hose size and cooling question - Innovatek
 

My friend bought a Innovatek watercooling kit but decided that it wasn't for him (don't ask he has more money then brains). Anyways I took it off his hads at a reduce cost to play around with it. It comes standard with 3/8 OD hose. It also uses the the upgraded 1048 Eheim pump. Here is the basic kit:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/index.htm?item114.htm

Anyways i threw it on my XP 1900 that is on an Epox 8KHA+ as it came and got slightly better temp and higher overclock then my alpha - a 1600 to 1820 at 1.90v. The temps were 38 idle (system temp was 29) and after 30 mins of 100 percent CPU utilization it was at 45.

Not to stop there i decided to buy some adapters fo 3/8 ID hose and see what this would do. With this modification idle temp went up - 40 but max temp after 30 mins of 100 percent CPU utilization was only 43. I thought maybe it was the waterblock installation so i removed it and replied AS and then stuch it back together but got the same results.

I am new to water cooling but i know that the rad that comes with this unit is not that great. But i was wondering why larger hose diameter and thus more water volume in the system would end up with a higher idle but lower load temps. you gurus have any ideas?

If the original hose was 3/8" OD, then its ID was about 1/4".
The converter you used was probably 1/4" OD on one end, and 3/8" OD on the other. If the converter had a 1/4" OD, then ITS ID must be even smaller, thus restricting water flow. The more converters you used in your system, the more total resistance you had, minus any benefit you gained from using larger hose.

Try this: get 'TYGON' or silicon hose. (tygon is better, but either will work, due to their stretchiness. 3/8" ID hose will fit over 1/2" fittings. :) ) Find out what size fittings your system uses. If the original hose was 3/8" OD, then your fittings are probably 1/4". Use a short length of 1/4" ID silicon hose to connect the 1/4" fittings to an adapter, 3/8" OD. (get a 3/8" to 3/8" connector, or 3/8" to 1/2" adapter.) Then you can run either 3/8 silicon/tygon, or 1/2 regular hose in your system.
Basiscally, all this serves to do is to get rid of the bottleneck that you probably have in your adapters. You may get some benefit out of the larger hose, you may not. It will also be a pain in the arse, and may introduce new potential leaks.. :(
But hey, you asked. :)

why would this cause the idle temp to go up and the load temp down? I would think that if the case was restriction of flow then the both the idle and load temps would go up. Guess there is probably a scientific explanation for it.

Oh and thanks for the suggestions. Because the difference are minimal and load temps are actually down i am going to leave as is. I wasn't expecting anything great from moving up in tubing size more just getting the system ready if i try and do something a bit more extreme. I might try and pick up a heater core for cheap and try that and see if that makes any difference. But dissambleing and assembling that stuff is a pain in the butt so I will stick to as is for the time being.

kaikara

it's just 2c differance, either way, which is well within the accuracy of the probe.

the rad in the system is the only real weak spot, you might want to upgrade the radiator