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Experience installing Hydro X Custom Loop


Pezui

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I am cross posting this to the Corsair Forum as a view of experience working with the Hydro X Custom product line.

 

I had received some messages on a few other platforms where I posted pictures of this cute little build talking about the Corsair Hydro X water Loop and the build process involved. I chose hard mode by not starting with a highly compatible case for the amount of gear I was stuffing in it, much like a chicken is great and stuffed with peppers and cheese is better, too much of a good thing can end up almost spilling out of the sides. But I digress, lets talk about the real experience of getting all of the parts to work together inside of the confines I chose to work with.

 

The Radiators are exceptionally high build quality, only going with a fully copper radiator could have provided a higher quality experience. The fittings are exceptional quality both in fitment and manufacturing process. I nicked one of the internal O rings on a single fitting during a botched dry fit. I will find out if they will ship me, or if I can purchase, a replacement O ring from Corsair. Key take away always lube up the O rings before shoving a pipe in.

 

The pump and reservoir combination is very quiet, and well-built with clear high quality plastic. The only downside on the pump would be the Molex power connector not a SATA connector, but this is minor. Fans are obviously grade A as the LL series are top of the line pulse width modulated control and hydraulic bearings making them functionally silent until fully ramped up.

 

The Corsair iCUE software is extremely useful at tying the environment together with keeping the temperature, fan speed, lighting, and control all in sync with each other. I cannot emphasize enough that there are cheaper solutions, but this is the best solution to have all of the features you are actually going to use work together. This build required not one but two commander pro’s for all of the fans, pump, temperature probes, etc to play nice together. That is expensive, but they all work together and the software functions the way you want it to function not some massive work around.

 

But lets get to the thing people really want to talk about, tube bending. This was my first attempt ever at bending the tubes, and I destroyed one length just figuring out how to do it. Once I understood to go slow, and work with it at the correct feeling temperature (it gets a little bendy with out touching it when hot) things went smooth. Key take away is that the inserts to hold the shape are mandatory, Corsair really needs to sell an insert kit, instead I ended up with a complicated home depot hack job insert of tubing to make this work. As for cutting the tubes I just used a 12” circular saw with ultra-fine tooth finishing blade because I didn’t want to screw around with a hacksaw.

 

Overall I would recommend the experience of building a fully custom water loop at some point if you have the funds, the time, and the understanding that things could go real bad. Long story short it was a fun weekend project. Thank you Corsair for cultivating a product line that is exceptionally high quality with parts that I feel can be trusted.

 

Thank you,

Tim

 

Benchmarks:

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/43094897

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/23808910

 

Machine Details:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/vZkdnQ

 

Forum Posts:

https://builds.gg/builds/workstation-23902

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IMG_20200115_211254.thumb.jpg.08052c6323aedba1057c59551b972dc8.jpg

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