Tubing for Water-cooling.

mustang_steve

mustang_steve

c[H]ewbacca
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
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ID= Inner diameter. The measurement from one inside edge to teh other inside edge.

OD= Outer Diameter. The measurement from one outside edge to the other outside edge.

For tubing it works like this:

For a barb of size X, you need a tubing with an ID of X (like 3/8 and 3/8), most gear use barbs. Make sure you buy the propersize hose clamps for these as well, use OD to determine what hose clamp to get.

For a speedfit you go by OD. A 1/2" speedfit uses a 1/2" OD tube
A good example of this type of fitting are the swiftech waterblocks.

For a clamping barb, you need the ID and OD specified. A Good example are the fittings used on the Xice watercooling system.

Here's something else, you want a 1/8" wall thicknes on your tubing to reduce the chances of kinking. The cheater's formula for wall thickness is (OD - ID)/2


You should only use the cheap home depot junk tubing if you are experimenting with layouts. Your real install should be done with proper tubing. Tygon and clearflex are the two most common choices. Some also use silicone tubing.
 
Thx.

But I like to be 100% sure about things so I think I may have it down but I want to make sure So here is what I would like to do let me know if it will work and what I may need to make it work.

Radiator
Black Ice Xtreme
$66
DangerDen.com

Pump
Eheim 1250
$68
DangerDen.com

Water Block
Swifttech MCW5002-P
$53
FrozenCPU.com

Tubing
5ft Tygon Anti-Kink ½” ID Tubing
$15.75
FrozenCPU.com

Fill & Bleed kit
Swiftech FBK525 3/8" ID Fill & Bleed Kit
$28
FrozenCPU.com

Additive
Swiftech Green UV Reactive HydrX Coolant
$10
FrozenCPU.com

Thermal Paste
Arctic Silver 5
$7.29
DangerDen.com

Reusable Clamps
1/2" ID Reusable Clamp
$10
FrozenCPU.com

I know that I will need a radiator fan, and Will probably not use resuable Clamps. But let me know if this will all work and what not. Knowing me this will not work but I am not sure and so there it is.

Thx
 
A few problems.

Your using 1/2" ID tubing, so everything should be for 1/2" ID

That means your fill/bleed kit is going to restrict flow badly, a better idea is a resevior, or getting a T-fitting and making a T-line. The drive bay resevoirs are rather common.

For your clamps, you meant to say OD right? BTW, you can buy worm type clamps from home depot for about 70cents a peice if not less.

Just since this is your first rig, go for at 10-15ft of tubing, everyone makes mistakes their first time.

And remeber that AS5 is very messy and has metal inside of it, so to be safe consider it electrically conductive, and apply it carefully and deliberately. If you feel uncomfortable with using conductive materials around your CPU, AS Ceramique is pretty good stuff.

And you seem to have forgot a relay kit for your pump, unless you plan on leaving it plugged in all the time. A relay will turn on your pump when you turn your PC on and off when you turn your pc off. You can get a kit for about $20. If you wnat to make one, the cost is far lower.

Just remeber that in watercooling you add one more element of design to your system. Now instead of just efficient airflow, you have effiecient waterflow to deal with as well. Use as little elbows as possible, and try to make everything as strightforward as possible.

Typical layout for watercooling is:

Pump -> Rad -> Fill system -> CPU -> Any other blocks added -> pump


Reason for the pump to be before the rad is that most pumps cool themselves by dissipating the heat into the water, so the water will be its hottest right after the pump (not a big diff anyway but it's there), so that is the spot to put your radiator.

You picked some good gear there, so you should be alright, jsut take your time in installing it all.
 
So yeah I don't know what was going on in my little n00by brain.

Yeah in my list of stuff I have written down I do have a relay switch on it. just thought it was a given but thx though up untill I think a day i had no clue about that.

How hard would it be to set up a T-fitting to make a T-line I literally just saw a mod with one and thought that would be easiir or closer to what I want. How could I go about putting one of them together? Know any site with some info on it? I can see how u would hook the hoses up but what about the cap is my only real Q about a T-line.

Thx alot Id be lost in a state of n00b if not for you.
 
Your mileage may vary but ... I got 10 feet of tubing initially, and after experimenting with a few layouts, and finally arriving (after about 4 weeks of various ideas) at a respectable setup I had *just* enough tubing... Along the way I had cut various pieces here and there, etc. I'd go with more than 5 feet of tubing, just to save a trip to the store or waiting for a shipment.

Regardless of "anti kink" tubing (sorry -- I don't trust it), if you have a semi-cramped case setup and anticipate any sharp turns in your tubing, which can happen if you run your cpu and northbridge and gpu all in series at any point, consider looking for some springs that will fit in the gauge of tubing you'll be using - you've probably seen these in pics of some setups on the net and there are some in the tubing of your fill and bleed kit. They can help reduce kinks. I'm not 100% sure if it helps to introduce minor turbulence into your liquid flow, but I've heard people suggest it helps cooling (shrug).

I have the same fill and bleed kit you're looking to get - it's pretty cool and works really well. Make sure to use a tiny bit of dielectric grease on the outer surface of the tubes when you stick your filler tubes in there - they can be a bitch to get out sometimes, even with the easy connector mechanism in swifty components. Some swiftech gear includes a handy little wrench-ish tool to help disconnect tubes.. You may want to ask around about these if one isn't included with any of your equipment.

Also, the fill and bleed bay is great and everything but I'm finding myself wanting to complement it with a resevoir now. If you can pick one up for cheap, go for it. If your budget is decent, go for a funky-looking innovatek resevoir. (innovatek.de)

Finally, don't skimp on the pump if you can help it.. Later on when you're playing with extreme configurations you'll thank yourself for going the extra 20 or 30 bucks or whatever it is for the 600gph pump. 300gph quickly turns into like 15-40% of that when you introduce tubing and components and all that jazz.. A lot of the gph ratings for pumps you see are done in terms of the pump just on its own and not with anything else connected.. (see www.overclockers.com for some technical articles that explain this). If you're going for overclocking this will be important.

Good luck and happy cooling.. Make sure you let us know how it goes and maybe post some pics when you get that barton or p4 clocked way up.. :cool:
 
Will the MCW5002 water block restrict my flow? I am not 100% sure how to read the charts on overclockers.com so I cannot tell lol.. Give it time I will learn.

BTW I am planning on getting the Criticool PowerPlant PCI Relay Card. From Dangerden.com

Or just the Pump Relay Switch Kit just.
 
If I went with the Eheim 1260 (was 1060) 110/120 Volt - 600 GPH would I need the adapters for it?? If you check out at Dangerden.com u will see what I mean. And why in the world is there hose holder thingy........ that should be in front?
 
In case you were set on getting that Swifty F&B kit, but are being held up just by the dimensions, I believe that cooltechnica.com carries the 1/2" ID version of it, although they are sold out at the moment. :)
 
a restrictive cpu block is good if it's properly designed, and the swiftech block is. It was designed for maximum water to surface contact. The downside to this is it will reduce your flow rate, so a stronger pump is reccomended. 300gph pumps tend to work well with it.

If you go with a swiftech vidcard block, those also have the same design as the cpu block. Swiftech's chipset block however is just a hollow cavity with fittings, so it's not going to hurt flowrates by much.

Your not looking to remove all restriction, if you were the drilled block design would still be in use. Your just looking to remove unnecessary restriction.

And about small cases, I just moved from a small case to a larger caseafter geting fed up with the constant hassles of dealing with tube kinks, lack of any space to work with, etc. If you want a visual aid in what too small is, go to the link in my signature. That doesnt mean you need a full tower, just to make sure your case has the room for everything you want to put in it, and a little room for upgrading. Sorry no pics of the new case yet, gonna do that after I finish filling it.
 
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