Water Cooling Loop Advice

[aithos]

This is going to be a bit long so I apologize...

 

I posted a little while back looking for advice about finding a good case and I have settled on the Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900.  It's not perfect, but it will fit basically anything I might want and has a nice sleek appearance (if only it had a PSU basement/shroud).  With that figured out I've been more or less agonizing over the decision of whether I should custom water cool or not.  This is something I've considered for my past two builds and previously decided it wasn't worth the time/money since I am not a heavy overclocker.

 

Now I'm starting to receive the parts for my next build and it's decision time again and I could use some advice on what I should do.  When I first started putting together a parts list for this I was planning to get an AIO like the Corsair H115i, but I came to find out that it wouldn't fit with my RAM in the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX TG (the case I wanted at the time and have since nixed for poor air flow and not wanting to mod the top).  So when I decided to go with the bigger case I decided to investigate a custom loop again, and down the rabbit hole I went...

 

Basically what I've come to is that I'm unsure what the realistic amount of maintenance is these days with either soft/hard tubing and how reliable the concentrate fluid like Mayhems Pastel is over long periods of time.  I definitely prefer the look of hard tubing and the idea of acrylic (not PETG) being plasticizer free is attractive.  So here are some questions:

 

1) Assuming I'm careful/meticulous and my PC is never getting moved is hardline tubing less maintenance than soft?

2) How long does soft tubing/fluid last before it realistically needs to be changed and would that include fittings?

3) How much tubing do I realistically need for CPU and a single GPU with a top/front (2 rad) loop?

 

I would also like opinions on the parts I'm considering, I don't think there are any issues with different metals or anything but I'd also like to be sure I'm not forgetting something...

 

Both hard/soft tubing:

- EK FC1080 GTX 1080ti GPU block + backplate

- Bitspower Summit EF X-Clear CPU block

- EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM pump

- XSPC Photon 270 reservoir

- HardwareLabs Black Ice Nemesis 360 GTS radiator (x2)

- EK Vardar F4-120ER 2200 fans (x6) or Noctua NF IPPC-2000

- Mayhems Pastel White concentrate + dye

 

Soft:

- 10ft Primoflex Advanced LRT 3/8"x5/8" tubing

- EK-ACF Compression Fitting 10/16mm (x14, 2 extra)

 

Hard:

- Bitspower Crystal Link 16mm 500mm tube (x6)

- Bitspower G1/4" Enhance Multi-link 16mm fitting (x14, 2 extra)

- Monsoon 16mm hardline pro bender kit + Wagner 1200w heat gun

 

I also need some kind of drain valve or something for the hardline but not sure what to get. 

 

I guess what I'm struggling with here is the cost difference between this and an AIO.  I can get an AIO + Noctua 140mm IPPC fans for $242 (and the GPU is $50 more for an AIB) and I know the system temps are going to be perfectly acceptable as I'd be running 7 total 140mm fans with water on the CPU and a good AIB GPU cooler (EVGA ICX). 

 

On the other hand the soft system when you consider brackets, dye, etc is around $900 and the hard line is $1050 or so.  That's just such a huge increase that I'm having a hard time justifying it for what is essentially visual appeal and maybe a MINOR difference in noise.  Then I also have to do maintenance and I would probably want to leave the PC running all the time which also means a pretty big jump in my power bill as I currently put it to sleep when I'm not home.  I've always wanted to do a custom loop, I am drawn to art and it is kind of a badge of honor in a way since I've been building PCs for almost 20 years and I've never done it... but it's also a lot more work. 

 

What do you guys think?  I'm not looking at anything beyond my means or anything, but I always try to get a good value when I buy and creeping to a $4k build cost makes me cringe a little because that's a lot more than I used to budget for my builds.  I might overclock a bit, but I'm not planning anything aggressive... maybe 5ghz on a 7700k and 2ghz on the 1080ti.

[stealth80]

Keep in mind that a good loop will last years, just need GPU block changes, your list looks good. I would for certain go rigid tubing, trust me after a few months you will wish you had and then you will need to buy new fittings as well as the tube. As for acrylic, don't, get PETG it's so much easier to work with and isn't brittle. Acrylic from my experience tends to bubble up really easy when heating and bending.

 

as for your questions:

 

1) Probably once a year, Pastel coolants are more stable now, and provided you flush your rads etc and prep your loop, they are very little maintenance. I tend to swap the coolant every 6 months (my previous red kept fading and going murky - seems to be fixed now)

 

2) I used soft for around a year it was fine after, but it tends to stain from dyed coolant so if you wanna change colours you will need to swap the tubing.

 

3) If you go rigid, work out how much you need and double it. You will make mistakes for certain and there's nothing worse than getting to the last tube and realising you don't have enough.

 

 

[aithos]

12 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

Keep in mind that a good loop will last years, just need GPU block changes, your list looks good. I would for certain go rigid tubing, trust me after a few months you will wish you had and then you will need to buy new fittings as well as the tube. As for acrylic, don't, get PETG it's so much easier to work with and isn't brittle. Acrylic from my experience tends to bubble up really easy when heating and bending.

 

as for your questions:

 

1) Probably once a year, Pastel coolants are more stable now, and provided you flush your rads etc and prep your loop, they are very little maintenance. I tend to swap the coolant every 6 months (my previous red kept fading and going murky - seems to be fixed now)

 

2) I used soft for around a year it was fine after, but it tends to stain from dyed coolant so if you wanna change colours you will need to swap the tubing.

 

3) If you go rigid, work out how much you need and double it. You will make mistakes for certain and there's nothing worse than getting to the last tube and realising you don't have enough.

 

 

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.  My concern isn't so much the overall lifespan of the parts as it is how often I need to mess with it, with air cooling I open up my case to blow it out with compressed air as needed and at least once a year I take off the fans and really wipe everything down.  It takes no more than 30 minutes and is extremely simple, and then I don't ever have to even think about my parts because they just work and with my two huge screens I barely even see my case besides the front because of the space (or lack thereof) on my desk.

 

So with water if I have to drain, flush, re-fill and test the loop every year that is a LOT more work.  Maybe I'll enjoy it, but I don't like "maintenance" tasks in general so I doubt it... and my worry is more that I won't even care about the visual appeal after I've had it 6 months and it will just become a hassle because the performance is nice but doesn't really gain me anything since I'm already building an absurdly overkill system.

 

I was looking at about 10ft of tubing, does that sound like enough?  I'm extremely meticulous/patient when it comes to stuff like this and I have excellent fine-motor dexterity so I'm confident it won't take me too long to get the hang of bending, it will just take a long time to actually DO it.  If I do rigid though I will definitely be doing acrylic and not PETG.  Acrylic is only brittle if you overheat it, heat it too quickly, cool it too quickly, bend it too soon or too quickly.  I just plain don't care about "easy to work with" because I won't have a problem with that and there is no way I'll be breaking anything once it's set up.

[stealth80]

1 hour ago, aithos said:

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.  My concern isn't so much the overall lifespan of the parts as it is how often I need to mess with it, with air cooling I open up my case to blow it out with compressed air as needed and at least once a year I take off the fans and really wipe everything down.  It takes no more than 30 minutes and is extremely simple, and then I don't ever have to even think about my parts because they just work and with my two huge screens I barely even see my case besides the front because of the space (or lack thereof) on my desk.

 

So with water if I have to drain, flush, re-fill and test the loop every year that is a LOT more work.  Maybe I'll enjoy it, but I don't like "maintenance" tasks in general so I doubt it... and my worry is more that I won't even care about the visual appeal after I've had it 6 months and it will just become a hassle because the performance is nice but doesn't really gain me anything since I'm already building an absurdly overkill system.

 

I was looking at about 10ft of tubing, does that sound like enough?  I'm extremely meticulous/patient when it comes to stuff like this and I have excellent fine-motor dexterity so I'm confident it won't take me too long to get the hang of bending, it will just take a long time to actually DO it.  If I do rigid though I will definitely be doing acrylic and not PETG.  Acrylic is only brittle if you overheat it, heat it too quickly, cool it too quickly, bend it too soon or too quickly.  I just plain don't care about "easy to work with" because I won't have a problem with that and there is no way I'll be breaking anything once it's set up.

Why are you adamant about acrylic over PETG? It is ALWAYS brittle in comparison to PETG, nothing to do with heat - google some videos of PETG vs acrylic. And it is EASY to bubble when bending, very easy, I still have a box in storage I refuse to use.

 

10ft, 3 metres should be enough, especially if PETG , I'm an aircraft engineer, I still fucked up a tonne of bends haha, just be patient and don't rush it, that's when you end up over heating it. Remember it isn't just the heating, some bends are a pain in the arse especially if they bend on different axis

 

 

That one is from my first rigid build (which started flex) and my god, that one was a pain in the arse, 3 bends 2 in different planes

 

 

As for maintenance, as I said once a year drain, and fill, no need to flush unless changing colours. Once it's drained check your blocks and dirt does build up in them (normally over a few years - but best to check whilst drained). You will know when it's ready to be cleaned out as the coolant will lose it's vibrancy. It takes me around 2 - 3 hours for a full drain clean out and refill + bleed. I enjoy it, at the moment i'm considering adding a 120mm radiator to back of my current build, because I can lol

 

 

 

 

 

[aithos]

9 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

Why are you adamant about acrylic over PETG? It is ALWAYS brittle in comparison to PETG, nothing to do with heat - google some videos of PETG vs acrylic. And it is EASY to bubble when bending, very easy, I still have a box in storage I refuse to use.

Why?  Because I don't care about "ease of use" and I would rather spend more time/money to get the best result than have to deal with several downsides to using the more permeable material.  Also, and I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't care about the results people get when they do things improperly and from watching videos and seeing pictures the trend appears to be that people heat too fast, too hot and bend too fast.

 

Not to mention that the "tests" I've seen are ridiculous and consist of a bunch of things that have absolutely no relevance to the actual application.  The word "brittle" implies that through standard use something is likely to break even if you're careful and do things the right way.  You can shatter glass with a hammer, but is your windshield brittle?  No.  Could you make a windshield brittle?  Yes.  How do you do that?  By engaging in actions that compromise the integrity of the material.   

 

If you take the "ease of bending" out of the equation and assume that it's done properly so that neither material is likely to break through standard use what you are left with is this:

 

- Acrylic has a higher temperature for deforming, meaning that in the event of a pump failure it is less likely to have issues as the heat rises.

- Acrylic does not leech or have issues with the chemicals in any coolant

- Acrylic has better clarity and will cloud less over time

 

Aside from ease of bending and being slightly less expensive I can't come up with a single positive about PETG.  I don't move my PC, I don't travel with it, and I don't have pets or kids who can access it.  I'm not knocking people who use it and I understand why most people would probably want it, but I don't.

 

9 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

 

10ft, 3 metres should be enough, especially if PETG , I'm an aircraft engineer, I still fucked up a tonne of bends haha, just be patient and don't rush it, that's when you end up over heating it. Remember it isn't just the heating, some bends are a pain in the arse especially if they bend on different axis

Ok, thanks for letting me know.  I figured 10ft was enough but maybe I'll buy an extra one or two since if I go with a custom loop rather than an AIO I intend to practice a fair amount before doing my actual loop.

 

9 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

 

As for maintenance, as I said once a year drain, and fill, no need to flush unless changing colours. Once it's drained check your blocks and dirt does build up in them (normally over a few years - but best to check whilst drained). You will know when it's ready to be cleaned out as the coolant will lose it's vibrancy. It takes me around 2 - 3 hours for a full drain clean out and refill + bleed. I enjoy it, at the moment i'm considering adding a 120mm radiator to back of my current build, because I can lol

I was hoping that it would be possible to not have to drain every year.  I know that isn't that often but I know that after the first year it's going to feel more like a chore than "fun" to me.  That and the cost disparity are why I've been having such a hard time with this, as I get older I have more and more demands on my time so spending most of a day on "maintenance" sucks...

 

[stealth80]

2 hours ago, aithos said:

 

I was hoping that it would be possible to not have to drain every year.  I know that isn't that often but I know that after the first year it's going to feel more like a chore than "fun" to me.  That and the cost disparity are why I've been having such a hard time with this, as I get older I have more and more demands on my time so spending most of a day on "maintenance" sucks...

 

In that case I would leave this well alone as it will take you much longer to complete the loop than it will to carry out yearly maintenance. Stick with an AIO.

 

And also not to be rude, but you came here for advice, I offered it, but you already had your own conclusions, then what was the point in the post?

[0ld_Chicken]

---Cleaned up the thread to keep things on topic and productive---

 

Now that is done, 

 

1&2.  If time between maintenance is your goal, then I would use acrylic or even glass tubing with Mayhems xt-1 nuke.  They're claiming up to a 5year system life which is the best I've heard them claim.  If you want to stick with the Pastel, then go with Pastel Extreme instead of regular Pastel, I think they say can go 2+ years at specific dilution ratios (15%).  With acrylic you should be able to drain and refill, maybe flushing with Blitz pt 2 inbetween coolant cycles.  Soft tubing I would want to replace each time you replace the coolants.  There are tubings which claim to be plastizer free but I don't see them as problem free and should probably be replaced after a couple years of use.  That would usually not include fittings, although if you're trying to extend your system life by years, there is a chance you may run into issues like corrosion or algae.  Algae can be cleaned but corrosion can ruin fittings/blocks fast. 

 

3. for acrylic I would go with more than 3m if it's your first time.  I've used both and I always waste more acrylic because I'm not great at bending acrylic yet.  I'll get there but it's taken me a couple meters to get decent at it.  IMO it's better to have a few meters left over than having to order and pay to ship more

 

Drain valve is usually made of a Tee fitting, an on/off valve and some male-male fittings.  Best to place it at the lowest point in the loop for easy draining. 

 

As far as the cost, yeah that is a reality.  Performance does not scale with cost unfortunately, My pc isn't much faster than it was when I was using AIO coolers or even good air coolers.  I wouldn't trade it for anything though, I love it and it's now a hobby, not a PC.  I'm totally fine with sinking money into hobbys.  I like working on my loop, I never make it more than a few months without completely rebuilding my rig.   If you don't think you'll even care enough to maintain it in 6 months, I wouldn't spend the money that way IMO, Better off getting a 2nd Ti.  If you think you'll actually enjoy building/working on it then it's 100% worth it IMO. 

[aithos]

On 4/29/2017 at 9:48 AM, 0ld_Chicken said:

---Cleaned up the thread to keep things on topic and productive---

 

Now that is done, 

 

1&2.  If time between maintenance is your goal, then I would use acrylic or even glass tubing with Mayhems xt-1 nuke.  They're claiming up to a 5year system life which is the best I've heard them claim.  If you want to stick with the Pastel, then go with Pastel Extreme instead of regular Pastel, I think they say can go 2+ years at specific dilution ratios (15%).  With acrylic you should be able to drain and refill, maybe flushing with Blitz pt 2 inbetween coolant cycles.  Soft tubing I would want to replace each time you replace the coolants.  There are tubings which claim to be plastizer free but I don't see them as problem free and should probably be replaced after a couple years of use.  That would usually not include fittings, although if you're trying to extend your system life by years, there is a chance you may run into issues like corrosion or algae.  Algae can be cleaned but corrosion can ruin fittings/blocks fast. 

This is good info, thank you.  This is basically what I was wondering, I know that at the time I was building my last couple computers it was pretty much a hard and fast rule that you had to do maintenance every 8-12 months and was wondering if with rigid tubing that had stretched a little bit.  I'm not looking for a "set and forget" setup, but I typically stay very busy and so having a bit of flexibility without having to worry about "oh god it's been 366 days my computer is going to explode!" is what I would want.  It's likely I'd end up doing it every year anyway but I like the idea of not necessarily having to, if that make sense.

 

On 4/29/2017 at 9:48 AM, 0ld_Chicken said:

 

3. for acrylic I would go with more than 3m if it's your first time.  I've used both and I always waste more acrylic because I'm not great at bending acrylic yet.  I'll get there but it's taken me a couple meters to get decent at it.  IMO it's better to have a few meters left over than having to order and pay to ship more

If I do rigid then that is definitely the plan, I'm patient and meticulous when it comes to building but I wouldn't want to have to wait for another order with an unfinished build... that's the worst feeling.  I had to do that with my GFs build because of CPU cooler clearance issues (the case company didn't advertise the clearance) and even though it wasn't my build it still was awful.

 

On 4/29/2017 at 9:48 AM, 0ld_Chicken said:

 

Drain valve is usually made of a Tee fitting, an on/off valve and some male-male fittings.  Best to place it at the lowest point in the loop for easy draining. 

I was looking at a flow indicator, my understanding is that I could potentially use that with a valve or is that not recommended?  I saw the T fittings and suppose I could make something look like a spigot for aesthetics, but if I go rigid I want it to look nice and clean since that's a big part of the appeal. 

 

On 4/29/2017 at 9:48 AM, 0ld_Chicken said:

As far as the cost, yeah that is a reality.  Performance does not scale with cost unfortunately, My pc isn't much faster than it was when I was using AIO coolers or even good air coolers.  I wouldn't trade it for anything though, I love it and it's now a hobby, not a PC.  I'm totally fine with sinking money into hobbys.  I like working on my loop, I never make it more than a few months without completely rebuilding my rig.   If you don't think you'll even care enough to maintain it in 6 months, I wouldn't spend the money that way IMO, Better off getting a 2nd Ti.  If you think you'll actually enjoy building/working on it then it's 100% worth it IMO. 

This is where I'm not sure and I'm struggling with the choice, because I think it would be fun and I definitely want the experience and to have at least done it once... but I'm not sure if once it's done I'm going to be like "wow, that sucked... never doing that again" or "wow, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, next time I'm going to do X...."

 

I know that the performance gain doesn't scale with cost, and I have no problem with that.  I guess I was just thinking the disparity was slightly smaller, but I am the kind of person that would typically wait and do something "all the way" than compromise on quality.  Part of it is that I've been getting ready to buy a house and know I'm going to have a lot of small (and several large) purchases coming up and so I'm having a hard time justifying something for almost entirely visual purposes.

 

I know I just got done saying I would rather wait and do something "all the way" but the last few days I have actually considered starting with something smaller like just doing a soft tubing CPU loop.  My thought was that I could get basically all the same components (pump, cpu block, reservoir, radiator, fans, etc) and then make the change to rigid tubing and add the GPU a bit later.  The AIB GPU I'm getting (EVGA FTW3) does have a water block coming later this summer, so the only cost I'd be eating is the soft tubing and the fittings for that and everything else would be the same I'd want for the rigid system.  That would let me get it done for roughly $550 and be a bit easier to swallow...

[0ld_Chicken]

9 hours ago, aithos said:

I was looking at a flow indicator, my understanding is that I could potentially use that with a valve or is that not recommended?

I assume you mean like the Primochill flow indicators?  I don't have a lot of experience using them but I don't see why you couldn't use the extra port as a drain.

 

9 hours ago, aithos said:

I know I just got done saying I would rather wait and do something "all the way" but the last few days I have actually considered starting with something smaller like just doing a soft tubing CPU loop.  My thought was that I could get basically all the same components (pump, cpu block, reservoir, radiator, fans, etc) and then make the change to rigid tubing and add the GPU a bit later.  The AIB GPU I'm getting (EVGA FTW3) does have a water block coming later this summer, so the only cost I'd be eating is the soft tubing and the fittings for that and everything else would be the same I'd want for the rigid system.  That would let me get it done for roughly $550 and be a bit easier to swallow...

That's not a bad idea, most recommend starting with soft tubing so you get all the watercooling basics down and then switch to hardtubing.  I still use most of my original soft tubing fittings in various hidden spots so it's not always a loss.

[Ryoku]

On 4/27/2017 at 10:05 AM, aithos said:

This is going to be a bit long so I apologize...

 

I posted a little while back looking for advice about finding a good case and I have settled on the Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900.  It's not perfect, but it will fit basically anything I might want and has a nice sleek appearance (if only it had a PSU basement/shroud).  With that figured out I've been more or less agonizing over the decision of whether I should custom water cool or not.  This is something I've considered for my past two builds and previously decided it wasn't worth the time/money since I am not a heavy overclocker.

 

Now I'm starting to receive the parts for my next build and it's decision time again and I could use some advice on what I should do.  When I first started putting together a parts list for this I was planning to get an AIO like the Corsair H115i, but I came to find out that it wouldn't fit with my RAM in the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX TG (the case I wanted at the time and have since nixed for poor air flow and not wanting to mod the top).  So when I decided to go with the bigger case I decided to investigate a custom loop again, and down the rabbit hole I went...

 

Basically what I've come to is that I'm unsure what the realistic amount of maintenance is these days with either soft/hard tubing and how reliable the concentrate fluid like Mayhems Pastel is over long periods of time.  I definitely prefer the look of hard tubing and the idea of acrylic (not PETG) being plasticizer free is attractive.  So here are some questions:

 

1) Assuming I'm careful/meticulous and my PC is never getting moved is hardline tubing less maintenance than soft?

2) How long does soft tubing/fluid last before it realistically needs to be changed and would that include fittings?

3) How much tubing do I realistically need for CPU and a single GPU with a top/front (2 rad) loop?

 

I would also like opinions on the parts I'm considering, I don't think there are any issues with different metals or anything but I'd also like to be sure I'm not forgetting something...

 

Both hard/soft tubing:

- EK FC1080 GTX 1080ti GPU block + backplate

- Bitspower Summit EF X-Clear CPU block

- EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM pump

- XSPC Photon 270 reservoir

- HardwareLabs Black Ice Nemesis 360 GTS radiator (x2)

- EK Vardar F4-120ER 2200 fans (x6) or Noctua NF IPPC-2000

- Mayhems Pastel White concentrate + dye

 

Soft:

- 10ft Primoflex Advanced LRT 3/8"x5/8" tubing

- EK-ACF Compression Fitting 10/16mm (x14, 2 extra)

 

Hard:

- Bitspower Crystal Link 16mm 500mm tube (x6)

- Bitspower G1/4" Enhance Multi-link 16mm fitting (x14, 2 extra)

- Monsoon 16mm hardline pro bender kit + Wagner 1200w heat gun

 

I also need some kind of drain valve or something for the hardline but not sure what to get. 

 

I guess what I'm struggling with here is the cost difference between this and an AIO.  I can get an AIO + Noctua 140mm IPPC fans for $242 (and the GPU is $50 more for an AIB) and I know the system temps are going to be perfectly acceptable as I'd be running 7 total 140mm fans with water on the CPU and a good AIB GPU cooler (EVGA ICX). 

 

On the other hand the soft system when you consider brackets, dye, etc is around $900 and the hard line is $1050 or so.  That's just such a huge increase that I'm having a hard time justifying it for what is essentially visual appeal and maybe a MINOR difference in noise.  Then I also have to do maintenance and I would probably want to leave the PC running all the time which also means a pretty big jump in my power bill as I currently put it to sleep when I'm not home.  I've always wanted to do a custom loop, I am drawn to art and it is kind of a badge of honor in a way since I've been building PCs for almost 20 years and I've never done it... but it's also a lot more work. 

 

What do you guys think?  I'm not looking at anything beyond my means or anything, but I always try to get a good value when I buy and creeping to a $4k build cost makes me cringe a little because that's a lot more than I used to budget for my builds.  I might overclock a bit, but I'm not planning anything aggressive... maybe 5ghz on a 7700k and 2ghz on the 1080ti.

1: Personally I'd go with soft, I started out with Hardline and eventually switched over to soft cuz its a lot easier to work with.  If you need to remove your gpu or cpu to test something you don't need to drain the entire loop as the tubes are flexable and can just be moved aside.  An example of this I changed my CPU from a i5 4670k to a i7 4790k and I didnt need to drain my loop I just move the cpu block aside changed the cpu and put the block back on.  Then I ran into the problem that my PC wouldn't post (even though I had the newest supported BIOS installed to use the newer devils canyon cpus) so I had to switch the cpu out to test if it was the cpu or something else.  As you could imagine this would suck ass doing it with a hardline system.

 

2: tubing should last quite awhile but its part going to be part on if your ok with the clouding/discoloration the tubing may get and different tubing types and brands will last different amounts of time.  Coolants are getting more and more advanced and lasting longer and longer, just research the different types/brands and find the that works for you. Fitting don't need to be changed pretty much ever, but you may need to swap out the rubber o rings occationally but they are pretty dirt cheap.  Only need to change fitting when you want something different or change tubing size or type (going from soft to hard or vice versa).

 

3: I'm Using a matx case and its not very big, I bought 5 feet of rubber tubing and had a little over a foot left when I was finished.  So I'd buy potentially a lot extra better to have more then you need then run out, rubber tubing is pretty cheap anyways if you go that route.

 

Your going to want a valve drain reguardless of hard or soft, you can't just unhook a rubber hose and not expect fluid to go everwhere even if you pinched the hose the fluid is still gunna come out of the componet it was hooked up to (cpu/gpu block/rad whatever).

 

[wzrd]

35 minutes ago, 0ld_Chicken said:

I assume you mean like the Primochill flow indicators?  I don't have a lot of experience using them but I don't see why you couldn't use the extra port as a drain.

I can confirm this works fine. I used just a male/male extender, and an Alphacool ball valve with a plug.

 

On 2017-4-27 at 5:05 PM, aithos said:

I posted a little while back looking for advice about finding a good case and I have settled on the Be Quiet Dark Base Pro 900.  It's not perfect, but it will fit basically anything I might want and has a nice sleek appearance (if only it had a PSU basement/shroud).

V1 tech make an aftermarket PSU shroud for this case I have used in a build, if it's important to you. I found it easy to install and the quality works great. Link: https://www.v1tech.com/shop/psu-covers/quiet-dark-base-pro-900-blank-psu-cover/

On 2017-4-27 at 8:05 PM, aithos said:

I was hoping that it would be possible to not have to drain every year.  I know that isn't that often but I know that after the first year it's going to feel more like a chore than "fun" to me.  That and the cost disparity are why I've been having such a hard time with this, as I get older I have more and more demands on my time so spending most of a day on "maintenance" sucks...

 

 

You can get away with two years if you flush everything properly before adding the coolant, and using something like Mayhems X1 as opposed to pastel. Fittings will generally last longer, although it can be a good idea to change them out along with the tubing for peace of mind.