Hi All;]
This is my experience with hard tubing, long post
I started with flexible WC last year and have changed tubes couple of times since then (never happy
).
So this year with new platform (Ryzen) I decided to go with hardline, 16mm.
First problem I had was to find proper silicone insert for 16mm tubing. All of them were just too small which is silly really (they could easily get in with a 1mm gap).
I bought multiple inserts and tubes:
Bitspower insert with BP tubes… to small
Monsoon insert x2 with M tubes…too small
Barrow insert…too small for every kind of tube I had
EKWB tubes, above inserts don’t match.
Not good really that inserts and tubes bought from the same brand don't match, useless... (at least with 16mm, it might be different with thinner tubes, not sure).
I bought another insert from Alphacool and it was the best of them, too small for Monsoon (only just, but still...), perfect for EKWB and BP tubes.
So then fittings... First I wanted to go with Monsoon EV2, as they can fit variety of tubes, which is good for beginner like me I thought…but they were out of stock for months. So I bought BP fittings….and on the next day Monsoon showed up in stock
typical. Still decided to go with BP.
BP PETG tubing was too large for the fittings ehh. I tried to push in the o-ring that is inside the fitting, chamfer the tube a bit more…no go.
In the end used Monsoon tubes, BP fittings and AC insert
Reused angled EK fittings from my previous build. Used PE rads from EK 360 and 240.
Ordered new cables from Cablemod (boring ROG colors but I like them
).
Quality of cables is awesome, really impressive, however be aware that they still make them a bit differently than EVGA :
Top original EVGA, bottom Cablemod. It's all good, working fine, it was explained already on other forums why is it like this (they promised the change in the beginning of the year, but I guess it hasn't happened)... The only minus is that empty pin hole is visible. So if you plan to use combs, make them all straight, lined up, lack of one cable will be visible. This is how it would be connected to motherboard (empty one is toward center of MB, bottom of the plug, so you can't see grey cable missing):
Had to clean all the blocks and rads.... I only had it running since October last year but still lots of dirt:/
Between August-October I changed fluid, tubes like 3 times. Not sure where it's coming from. Tubing was PrimoChill Advanced LRT with EKWB clear fluid. Everytime I had loads of those white flakes in the loop.
So there we go:
Progress:
Leak testing, only had one small leak and had to change o-ring inside the fitting
First run, it was a bit unknown if it's gonna boot (new CPU and mobo, which had issues at the time). But everything went smooth:
And final photos:
I wish it was TG window but...
Aura LED setup for slight greenish tint, which makes a nice contrast with red LEDs from RAM sticks (kinda aquarium feeling to me ).
I'm not that great with bending the tubes, so not happy with the bends (definitely will play more next time). It was difficult to measure it properly for me. I might go with more fittings though, as I like more straight lines, than funky bends but that's just me more technical person...
Temps...it's Evolv, so you know I have front panel spaced out a bit.
During load I use fans at approx 1300-1400rpm. With top panel on (blocked all empty areas on the rad bracket), my water temps get to like 38-39C (21C ambient). GPU(@2114) stays around 50-51C . Top panel becomes additional component it's temp is 35C...
If I take off top panel water temps drop around 5C, GPU temps around 49-50, however fans slow down to around 900-1100. CPU is fluctuating with average around 55C (@3.9, 1.36V).
This is my experience with hard tubing, long post
I started with flexible WC last year and have changed tubes couple of times since then (never happy
).
So this year with new platform (Ryzen) I decided to go with hardline, 16mm.
First problem I had was to find proper silicone insert for 16mm tubing. All of them were just too small which is silly really (they could easily get in with a 1mm gap).
I bought multiple inserts and tubes:
Bitspower insert with BP tubes… to small
Monsoon insert x2 with M tubes…too small
Barrow insert…too small for every kind of tube I had
EKWB tubes, above inserts don’t match.
Not good really that inserts and tubes bought from the same brand don't match, useless... (at least with 16mm, it might be different with thinner tubes, not sure).
I bought another insert from Alphacool and it was the best of them, too small for Monsoon (only just, but still...), perfect for EKWB and BP tubes.
So then fittings... First I wanted to go with Monsoon EV2, as they can fit variety of tubes, which is good for beginner like me I thought…but they were out of stock for months. So I bought BP fittings….and on the next day Monsoon showed up in stock
typical. Still decided to go with BP.BP PETG tubing was too large for the fittings ehh. I tried to push in the o-ring that is inside the fitting, chamfer the tube a bit more…no go.
In the end used Monsoon tubes, BP fittings and AC insert
Reused angled EK fittings from my previous build. Used PE rads from EK 360 and 240.Ordered new cables from Cablemod (boring ROG colors but I like them
).
Quality of cables is awesome, really impressive, however be aware that they still make them a bit differently than EVGA :
Top original EVGA, bottom Cablemod. It's all good, working fine, it was explained already on other forums why is it like this (they promised the change in the beginning of the year, but I guess it hasn't happened)... The only minus is that empty pin hole is visible. So if you plan to use combs, make them all straight, lined up, lack of one cable will be visible. This is how it would be connected to motherboard (empty one is toward center of MB, bottom of the plug, so you can't see grey cable missing):
Had to clean all the blocks and rads.... I only had it running since October last year but still lots of dirt:/
Between August-October I changed fluid, tubes like 3 times. Not sure where it's coming from. Tubing was PrimoChill Advanced LRT with EKWB clear fluid. Everytime I had loads of those white flakes in the loop.
So there we go:
Progress:
Leak testing, only had one small leak and had to change o-ring inside the fitting
First run, it was a bit unknown if it's gonna boot (new CPU and mobo, which had issues at the time). But everything went smooth:
And final photos:
I wish it was TG window but...
Aura LED setup for slight greenish tint, which makes a nice contrast with red LEDs from RAM sticks (kinda aquarium feeling to me
).I'm not that great with bending the tubes, so not happy with the bends (definitely will play more next time). It was difficult to measure it properly for me. I might go with more fittings though, as I like more straight lines, than funky bends
but that's just me more technical person...Temps...it's Evolv, so you know
I have front panel spaced out a bit.During load I use fans at approx 1300-1400rpm. With top panel on (blocked all empty areas on the rad bracket), my water temps get to like 38-39C (21C ambient). GPU(@2114) stays around 50-51C . Top panel becomes additional component
it's temp is 35C...If I take off top panel water temps drop around 5C, GPU temps around 49-50, however fans slow down to around 900-1100. CPU is fluctuating with average around 55C (@3.9, 1.36V).