Help me build my first custom loop

[eXile6]

Hello all,

As the title states I need help with choosing components for my first custom water cooling adventure. I have done some extensive research but still have some questions that were left unanswered on other forums, so I decided to make a thread for it all and see what the wonderful community here can come up with.

Now the aim for the build is performance while still being silent (or as close as possible without sacrificing too much cooling power).
With that in mind I have chosen the following components:

Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 purchased
Intel i7 6700k processor purchased
Asus Formula VIII Z170 RGB Motherboard purchased
Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB kit (4x8GB) @ 3200mhz DDR4 memory purchased
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD purchased
Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD purchased
EVGA Supernova 1000 P2 power supply purchased

GPU wise I am slightly undecided. I will be going for a GTX 1080 (maybe 2) but I am not sure if I should just get a FE card with the already existing EK block or wait out of the likes of EVGA Classified or even FTW edition cards with EK blocks for those. From what I have seen in reviews on both YT and various of other forums, people on air are struggling to push their cards much past the 2.1ghz mark, but temperature isn't their issue. So with that in mind, water cooling might not make any difference to it's OC potential, in which case getting an FE card might be the way to go? I guess the EVGA SC ACX card (which is a standard PCB i think) will be the one to pick from as it is cheaper than the standard EVGA FE card. Any input on this would be great.

I am running an Asus PG279Q 165hz panel so reaching above 100fps in most games would be beneficial.


Right then, enough ranting about that, now it's time for the hard part. The water cooling components that I have chosen so far are:

Pump/Res:
Pump: EK Water Blocks EK-D5 PWM G2 Motor (12V DC PWM Pump Motor)
Pump Top: Bitspower D5 / MCP655 Mod Kit V2 - Black Sparkle Finish
Pump Top: Bitspower D5 MOD TOP V2 EXTREME (Acrylic Version)
Res: Bitspower Dual / Single D5 Top Upgrade Kit 250 (Clear Acrylic Cap)
Res Accessories: Bitspower Z-CAP II With G1/4" x 3 (Clear Acrylic Version), Bitspower G1/4" Black Sparkle Aqua-Pipe II
Coolant: Not sure, some sort of Mayhems Pastel fluid

Blocks:
CPU Block - EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal CSQ
GPU Block - 1080 EKWB depending on which 1080 I go for

Radiators/Fans:
Right, looking at the 360 rad roundup here: http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/11/radiator-round-2015/5/

It looks like the best radiators for low RPM fans seem to be the EK XE and the Black Ice SR2 MP. Both scale very well with fan increase and push/pull configurations.

So with that in mind, here comes my next question. My case can accommodate up to a 420mm rad at top and at the front, as well as up to a 280 at the bottom. For total silence, radiator space overkill shouldn't be a problem, as the more rad space should equal lower fan speeds for the same cooling power correct? If so, do I go with 2x 360 or 2x 420 rads? From what I have seen this question would have been easily answered a few years ago as all 140mm static pressure fans were pretty bad. But now a lot of good companies have 140mm fans which don't suck,. stuff like the Noctua NF-A14 2000RPM PWM fans, the Noiseblocker BlackSilentPro's and Noiseblocker Eloops too. I would ideally prefer to go with the Black silent pros as for some reason as much as I love the Eloops they probably won't match my black/grey/monochrome theme in my system?

Fittings/Tubing:
Monsoon acrylic tube 16/13 mm (ID 2.1 OD 5/8) 4x61cm - Clear
Hardline Monsoon 16 / 13mm (ID 1/2 OD 5/8) compression fitting Sixpack - Black Chrome

Now I am not too sure if that's the best acrylic tube to use, it's just the cheapest I found for the amount you get. From what I saw on YT reviews it seems of good quality. The fittings I chose randomly, but I would ideally like to go with bitspower compression fittings instead, just not sure which model exactly would suit. Any input in tubing and fittings would be great!


I think I've covered everything, I am tempted in getting ram blocks because why not, but I don't know yet. So far I will be watercooling the motherboard, CPU and GPU (unless SLI then 2 GPUs).

Thank you for reading through this, any input from people who have already gone through the troubles of learning custom WC will be very greatly appreciated!

- iiNNeX

 

[Tolemac]

I would swap out the D5 PWM for a D5 Vario other than that it looks all there OCUK do bitspower fittings and I would use EK Vardar fans but that's purely my preference I have F4's on my Rad and can't hear them

 

[eXile6]

I would swap out the D5 PWM for a D5 Vario other than that it looks all there OCUK do bitspower fittings and I would use EK Vardar fans but that's purely my preference I have F4's on my Rad and can't hear them

Thank you for your reply, how come I need to swap the pump?

What is the difference between the PWM and Vario pumps?

As far as fans I love the aesthetics and noise level of the NoiseBlocker fans, had EK vardars on my old EK Predator 360 AIO and I could still hear them (mechanically) even at 1000rpm. I know they do the Vardars in all black and all white now too so might give them a go if I am not satisfied with the noiseblockers.

 

[Tolemac]

The D5 Vario has a speed setting at the back rather than being controlled by a PWM header so you can set it at a certain Speed from 1 to 5 I have mine set to 2 on my overclocked 4690K and can't really hear the pump. It also helps when I am bleeding my loop as well

 

[eXile6]

The D5 Vario has a speed setting at the back rather than being controlled by a PWM header so you can set it at a certain Speed from 1 to 5 I have mine set to 2 on my overclocked 4690K and can't really hear the pump. It also helps when I am bleeding my loop as well

Ah I see, how come people recommend PWM fans more? Is it because they are a new product or?

That's always something I wasn't sure how to do, when you first fill the system, how would the PWM pump work? Does it start on it's maximum setting to help you fill it faster or ? It would be nice if the pump had both the analog switch at the back and the PWM control.

 

[Tolemac]

I think it's down to what people prefer. When I done my 1st loop the people on here told me to get a vario as the D5 can be a bit noisy on a higher setting. Interesting that you should say how to fill a loop with a PWM pump tbh I wouldn't have a clue. I have a 24 pin adapter for my psu so my motherboard isn't getting any power to it when I fill mine

EDIT: After talking to some other forumites last night we came up with this

First of all buy a bridging connector for your psu £1.99 from OCUK
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xspc-psu-bridging-connector-24-pin-wc-021-ok.html

Then get a Molex to male pwm connector 12v and that will allow you to bleed your loop without anything else being plugged in to the psu

 

[eXile6]

I think it's down to what people prefer. When I done my 1st loop the people on here told me to get a vario as the D5 can be a bit noisy on a higher setting. Interesting that you should say how to fill a loop with a PWM pump tbh I wouldn't have a clue. I have a 24 pin adapter for my psu so my motherboard isn't getting any power to it when I fill mine

EDIT: After talking to some other forumites last night we came up with this

First of all buy a bridging connector for your psu £1.99 from OCUK
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xspc-psu-bridging-connector-24-pin-wc-021-ok.html

Then get a Molex to male pwm connector 12v and that will allow you to bleed your loop without anything else being plugged in to the psu

Ahh thank you very much! Well as far as noise, the PWM and Vario shouldn't be any different as long as they are run at the same speed. 1GPM seems to be most common.

I've decided to go with 2x Black Ice Nemesis GTX 420s and 1x Black Ice Nemesis GTS 280. Should give me plenty of cooling to allow me to run the system virtually silent.

My case arrives tomorrow from OCUK so will actually measure it first before I order, because someone on another forum mentioned that those radiators are a bit wider than advertised so it could be a deal breaker for some. Failing that EK XE rads will be my next choice.

 

[Tolemac]

Nice fella let us know how you get on or if you are stuck

 

[eXile6]

Nice fella let us know how you get on or if you are stuck

Thank you, well I seem to be a bit stuck already... So after watching so many videos on youtube of trusted tech youtubers who show build logs of various hardline systems I have picked a parts list. That is the same one that you can see above in my OP.

The problem is that half the stuff isn't available anywhere in the UK market.

I was able to find the pump and the bitspower pump mod kit (in black), however when I looked for the pump top it doesn't exist. The only sites I found it in are US sites, and again the youtubers I watch are from either the US or Australia.

So I thought ok well it can't be that bad I ll have a look for the other items and perhaps order this one item from the US.

Well the fittings are another problem I came across. After some consideration I decided to go all out on Bitspower only fittings of various types, but sadly the few bitspower fittings we do have on most popular UK sites are almost of no use to me. For one they are not stocked in many colours and two there are a lot missing (extension fittings, rotary fittings and so on). Even most 90 degree bitspower multi link fittings were out of stock lol

Managed to find the res but then couldn't source the aqua-pipe... and just in general headaches like that. Looking at most people's builds in the UK they seem to be primarily using EK, and especially the pump/res combos they do. As much as I like some of them, it is way too overused and I really do prefer the look of bitspower products (apart from CPU and GPU blocks, which EK does do best in).

So I think it's come down to either sourcing half my loop's parts from the US and paying the whatever import fee % is, or change out to mostly EK/Primochill stuff.

 

[Tolemac]

Here is all the Bitspower stuff on OCUK all 29 pages of it

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=bitspower

 

[eXile6]

Here is all the Bitspower stuff on OCUK all 29 pages of it

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?sSearch=bitspower

Yeah already browsed through that, sadly the colours I need and the type of fittings I need are not present or out of stock. Almost got to the point where I was considering soft tubing just because of the 4x the amount of fittings available in the UK...

Good news though, so I had a chat with Bitspower Taiwan directly and also found a Dutch site which seems to have most of what I need. The import fees are nowhere as bad as I thought so I ll just grab the stuff I do not have here from them, and might as well source all the fittings too as they actually workout slightly cheaper after putting 20-30 fittings in the basket. Again as you said most UK sites only seem to stock a few of each type and it's quite hard to order a system's full of fittings from 1 place, let alone all WC components lol.

I told the Bitspower rep that I will wait till tomorrow before I send him the list of items for a final quote because I need to measure the case and see ideally how many fittings I'll actually need. I will try to bend the tube as much as I can to minimize cost but still, a few 90 degrees will probably be present somewhere. Especially around radiators and the pump/res.

I ll keep this thread updated with any progress.

 

[eXile6]

Testing different coloured fluids now while waiting for my new sleeved cables from Icemodz

 

[Tolemac]

That looks nice and neat fella kudos to you. I'm waiting for my OCUK delivery today so I can replace my tubing and coolant in my loop

 

[eXile6]

That looks nice and neat fella kudos to you. I'm waiting for my OCUK delivery today so I can replace my tubing and coolant in my loop

Thanks bud, what coolant you going for?

 

[Tolemac]

Thanks bud, what coolant you going for?

Just Mayhems X1 Clear

 

[eXile6]

Had a change of heart and after the mobo died on me burning out my ssd in the process, I bought a new one with new ram and a 4.9ghz SL 6700k delidded from the States. Pics here:

 

[Bartacus]

That is a great looking loop man!!

 

[SuB]

bang-tidy that one dude

 

[WillSK]

gorgeous build dude. Absolutely cracking effort!