Corsair feedback

[Ravendarat]

Ok so I just finished my loop, its almost 100% corsair products with the exception of the GPU block as they didn't make a block for my 6800 and the fittings came from Bykski because quite frankly at some point money matters and I got all my fittings for the price I would have paid for like 8 corsair ones. Now the good, their XC7 cpu block, XD3 pump/res combo and radiators are all great. Easy to work with and I liked all the different mount options for the XD3.

 

Now the bad. This tubing is super fragile, it has a very very small threshold between where it will bend and where it starts to bubble and deform, if you try to cut it with anything besides a hacksaw it shatters and using a reaming tool such as the drill attachment from Primochill causes it to melt and in one case shatter, not fun.

 

The tube bending kit is my main gripe though. This thing is damn near worthless. The clamp to hold the tube while cutting it and the hacksaw itself is acceptable although it would have been nice if they had a way to affix it to a desk while using it. The rubber core they give you though, this thing is USELESS. They advertise the kit as being for 12-14mm, well I bought their 14mm tubing and the rubber core is way to small, it doesnt keep the tube from collapsing on itself and causes you to get bumps on the inside of bends. This is their own kit and their own tubing, there is no way this should have been a problem.

 

Lastly the RGB set up, oh god the RGB set up. First off all my fans are running to a node that was included in the 3 fan set up via a Commander pro. Well 4 of the fans have a distinctly different color shade than the other two. Now those 4 fans are about 6 months older than the other 2, but they are all LL120 so they should match but they dont. Then I have a node pro to run the RGB strips and the pump and cpu block, well that was the plan. Even though the XD3 has a provision to daisy chain the XC7 inline, it just flat out doesnt work. I ended up having to run the XC7 to channel two on the commander pro and then run the XD3 to the node pro channel 2 and then the 3 rgb strips to channel 1. Its obviously a first world problem but still very annoying. 

 

Over all im happy ish with my gear but I need to find a new rubber core and rebend almost all my tubes at some point because almost every one has a defect of some kind due to the core included in the bending kit being insufficient. Also in the past I used the tubing from Primo Chill and it was FAR better to work with and would suggest it over the Corsair tubing to any builder and even more so to any NEW builder. Corsair Icue is amazingly unstable and crashes frequently but this isnt anything new. Also these fans not matching might drive me nuts but it will cost me $200 to replace them all and thats a hard pill to swallow after already dropping this much on their gear. Either way once I get everything configured Ill post pictures but thought I would give my feedback on it.  

[bowrilla]

7 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

Now the bad. This tubing is super fragile, it has a very very small threshold between where it will bend and where it starts to bubble and deform, if you try to cut it with anything besides a hacksaw it shatters and using a reaming tool such as the drill attachment from Primochill causes it to melt and in one case shatter, not fun.

Shattering sounds like acrylic. If you're too aggressive with the heating, youi'll get bubbles. That's normal and the window is small. Hence why you should do it carefully and slowly. Since you don't have a temperature probe on the acrylic it's mostly feel. I know I did mess up when I get impatient. Concerning melting when cutting with a power tool: normal to a certain degree and depending on the tool. What do you expect? Cutting means friction and friction produces heat, even on low rpm settings, acrylic will melt a bit. When it shatters then you applied too much force. Also very normal for acrylic. 

 

Acrylic needs delicate handling or you'll mess it up. That's nothing new.

7 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

he tube bending kit is my main gripe though. This thing is damn near worthless. The clamp to hold the tube while cutting it and the hacksaw itself is acceptable although it would have been nice if they had a way to affix it to a desk while using it.

My suggestion would be: clamp it down with a c clamp.

 

7 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

The rubber core they give you though, this thing is USELESS. They advertise the kit as being for 12-14mm, well I bought their 14mm tubing and the rubber core is way to small, it doesnt keep the tube from collapsing on itself and causes you to get bumps on the inside of bends.

That is weird since I assume their 14mm and 12mm tubing has the same inner diametre (looking at the pictures the 12mm has a way smaller wall thickness). I mean, you can still mess up even with a silicone tube of the correct size but it should fit properly. Fitting means it slides in with basically no wiggle room. If there is wiggle room, flatspots will inevitably occur. If that was the case then you quite frankly should have contacted support because then something's wrong with the silicone tube. It needs to be a snug fit, otherwise the product is faulty. 

 

If it is a snug fit though then you applied a) too much force or b) too little heat. If the fit is not snug then the product is faulty and I wouldn't go through all my tubing.

 

From personal experience, I don't have any issues with the Alphacool silicone insert.

 

7 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

Corsair Icue is amazingly unstable and crashes frequently but this isnt anything new.

Unfortunately true. Addressable RGB is a mess with every single manufacturer having their own software and approach. While strips and fans often are compatible over certain systems, memory and mainboard lighting compatibility is often poor. I have to use iCue for the memory and my mouse and the rest is controlled via onboard header through the Gigabyte RGB suite which is actually even worse.

 

That's why I am at the point of ditching most components with built in RGB (or deactivating it) and only use strips and frames from one brand. I am still thinking about writing my own control software since internally basically ALL of those DRGB products have the same addressable RGBs with the same controller. 

[Ravendarat]

9 hours ago, bowrilla said:

Shattering sounds like acrylic. If you're too aggressive with the heating, youi'll get bubbles. That's normal and the window is small. Hence why you should do it carefully and slowly. Since you don't have a temperature probe on the acrylic it's mostly feel. I know I did mess up when I get impatient. Concerning melting when cutting with a power tool: normal to a certain degree and depending on the tool. What do you expect? Cutting means friction and friction produces heat, even on low rpm settings, acrylic will melt a bit. When it shatters then you applied too much force. Also very normal for acrylic. 

 

 

 

That is weird since I assume their 14mm and 12mm tubing has the same inner diametre (looking at the pictures the 12mm has a way smaller wall thickness). I mean, you can still mess up even with a silicone tube of the correct size but it should fit properly. Fitting means it slides in with basically no wiggle room. If there is wiggle room, flatspots will inevitably occur. If that was the case then you quite frankly should have contacted support because then something's wrong with the silicone tube. It needs to be a snug fit, otherwise the product is faulty. 

 

If it is a snug fit though then you applied a) too much force or b) too little heat. If the fit is not snug then the product is faulty and I wouldn't go through all my tubing.

 

From personal experience, I don't have any issues with the Alphacool silicone insert.

 

You know what, Im wrong on the tubing, I thought it was advertised as PETG, it is not, thats %100 my fault, and my complaint with using the power tool and having it melt was based on my previous experience with using the Primo Chill tubing and having it not happen, but once again it was PETG tubing which would explain it, so that whole first part is kind of invalid now as I was expecting something that the material isnt meant to do, not corsairs fault at all. The insert though is not a snug fit at all, it has play, enough in fact that you can insert it at one end of the tube and sometimes it will freely just slide all the way through if you hold the tube vertical. Thats not a good solution when the bending kit and the tubing is from the same supplier. And as for the c clamp, of course I can do that, my point was that it would have been nice if they had made the device so it didnt need other tools besides whats in the kit, except of course the heat gun which they list as a required tool. Thanks for the feed back though, ill try to adjust my heat more next time. 

[bowrilla]

1 hour ago, Ravendarat said:

The insert though is not a snug fit at all, it has play, enough in fact that you can insert it at one end of the tube and sometimes it will freely just slide all the way through if you hold the tube vertical. Thats not a good solution when the bending kit and the tubing is from the same supplier

Indeed, terrible fit in that case. You should contact Corsair support because that's clearly not how it should be and it ruins all bends you do with it. Although I'd check whether the bends at the proper temperature turn out well or not. If it's too cold and you bend with force you will get some ugly flatspots and other unsightly effects. Since the melting point is a lot higher than PETG the temps you were used to might be way too low. The bubbles however are a bit odd however since that's basically overheating. Bending should not take any real force though and the you'll need to make sure to heat a large enough area - and that area needs to be consistent over all your bends when you go free hand. If your bend isn't good after you put it into form, rather reheat than force it.

 

1 hour ago, Ravendarat said:

And as for the c clamp, of course I can do that, my point was that it would have been nice if they had made the device so it didnt need other tools besides whats in the kit, except of course the heat gun which they list as a required tool

Well, I agree, would be nice. The Alphacool tools have some clamp but I find it a bit fiddly. To be honest, the cutting tool I used like 1 or 2 times and just opted for the Dremel and then sanding down the last few mm. I also ditched the bending tool for free hand bends because the radius of the Alphacool jig was too big for my application. After a few bends they got very consistent. I basically used a set square to check the angle I needed and eyeballed the rest. Most bends worked out but I did 2 more complex ones like 3 times each.

 

1 hour ago, Ravendarat said:

Thanks for the feed back though, ill try to adjust my heat more next time. 

I find the bit-tech guide on hardline VERY good and the temps worked well for me. Patience is key with hardline, especially acrylic.