water cooling pipe lengths

[John5247]

Hi - I was wondering if there is any problem using very short lengths of tube in a wc setup? My mod has the rad and the pump close together and they are right alongside the CPU water block. The bulk of my water will be in the res. Most wc setups I have looked at seem to have quite long pipes. Any suggestions ...

John

[halcyonforever]

Many water kits have longer lenghts of pipe for a number of reasons:

1. Pre-Made Kit: Some come in pre-cut lengths which are often longer than necessary
2. Ease of adjustment: short pipes lead to limited movement options, so if you have to re-arrange or replace it can become quite cumbersome
3. Loops of un-necessary tubing: in a few cases it seemed almost as if the case designer fancied the excess as a way to show off "HEY I AM WATERCOOLED! DIG ME!"

[John5247]

So do you think its OK to have really short pipes?
John

[halcyonforever]

Yeah I don't see a problem with having the pipes short... It will result in a smaller volume of coolant, which means coolant will be recycled faster which could potentially increase the heat volume. But I doubt it is going to be enough to cause that. That thermodynamic is based upon the idea of using your water tank as major component in the cooling process, if your radiatior is decent that will do the majority of the work there.