I'm ditching some things in the 5.25" bay in my Fractal R5 so I can remove that drive bay entirely and mount a big 420mm radiator at the top of the case. Ever since taking some steps to ditch that 5.25" bay I've been brainstorming a bit over where I could mount liquid cooling components. Questions are in bold.
 

Is it advisable to feed heat to a pump/reservoir unit or should I just cross the tubes at the pump + flip the CPU block to avoid that, send heat to the radiator instead, as in config #1?
 
I was looking into doing my own open CPU loop with mostly EK parts. Since I'm in a windowed Fractal R5 in which the window is only over the motherboard area I'm trying to make it look tidy as possible in that area with just the two tubes bundled together going to the loop. I have two EVGA HYBRID cards and I've seen people bundle those tubes together to make it look tidy and I want to do that with the tubes to/from the CPU block also. Does some minuscule amount of heat transfer between the tubes when they're bundled together? It doesn't seem to affect the HYBRID cards much.
 

In my x99 Deluxe the M.2 slot has the drive sticking directly out of the board so the tubing to/from the CPU block would be going over a rigid M.2 bracket sticking out of the board. Maybe a bit detrimental to aesthetics, but pragmatically, helpful in holding up the tubing. It's not sharp or hot so I should just be able to run tubes over it.
 
I was also going to put a rotary extension from the OUT on the pump/reservoir to a T splitter, splitting to a drain valve, plugged just in case. That's a good spot to put it, right? It's the lowest point on this particular loop.
 
(https://www.ekwb.com/shop...-valve-10mm-g1-4-black) Those ball valves look like they have a plastic handle. Is there anything more sturdy or is a plastic handle fine?
 
As for tubing, going for either 10/16mm (3/8 ID 5/8 OD) or 13/19mm (1/2 ID 3/4 OD). I kinda wanted thick tubes so there's more coolant and it's moving slower because I saw showcase coolants like Mayhems Aurora and the upcoming PrimoChill VUE that have a neat cloudy effect showing coolant flow, an effect which is better viewed in big tubes and when the coolant is moving slower. PrimoChill VUE isn't out yet, but I should be ordering all this Liquid Cooling stuff next month. Hopefully it's available then because it seems to offer improvements over Mayhems Aurora (just hope it comes in white like my Fractal R5). I was going to just use plain, opaque, white tubing, but those showcase coolants look really neat. Worth it? Y/N?
 
If I use thick, 13/19mm (1/2 ID 3/4 OD) tubing I should have no problems making those bends, right? If not, I could avoid kinking better by directing the tubing with angled fittings. I heard even if thick tubing kinks a bit it's so thick you still get adequate flow through it.
 
Is 4-5 feet of tubing enough for this? I need a little extra for a draining tube which I'll connect to the ball valve fitting when necessary. That looked like the easiest drain method.
 
I already have two HYBRID cards with self contained closed loops so expanding this planned open loop beyond the CPU should not happen for quite a while, but the option is nice and in the meantime a 420mm radiator is overkill for an i7-5930K which should achieve a higher overclock. Whether I do all this still depends on if there are no issues with the components I get to replace everything in that 5.25" bay and I have the available space that I think I have after removing said bay.

So no hard confirmation on that? I've seen loops that appear to send coolant to the pump/reservoir from one of the blocks, but I thought it'd be best not to do that.
 
Are there any simple plastic things you can route two tubes through to keep them together but separated? I wouldn't know what you'd call it, I was just going to bundle tubes with velcro ties, but probably better if they're separated at least a little.
 
I have that CoolerMaster case in black non-windowed, still have a working build inside it.
 
That radiator is massive. Although from my limited research I hear you get more performance gains going from 2 to 3 fan radiator or 3 to 4 fan radiator than you do going with a thicker radiator. I dunno if I have the room to go much thicker than 45mm, 3x 140mm fans is the most I can cram in the top of the case.
 
I already have RGB LEDs top and bottom since case is windowed. I pretty much always have them set to white so I probably should have just gotten plain white LEDs, but the option to change color is nice. I don't think just altering the color could produce the same effect as UV, but the coolants I mentioned are UV reactive. I'm mostly interested in the cloudy effect in the coolant that makes flow visible.
 
EK doesn't even sell clear tubing in the larger size I was after, but there's some on NewEgg for like $1.26 per ft. Is tubing brand a big deal or can you just get anything?
 
I'm already tidying things up a bit. Should be getting some EVGA Powerlink adapters in the mail soon. I have CableMod cables with white sleeving, but they didn't give me enough of the tidier cabling so I have a bunch of unused connectors hanging off the PCI-E power cables on the top card. With the Powerlink things I can shift all that unsightly junk behind the motherboard. Might get some of those comb things for the cabling as after the 5.25 bay and it's contents are removed from the top I will have less cabling to deal with thus more room to spread things out with cable combs.
 
I want to eliminate some space between components by mounting the pump/reservoir a little higher in the case so it's just under the top rad+fans so I may need to get a smaller reservoir tube. Would there be much of an negative impact going from a reservoir of 104mm height to a reservoir of 64mm height?

quadlatte
As for the tube spacers, you could try a plumbing supply house, i have seen them used also in automotive

Found one. It's 19mm - 3/4" so it should be correct.

Dunno if I'd need two of them, they're not as cheap as I'd like. A pack of ties is much cheaper and has more uses. This small separator looks nicer though. I could just cut something into this shape and paint it white or black, but this aluminum clamp is not likely to dig into the tubing and can be removed fairly easily as well.
 
Subjectively speaking, does pairing the tubes to/from the CPU block together look tidier? Looks tidier IMO. As I said before, people do this with the HYBRID cards. Here's an example from EVGA forums actually:

I also bundled the tubing on my HYBRID cards like this so I was going to do it to the tubing going to the CPU block. The area where the reservoir is going to be mounted will be obscured unless I extend the window. Extending the current window in my Fractal R5 would be a bit of a hassle though.

In config #1 of the first image I posted that is how the loop is flowing.
[pump/reservoir combo] -> [cpu block] -> [radiator] -> [pump/reservoir combo]

The inlet on the pump/reservoir combo unit [EK-XTRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (incl. pump)] is slightly higher than the outlet. In the image the inlet is blue and outlet is red on CPU block and the pump/reservoir unit. The radiator, I believe, is bi-directional so the in/out are just black rather than being marked in red or blue since it doesn't matter for the radiator. The outlet on the pump/reservoir and the inlet/outlet (used as the inlet) on that side of the radiator are both on the same side of the case (right side) so I can have those tubes going to/from the CPU block and bundled together easily. It's only the one tube that must return from the radiator to the pump/reservoir that has to make some turns to do so. For that one tube I could use a 45-degree fitting on the radiator with an extension + 90-degree fitting on the pump/reservoir inlet so it can easily run by the tube going out to the CPU block. There will be a T splitter there for the ball valve, so the tube going to the CPU block from the pump/reservoir outlet can turn upward at 90-degrees from the T splitter. Having a ball valve fitting going straight downward from a T splitter is fine right? It should be like: [pump/reservoir outlet] -> [rotary fitting] -> [T splitter] -> [ball valve fitting downward & compression fitting upward] It's kinda difficult to explain the fittings situation without visual aids.
 
If there's not enough space for that plan I can improvise something else. I'm going to get plenty of angled fittings so I can maneuver around without kinking. I'd like to keep most of the tubing maneuvering out of sight behind the reservoir on that right side of the case if possible and have the two tubes to/from the CPU block coming out from behind the reservoir in a fairly straight path.

Those 1$ hose separators are 3/8" and 1/2" whereas the tubing I was looking at have OD of 5/8" and 3/4". I don't think those will work. The Earl's hose separators look nice and although I wish they were cheaper I'll probably go with those if anything.
 
Upon further research I now come to the issue of radiator length. After removing the 5.25" bay I found there are these small bends around that bay sticking out about 8mm. I have a slim fan at the back which is 13mm thick. Measuring these I find I have clearance for a radiator under 460mm long.

I was only really looking at the first two on this list, but here's dimensions:

• PrimoChill 420mm EximoSX Slim - 455 x 140 x 30mm
• EK-CoolStream CE 420 - 460 x 145 x 45mm
• Hardware Labs Black Ice SR2 Multiport 420mm - 453 x 153 x 60mm
• Alphacool NexXxoS Monsta 420mm - 468 x 144 x 86mm

The massive Alphacool Monsta has actually been mounted in a Fractal R5 before, but the mounting was offset and there is no back fan at all. I suppose if you really wanted a back fan you could just mount it to the back of the case and run a fan connector through the PCI-E bracket

 
I didn't want to remove the 13mm thick fan at the back, but I'll probably have to. I will likely go with the PrimoChill EximoSX Slim Radiator. The width of the Hardware Labs Black Ice Radiator will cause problems and block my top LED strip. The PrimoChill is the most likely to fit without problems. Although it's slim, it's got an FPI of 20 and I have 140mm fans for it already. Not certain, but I believe the broader surface area of a slim 420mm should outperform even a thicker 360mm and have less noise from 140mm fans VS 120mm fans. Additionally, the PrimoChill radiator comes in various colors and is likely the cheapest.
 
Is this Durelene PVC good tubing? http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/dupvctu1idx3.html