Best Tubing Size for water cooling

[Killing_Halo]

im gonna be running CPU BLOCK, NV-78 SLI water blocks for GPU what is the best size of tubing for water cooling and why ....1/2 or 3/8 ???

please provide reasoning behind your response

[neogenesis2004]

for a loop like that you need good flow and a good pump. 1/2" is the only way to go. I also recommend against the nv78's because they are flow killers. a gpu block and some ram sinks are all that are needed.

[3stars]

and remember those blocks that cover the ram on vid cards wont migrate from card to card i've got a temp probe on my ram and max is 45-50 under load

[soloz2]

I chose other because the best size is 7/16" ID tubing. You still use it with 1/2" barbs so you retain the greater flow of the larget ID tubing... but barbs are 1/2" OD while regular 1/2" ID tubing is ID (duh!) but the inside of the barbs and fittings are smaller than 1/2" so if you use 7/16" ID tubing you will have a more uniform loop ID than if you used 1/2" and you will have tighter fitting seals as the 7/16" ID tubing will fit slightly tighter over the barbs than will 1/2" ID tubing.

[neogenesis2004]

i agree with the above also!!

[red930]

Eh, I go for 1/2" - it's a pain to fit over some nozzles as it is, and certainly seals just fine with the plastic hoseclamps DD sells.

[ReMoose]

I tried both 1/2" and 7/16" in my current loop.

 

1/2"

Pros

Easy to fit over barbs

Looks neat

 

Cons

Can cause MINIMAL resistance as the ID is larger than that of the ID of the barbs

Crowds cases

 

 

7/16"

Pros

Tight fit over barbs

makes a clean look

doesnt crowd case

 

Cons

If its your first loop you may want to go 1/2" just for confusion sake

can be a pain to get over barbs

[DarthBeavis]

I use 3/8" with my setup (DD 78 SLI, DD TDX CPU block with brass top, 2 black Ice radiators, 2 low profile DD pumps). The 3/8 Tygon works great.

[Voltes-5]

I used 1/2" Tygon, but I messed up the tubing bacause of rerouting, easy to work with and did not have problems installing.

[Smoken Joe]

Entered wrong 10 mm tubing but silicon easy to get on tight fit and minimal bends better than 3/8 but I have no clue were to get it it is surplus.

[Praz]

I voted 7/16" Tygon for the reasons already mentioned. Had no problem fitting tubing over the barbs. Used a heat gun on the tubing.

[Mord]

Yep, 1/2"!

Running the sig (where I should update the cooling) with two custom copper WB. Highly efficient, non-restrictive, 800l/h pump, 1/2" ID Reimatic tubing, Golf2 heatercore (2x120mm fans @ 980rpm, sucking air). Deviation under 500mm

Opty 144 @ [email protected] (real, load, DMM)

Galaxy 7600GS G73, GDDR3 1.4ns (500/1400) @ 720/1800MHz, Vmoded (Vgpu [email protected], Vmem [email protected])

 

Ambient temp: 28*

Water in reservoir temp: 29/33*

CPU temp: 30/38*

GPU temp: 42/49*

 

Ambient temp: 25*

Water in reservoir temp: 27/32*

CPU temp: 30/36*

GPU temp: 38/44*

 

Load temps are after 5+ hours of BF2 1024x768, 4AA, 16AF, HQ, LOD -1. Pretty happy. Only con - the tubing looks HUGE.

 

At night I run it passive - only the pump and the chipset fan@2300rpm. Running Bitcomet, Download Master, StrongDC, QIP, CC Proxy, MBM5, Weather Watcher, Kaspersky, Loly-Pop - avg load 13%. Now I'm using a "home made C'n'Q", will post it in single thread. In the morning the temps are:

 

Ambient temp: 25*

Water in reservoir temp: 33*

CPU temp: 34*

GPU temp: 47*

 

Here's a screenie @ [email protected] (real, load, DMM) - 14hrs of SP2004 @ 25* ambient temp and everything at min rpm: