Primochill Acrylic Tubing

yeah i have been crossing my fingers for a while that ocuk will start stocking stuff for hard tubing.
I really do like you guys to take my money off me
 
Well, if you want to spend 100£ on the 45/90 angle fittings, feel free to do so.
I'd go and bend this acrylic instead, you get a lot more freedom with it.
 
OptimaLnrg said:
I don't see the point in getting rigid tubing only to expend all that effort to make it look like standard tubing..
Click to expand...

Less maintenance and doesn't cloud up. No plasticizers and you have far more flexibility if you are handy with a heat-gun. Fittings are just £3 by EK and a little more by other companies so cost isn't all that much different and arguably cheaper when you include angle fittings. You dont need to replace acrylic and can use little pipe-cleaners/toothbrush to clean them if you need to but they dont get as dirty as rubber tubing tbh. It is also better at securing heavy components like GPUs which can weigh in at over 1.5k including the block and can end up saving you a motherboard if the card is heavy enough to bench the pcie slot over time.

I introduced Acrylic and all i needed to buy was a £2 hacksaw and some sand paper. The heatgun i own was £8 from Tesco direct (though still brushing up on my bending skills).
 
Seen those fittings somewhere already.
Problem is, they only come in one type, so you will HAVE to bend tubes, no other choice.
Well, it is good enough for me, they make them in fantastic blue color which will fit in my build like a dream :)
 
Bart_Hunt said:
Seen those fittings somewhere already.
Problem is, they only come in one type, so you will HAVE to bend tubes, no other choice.
Well, it is good enough for me, they make them in fantastic blue color which will fit in my build like a dream :)
Click to expand...

Why not use standard 90 degree angle connectors?

It will be expensive but its an alternative.
 
Well, remember those rads I mentioned in other thread?
They are 120£ each, lol, so no thanks.
I am cutting corners here already :)
Plus, I would also have to pain the angle connectors or use some really expensive ones, like Monsoons.
I'll pass.
 
OMG 120?!

lol screw those rads and pay a guy to paint it and itl save you like £60 and you are guaranteed performance!


...they do look tasty though and none of the other kids on the street have one either. what do reviews say?
 
Well, the thing is, TFC don't make rads anymore :)
There are some leftovers here and there and its hard to find reviews as well.
I managed to find one or two, but reviewers used some older tech to stress test them so it's hard to say how effective they would be with current high end rig.
 
Remember this is a rigid tube and you cut it to size.
As long as you don't mess up with lengths everything will be ok.
As for the Primochill fittings:

lc9v.jpg


They look solid imho.
 
Ragnahex said:
out of interest just how secure are the acrylic fittings? just scares me you just slide the tube into them
Click to expand...

This i can tell you!

I was interested in acrylic but this was my main concern before i went into it. I bought three fittings to test out; bitspower, Primochill and EKhd

My results from personal experience:

Bitspower:

Push fittings. Expensive and mainly used for bridge connections. They are least secure and require the least force but are easily secure enough for most connections. The reason i can imagine being that these were designed for GPU connections and so the PCIe slots, as well as PCI screws hold these in snugly anyway. Still they are fine for a full loop (if a little moveable but still leak proof) and the finish is beautiful!

Primochill:

Compression acrylic fittings...WAT? These caught my eye on release. No need to sand down tubing as there is little risk in damaging O-rings. The tubing goes into a female part with a chamfered edge and the sealing part happens further up the tube where the compression has an O-ring to compress against the tubing, relying on the rigidity of the tubing. Very secure, in fact too much so as i found fittings locked together too much. Even when they were delivered they were locked together! I chipped some paint unlocking them with tools despite using an old rag so pliers didnt have direct contact. Only thing i didn't like was that i found the compression could leave scratch marks on the tubing when screwing it down and these are obviously a bit annoying considering how perfectly clear acrylic tubing remains in a loop. Next to normal tubing, these scratches would go unnoticed though, so maybe i am being to anal. Because the compression part is where the fluid is cut off, you dont need to worry about a straight edge cut. All my tubes were cut with a £2 hacksaw and saw 10-30 seconds of sanding with high grit sand paper.

EK HD:

My favourite. Call me fanboy but in truth, these ticked all the boxes for me to encourage me to implement them. I always asked myself, why switch if i need to buy a ton of fittings which will cost me the equivalent of a D5 pump. EK hd fittings come in at £3, making them the same as the tube fittings. They are discrete like all acrylic fittings, a tad more than compressions but that is the nature of compressions. These are push in fittings but dont let that put you off as they are hell secure. All of mine are currently used but i will make a video next time of how much force it takes to remove tubing, not too much but easily more than your loop will face. They push into a fitting which has two extra large custom O-rings. These make the fit snug and you will feel the difference in force needed to push past each one (not a ton but enough to remind you its snug). Due to the way they push in and the size of the O-rings, you have to make sure the O-rings dont get broken by wetting the fitting before inserting the tubing. Don't let this put you off, i have never broken or miss lodged an O-ring on these and have pushed tubing in and out prob close to half a hundred times if not more. Though you dont need a straight edge, as the cut off point for liquid (where the o-rings are) are a few mm's from the end of the fitting, you do want to sand away any jaged bits from cutting to avoid piercing them with a sharp triangular point that snapped off rather than was cut all the way through. These fittings also have a few mm of leeway when lining up blocks, which made the process of linking my blocks easier when it came to introducing it to my system. The OD of the fitting matches perfectly with any EK angle adapters too for that super clean look!

In truth, they are all secure enough but the minor details change. What ticked my boxes might leave crosses in yours, so make judgements based on what you think will suit you!



Bart_Hunt said:
Well, the thing is, TFC don't make rads anymore :)
There are some leftovers here and there and its hard to find reviews as well.
I managed to find one or two, but reviewers used some older tech to stress test them so it's hard to say how effective they would be with current high end rig.
Click to expand...


Brave man to spend £120 on a 120.2 rad with little info available. The price is pretty much in 1080 external territory.
 
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120.3 :)
120.2 cost around 85£.
Still a lot, I admit.
I thought about using colored uv tape instead of paint but no idea how it would look like on the rad.
So for now these TFC rads are my first choice.
 
yeah am considering trying for a max rad (attempting passive cooling i did manage it before i put 2 290's in it :D) in my 900d and think i would get a better finish with acrylic tubing so might get some ordered that's why i asked about fittings.
 
Bart_Hunt said:
120.3 :)
120.2 cost around 85£.
Still a lot, I admit.
I thought about using colored uv tape instead of paint but no idea how it would look like on the rad.
So for now these TFC rads are my first choice.
Click to expand...

Many projects on the logs section use like a sort of stick on vinyl wrap which come out great. If you dont want to do it directly, grab some radiator mount brackets and do it to them like this one (from project marshlands build, that guy is a mod god as far as im concerned)

dscf1796cvspz.jpg

Because the end of the wrap ends up on the inside, itl look pro:cool: and people wouldn't know how you did it unless they to peal it off. Tons of different vinyl wraps too!

Could even send in a pictured one with the build name or something on it. Will do this myself eventually of the PC builds name (undecided yet) in a neon light effect, which will look even more neon like under UV.

I am weighing up between that and cutting out the name and having EL lighting strip underneath the vinyl. So many good ideas, so little talent to execute unfortunately :(.
 
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Avenged7Fold said:
This i can tell you!

I was interested in acrylic but this was my main concern before i went into it. I bought three fittings to test out; bitspower, Primochill and EKhd

My results from personal experience:

Bitspower:

Push fittings. Expensive and mainly used for bridge connections. They are least secure and require the least force but are easily secure enough for most connections. The reason i can imagine being that these were designed for GPU connections and so the PCIe slots, as well as PCI screws hold these in snugly anyway. Still they are fine for a full loop (if a little moveable but still leak proof) and the finish is beautiful!

Primochill:

Compression acrylic fittings...WAT? These caught my eye on release. No need to sand down tubing as there is little risk in damaging O-rings. The tubing goes into a female part with a chamfered edge and the sealing part happens further up the tube where the compression has an O-ring to compress against the tubing, relying on the rigidity of the tubing. Very secure, in fact too much so as i found fittings locked together too much. Even when they were delivered they were locked together! I chipped some paint unlocking them with tools despite using an old rag so pliers didnt have direct contact. Only thing i didn't like was that i found the compression could leave scratch marks on the tubing when screwing it down and these are obviously a bit annoying considering how perfectly clear acrylic tubing remains in a loop. Next to normal tubing, these scratches would go unnoticed though, so maybe i am being to anal. Because the compression part is where the fluid is cut off, you dont need to worry about a straight edge cut. All my tubes were cut with a £2 hacksaw and saw 10-30 seconds of sanding with high grit sand paper.

EK HD:

My favourite. Call me fanboy but in truth, these ticked all the boxes for me to encourage me to implement them. I always asked myself, why switch if i need to buy a ton of fittings which will cost me the equivalent of a D5 pump. EK hd fittings come in at £3, making them the same as the tube fittings. They are discrete like all acrylic fittings, a tad more than compressions but that is the nature of compressions. These are push in fittings but dont let that put you off as they are hell secure. All of mine are currently used but i will make a video next time of how much force it takes to remove tubing, not too much but easily more than your loop will face. They push into a fitting which has two extra large custom O-rings. These make the fit snug and you will feel the difference in force needed to push past each one (not a ton but enough to remind you its snug). Due to the way they push in and the size of the O-rings, you have to make sure the O-rings dont get broken by wetting the fitting before inserting the tubing. Don't let this put you off, i have never broken or miss lodged an O-ring on these and have pushed tubing in and out prob close to half a hundred times if not more. Though you dont need a straight edge, as the cut off point for liquid (where the o-rings are) are a few mm's from the end of the fitting, you do want to sand away any jaged bits from cutting to avoid piercing them with a sharp triangular point that snapped off rather than was cut all the way through. These fittings also have a few mm of leeway when lining up blocks, which made the process of linking my blocks easier when it came to introducing it to my system. The OD of the fitting matches perfectly with any EK angle adapters too for that super clean look!

In truth, they are all secure enough but the minor details change. What ticked my boxes might leave crosses in yours, so make judgements based on what you think will suit you!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comparison :)

I'm looking at watercooling my system and am currently debating what fixings to use so your comparison is a great help! I'm not mad about the look of the EK HD fittings so think I will be going for the Bitspower ones, as you said, they look beautiful! The lack of security is my only concern...

Primochill fittings seem to be harder to come by and I can't seem to find Primochill clear acrylic tubing in stock anywhere so that's putting me off those ones.
 
the tubing doesn't matter as long as it has the right dimensions you can pick that up anywhere this is acrylic tubing after all (and some places a lot cheaper that the stuff labelled for watercooling)
 
Bart_Hunt said:
Well, if you want to spend 100£ on the 45/90 angle fittings, feel free to do so.
I'd go and bend this acrylic instead, you get a lot more freedom with it.
Click to expand...

I've already got the angled fittings and they look a lot better than those plain primochill acrylic fittings tbf.

I like the rigid straight lines look, but when the acrylic is all bent to look like standard tubing I don't see the point.

Avenged7Fold said:
Less maintenance and doesn't cloud up. No plasticizers and you have far more flexibility if you are handy with a heat-gun. Fittings are just £3 by EK and a little more by other companies so cost isn't all that much different and arguably cheaper when you include angle fittings. You dont need to replace acrylic and can use little pipe-cleaners/toothbrush to clean them if you need to but they dont get as dirty as rubber tubing tbh. It is also better at securing heavy components like GPUs which can weigh in at over 1.5k including the block and can end up saving you a motherboard if the card is heavy enough to bench the pcie slot over time.

I introduced Acrylic and all i needed to buy was a £2 hacksaw and some sand paper. The heatgun i own was £8 from Tesco direct (though still brushing up on my bending skills).
Click to expand...

I would've agreed on the clouding front earlier this year, but I've just torn down my rig after 8 months (long overdue a coolant change imo) and the primochill advanced lrt is still 'crystal clear'. It's the first time I've ever seen used tubing not be clouded! I use aquacomputer double protect coolant if anyone is wondering..
 
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