Pressure Or Volume More Inportant?

[djXternal]

Hey guys, well I have two options for the watercooling going in my car...

First choice: I could go with 1/2" ID tubing through the whole system and not need to step down the tubing size coming off most of the equipment, and this would result in a higher volume of water throughout the system

Second Choice: I could go with 3/8" ID tubing through the whole system, this would require a couple size changes (mainly the inlet and outlet of the radiator) but would result ina slightly higher pressure (if im not mistaken)

I know either way there wont be much difference and with the size radiator I'm using it probably wont matter much, but I want to get the best cooling possible out of this

[Gizmo]

In general, you want to go with the largest size tubing you can reasonably use. You don't want to waste pressure just getting the water through the hose; you want the pressure to be available at the point where you are doing the work, i.e. the water block.

Now, that being said, there are always tradeoffs. The highest performing waterblocks need pretty good pressures to work well, but if you want to back down in performance just a bit, you can get some blocks that work quite well with only moddest pressure levels. This in turn allows you to burn a little pressure on smaller tubing that is more convenient to work with, or use a smaller pump. It's all a matter of figuring out what you can live with.

[djXternal]

well the equipment being used are a denger den maze4 cpu block, danger den maze4 chipset block, a water pump for an rv and a radiator from an atv... I dont think pressure at the block are a big issue, because they seem to up pressure quite a bit when the watter hits it, so I think I will probably go with the bigger tubing

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by djXternal

well the equipment being used are a denger den maze4 cpu block, danger den maze4 chipset block, a water pump for an rv and a radiator from an atv... I dont think pressure at the block are a big issue, because they seem to up pressure quite a bit when the watter hits it, so I think I will probably go with the bigger tubing

IIRC, those blocks do like higher pressures. That means that you are doing exactly right; use bigger tubing so that you don't waste energy just getting the water through the lines.

[djXternal]

ok thanks for the help, hopefully I'll have it all goin in the next month

[Favu]

Dude, you should post up some pix when you do!

[djXternal]

Will do