Acrylic Tubing Upgrade: First time bending.

[CertifiedDan]

Hi,

I thought I would share with you my recent upgrade to acrylic tubing from standard flexi pipe. This is my first time using acrylic and am not sure what to expect. I will also be upgrading my PSU from a Corsair TX650 - RM1000 as I will be upgrading my Gpu to 2x 780ti's shortly.
Equipment:
Monsoon Hardline Pro Bending Kit 13mm
PrimoChill 13mm Clear Acrylic tube
Primochill Revolver Black Nickel Compression Fittings:





This PC is also my very first ever PC build, my first attempt at watercooling and overclocking.

Current Hardware:
NZXT Phantom V2 Orange/Black Case
i5 4670k OC @ 4.5ghz 1.18vcore
Gigabyte Z87-OCX Mobo
8Gb G.Skill Ares RAM 2133Mhz
Evga 780ti Superclocked
Corsair RM1000 PSU
120Gb Samsung Evo 840
60gb Corsair Force 3
2tb Seagate Barracuda
I also have 2 x 200mm, 2 x 120mm & 1x 140mm Case Fans (not including rad fans)

Watercooling Consists of:
XSPC Raystorm block w/ Orange LED
XSPC AX120mm Rad
XSPC Photon 170 Res
EK 2.2 Pump
2x Corsair HP Fans
Primochill Revolver Black Nickel Fittings
Primochill 13mm Tubing


So this is currently what my PC is looking like on this inside



So the tubing has been bugging me for awhile now. The above photo was taken soon after I first filled it, the coolant has turned a dark orange and the tubing has started to get stained. I have always wanted to do acrylic but haven't wanted to risk it without proper tools, so when I found the bending kit here on OC I snapped one up.

Anyway, first to drain the loop.


As you can see from this picture the coolant has changed colour quite abit and looks rather dirty in comparison to the fresh liquid next to it.


Removing the tubing (very carefully) as I have had afew close shaves with coolant and components.


Inspecting the waterblock after I had removed the fittings revealed a shave of plastic that has been stuck there for over 6 months. Lucky it didn't get loose and clog the pump up.


Also gave the graphics card a clean and a new dollop of thermal paste.



Time to fully strip out my PC and get some compressed air in there to get rid of all that dust thats gathered in the nooks and crannies. I will also be adding a new fan to the back of my rad as they are currently mis-matched.



After much wrestling getting the old PSU wires out (I swear I will never buy a non modular psu again) and getting all the new cables back in finally had the new psu installed.







...

 

[CertifiedDan]

Part 2.

So onward with the bending, I really have no exact clue here and only having a few youtube videos for a guide I'm learning as I go. And trust me there were a lot of mistakes.

New fittings added



Rad re-installed with 2 Corsair High Pressure fans on instead of the one like before.


Laying the tools out for the job


First bend went really smoothly, The kit really does make it effortless so long as you get your markings right.


After trimming one side down I used 2 mandrels to get the 45 degree angle to get the pipe from the rad to the cpu block.
You can see how the 180degree holds the tube steady and in the correct position so the 45 degree doesn't go astray.



After some cutting and shaving with the rounding tool the piece fits perfectly.



Using the rulers and angle brackets makes it really easy to plan out the perfect length of the loop and where the bends should be.



This piece required a double 45 degree bend to get the pipe up and straight, I could have used 2 90 degree angles but it think the 45s fit with the general layout of my bends.


Bending round & down to the Reservoir.







Abit more cutting and shaving and another perfect fit



...

 

[CertifiedDan]

The Final part was the hardest for me, it required 2 of the lengths to be within about 5mm of the right length to fit.







Next to last Bend,


Little bit of a squeeze, but manged to get the final piece in.






Time for the Refill, The new liquid is so much brighter than the stuff I pulled out. Makes all the difference imo.
(Yea i don't actually own a funnel, improvising is always fun )

 

[CertifiedDan]

After a quick 2 hour leak test, I was already to fire up again.

Really loving the look of the acrylic, it looks so much more tidy than the bulky tubes and the bending kit made it so much easier.

Here it is in its finished glory








All there to do now is wait for one of my 780ti's to arrive tomorrow and get that up and running.

Hope you enjoyed my upgrade log. Let me know what you think.

Dan

 

[CertifiedDan]

Thanks for the nice comments guys! I have managed to get my 780ti in and what should have taken around 10 minutes to slot the new card in, remove AMD related software and install nvidia drivers took me over 18 hours to get back right.
First of all the AMD Clean Uninstall software decided it wanted to purge my PC of every driver... Up to and including the wireless card, Intel Chipset Driver, All Mobo Drivers, Mouse, keyboard and also Realtek audio. It also removed all restore points for some reason. The computer wouldn't do anything even in safe mode which prompted me to whack in my windows OEM disc & reinstall windows then update with new drivers. Before realising I accidentally used the 32-bit version, uninstall again, reinstall 64-bit version. Rinse and repeat with drivers. It was a very, very long night.


Anyway here is the 780ti.


I also bought the EVGA backplate as I i believe it just adds a sleek finished look to the card.


So small next to the matrix







And here it is, with the new Graphics card in place

That bending job is sick!
Looks beautiful
Love the orange the rig looks so much better!
How was the rad to the top of the res done?
Are those also measuring equipment you get to?

Thanks mate, the rad to top of resevoir was done with the 45degree mandrel to get the pipe up then another 45 to get it flat, I then use the 90degree to get both of the following bends.

AWESOME. That's the first step by step guide I've seen on bending and fitting Acrylic tube, and I must say you'd made it look a lot easier than I thought it'd be, GREAT GUIDE and that's a sweet rig that mate.
What's happening to ya Matrix card when you get your 780Ti? I've got the same card and love it

Selling off my matrix on some classified pages. PM me if you want any info.


Hope you enjoy

Dan

 

[CertifiedDan]

Currently 2 hours into a burn test with 4.5GHz @ 1.17vCore.

 

[CertifiedDan]

Thanks again for the comments guys! Already planning the next upgrade (does it ever end!? Thinking of pulling out the 2 200mm fans, getting a dual 120 rad in and watercooling the 780ti.
The only problem this presents me with is part of the piping i have just bent is going to have to come out and after all that hard work it seems like a bit of a waste.
Now I could put another look in and run it from a 5.25 bay res. which would solve a lot of issues but add another £100-£250 onto the current upgrade price of about £200.

Definitely interested in your Matrix card mate, no idea how you PM people on here tho...

I have set up trust on my account so you should be able to drop me an email.

Looking good mate. I've just received the Monsoon full kit yesterday, I'm just waiting on the fittings, to make a start.

Good to see you making a go of it. My main it of advice, especially if you're bending over 3 axis is check and double check that the bend you are about to do is going to go the right way in your case. So many times I made a bend, held it up to the case and realised it was going up instead of down, or left instead of right. Went through about 3m of tubing to get it right.

Wow looks so much better, i might sound retarded but how did you actually like specifically find the angles and the lengths needed?

The kit comes with rulers and brackets so you can get the measurements over 3 axis. Check my pictures about half way down part 2 there is an example of using the rulers and brackets.

 

[CertifiedDan]

You have no set up your trust...

Can't send you any PM

Set up trust now mate, drop me a line

 

[CertifiedDan]

Hi there,

Not updated my log in awhile so I thought I'd share some pictures of some of my new toys. No new components for awhile now but i bought myself the ROG Swift, an M65 Mouse and K70 RGB Cherry Red keyboard also bought an arozzi gaming chair which is a real quality bit of kit.















And lastly the corsair board, absolutely fabulous piece of kit.





Thanks for looking

Dan

 

[CertifiedDan]

You all pimped out with gear

Aye haha, I have everything I need for this build now. Another 780ti wouldnt go amiss to get the full potential from the swift. But that can wait for now.

 

[CertifiedDan]

Great stuff. The new RGB boards look so nice, but I just can't justify it with already having a K90...

Just retired an aging gigabyte rubber dome with about 5 keys not working on it so the k70 is a real step up. Not sure about cherry reds though, they are a little light. Perhaps should have gone brown.