Need some help selecting the correct angled fittings from someone with some expe

Hello, building my first water loop and I have selected evertying that I am going to use except for what angle fittings I will be using. I have an idea for how it is going to look when I am done but I would like to get some opinions from some users with some experience so I can be sure that the fittings I have are going to work well.

Here is a badly drawn picture of what I am going to be working with. The res is a Photon 170.



Judging from the image I think that I am going to need:

2x 90 degrees for the top right res connectors
2x 45 for the cpu block
1x standard fitting for the top fitting and 1x 45 or 90 for the bottom fitting for the gpu
2x 45 for the res
2x standard for the 280 rad on the bottom, especially considering it will have push/pull


Does anyone else have any input?

P.S. I know the image is not drawn to scale well. The fan on the bottom will not be getting in the way of the tubing on the rad at all and the 280 rad will not have fans that close to the res. There should be about 2cm of space between the second set of fans and the Photon.

Almost forgot, loop order is going to be res>280 rad>gpu>cpu>420 rad> res
or it is going to be res>280>gpu>420>cpu>res
Just depends how much tubing I want to show.
I know it won't affect temps, but it still irks me a bit that the water goes straight from the hot gpu to cool the hot cpu. :/

First off, you don't need the front rad if all you're going to cool is the CPU and a single GPU
Second, i would suggest you do the push option(420mm rad up top, , 4 fan push air up, look nicer.
By the way, what case is that?

You may want to to it this way, this way, you don't have tubing criss cross each other, look better

The case is a Corsair 750D. I have already decided that I am going to get the two rads and I know it is going to be a little overkill. I want to have very slow spinning fans for a completely silent build. Plus it just looks so much better with a rad taking up that space on the front and if I decide to SLI in the future I'm all set to go!

The reason that I am going for a pull config is because I am getting the NF-A14's from Noctua and I'd like to hide them as much as possible.


I like the idea to just drill a hole in the bottom of the 5.25 bays for sure. I think that I will do that since I don't plan to use them for anything else anyway. Do you have any recommendations on what angle of fittings I should get though? Do you think what I have listed in the OP is going to be ok and not cause kinks? The whole reason that I am asking is that I just have not handled water cooling tubes before so I don't know how pliable they are exactly. I figure someone with some experience could really help me out here.

Still a 420mm rad should be ok with a CPU AND A SINGLE gpu set up, even with with 2 card, it should be ok, after all, even with your best water cooling set up, you won't get more than 2c below room temp.
Another thing is you don't need to usr low speen fan, even with medium speed fan, you will barely hear anything one you start gaming or watching movie.
Tubing, i use Primochill advance LRT tubing, they're pretty flexible, been using them in my last 3 build.
Go and buy around 8 compression fitting, grap a couple of 45 just incase, no need the 90 degree unless you go through tight space, however the 90 degree, they bench like magic

Would you say that the Bitspower fittings are really worth the price? I am getting a very large case and I am not cramming it to the limit so I do not think that I am going to need so versatile and expensive fittings. They do look very, very nice though.

I was thinking something cheaper like Alphacool compression fittings.

So since 90 degrees are really not needed I'll probably get some 45 for the res and the rest can be standard fittings. Then my rig will keep a much cleaner look.

I only use Koolance brand, Koolance CPU water block, Koolance GPU water block, Koolance fitting.

Ah I see now.

They look very similar to the bitspower fittings. How do you use those? What part compresses the tubes?

Also, what size tubing do you prefer? I am most likely getting 3/8 5/8 but I am not sure if I want the thicker look of 3/4 OD tubes just yet.

I don't believe those are compression fittings, they look like they're just rotaries.

That would explain it then. Thanks! BTW m0r7, would you mind sharing your opinion about what angles I should use for my loop? One thing that I am not quite sure how to tackle is the tube that is going to go down from the top rad to the res. I don't want it to wrap around the res because I am not going to like that look, but I don't know where else to put the tube. Other than that there doesn't seem to be much issue with anything else.

GPU to CPU is pretty simple
CPU to 420 rad simple
420 to res, I'm really not sure
res to 280 will require a 45 fitting but otherwise not a problem
280 to GPU will not be a problem at all

Also, what is the deal with Bitspower fittings? I don't see why they are so expensive but I do like the well hidden labels. Is there any reason for the high price?

If you really want angle fittings go for it but I don't see you needing angles on most of those. I would start with some standard barbs or compression fittings then buy angle where you require it. I made the mistake of buying a bunch based on what I thought I needed then ended up using one.

BugFreak said:

If you really want angle fittings go for it but I don't see you needing angles on most of those. I would start with some standard barbs or compression fittings then buy angle where you require it. I made the mistake of buying a bunch based on what I thought I needed then ended up using one.

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Alright I think that I will just get two then. I have a feeling that I am going to need them on the res since it is going to be a little tight with the second set of fans on the front rad and since the ports point outwards. Other than that you are right I probably don't need any more.

Thank you for the help!

hfcobra said:

That would explain it then. Thanks! BTW m0r7, would you mind sharing your opinion about what angles I should use for my loop? One thing that I am not quite sure how to tackle is the tube that is going to go down from the top rad to the res. I don't want it to wrap around the res because I am not going to like that look, but I don't know where else to put the tube. Other than that there doesn't seem to be much issue with anything else.

GPU to CPU is pretty simple
CPU to 420 rad simple
420 to res, I'm really not sure
res to 280 will require a 45 fitting but otherwise not a problem
280 to GPU will not be a problem at all

Also, what is the deal with Bitspower fittings? I don't see why they are so expensive but I do like the well hidden labels. Is there any reason for the high price?

Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the tubing can make turns on its own, you don't have to do straight tubing runs unless you just want to. I have 0 rotary fittings to my name...nothing against them, I've just never needed them.

The bitspower fittings are expensive for a couple of reasons. They're popular and they look good, so they charge a premium. They're also (arguably) made better than most of the other fittings out there, so the manufacturing cost is higher.

BugFreak said:

If you really want angle fittings go for it but I don't see you needing angles on most of those. I would start with some standard barbs or compression fittings then buy angle where you require it. I made the mistake of buying a bunch based on what I thought I needed then ended up using one.

Click to expand...

This is basically where I stand on rotaries.

hfcobra said:

Ah I see now.

They look very similar to the bitspower fittings. How do you use those? What part compresses the tubes?

Also, what size tubing do you prefer? I am most likely getting 3/8 5/8 but I am not sure if I want the thicker look of 3/4 OD tubes just yet.

Click to expand...

The reason that i use Koolance brand is that they're readily available to me and i can get them for some what cheaper than the normal price.
Compression fitting is awesome, and they look much better than barb fitting.(check out pic)
Tubing, i use 1/2"id and 3/4"od tubing, large tubing allow more liquid to go through= more cool, but small tubing look better and they're a little more flexible than large tubing, your call

ASUS ROG said:

Tubing, i use 1/2"id and 3/4"od tubing, large tubing allow more liquid to go through= more cool

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I use the same tubing but that doesn't mean bigger will make your loop run cooler. That is relied upon how much heat surface is provided.

ASUS ROG said:

but small tubing look better and they're a little more flexible than large tubing, your call

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To each their own on what tubing you want to use but fact of the matter is the smaller tubing is prone to kinking much easier than bigger/thicker tubing.

Alright thanks for the answers!

I know that tubing doesn't matter for temps, the same volume is being pushed by the pump either way. Smaller tubes have faster moving water and larger tubes have slower moving water but the same volume of water per time will not change either way unless you turn your pump up.

Kinking is not something that I am really worried about doing since I have a decent amount of space left over (especially compared to some of the crazy WC builds I have seen). So I'm just deciding tube size for how I want it to look. I just wish pictures weren't so bad at scaling.

I admittedly did not read every post so if this has already been brought up forgive me.

If you're going to go through the trouble of using 2 rads why not go cpu>rad>gpu>rad?? The second rad going rad>cpu>gpu>rad is pointless in every sense of the word.

Luke1978 said:

If you're going to go through the trouble of using 2 rads why not go cpu>rad>gpu>rad?? The second rad going rad>cpu>gpu>rad is pointless in every sense of the word.

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Loop order doesn't really matter. The loop will neutralize or also know as equilibrium. Only one thing matters, reservoir before pump.

GTXJackBauer said:

Loop order doesn't really matter. The loop will neutralize or also know as equilibrium. Only one thing matters, reservoir before pump.

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Only for the CPU inlet/outlet. After that the GPU has to carry the increase in water temp from the CPU. Temp neutralization in a water loop is negated by the fact that it can only neutralize to itself once the loop cycles. Going rad>res>pump>rad>cpu>gpu>rad>res>pump>rad>cpu>gpu etc etc etc is inefficient, simple thermal dynamics. The cpu block warms the water up which is in turn carried to the gpu block. The GPU temp in the above fashion cannot be lower than the outlet temp of the cpu. Whereas if the loop goes rad>res>pump>cpu>rad>gpu and so on the inlet temp of the GPU should be ambient. Water between the cpu block and the gpu block doesn't have anything to neutralize to. Might only be a 6-10c degree difference in GPU temps but the fact remains that if someone is going to put time and money into doing this kind of setup mights well do it the most efficient way or not bother.

Luke1978 said:

Only for the CPU inlet/outlet. After that the GPU has to carry the increase in water temp from the CPU. Temp neutralization in a water loop is negated by the fact that it can only neutralize to itself once the loop cycles. Going rad>res>pump>rad>cpu>gpu>rad>res>pump>rad>cpu>gpu etc etc etc is inefficient, simple thermal dynamics. The cpu block warms the water up which is in turn carried to the gpu block. The GPU temp in the above fashion cannot be lower than the outlet temp of the cpu. Whereas if the loop goes rad>res>pump>cpu>rad>gpu and so on the inlet temp of the GPU should be ambient. Water between the cpu block and the gpu block doesn't have anything to neutralize to. Might only be a 6-10c degree difference in GPU temps but the fact remains that if someone is going to put time and money into doing this kind of setup mights well do it the most efficient way or not bother.

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The difference isn't that much. Plus CPU's are more sensitive than GPUs. The GPU can handle a higher delta than the CPU.