=740

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I made the mistake of buying one of these once. First of all, the rotor makes an incredibly loud and annoying high pitched squeak. I fixed that by duct taping a sock around it But then it stopped working entirely within about a month. The rotor is stuck. Not so surprising since it's just a cheap piece of plastic. As far as I can tell, there really is no quality flow meter available that's suitable for a WC loop.

I don't know what kind of res you're considering, but an advantage of a bay res is that you can see the flow directly -- when water is flowing, the water level on the side with the in port is higher than on the side with the out port.

Yea I was thinking that it would cause some sort of bottleneck. I may just upgrade to a bay port res later on. I'm running a mid tower right now so i'm a little short on bay space. I may pull my hardly used Kreon or blue ray drive and slap in a res.

Bay reses have one problem. Unless you can fit a fill port tube to them they can be very hard to fill. Usually have to pull them back or foward to fill. They look nice.

Visually monitoring flow rates is nice, but if the flow stops while you step out for 5 minutes the 'visual' does nothing for you. Having auto temp shutdown on the CPU is the best most reliable method. My CPU loads at 55C, so I have auto shutdown at 75C, way way below any damage to my system.

My GPU loop is seperate, and it has no safeguards. The pump has been working great for almost two years, I check my water level every few weeks and look for the teeny bit of waves in my res. It's enough for me.

Conumdrum said:

Bay reses have one problem. Unless you can fit a fill port tube to them they can be very hard to fill. Usually have to pull them back or foward to fill. They look nice.

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Good point. That's why I recommend an access panel in the top of the case:

You also have to be careful when bleeding to always keep the water level high since it's easy to create a vortex with a bay res.

Visually monitoring flow rates is nice, but if the flow stops while you step out for 5 minutes the 'visual' does nothing for you. Having auto temp shutdown on the CPU is the best most reliable method. My CPU loads at 55C, so I have auto shutdown at 75C, way way below any damage to my system.

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That's something pretty low level in the BIOS right?

QBobWatson said:

That's something pretty low level in the BIOS right?

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correct...usually under like PCHealth or something.

I'll have to set something like that up myself. I've got Asus PC Probe setup right now so a really loud alarm goes off non-stop when it reaches past 110F, loud enough to wake me up even if i'm three+ rooms away.

Conumdrum said:

Bay reses have one problem. Unless you can fit a fill port tube to them they can be very hard to fill. Usually have to pull them back or foward to fill. They look nice.

Visually monitoring flow rates is nice, but if the flow stops while you step out for 5 minutes the 'visual' does nothing for you. Having auto temp shutdown on the CPU is the best most reliable method. My CPU loads at 55C, so I have auto shutdown at 75C, way way below any damage to my system.

My GPU loop is seperate, and it has no safeguards. The pump has been working great for almost two years, I check my water level every few weeks and look for the teeny bit of waves in my res. It's enough for me.

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Worth a redo. I was wrong. My high end mobo only has alarm, where the speaker on the mobo will alarm when temps on the CPU go above 60 to 90 C. I have mine set at 70C. I have thermal throttling on too. Never came on so I don't know what it sounds like.

Sorry about that, I don't dig in my bois that often anymore.

There's an option in there for CPU thermal shutdown, which is the CPU protecting itself, but that's an enabled or disabled thing and will only crash you at ~105C on the i7 line