WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:08.800 What tubing size should I buy? 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:14.320 Well, even though water cooling legend Cathar 00:00:11.440 --> 00:00:19.920 addressed this once and for all over a decade ago, it is still a topic of 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:26.359 debate in PC and liquid cooling groups. So, we are going to find out. 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 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, 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:50.480 and usually from Primo Chill and 00:00:48.239 --> 00:00:55.039 whatever color your heart desires. Uh, their tubing's pretty good stuff and 00:00:52.399 --> 00:01:01.359 it's been my belief that any bigger than this will make no difference to your 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:08.560 system temperatures. However, I do have to confess that I have never actually 00:01:05.199 --> 00:01:10.320 grabbed some big old thick old tubing 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:16.240 and tested this in a controlled experiment. So, it is time to change 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:20.400 that. First, we're going to need a few things. Intel Extreme Edition 5960X. 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:27.439 Check. Three different diameters of tubing, 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:30.560 check. A triple 120 mm radiator, check. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:35.920 EK Supremacy EVO CPU block, check. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:39.520 Fittings, check. And check, check. And 00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:41.680 the optimal footwear for science. Extra 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:47.600 check. Yes. Pose. 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 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:56.479 measure the flow rate of our different loops. And a shout out to the guys over 00:01:54.640 --> 00:02:02.880 at Performance PCs for sending this over to us on super short notice. Now, as 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:07.360 much as I love to spend my day building, testing, and tearing down various water 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:12.879 cooling loops with different tubing sizes, there is a reason that I hired 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:14.800 writers. So, I'm going to let Jake take 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:18.319 care of that while I go do very important CEO stuffs. 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.959 Really? You put Stoofs in there? Yeah. No, you put Stoofs in there. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:25.920 Oh, sure. It said stuff before. Okay, sure. 00:02:24.239 --> 00:02:31.920 Whatever. Haha. The joke's on me, I guess, because 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:34.239 I still have to record this narration. 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:38.640 So, then to keep our testing relevant to the real world, all of the loops were 00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:43.680 built into an actual case, the Fractal Design Define R5. So to establish a 00:02:41.440 --> 00:02:48.400 baseline, we're starting with a typical configuration. So we've got our pump 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:53.200 going out to our CPU over to our radiator and then back to our pump which 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 00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:04.640 clear tubing from Primochill. As for coolant, we're just using plain Jane 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 00:03:07.519 --> 00:03:15.040 not because we would expect that new water would affect the results. It's 00:03:11.440 --> 00:03:17.440 just because recapturing and reusing it 00:03:15.040 --> 00:03:21.120 would actually be very inconvenient. That is how you fill a water cooling 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:24.400 loop. Good thing bro. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:27.760 So to put a little bit of extra heat into our loop, this will help to 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:34.159 separate the performance between the different tubing sizes. We're going to 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:37.200 set it up at 4 GHz with 1.15 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:39.440 volts. Uh, it's not like an impressive 00:03:37.200 --> 00:03:45.120 overclock for 5960X, but it should be stable. And really, that's all that we 00:03:42.720 --> 00:03:50.879 need for this kind of an experiment. All right, so let's get IDA going. Uh, 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:54.159 stress FPU and bippity boppity, we will 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:56.159 be back in a while. We ran each of our 00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:00.159 tests for a good chunk of time. Start a 15-minute timer. And then we 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:06.239 reset the statistics, collecting them over a 3minut window to get meaningful 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:08.319 averages. In between our 50% and 100% 00:04:06.239 --> 00:04:12.480 pump speed tests, we allowed a grace period of 10 minutes with the fans on 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:17.199 full blast to cool our water back to ambient. After the first set was done, 00:04:14.799 --> 00:04:23.680 the process was repeated with 12 mm inner diameter tubing and then 13 mm 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:24.560 inner diameter. Okay, so uh Wow, you 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.479 made quite a mess here. Yeah. Okay. How are our results then? Well, they're 00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:31.680 a little depressing. They're all within margin of error. And I didn't even get 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 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:39.520 it reads. No liters per gallon or liters per gallon. Liters per 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:42.400 So, it's just an RPM. Yeah, it's just an RPM. Oh, 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:49.919 yeah. So, what? It's just no difference. Yeah, it's it's no difference. 00:04:49.919 --> 00:04:55.919 What? Why are you going over there? Hey, you stay away from that. What are you? 00:04:54.720 --> 00:05:02.000 What are you? Wait a minute. Wait. Hey, 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:07.440 I knew it. You weren't supposed to see that. 00:05:04.479 --> 00:05:12.400 It's the workshop. All right. So, you had your fun, Jake. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:17.120 So, back in the early days of water cooling, enthusiasts would often 00:05:14.479 --> 00:05:23.680 repurpose aquarium pumps, which are optimized for flow rate and not head 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:26.000 pressure. So using wider diameter tubing 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:30.560 could make a big difference. But thanks to more pressure optimized pumps like 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:36.320 the D5 and the DDC, even if this might not seem intuitive, 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:43.199 even dropping down to like a 10 mm diameter is a non-issue. I mean, even 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:46.080 1/4 in, which the most basic all-in-one 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:51.039 water coolers use, should not affect the performance of a modern loop in any way 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:56.960 other than the bend radius of the tubing. So, in most cases, it's far more 00:05:54.639 --> 00:06:01.039 important to consider other things like the restriction of your water blocks, 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:06.000 any tight bends, the inclusion of restrictive fittings like quick 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:07.600 connects. But even in this worst case 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:12.479 scenario, which we actually built fairly recently, the D5 didn't break a sweat. 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 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:23.199 answer that we started out with. Any good quality tubing like Primo Chill or 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:25.440 EK in 10 mm inner. Uh that would be 3/8 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:29.680 in or 16 millimeter outer diameter. That's 5/8 inch for our Yankee friends. 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:32.880 And the thicker the wall, the kind of better because it'll help with any 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 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:41.440 on some of our builds. So, thanks for watching, guys. If this 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:46.639 video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, hit that like button, 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 00:06:48.080 --> 00:06:53.199 the video description. Also, linked down there is our merch store has cool shirts 00:06:51.280 --> 00:06:59.199 like this one and our community forum, which you should totally join. 00:06:56.400 --> 00:07:01.599 workshop. Get Get that out of here. I like it. It's It's pretty nice, 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? 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. 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.