Tubing & Fitting recommendations...

[GuruMeditationError]

So, I went crazy and spent a bunch of money all at once and I've got a bunch of water cooling stuff on it's way to me...

...I'm reading, searching and researching and am wondering if people could recommend a good (soft) tube size for my particular setup:

My loop is going to consist of the following:

 An EK-CoolStream CE 420 (Triple) in the top of the case,

a Black Ice Nemesis GTX 280 in the front of the case

a Nickel + Plexi EK Quantum Velocity D-RGB on the CPU 

2x Nickel & Acetal EK-Quantum Vector GPU Coolers 

and an EX-XTOP Revo Dual D5 PWM Serial pump with an attached EK-RES X3 150 Lite (I know, it's overkill but I thought what the hell)

It basically has to cool 2 x GPU's and a CPU.

What size tubing would best suit this setup and are there tips on fittings that can make life easier, like for instance, using taps or ball-valves to make filling easier?

I did a ton of reading on this stuff a few years ago but I don't remember the details; I'm reading to refresh my memory but meanwhile tips and recommendations would be really appreciated.
 

[Bombastinator]

Not my area.  I’m sometimes good for janktacular making stuff out of stuff made for other things with watercooling but this is not that. @For Science! would be one good source. May take a while though.  Have patience.

[GuruMeditationError]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Not my area.  I’m sometimes good for janktacular making stuff out of stuff made for other things with watercooling but this is not that. @For Science! would be one good source. May take a while though.  Have patience.

Thanks :0)

...I'm reading up on it all but I thought it might be worth asking for a few hints and tips ;0)

[Bombastinator]

Just now, GuruMeditationError said:

Thanks :0)

...I'm reading up on it all but I thought it might be worth asking for a few hints and tips ;0)

They will exist here. Custom loop watercooling is the upper end of PCs though and there are commensurately fewer people that know about it. 

[HM-2]

IMO the finest soft tubing on the market is EK-ZMT black. It's pure EDPM rubber so no plasticisers or shite that can bleed out into your loop. 16/10 outer/inner is probably best from the perspective of matching to fittings.

 

For fittings you can go either barbs or compression. Barbs are cheaper, compression are better. Fittings are often one of the most expensive bits of a system, it's quite easy to spend hundreds on them (I've got a basked full of EK-QUANTUM in satin Titanium that I keep baulking at the nearly £300 cost of). I would strongly recommend Blyski, as they're comparatively cheap and good quality. They do a range of black compression fittings and adapters that fit the EK-ZMT 16/10 pretty well though from bitter experience I know getting the collars on them can be an absolute ballache.

[GuruMeditationError]

3 minutes ago, HM-2 said:

IMO the finest soft tubing on the market is EK-ZMT black. It's pure EDPM rubber so no plasticisers or shite that can bleed out into your loop. 16/10 outer/inner is probably best from the perspective of matching to fittings.

 

For fittings you can go either barbs or compression. Barbs are cheaper, compression are better. Fittings are often one of the most expensive bits of a system, it's quite easy to spend hundreds on them (I've got a basked full of EK-QUANTUM in satin Titanium that I keep baulking at the nearly £300 cost of). I would strongly recommend Blyski, as they're comparatively cheap and good quality. They do a range of black compression fittings and adapters that fit the EK-ZMT 16/10 pretty well though from bitter experience I know getting the collars on them can be an absolute ballache.

Brilliant, thanks :0)

But what's up the the Blyski collars?...they're really that much of a pain..?...maybe it's worth going for something else?

[HM-2]

The collars are very tight- the same is true of all fittings I've ever used on EK-ZMT including EKWB's own. The Blyski ones have a stippled outer to help with gripping them when tightening and it absolutely shreds the skin on your fingers if you're not careful. I resorted to using mechanic's gloves to tighten my fittings.

 

But hey, they're about £3 a pop instead of £8 for EK ones.

[GuruMeditationError]

11 minutes ago, HM-2 said:

The collars are very tight- the same is true of all fittings I've ever used on EK-ZMT including EKWB's own. The Blyski ones have a stippled outer to help with gripping them.when turning and it absolutely shreds the skin on your fingers if you're not careful. I resorted to using mechanic's gloves to tighten my fittings.

 

But hey, they're about £3 a pop instead of £8 for EK ones.

Wow, okay...yeah...I can see why they're preferable. £8 per fitting is pretty steep  :0/    ...but the Blyski's are okay...?...they work just as well? 

Also, I'm seeing the EK ZMT in 16.1/11.1 & 15.9/9.5 but not 16/10...it seems you've split the difference there...? Am I looking at the right tubing? https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-tube-zmt-matte-black-15-9-9-5mm

Edit: Okay, so 15.9/9.5mm

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, GuruMeditationError said:

hat size tubing would best suit this setup and are there tips on fittings that can make life easier, like for instance, using taps or ball-valves to make filling easier?

I did a ton of reading on this stuff a few years ago but I don't remember the details; I'm reading to refresh my memory but meanwhile tips and recommendations would be really appreciated.
 

Tubing size is a purely aesthetic choice and does not impact any aspect of watercooling. Ball valves are a neccessity to drain the loop for hardline tubing, but is also generally useful even for soft tubing. You may want to consider T-splitters and temperature probes as extra pluses.

[GuruMeditationError]

4 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Tubing size is a purely aesthetic choice and does not impact any aspect of watercooling. Ball valves are a neccessity to drain the loop for hardline tubing, but is also generally useful even for soft tubing. You may want to consider T-splitters and temperature probes as extra pluses.

That rings a bell...you can split the tube off to a ball valve to drain the loop when it needs maintenance? 

Are the temperature sensors really necessary, or is it just an interesting extra..?...do you actually need to monitor the temperature of the coolant?

[HM-2]

24 minutes ago, GuruMeditationError said:

Edit: Okay, so 15.9/9.5mm

Yep. They undersize it slightly in the specs to accommodate for stretching over the fittings.

[For Science!]

11 minutes ago, GuruMeditationError said:

That rings a bell...you can split the tube off to a ball valve to drain the loop when it needs maintenance? 

Are the temperature sensors really necessary, or is it just an interesting extra..?...do you actually need to monitor the temperature of the coolant?

For a full custom loop, it doesn't really make sense to tie fan speed to CPU/GPU temperatures as they both affect the coolant medium. So it makes most sense if fan speeds are tied to the coolant temperature, and to do that, you need a coolant temperature probe. Of course you can have some fans tied to the GPU, and some fans tied to the CPU, but then you will not be using the maximum potential of the radiators when one or the other component is not hot.

 

As for the drain, yes,  that would be a most typical setup so that you can tuck the drain valve somewhere discreet. Its not a good look to have your drain dangling in public.

[GuruMeditationError]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

For a full custom loop, it doesn't really make sense to tie fan speed to CPU/GPU temperatures as they both affect the coolant medium. So it makes most sense if fan speeds are tied to the coolant temperature, and to do that, you need a coolant temperature probe. Of course you can have some fans tied to the GPU, and some fans tied to the CPU, but then you will not be using the maximum potential of the radiators when one or the other component is not hot.

 

As for the drain, yes,  that would be a most typical setup so that you can tuck the drain valve somewhere discreet. Its not a good look to have your drain dangling in public.

That's brilliant, thanks so much; it probably wouldn't even have occurred to me to tie the fans to the coolant temperature...how do you actually do that...?...is there software that monitors that? I'm guessing it wouldn't be monitored by a motherboard bios?  

[For Science!]

Just now, GuruMeditationError said:

That's brilliant, thanks so much; it probably wouldn't even have occurred to me to tie the fans to the coolant temperature...how do you actually do that...?...is there software that monitors that? I'm guessing it wouldn't be monitored by a motherboard bios?  

If you have an ASUS motherboard, they typically have a 2-pin temperature sensor header called T_SENSOR1. If you plug in a 2-pin temperature probe, that is usually either a passthrough fitting, or a stop plug, then the BIOS can directly read in the value of the coolant temperature. This T_SENSOR1 value can be used by the BIOS fan control software (i.e. QFan) and every fan header except for the CPU_FAN header can be controlled based off this value. This is the most elegant setup as it requires no software and therefore is OS agnostic.

 

So the typpical setup for me is to connect the pump to CPU_FAN header and run it at a fixed RPM across all CPU temps. This is killing two birds with one stone since:

A) As mentioned above, CPU_FAN header has to go off CPU temperatures, so putting the pump here means that you run it at a fixed RPM which is desirable for a pump anyway. Putting a fan in CPU_FAN is not desirable since controlling it by CPU temperature means unnecessary ramp ups and downs

B) CPU_FAN will throw a CPU_FAN_ERROR if it doesn't detect an RPM signal, and so if you have a pump failure, the PC will not boot, giving an additiona layer of security. If you don't occupy this header, you need to disable CPU_FAN checking and so you are losing funcitonality for the loop.

 

For non-asus boards that don't have a 2-pin header, I think you have to get a controller that can setup PWM curves based on a 2-pin input. These can be expensive, and off the top of my head the Aquaero 6 will give this functionality although it is not so straightforward to setup.

[GuruMeditationError]

8 minutes ago, For Science! said:

If you have an ASUS motherboard, they typically have a 2-pin temperature sensor header called T_SENSOR1. If you plug in a 2-pin temperature probe, that is usually either a passthrough fitting, or a stop plug, then the BIOS can directly read in the value of the coolant temperature. This T_SENSOR1 value can be used by the BIOS fan control software (i.e. QFan) and every fan header except for the CPU_FAN header can be controlled based off this value. This is the most elegant setup as it requires no software and therefore is OS agnostic.

 

So the typpical setup for me is to connect the pump to CPU_FAN header and run it at a fixed RPM across all CPU temps. This is killing two birds with one stone since:

A) As mentioned above, CPU_FAN header has to go off CPU temperatures, so putting the pump here means that you run it at a fixed RPM which is desirable for a pump anyway. Putting a fan in CPU_FAN is not desirable since controlling it by CPU temperature means unnecessary ramp ups and downs

B) CPU_FAN will throw a CPU_FAN_ERROR if it doesn't detect an RPM signal, and so if you have a pump failure, the PC will not boot, giving an additiona layer of security. If you don't occupy this header, you need to disable CPU_FAN checking and so you are losing funcitonality for the loop.

 

For non-asus boards that don't have a 2-pin header, I think you have to get a controller that can setup PWM curves based on a 2-pin input. These can be expensive, and off the top of my head the Aquaero 6 will give this functionality although it is not so straightforward to setup.

Okay, so...you plug the pump in to the CPU_FAN and configure a flat line rather than a fan curve, then control all of the other fans based on coolant temperature from the sensor? 

[For Science!]

2 minutes ago, GuruMeditationError said:

Okay, so...you plug the pump in to the CPU_FAN and configure a flat line rather than a fan curve, then control all of the other fans based on coolant temperature from the sensor? 

yep, that is how I do it

[GuruMeditationError]

Just now, For Science! said:

yep, that is how I do it

Wow...that's genius! 

I'm pretty sure my motherboard doesn't have a temperature sensor...?...trying to check but I'm having trouble accessing Gigabyte's website.

But yeah...it looks like I might need a new motherboard :0/ 

[fonzz1e]

11 hours ago, GuruMeditationError said:

Wow, okay...yeah...I can see why they're preferable. £8 per fitting is pretty steep  :0/    ...but the Blyski's are okay...?...they work just as well? 

Also, I'm seeing the EK ZMT in 16.1/11.1 & 15.9/9.5 but not 16/10...it seems you've split the difference there...? Am I looking at the right tubing? https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-tube-zmt-matte-black-15-9-9-5mm

Edit: Okay, so 15.9/9.5mm

if u want to save $ on tubing, 

 

I went with alphacool tpv 16mm,it's same epdm tubing as zmt but cheaper 

 

then I went with barrow 16mm compression fittings & freezemod angle adapters

 

also get some stop plugs & ek/barrow leak tester, helps a lot

 

btw I've modded ek revo d5 xtop 12v rgb strip to 5v addressable rgb

[fonzz1e]

10 hours ago, For Science! said:

For non-asus boards that don't have a 2-pin header, I think you have to get a controller that can setup PWM curves based on a 2-pin input. These can be expensive, and off the top of my head the Aquaero 6 will give this functionality although it is not so straightforward to setup.

aquacomputer quadro/octo works too for temp sensor, I'm using quadro to control fan rpm via coolant temp

 

octo has 8 fan channels (quadro 4), 2x 90 argb led support channel (quadro only 90)

[GuruMeditationError]

7 hours ago, fonzz1e said:

if u want to save $ on tubing, 

 

I went with alphacool tpv 16mm,it's same epdm tubing as zmt but cheaper 

 

then I went with barrow 16mm compression fittings & freezemod angle adapters

 

also get some stop plugs & ek/barrow leak tester, helps a lot

 

btw I've modded ek revo d5 xtop 12v rgb strip to 5v addressable rgb

Brilliant, thanks.

 

&  re. leak tester, looks super handy. 

Are the Barrow compression fittings easy to use HM-2 was saying the Bykski compression fittings are less expensive but are a real pain to use, especially with the epdm tubing. How are the Barrow fittings?

Also, I'm hoping to avoid using angle adapters entirely but not sure how that's going to work out. :0/ 

I've opted for the EK Revo Dual D5, with the compatible EK-RES X3 150 Lite reservoir. I was going to put an RGB strip on the reservoir but not sure what to go with...?...you have an addressable strip, or you modded one into an addressable strip?

7 hours ago, fonzz1e said:

aquacomputer quadro/octo works too for temp sensor, I'm using quadro to control fan rpm via coolant temp

 

octo has 8 fan channels (quadro 4), 2x 90 argb led support channel (quadro only 90)

I have to get a new board because I need to swap to an SLI board, so can get one with an onboard temp sensor but I'm thinking about getting something like that to add multiple temp sensors...?...is that worth doing do you think...?...or is a single temp sensor for coolant sufficient?

[For Science!]

3 minutes ago, GuruMeditationError said:

have to get a new board because I need to swap to an SLI board, so can get one with an onboard temp sensor but I'm thinking about getting something like that to add multiple temp sensors...?...is that worth doing do you think...?...or is a single temp sensor for coolant sufficient?

With a D5 pump temps will not vary more than a 2-3 degrees at most even under load so monitoring coolant temps in multiple locations only serves the purpose to prove that point. So more of a novelty than practicality in my opinion. There is no "hot water area" or "cold water area" in a custom loop, so plumbing two sensors in would only be for potential failure of a sensor.

[GuruMeditationError]

3 minutes ago, For Science! said:

With a D5 pump temps will not vary more than a 2-3 degrees at most even under load so monitoring coolant temps in multiple locations only serves the purpose to prove that point. So more of a novelty than practicality in my opinion. There is no "hot water area" or "cold water area" in a custom loop, so plumbing two sensors in would only be for potential failure of a sensor.

Brilliant, thank you. 

[fonzz1e]

9 hours ago, GuruMeditationError said:

Are the Barrow compression fittings easy to use HM-2 was saying the Bykski compression fittings are less expensive but are a real pain to use, especially with the epdm tubing. How are the Barrow fittings?

Also, I'm hoping to avoid using angle adapters entirely but not sure how that's going to work out. :0/ 

I've opted for the EK Revo Dual D5, with the compatible EK-RES X3 150 Lite reservoir. I was going to put an RGB strip on the reservoir but not sure what to go with...?...you have an addressable strip, or you modded one into an addressable strip?

I have to get a new board because I need to swap to an SLI board, so can get one with an onboard temp sensor but I'm thinking about getting something like that to add multiple temp sensors...?...is that worth doing do you think...?...or is a single temp sensor for coolant sufficient?

so far no issue for fitting tubes onto fittings, if u have issue... dip the tubing in warm water 1st

 

angle adapter did help me a lot during my build

 

my argb mod here, it's for single D5 tho

[GuruMeditationError]

18 hours ago, fonzz1e said:

angle adapter did help me a lot during my build

 

Did you use it as part of the process...?...or you needed to fit them for certain tube routings?

[fonzz1e]

25 minutes ago, GuruMeditationError said:

Did you use it as part of the process...?...or you needed to fit them for certain tube routings?

without 45 or 90 angled adapters, your soft tubing runs will typically be longer

 

I use them to make my tube runs shorter & neater