Is hardline water-cooling worth it?

[Awakening]

Is adding a custom hardline water-cooling loop to a high-end system worth the lower temperatures and potentially better overclocks? I'm contemplating trying a PETG closed loop for my first gaming PC and I haven't seen a whole lot mentioned about the task of swapping out parts with a hardline loop in the system. I'd imagine it would be a pain in the ass and you'd need to drain the system, remove tubing, and likely have to redo bends if different GPUs are installed. Compared to air cooling, that is considerably more work. Is it worth it?

[Hasle]

Swapping components will almost always involve what you mention, having to do new bends and such every time, so it's highly impractical. It's only worth it exclusively for the aesthetics.  

[tikker]

15 minutes ago, Awakening said:

Is adding a custom hardline water-cooling loop to a high-end system worth the lower temperatures and potentially better overclocks? I'm contemplating trying a PETG closed loop for my first gaming PC and I haven't seen a whole lot mentioned about the task of swapping out parts with a hardline loop in the system. I'd imagine it would be a pain in the ass and you'd need to drain the system, remove tubing, and likely have to redo bends if different GPUs are installed. Compared to air cooling, that is considerably more work. Is it worth it?

Hardline looks very cool in my opinion, but like you say it takes planning and maintenance. If you upgrade or swap out components you may need to change your tubing runs a bit as well. So if it's worth it mostly comes down to whether or not you are willing to spend the extra time and money for it. I'd say if you do, go for it

[Awakening]

Alright. Can't say the poll results aren't what I expected. Go big or go home I guess.

 

On a side note, do you guys have any idea what kind of plastic polish I would need to make my PETG reflect like glass? I saw that Jay used it in one of his videos, but I don't believe that he showed the bottle or provided any information on it. If I can get a glass look without using glass, that would be great.

[jagdtigger]

Isnt plasticizer still a big issue in case of soft tubing? I had issues with it thats why i use hard tubing only. BTW you dont really need to bend. Just use a 90° or the needed ° adapter with fittings on both ends.

[Awakening]

1 minute ago, jagdtigger said:

Isnt plasticizer still a big issue in case of soft tubing? I had issues with it thats why i use hard tubing only. BTW you dont really need to bend. Just use a 90° or the needed ° adapter with fittings on both ends.

 

That would cost quite a bit more.

[Lurick]

Yah, if you're going to go with all fittings and no bending then you might as well go with acrylic/glass instead. Bending is a pain in the ass but if you take your time then it's not all that bad and after your first couple of bends you start to get the hang of it and it moves much quicker.

[jagdtigger]

Maybe its a little bit more expensive but in my case i had to use that method quite a bit. I will redo it in december or januar(next year):

Its a little bit messy but at least it works and it wont clog my blocks with plasticizer...

[Awakening]

1 minute ago, jagdtigger said:

Maybe its a little bit more expensive but in my case i had to use that method quite a bit. I will redo it in december or januar(next year):

Its a little bit messy but at least it works and it wont clog my blocks with plasticizer...

 

I agree that a couple 90s off the block/radiator/whatever would look nice, but I don't plan on using any apart from on connection points.

 

That does look pretty sloppy though. I'd love to see what it looks like when you redo it. I'm sure adding some color to it would go a long way as well.

[jagdtigger]

8 minutes ago, Awakening said:

I agree that a couple 90s off the block/radiator/whatever would look nice, but I don't plan on using any apart from on connection points.

 

That does look pretty sloppy though. I'd love to see what it looks like when you redo it. I'm sure adding some color to it would go a long way as well.

I used whatever i had at the time... All the tubing and the dual ddc(its noisy) will be replaced. But i think i cant evade the usage of the 90° adapter on the tube coming from the CPU block . No need for colors by the way, my case dont have any window and its between my desk and the wall...

And even though it looks sloppy it works very reliably, once i selected the wrong profile on my fan controller and all the fans remained off. The water was almost 60°C when i noticed it, quickly cranked them up to max and after they cooled down the system a looked inside. Not a single leak .

Edited August 28, 2016 by jagdtigger

[Awakening]

2 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

I used whatever i had at the time... All the tubing and the dual ddc(its noisy) will be replaced. But i think i cant evade the usage of the 90° adapter on the tube coming from the CPU block . No need for colors by the way, my case dont have any window and its between my desk and the wall...

 

 

 

Screw it then. Just replace the pump. If you're gonna put in the work to redo all the bends then maybe you should go all the way and get a new case.

[jagdtigger]

6 minutes ago, Awakening said:

Screw it then. Just replace the pump. If you're gonna put in the work to redo all the bends then maybe you should go all the way and get a new case.

The define s is more than enough for my needs. I did the water cooling for performance reasons not for the aesthetics .

[Awakening]

1 minute ago, jagdtigger said:

The define s is more than enough for my needs. I did the water cooling for performance reasons not for the aesthetics .

Alright. Screw the new tubing then. Too much work for nothing