1 00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:08,800 What tubing size should I buy? 2 00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:14,320 Well, even though water cooling legend Cathar 3 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:19,920 addressed this once and for all over a decade ago, it is still a topic of 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:26,359 debate in PC and liquid cooling groups. So, we are going to find out. 5 00:00:32,719 --> 00:00:41,520 So, my answer to this question for the last six or seven years has been 3/8 in 6 00:00:38,879 --> 00:00:48,239 ID. So, that's short for inner diameter, 5/8 in OD, so that's for outer diameter, 7 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:50,480 and usually from Primo Chill and 8 00:00:48,239 --> 00:00:55,039 whatever color your heart desires. Uh, their tubing's pretty good stuff and 9 00:00:52,399 --> 00:01:01,359 it's been my belief that any bigger than this will make no difference to your 10 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:08,560 system temperatures. However, I do have to confess that I have never actually 11 00:01:05,199 --> 00:01:10,320 grabbed some big old thick old tubing 12 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:16,240 and tested this in a controlled experiment. So, it is time to change 13 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:20,400 that. First, we're going to need a few things. Intel Extreme Edition 5960X. 14 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:27,439 Check. Three different diameters of tubing, 15 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:30,560 check. A triple 120 mm radiator, check. 16 00:01:27,439 --> 00:01:35,920 EK Supremacy EVO CPU block, check. 17 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:39,520 Fittings, check. And check, check. And 18 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:41,680 the optimal footwear for science. Extra 19 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:47,600 check. Yes. Pose. 20 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:52,960 All right. The last thing we need, this is a flow meter. This will allow us to 21 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:56,479 measure the flow rate of our different loops. And a shout out to the guys over 22 00:01:54,640 --> 00:02:02,880 at Performance PCs for sending this over to us on super short notice. Now, as 23 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:07,360 much as I love to spend my day building, testing, and tearing down various water 24 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:12,879 cooling loops with different tubing sizes, there is a reason that I hired 25 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:14,800 writers. So, I'm going to let Jake take 26 00:02:12,879 --> 00:02:18,319 care of that while I go do very important CEO stuffs. 27 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:20,959 Really? You put Stoofs in there? Yeah. No, you put Stoofs in there. 28 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:25,920 Oh, sure. It said stuff before. Okay, sure. 29 00:02:24,239 --> 00:02:31,920 Whatever. Haha. The joke's on me, I guess, because 30 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:34,239 I still have to record this narration. 31 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:38,640 So, then to keep our testing relevant to the real world, all of the loops were 32 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:43,680 built into an actual case, the Fractal Design Define R5. So to establish a 33 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:48,400 baseline, we're starting with a typical configuration. So we've got our pump 34 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:53,200 going out to our CPU over to our radiator and then back to our pump which 35 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:59,440 has a reservoir built into it. The whole thing is running 3/8 in ID 5/8 in OD 36 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:04,640 clear tubing from Primochill. As for coolant, we're just using plain Jane 37 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:09,920 water, which is going to be replaced for each one of our tests. I I mean I mean 38 00:03:07,519 --> 00:03:15,040 not because we would expect that new water would affect the results. It's 39 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:17,440 just because recapturing and reusing it 40 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:21,120 would actually be very inconvenient. That is how you fill a water cooling 41 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:24,400 loop. Good thing bro. 42 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:27,760 So to put a little bit of extra heat into our loop, this will help to 43 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:34,159 separate the performance between the different tubing sizes. We're going to 44 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:37,200 set it up at 4 GHz with 1.15 45 00:03:34,159 --> 00:03:39,440 volts. Uh, it's not like an impressive 46 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:45,120 overclock for 5960X, but it should be stable. And really, that's all that we 47 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:50,879 need for this kind of an experiment. All right, so let's get IDA going. Uh, 48 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:54,159 stress FPU and bippity boppity, we will 49 00:03:50,879 --> 00:03:56,159 be back in a while. We ran each of our 50 00:03:54,159 --> 00:04:00,159 tests for a good chunk of time. Start a 15-minute timer. And then we 51 00:03:58,159 --> 00:04:06,239 reset the statistics, collecting them over a 3minut window to get meaningful 52 00:04:02,319 --> 00:04:08,319 averages. In between our 50% and 100% 53 00:04:06,239 --> 00:04:12,480 pump speed tests, we allowed a grace period of 10 minutes with the fans on 54 00:04:10,319 --> 00:04:17,199 full blast to cool our water back to ambient. After the first set was done, 55 00:04:14,799 --> 00:04:23,680 the process was repeated with 12 mm inner diameter tubing and then 13 mm 56 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:24,560 inner diameter. Okay, so uh Wow, you 57 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:28,479 made quite a mess here. Yeah. Okay. How are our results then? Well, they're 58 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:31,680 a little depressing. They're all within margin of error. And I didn't even get 59 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:36,960 to use the flow meter because there's no way to get any results from the RPM that 60 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:39,520 it reads. No liters per gallon or liters per gallon. Liters per 61 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:42,400 So, it's just an RPM. Yeah, it's just an RPM. Oh, 62 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:49,919 yeah. So, what? It's just no difference. Yeah, it's it's no difference. 63 00:04:49,919 --> 00:04:55,919 What? Why are you going over there? Hey, you stay away from that. What are you? 64 00:04:54,720 --> 00:05:02,000 What are you? Wait a minute. Wait. Hey, 65 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:07,440 I knew it. You weren't supposed to see that. 66 00:05:04,479 --> 00:05:12,400 It's the workshop. All right. So, you had your fun, Jake. 67 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:17,120 So, back in the early days of water cooling, enthusiasts would often 68 00:05:14,479 --> 00:05:23,680 repurpose aquarium pumps, which are optimized for flow rate and not head 69 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:26,000 pressure. So using wider diameter tubing 70 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:30,560 could make a big difference. But thanks to more pressure optimized pumps like 71 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:36,320 the D5 and the DDC, even if this might not seem intuitive, 72 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:43,199 even dropping down to like a 10 mm diameter is a non-issue. I mean, even 73 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:46,080 1/4 in, which the most basic all-in-one 74 00:05:43,199 --> 00:05:51,039 water coolers use, should not affect the performance of a modern loop in any way 75 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:56,960 other than the bend radius of the tubing. So, in most cases, it's far more 76 00:05:54,639 --> 00:06:01,039 important to consider other things like the restriction of your water blocks, 77 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:06,000 any tight bends, the inclusion of restrictive fittings like quick 78 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:07,600 connects. But even in this worst case 79 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:12,479 scenario, which we actually built fairly recently, the D5 didn't break a sweat. 80 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:17,520 So the final answer then, what tubing do you buy? Well, it's the good old same 81 00:06:15,759 --> 00:06:23,199 answer that we started out with. Any good quality tubing like Primo Chill or 82 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:25,440 EK in 10 mm inner. Uh that would be 3/8 83 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:29,680 in or 16 millimeter outer diameter. That's 5/8 inch for our Yankee friends. 84 00:06:27,759 --> 00:06:32,880 And the thicker the wall, the kind of better because it'll help with any 85 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:37,520 kinking in your bends if you don't want to use angled fittings like we've done 86 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:41,440 on some of our builds. So, thanks for watching, guys. If this 87 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:46,639 video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, hit that like button, 88 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:49,759 uh, get subscribed or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in 89 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:53,199 the video description. Also, linked down there is our merch store has cool shirts 90 00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:59,199 like this one and our community forum, which you should totally join. 91 00:06:56,400 --> 00:07:01,599 workshop. Get Get that out of here. I like it. It's It's pretty nice, 92 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:06,240 actually. You know what? We should probably put it up. We should put this in Luke's office. How about like right here? 93 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:10,720 Oh, man. You're just going to hold it up there for the next That seems dangerous. 94 00:07:09,599 --> 00:07:15,840 How about like right there? That's pretty cool, right? In orange. Never I don't know.