Manifold Design Question

Hopefully this is an ok place to put this thread....

I have a rectangular cooler (7 gallon) that I am building a copper manifold for. I am looking at a 2 "vein" design or a 3 "vein" design. I am looking to cover 8" across but have some limitation with the size of my copper fittings. If I go with the 2 vein design, I can have them properly spaced and have the exit valve centered. If I use a 3 vein design, the "center" vein will actually be spaced off center causing uneven spacing between the veins. It will also result in having the exit valve off center. Would it be better to have more veins with less than optimal spacing? or 2 veins with perfect spacing? I plan on batch sparging at first, but will want to move to fly sparging.... if that makes any difference.

I would personally go with more veins with less than optimal spacing. More surface area, less chance of a stuck sparge, I think efficiency wise you wouldn't notice a difference.

Only pic I could find of mine, but the angle doesn't show the exit. :/

Just make sure you put the openings facing down, I had these up for the picture.

Thanks for the reply... I read the appendix to palmer's book/website that showed the flow dynamics and it got me worried that spacing should trump the number of "veins". Maybe I am just picking nits and not get too worried about it.