Going to do a liquid cooling loop in my pc soon, but never done one before. I know the very basics. That loop should be reserv.>pump>radiator>gpu>cpu>radiator>res. My questions are. What are good brands for pump, radiator and cpu block? Which ones are best in your opinion. What tubing size is most common and best to work with? I am assuming you need fitting compressions on on both sides of the tube on all the tubes? Any advice is highly appreciated =]
If you're doing two radiators put them in between components, if you can. rad>CPU>rad>GPU. Unless you want to make sure one component of the other sees cooler water? I have a Swiftech H220 all in one...It's based off of this particular CPU block/pump combo. http://www.swiftech.com/ApogeeDrive2.aspx The cool thing about it is that it's driven with the motherboards PWM so the fans and pump all change speed based on CPU utilization. Plus it's very compact. Pretty much everything uses G1/4 fittings. Yeah, most people use compression tube fittings. You could get away with hose barbs and hose clamps too...Every bit of water cooled scientific equipment I use does it that way, I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a computer, if it's easier/cheaper.
the Swiftech H220 is a pretty sweet setup, if your gonna completely piece it together yourself, id still recomend swiftech for many components. I have no personal experience with compression fittings, but with some barbs and hose clamps work just fine, ive even used zipties instead of hose clamps successfully on soft tubing. I have found that with enough pump flow, order does not matter. (cept you always want reservoir before pump) Becuase eventually it all evens out. Do order based off having the best hose setup, least amount of bends and kinks. I went with 1/2" hosing, but i honestly wish i had gone 3/8", no difference in performance, but much many more options and much more affordable. Id recommend an MCP355 pump (or any of its variants from other companies). Also, the Apogee Drive II mentioned above is an MCP355 pump built into the block, ive heard good things about it, and seems a fantastic space save (hate trying to mount pumps) As far as cpu block, i use an XSPC Raystorm, and it works great.
Thanx for advice. Im going with 1/2 and MCP655 pump. Koolance 380i for my cpu block and 360+240 radiators.
While I have never used compression fittings for water cooling, I use them all the time at work for industrial automation stuff. Most of our air lines hold 100 psi with some of them going up to 150 psi. That much pressure is far more than you would have in a water cooling system so I see no problem with using them in a computer. I even think they would be safer to use than a barbed fitting. Besides, if either fitting were to leak you are going to use non-conductive liquid right?
Compression fitting just make setting water cooling loop fast and hassle free. Plus they look cool. Im gonna be using koolance non conductive fluid.