Maximum PC - UK (2020-05)

Cool Runnings

Final Steps

Now you’re almost there. Your system’s

built, your waterblocks are in place, and

you’ve finally got all your tubing runs nice,

tight, secure, and in position. There’s a

few checks you need to perform before

you commit any coolant to your system.

1

Double-check all your fittings have

o-rings and are compressed and tight.

This goes for reservoir caps as well.

2

Make sure any excess G1/4 por ts—on

graphics cards, pumps, reservoirs,

or radiators—are sufficiently plugged

with plug fittings.

3

Make sure all of your PSU power

cables are unplugged from your

motherboard and graphics cards, so

they’re not providing power and therefore

heat during the priming process.

4

Make sure you have a PSU bridge

attached to your power supply’s

24-pin ATX cable, so you can power up

the pump and fans without turning on the

system. You can pick these up cheaply

from most liquid-cooling stores.

5

Place paper towels underneath any

point where a tubing run connects

with a fitting, or a fitting connects with

a thread.

6

Plug your power supply into the wall,

ensuring the switch at the back of it

is turned off.

Once those checks are complete, you’re

ready to begin filling your loop. Open your

fill port (or the reservoir, if you’re lazy

like us), from the top, and begin filling

your loop with your chosen coolant. Fill

the reservoir until it’s about 75 percent

full. Then turn on the power supply,

using the power button to the rear of the

PSU. You should see and hear the pump

turn on, and the coolant drain out of the

reservoir and move around the loop. If

you don’t, try unplugging the pump’s fan

header from the motherboard. Once the

reservoir is empty, turn off the pump, and

begin the filling process again. Keep doing

this until your liquid coolant is flowing

around the system in one continuous loop.

Now you can top off your reservoir

until it’s full, and we recommend you

run the system for a good 24 hours to

check for leaks and to make sure all the

air bubbles move to your reservoir, and

before plugging any hardware back in. At

that point, you can top the system off once

more, reconnect all your power cables,

and start installing Windows.

If you’re struggling with some of the

tubing runs in your build, it might

be time for you to opt for a different

strategy. Although hard tubing allows

you to achieve far tighter bend radii

than with soft tubing, there is a limit

to how tight a bend you can create.

Combine that with it becoming infinitely

more difficult to secure a length of bent

tubing the smaller it gets on either end,

and sometimes it’s not worth using

tubing at all.

As tubing bends, it also widens at

the point where you apply the pressure

to form it. No matter how tight a fit that

silicon insert is, you’ll inevitably have

a slightly flatter tube at the point of the

bend than you did before the bending

process. This then makes it difficult

for the compression cap to freely move

over the bent area. The closer that bend

is to the point at which it needs to be

seated into its compression fitting, the

more difficult it is to push both the cap

and its o-ring on to the tube beforehand,

then secure down.

You’re not out of options, though,

because thanks to male-to-male

extension fittings, you can get around

these problems. For example, in

our 4K Gaming Monster build we did

back at the end of 2019, the pump

was located below the reservoir,

underneath the power supply cover.

To attach it, we used a pass-through

fitting to cut through the PSU cover,

followed by a male-to-male extension

below, which then connected directly

to the pump’s inlet port. The reservoir

above it was then connected by a tiny

90-degree length of bent tubing. That

was particularly difficult to secure,

and in hindsight and for longevity’s

sake, we should have just used

an extension fitting to raise up a

90-degree fitting, and then connect the

two fittings together with a male-to-

male extension. That would reduce the

risk of any unwanted bumps or knocks

dislodging the tube from its o-rings and

causing a leak.

FITTINGS OVER TUBING

liquid cooling

30 MAXIMUM PC MAY 2020 maximumpc.com