Watercooling: Tube discolouration

viperirl

Took my PC out of action last night for some maintainance and some changes to the watercooling layout. However I've noticed some pretty bad discolouration on some of the tubing I've taken out. It's XSPC clear 1/2-3/4 ID/OD.
I've been running distilled water with a few drops of biocide all along. The water when drained was crystal clear but the tubing in places, especially near some of the fittings wasnt so great.

Anyone come across this before? Looks like some sort of tube breakdown. Was wondering too if there better tubing manucfacturers out there?
Crystal Link is an option going forward but I think I prefer the nice curves you can get with tubing.

game4it70

Its normal for than to happen,if its cloudy looking its plasticizer leeching from the tubing.Xspc stuff is normally bad for it.
The best to get is Primochill Primoflex Advanced LRT as it the best for not leeching.

You can get acrylic tubing now which wont cloud but its a pain to bend as needs practice.

Serephucus

Took my loop apart recently as well. Same thing (though my water came out tinged blue. Think it had something to do with the biocide, though I can't imagine three drops doing that. *shrug*

Rigid tubing is probably your best bet, as game4it suggested. It's a nightmare to work with though.

The days before watercooling when a computer could be up and running in ten minutes...

viperirl

Thanks lads, from reading elsewhere it seems that all tubing is prone to it to some degree but the XSPC stuff is one of the worst culprits.

On the subject of fans (120mm), I thinking of changing out my Corsair SP120's which are ok but not the best out there. Was considering the Noiseblocker or Noctua fans as the Gentle Typhoons no longer seem to be made? Any of you using these? The Noctua's are now available in black which looks a hell'va lot better than the old ones.

Serephucus

I find Noctuas too loud. I don't know why they spin up to 1500RPM. I have a mix of NF-F12s and GTs in my rig at the moment, and GTs are definitely the better ones.

EK recently announced Vardar fans. They're supposedly GT killers. Won't be available widely until early January as far as I know though.

game4it70

I bought a few of these recently as i want to use pwm so i can turn some of my fans off when not gaming.
They seem to have good static pressure like my GT's but i've yet to do any comparison tests do see what temps are like.They are quieter than the GT's thankfully (as i'm very fussy about noise)
Noiseblockers are very good fans and i would have gotten some if i didn't want to try the Alpenföhn's instead.

..Brian..

Perfect opportunity to start an acrylic project! Check out Enermax TB Silence PWM or Akasa Apache Super Silent fans if you're looking for PWM fans. Also it's worth noting if you're looking at the Noiseblocker Eloops, they're not suitable for pull in a push pull set up as the blades protrude a slight bit and grind againts the rad!