Please help me with my loop layout

[isaksn]

Hi:) Been watching this and the old water cooled thread for a couple of years for inspiration, but never posted. Now I need some help choosing the best layout for my loop. I know the systems not finished, but not far from it. The case is a bit hacked up, and the components aren't the newest, systems nothing near as beautiful as most posted here, but bear with me. Had a lot of different parts and 20+ different mobos in the case. so lots of mods done.

Here are the two different layouts I've come up with. I dropped cooling the NB in this rev. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.
I am sorry about the poor quality, I don't have a real camera at hand:mad:

[shazza]

The first one looks a bit cleaner to me ... second one is a bit complicated.

Is that a Thermaltake reservoir? I'm not quite following what it is connected to. Normally the res is set so water will flow from it into the pump ...

[Holst]

First one looks better to me as well.

I think he has just removed the res-pump hose shazza

[isaksn]

i think nr. 2 looks cleaner, I'm just worried about the could be bend from the GFX. Right now the thermaltake reservoir isnt connected to anything. Should have a tube straight to the pump. If you can see in the upper picture, these are just mockups. Didn't see the second reply. Okay, you guys are the experts. I could try to take some pictures with a better camera. No difference in temps by having GFX before CPU? CPU is a Q9550 stable @ 3825. GFX HD5850, 8G DDR2 RAM on a P5Q deluxe, 2 raptor 150x raid and 5 more disks.

[Holst]

The reason I chose number one was that there are no tight bends.

The only change I would make would be to move the res closer to the pump.
The reason being is that you will then be able to remove the CPU or GPU without getting tangled up in the other hoses too much. The way it is at the moment you can easily remove the GPU but the CPU block will get stuck on the pipe going from the GPU to the rad. Move the res over to the right and the pipes wont get in each others way.

[isaksn]

How much does tight bends affect performance? 1 just looks better IRL:p: not in these pics though. I can see what you are thinking with the res. Where would you have the tube from the CPU to the res then? I read that the CPU block preferred the outlet to be in the upper left position. Also I was thinking this is the last of hardware changes I will be doing to this computer(thats why I care so much about the loop layout) so I dont think easy removing is a priority. Where the res is now its just a snug fit between the case wall and the PCI brackets. Here is another better picture. Def seems like a kink in the tube from GFX to RES.:down

BTW, that Tt reservoir is the only usable watercooling product they've ever made...

[Church]

Are those card-slot bezels you used to distance external rad?

[Waterlogged]

BTW, that Tt reservoir is the only usable watercooling product they've ever made...

I think the multitude of ppl that have had them crack would disagree with you. ;) The only Tt water cooling product that never fails is the one that never leaves the warehouse shelf. :p:

Get rid of the res and get a nice Micro res from Swiftech, it'll solve that bend issue too.;)

[Johnny87au]

Are those card-slot bezels you used to distance external rad?

Lol looks like it doesnt it, First time i've seen that .. :yepp:

[penguins]

I think the multitude of ppl that have had them crack would disagree with you. ;) The only Tt water cooling product that never fails is the one that never leaves the warehouse shelf. :p:

Get rid of the res and get a nice Micro res from Swiftech, it'll solve that bend issue too.;)

weird i never had one Crack, just pump died first 20 minutes of using it, still 'worked' for 4 years tho : )

edit: this is just a really they crack? huh makes sense comment.

edit2: @OP what additives do you use in your water ? that's used tube, right?

[isaksn]

No cracks in my res yet and I've had it for years. The Tt pump works too.

@penguins I used Feser One Blue for about a 1,5 years running in those tubes. Also mixed in some Aquacomputer antikorrosion stuff. A friend of mine(gamer 24/7) borrowed my computer while I was away in the army.

@churchy, Johnny87au, yeah those are PCI covers I've bent to fit. Works okay, and blends pretty well with the rest of the case. I know, ghetto, but I really don't have a lot of money. I used to use MB standoffs that I screwed together to the right length. THAT was flimsy...:shakes:

Thanks for not criticizing me:up: Reason I haven't posted before now was that I was flamed from hell a couple of years ago when i posted some pics on a Norwegian forum(I'm from Norway) totally de-motivated me. Back then I had 4 Black Ice Pro 120mm rads inside the case and cooling on the NB too. Which I thought was pretty amazing. I've made wheels for the case, put a carrying strap on it and put a window in the sidepanel too. But I have 4 sidepanels and rarely use the one with the window as it didn't come out nicely.

Isak

Edit: I think its just the picture that makes it look like one of the PCI covers is shorter. Not sure;)

[Church]

Hmm, multiple mobo standoffs sounds flimsy, yeah. Imho using some threaded rods of needed length/thread size from some hardware store would be more trusty. Speaking about getho ext rad mount i've seen old fans used as distancers most often (though in some cases those might have been very similar looking to fan rad mount by swiftech).

[isaksn]

I've been looking for threaded bolts, but the size of the holes on the rad are very small, so wouldn't fit anything I found or what fit would be flimsy. I've used two hacked up fans but as a sort of swiftech radbox, but i use dualscreen, and I wouldn't be able to fit my cable in the graphics card. And I'm not buying another fan just to hack it up...

Edit: I'll keep looking for threaded bolts!

[Church]

I meant not exactly bolts but rather metal rods without any head but thread in all of it's length.

[isaksn]

Got some new options I need your opinions on:)

[isaksn]

bump

[Johnny87au]

Only thing i could think of doing is ditching that res and picking up a swift micro res, mounting it on the bay cage and turn the pump so the back of the pump is facing towards us.. that way tubing would be alot cleaner and easier to bleed, And use 1 loop with 2 rads :)