Water cooling loop layout help!?!

TNortham112 · August 7, 2014

Hi, I am having trouble deciding the layout of my water cooling loop which I will have in an upcoming build in an enthoo luxe.

I will have a 280 rad at the front (Intake), 140 rad at the back (exhaust), and a 360 rad at the top (exhaust)

Parts which need to be cooled:

Processor
Graphics card (might eventually go for two in SLI)
Motherboard (asus maximus vii formula)

So yeah, not sure wether to go: reservoir>pump>gpu>rad>cpu>rad>motherboard>rad>reservoir

Or a completely different layout

I am also not sure wether to mount the reservoir by the front of the case, or at the back.

And, should I go for flexible tubing, or acrylic? is the only difference aesthetics?

Jerakl · August 7, 2014

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to put the pump ahead of the res....

D3LTA9 · August 7, 2014

First I would not bother with the 140mm rad at the back. A 280 and 360 will be plenty for your components.

Loop order does not matter as long as your reservoir is feeding your pump directly (dont want to run a pump dry and kill it). So I usually look at what order will allow the cleanest and straightest tubing runs if using flexi tubing.

Rigid looks really nice but definitely more work and I would not recommend it if this is your first water cooling build. Try keep things as simple as possible the first time to ensure a good experience then build from there. Loops have a habbit of getting more and more complex the more you research! So best not to get in over your head and have a bad experience first time. I was told this as I wanted to add everything under the sun to my loop first time and definitely feel it was good advice.

Also rigid does not allow you to chance things around as easy as flexi so consider that too if your not sure and want to add/remove/change order of components.

Mount the reservoir in the easiest spot to do so and plan how you will plumb it in. Check is it going to be too close or too tight of a bend to get to a nearby component.

Think that was all your questions? Feel free to ask more!

Najuno · August 7, 2014

Acrylic is pretty tough to realize because you will have to custom fit all angles and curves to the need and layout of your system. If this is your first custom loop I´d go with flexible tubing, besides that this isn´t a bad plan in the beginning because even when you work on the acrylic it will take you about a week to get everything done.

Unless you have another PC at home I´d go with flexible tubing.

The planned size is big enough too cool a CPU/MosFet and GPUs. Just make sure to buy good static pressure fans.

The layout works but looks a bit complicated, you can go from GPU heatsinks direct into CPU and go from one radiator into another. The temp dif. is within the margin of error..