VenomSnake

I don't have a problem buying from the same manufacturer; except I can't find Barrow brand acrylic tubes. I did find Bits Power tubes and I wonder if they are compatible as stated in this forum. Just trying to be on the safe side. I didn't know about all the variations in tube sizes when I bought the PrimoChill tubes. They weren't that expensive so I am not going to complain about it. I will put them on eBay to salvage whatever I can get for them. Is there no one who can answer my question about midplates having anti-gravity qualities? :)?

I researched plenty before buying them and the consensus on many places was that Barrow fittings were the same quality as bitspower without the logo and the price tag. I didn't see anyone complain about their quality. I have the fittings and they look solidly built to me. For #3: how does the mid plate stay in place without any support? I was going to build one out of frosted acrylic and so it will be custom made. Does it stay in place because it's a tight fit? What's going to stop it from falling to the floor?

I have a few basic questions for my first liquid cooling build. Not all are liquid cooling related but I rather ask them in one go than make multiple threads. 1. I bought Primochill rigid acrylic 1/2" tubing from Amazon and a bunch of barrow fittings from Ali Express - the fittings were all made for 12mm tubes I believe. The Primochill tubing doesn't fit the fittings, The tubes are too big in diameter. I read somewhere that different companies use different standards (imperial vs. metric standard). I am guessing Barrow is using metric while Primochill is using imperial and they aren't compatible. I am not going to buy another set of fittings as they were much more expensive than the tubing. Buying 12mm tubing is a more practical option . Which brand of acryllic tubing will be compatible with Barrow fittings? 2. I got the EVGA SLI pro bridge v2 and it only goes into half of the SLI connector. Is that how it is supposed to be? Does the other half stay uncovered? See picture for reference. 3. I want to add a mid plate in my case - the case is a Corsair Air 540. I cut out the bottom plate as that was getting in the way of the tubes and mobo wires. I will put a custom mesh grill there to close the bottom area. The question is how does the mid plate stay in place? What kind of support does it need? I have seen and read a lot of tuturials and haven't found any info on it. 4. What's the best order of installing components in a liquid cooled system? Do I install everything first and then add tubes or do I install tubes and components at the same time as more and more room gets taken up by the components . Is there a "best practices" recommendation for setting it up? Thanks.

Well that settles it then :).

Thanks for the replies. So CLU is out at the moment because I want to play it safe. My new build isn't complete yet so I don't have the temps. Some of the recommended TIMs here so far are NT-H1 and Gelid exteme and MX-4, all of which have popped up in other forums I looked at. From what I have seen in most comparisons Gelid extreme or PK-3 have gotten better temps than NT-H1 and MX-4. Would that be a good assessment? Do either of those (PK-3/Gelid) have similar damaging effects on the heat spreader or do they behave like a normal TIM?

I am contemplating using coollaboratory liquid ultra for my water cooled build with XSPC Raystorm pro heatsink (I believe it's copper which is fine with CLU). So far, most comparisons show there isn't much of a difference in temps between CLU and leading TIMs (I see difference of 1-2 degrees in most comparisons). Some of the users said the difference is more prominent when it's applied to a delidded processor. I am not planning on doing that to a brand new i7 6700k - but I might talk myself into it if I am feeling adventurous. Besides, my main rig's TIM hasn't been changed in 8 years and it's still running fine. Most TIM applications are install once and forget it kind of deal. The worry I have is that it voids warranty and it might not show much of a difference when compared to a non-warranty voiding TIM. I was also looking at PK-3 as a second option, which I think doesn't void warranty... Right? So my question is: 1) How hard is it to remove CLU if I wanted to clean and reapply in future? 2) Is it worth voiding the warranty for temp difference and is there a big difference in the temps when comparing delidded CLU with something like non-delidded (normal) PK-3 application? 3) PK-3 is advertised to have nano-aluminum particles - does it mean it also voids warranty on the CPU since it would be a metallic TIM? Or am I misunderstanding something here. P.S. I know Linus did a video on CLU and didn't find any temp difference but he didn't use a delidded processor.

Thanks. I was worried about the gunk for the most part. I will go with acrylic + red UV fluid. Fingers crossed. I am also not going to use the LED from the CPU block, but mobo/videocard LEDs will still be there - don't know if they can be turned off, but I would probably keep them on even if I could... they look nice.

I was up late last night reading multiple forums, I am also leaning towards UV fluid with clear tubing (will clear PETG give better glow than clear acrylic?) But there is a problem with LEDs. I will definitely have red LEDs from the CPU blovk, video cards, SLI pro bridge, and Asus Maximux VIII board that I am putting in there. Edit: In case I do end up using UV fluid, any recommendations? I have seen pictures of Feser One as the brightest one and having the darkest shade of Red. However, I have also seen plenty of people warn about getting gunk in their system. Are UV fluids safe for daily use?

Did you mean clear PETG tubing? I read somewhere that PETG was bad with UV light.

Primochill has Red colored PETG tubing available from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/PrimoChilll-2in-Rigid-PETG-36in/dp/B00N57QVB2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452748408&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+red+acrylic+tubing). I like how it looks in the pictures. Should I get a plain red Coolant instead of UV then? Just so it looks good in the CPU/GPU blocks?

I am really leaning towards blood red tubes + blood red coolant (option 2). Looking through the web, I have found very few forums that discuss coolant color schemes. Clear tubes with red coolant also look appealing. Does anyone have any recommendations / pictures of a UV red coolant by Mayhem/ Feser One/ Koolance? Or pictures of non-UV red colored coolant by any of these manufacturers? All forums I have come across are from 2012-2014. I am wondering if there is any new coolant on the market that looks good and doesn't have the problems that I have been reading about UV coolants (something about temperatures getting worse over time due to something settling in the blocks). Is there a color comparison between Feser One/ Mayhem/ Koolance (or any brand that makes red colored UV/non UV coolant) somewhere on the web? Thanks for the input.

I am working on a build where I will be using hard tubes and want to have a black/red color scheme. I have bought a set of UV reactive red/pink colored Primochill acrylic tubes already but I am not sure if I want to have a colored coolant. Today I also received my FusionQ dual bay reservoir that has a red UV reactive spiral structure inside the reservoir (the coolant doesn't go inside the structure - that's for display only, coolant goes inside the reservoir itself). When I put the primochill tube and the fusionQ reservoir side by side, there was an obvious disparity of glow between the two. The FusionQ reservoir is far more "brighter" than the hollow tube. When I added the bright LEDs of the fan to the mix, it was pretty hard to tell that the tube is even UV reactive when it was in front of the light. I am uploading a picture that I took with my DSLR, but it does make it look better than what the naked eye can tell. It looks almost transparent when in light. I am planning on putting the fans in pull configuration so the light will be blocked by the radiators. Still, if I can make it look more sleek with a darker shade of red I rather do that. I am going to have red LEDs on the video cards and the CPU block though. So at this point I am thinking of using something like blood red tubing from primo chill to keep that look. The other thing is, the CPU block and the video cards have transparent acrylic on them. If I use simple distilled water, it won't have that red running through them. I was leaning towards a combination of UV reactive red acrylic tubes and Mayhem red pastel combo, but then I am afraid the pastel will hide the FusionQ reservoir's spiral helix. I have come up with a few options: 1. Use red UV tubes with blood red coolant - keep the glow + red color throughout 2. Use blood red tubes with blood red coolant - lose the glow but keep a better looking red colored tubes regardless of the lightening conditions. This also adds the option to add more LEDs. 3. Use clear (or blood red) tubes with pastel red - No glow and darker red. This will only work if pastel doesn't hide the helix in the FrozenQ due to it's opacity. 4. Use UV tubes with a UV reactive coolant - keep the glow, this seems like something worth trying but then I have read plenty of warnings about UV coolants having all kinds of clogging issues. The reason for me insisting on red coolant is due to the acrylic on CPU + GPU blocks being transparent. I figured red running through them will look great. Although the cpu block is XSPX raystorm pro with a red LED and the GPU is 980ti hydro copper (which has the top side covered so I won't get to see that anyways). Any other ideas are welcome.

Thanks. That clears it up.

Thanks. I can see from this angle that the inlet/outlet holes do have threading. So the pump hole stays closed if I decide to use a separate/external pump? What about the top hole? Can I use them (top / pump holes) to connect the loop or do I have to use inlet/outlet holes for the loop?

I am looking at FrozenQ LF Reaction Dual Bay Reservoir for my first water cooling build. I am a little confused about what the "outlet" port is for on the reservoir. Images show there is a port with threading at the top, I am assuming it's for filling up the reservoir. Then there is one in the back labelled "pump" (with threading) and two more holes labelled "inlet" and "outlet" without any threading. What are these holes for if there is already a pair of holes with threading present? Are these going to be sealed with some kind of cover?