Fittings and Amount of Tubing

[daedricstoy25]

So I'm going to start working on my first (and possibly only) custom loop here pretty soon so I'm going for my own idea of gold. 

 

My idea is to use 2 EK 360 Slim rads in a Fractal Design S, I've researched it and they WILL fit with fans. As for a pump I'm going with the EK-XRES 140 DDC 3.2 PWM Elite. The rest of my system is as follows:

 

CPU: i7 6850k

MoBo: Asus Sabertooth X99 

GPU: MSI GTX 1080 Armor OC 2-Way SLI

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3000

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G1

 

So my question to any water cooling veterans is what fittings do I need and how many of each fitting shpuld I get? I will only use water on my CPU and GPUs. I'm going for only vertical and horizontal runes, no angles or curves...or at least minimal.

[W-L]

6 minutes ago, daedricstoy25 said:

-SNIP-

It depends on your tubing and fitting choices, if your doing hardline you will require hardline compression fittings. The standard is 2 fittings per component and it's a good idea in hardeline setup to add in a drain valve. 

 

https://www.ekwb.com/blog/fittings-and-tubing-guide/

[daedricstoy25]

Definitely going hardline...can't believe I forgot to mention that. Should I ONLY get compression fittings and tube bending or should I go for some other kinds, like 45s 90s and swivels?

[W-L]

6 hours ago, daedricstoy25 said:

Definitely going hardline...can't believe I forgot to mention that. Should I ONLY get compression fittings and tube bending or should I go for some other kinds, like 45s 90s and swivels?

Well for angled adapters they are up to you and how your loop is going to be laid out. Sometimes it's easier to use adapters or such to not have overly complicated or bends that will be too tight. 

[PrimeSonic]

4 hours ago, W-L said:

Well for angled adapters they are up to you and how your loop is going to be laid out. Sometimes it's easier to use adapters or such to not have overly complicated or bends that will be too tight. 

Yes. But also keep in mind that fittings are where budget creep tends to happen the most.

So be aware of that. Angle adapters and fittings will make life a bit easier and save you the trouble of bending, but just be aware that they won't be cheap.

 

As for how much tubing, do some very rough calculations on the total length of the tube runs you'll be doing, generously round up, and get at least double that much tubing. If you were doing hardline bends for the first time, I'd dare say get over triple the amount of tubing you calculated since mistakes will happen. Remember that.

[daedricstoy25]

Thanks for all the advice my doods. Like I said, I want the tubing to only have vertical and horizontal runs so more than likely I'll end up with angled fittings and such. I guess I'll have to get all the other equipmemt first to find out the tubing length

[PrimeSonic]

I will stress, even if you aren't doing hardline bends, mistakes will still happen, more so when it's your first time. Even on soft tubing.

 

So whatever you calculate as the rough, conservative estimated length of tubing you'll need, get twice as much just so you have room for error and accidents.

 

I got about 50% more tubing than I calculated for with soft tubing and I came really close to running out when I was actually putting my first loop together.