Help me re-arrange my terrible loop

[Kaldskryke]

So this was my first time watercooling. I've stuffed a dual-rad loop into an A05. There's a 120x240 rad up top and a 120x120 rad on the rear intake. I've put the reservoir in the niche behind the hard drives and left the pump on the case floor on some soft cloth (to damp vibes). I hadn't really expected how difficult it would be to connect everything up without kinks and whatnot. I also was short a couple 3/8" barbs so I had one small section of 1/2" (I could find tubing locally, but not barbs). In the end it was kind of a mess but I lived with it.

Recently, the tubing has begun to relax a bit, some of the bends are getting sharper and kinking. Plus one section of tubing now rests against my sidepanel, making it rattle and buzz. It's driving me nuts so I want to rearrange or fix my loop to hopefully A) get rid of kinks, B) stop that buzzing!

Here's the front currently. Note the tube towards the bottom of the image and how it sticks up against where the side panel goes. The tube on the far left is the 1/2" one, and it's gotten kind of wrinkled somehow.

Here's the back


So the flow is as follows: from reservoir (behind hard drives) -> pump on case floor -> single rad on back -> cpu block -> double rad on top -> back to res.

There's not much watercooling equipment selection in Calgary, so I want to check here before I try buying things like "smartcoils" and 90° barbs from NCIX. I'm also terrible with cable management so any pointers there would be welcome too.

 

[Erasmus354]

Unless you plan on adding your GPU to the loop the first thing I would do is nix the single 120mm radiator. The 2x120mm is more than plenty for the CPU.

Next I would moved the harddrives up and try to mount your pump in the bottom of the HDD rack. Outlet on the pump -> furthest left inlet on block -> 240 rad (near door) -> everything else as it is now (rad->res->pump).

I think getting rid of that 120mm radiator will do wonders for cleaning up the tubing. If you notice kinking a simple remedy is to use some zipties, when tied tight around the tube they keep it from distending in any one direction (which prevents kinking). Also zip ties are really good for tidying up cabling. Basically...you need to get yourself some zip ties either way

 

[Kaldskryke]

Unless you plan on adding your GPU to the loop the first thing I would do is nix the single 120mm radiator. The 2x120mm is more than plenty for the CPU.

Next I would moved the harddrives up and try to mount your pump in the bottom of the HDD rack. Outlet on the pump -> furthest left inlet on block -> 240 rad (near door) -> everything else as it is now (rad->res->pump).

I think getting rid of that 120mm radiator will do wonders for cleaning up the tubing. If you notice kinking a simple remedy is to use some zipties, when tied tight around the tube they keep it from distending in any one direction (which prevents kinking). Also zip ties are really good for tidying up cabling. Basically...you need to get yourself some zip ties either way

Thanks a ton. I had kept the second rad in there because I do intend on watercooling my graphics card after upgrading it - I never expected G80 to stay around so long. When that happens I'll have to rearrange things again anyway so I might as well take the 120mm out. A quick question about pump orientation: anything is good except for upside-down, right?

 

[Xilikon]

3/8" ID 1/2" OD tubing ?? If yes, consider getting 3/8" ID 5/8" OD because it's more resistant to kinking and rearrange so you use shorter tubing.

 

[fluke420]

My suggestion is to replace the top on that pump with a petra or alphacool. This would get rid of the major loop you have between the res and the inlet of the pump. Better flow with a new lid.

Also run the outlet of the pump directly to the cpu. cpu to the 120. 120 to the 240. 240 to the res.

 

[nightwalker]

3/8" ID 1/2" OD tubing ?? If yes, consider getting 3/8" ID 5/8" OD because it's more resistant to kinking and rearrange so you use shorter tubing.

what he said ^^ 5/8 OD is SOOOOOOO much better than 1/2 OD.