Hardline Tubing

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm selling some excess parts soon and rather than go 980Ti SLI (I'm sick of SLI) or X99 (I just don't see the gaming gains), I was mulling over the idea of installing hardline, or acrylic tubing. Looking at the cost of tubing and fittings, it doesn't seem much more expensive. So, a couple of questions have sprung to mind if anyone could help out:

Is there an advantage/disadvatage to hardline over soft tubing, or is it purely asthetic?
Is it literally just a hair dryer required to soften for bends?
Is there much wastage with hardline installations?

Would someone who has installed both systems mind sharing what their experience was, and what their preference is?

Some info on the proposed build:

Parvum S2
Maximus VII Gene
4790k with CPU block
MSI 980Ti with EK full cover
Separate res and pump (EK110 / D5)

 

[grim.]

I've done both soft tubing and hardline a few times each now so I'll offer up my opinion.

For me the advantage of hardline tubing is aesthetically I think it looks better when done well, and it's more enjoyable and rewarding to do, when done well. Disadvantages would be it's a lot more time consuming. When done badly it looks terrible, and there can be a lot of wastage and frustation in redoing bends countless times just to correct an imperfection.

I would say it's possible to do with a hair dryer, but I bought a heat gun and tube bending kit. You'll need a silicone insert that fits whatever size tubing you go for, so that the tube doesn't collapse when bending. Another reason I bought the Monsoon kit was that it came with the heat gun, mandrells for bending accurately, a selection of usefull rulers for measuring up, and the silicone insert required for the bending. When I bought the kit it was about £50 and I've used it on three builds now so it's been well worth the money, though I think the price has crept up in the last year.

There will be wastage, as a rule I work out roughly how many meters I think I need, and add 50% on. It's not hugely expensive in the grand scheme of building a custom loop and I would rather have a few lengths left over than have to pause my build and wait for more to arrive.

On the last build I went for PETG tubing to give it a go. It was a lot cheaper than the other acrylic, is it PMMA? I would say it was more forgiving to use and easier to bend without over heating it and ruining the tube. But it does lose it's shape more when bending, I found it to bulge a bit.

I just built a comp with similar components to you, same mobo and cpu, same pump and res but different case and gpu.

You could take a look at my build log in my sig, but I didn't go into much detail about the bending, I just did it and photographed it badly afterwards

I would say if it interests you, then go for hardline. If you aren't very patient and want the build to be done quickly so you can just get on and use your computer, I'd go for soft tubing. It still looks good and works just as well. Personally I build custom loops just for the fun of the build, it's an expensive habit and I can't find a help group

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Cheers.

It does look sweet, but I also like the look of soft tubing. I also like that I can install soft tubing in such a way that I can remove parts without breaking a fitting or draining the loop.

If it's purely aesthetics I might just stick with soft tubing.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response.

 

[grim.]

No worries. It's not for everyone, it's certainly less practical and a lot more time consuming. But I can't see myself going back to soft tubing now, I enjoy building the computer more than I do playing games these days.