New watercooling build, advice needed.

[Stonyer]

Hey guys. I have had my HAF XB Evo for just over a year now and after sticking a 980 g1 in there and going to 4k I fancy making it look awesome (and hopefully cooler) with some custom watercooling, plus I am an engineer so the whole idea of building it seems like fun to me.

So far I have the following list, I just want to know if any of the more seasoned watercoolers can spot any newbie mistakes before I start buying things.

 

CPU: EK supremacy evo clear/nickel

GPU: EK 980 wf3 nickel + black backplate

RADS: Alphacool XT45 - 280(2 x 140) (front), 120 (rear) and 160( 2 x 80) (basement)

PUMP+RES: Koolance 452x2 Dual bay w/single D5

FANS: Corsair SP Purple LED all round (couldnt find any other purple led fans anywhere)

TUBING: EK Primochill Advanced LRT clear

FITTINGS: EK ACF compression fittings black (10/13mm)

COOLANT: Mayhems XT-1 concentrate, Ultra pure H2O 5ltr, Mayhems Deep Purple Dye.

 

My main questions are:

1. will the amount of rads i can fit in my case give me decent temps on my current setup (gtx 980 g1, 1500mhz + i5 4670k, 4.6ghz) and also if I add another 980 in future?

2. Is nickel a bad material to have in my loop, i want it there for the aesthetics really.

 

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated, i have been doing my research for a couple of months now and want to know pretty much everything before i jump in.

 

Thanks in advance guys.

[Necrodead]

You will have enough rad space for sure; the general rule of thumb is one 120mm rad per component plus one extra 120mm rad, so you'll have plenty of cooling for overclocking and upgrades.

About nickel, there is a disclaimer from EK stating that the nickel plating may discolor, but I think that only applies to their older products. You should look into it yourself, I steered away from nickel for that reason.

One other thing I can think of is 10mmx13mm tube is less popular than the 10mmx16mm becasue the thicker wall is less prone to kinks, if you happen to plan on running tight bends that is.

Best of luck, it sounds like you'll have a kick-ass set up when done there, can't wait to see it in all its purple glory.

[Mindtrick]

I own the previous version of this case (handed down to my wife after I finished my X99 build). I really like it, but there is VERY little room for custom cooling. I ran an H100i in the front with push-pull. With this configuration I had almost no room between the rad fans and my GPU (GTX 680). As for the basement, good luck sticking anything but drives and your PSU down there. It is really cramped. I don't think I would want to try to stick a pump and res down there. If I were you, I'd look for a more water cooling friendly case. I wound up going with the 900D, although I now regret not going with a caselabs STH10. You don't need to spend a ton on a case, but imho, the HAF XB is not the case you want to do a custom loop in. In addition to a different case, I'd go with two bigger rads. Maybe a 480, and a 240 or 360. It's not that you're going to need a ton of cooling; it's just going to get really messy with all of the tubing required to connect all of those blocks and rads...plus fewer rads will be easier on your pump. You actually probably only need one 480, if you are only running one GPU, and your CPU.

[Stonyer]

I didnt see that disclaimer, will go have a look. Through all my searching I couldnt find a definitive answer on the nickel concern so thought I'd ask here.

Thays the sort of input I need. 16/10 it is as in this case I probably will have some tight turns.

As far as the case goes, I love the look of the XB and if the cooling I have isn't adequate I can hopefully just turn the fans up more? My sound system is pretty loud so I can turn it up too!

I jave measured the rad space in front and think I can fit the 45mm rad with maybe push pull on half of it and push on the gpu side of things, may look a bit odd but hey, if it works.

Thanks for the help, ill maybe do a build log when I start buying bits and pieces.