Parallel or Series Flow?

I'm planning on going to liquid cooling and looking at pics of other's setups I noticed lots of people have their gpu's in series flow. To me it seems more intuitive to put them in parallel flow. It decreases the stress on the pump and gives them equal cooling. If they are in series then the second card in the loop is cooled by the hot water exiting the first card. Is there some advantage to series flow that I'm missing?

I have not done water cooling before so any advice on who makes the best parts would also be valuable. My case is the TJ11 so install should be a breeze.

I personally run parallel on my GPUs. There are a few arguments for either configuration. First off parallel is more expensive as SLI fittings are not cheap($17 each for the koolance sliders I use). Second if your loop has any reasonable flow the temp difference at any point in the loop is less than 1c so that isnt really a major factor.
Ok so as I look at it, series flow gives higher flow rate on both GPUs resulting in slightly lower GPU temps, but reduces overall flow slightly. Parallel flow reduces flow on each GPU resulting in slightly higher temps, but increases overall flow some. I prefer parallel because GPUs are much more tolerant of high temps than CPUs are. The truth is that your talking 1-2c difference maximum on any component in the system depending on configuration.

Also I recommend that you check out the WC beginners guide and the water cooling stickes. There is alot to learn about water cooling and understanding whats going on a bit better will improve your satisfaction in the end, also it will likely prevent you from making unneeded and potentially expensive mistakes.

GL and dont forget to have fun!

Thanks, that all makes sense.

screen name said:

It decreases the stress on the pump and gives them equal cooling.

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there is no difference in " stress " on pumps.

thorilan said:

there is no difference in " stress " on pumps.

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System has more *head in series.