unholy_walrus

I would suggest getting some other fans for your rads. The NF-S12A is a fantastic fan, but it doesn't do great on rad use. I wouldn't use it even on low fpi and/or slim rads. The performance really isn't great in my experience. The NF-P12 / NF-P12 redux would be a significant upgrade already, and you can't go wrong with the NF-F12 (though I prefer the NF-P12's sound profile at 500-1000rpm). Then there's the new NF-A12 fans that are supposed to be great, but shockingly expensive. The NF-P12 redux is my new go-to for radiator use at 1000 rpm or less for a reasonable price.
 
If you don't want Noctua, the EK Vardar, Corsair ML120, CoolerMaster Silencio FP120 are all good choices. The FP120 might just be the most underrated radiator fan in existence. If you want to go super cheap, the Arctic P12 is the obvious choice. For 7€ you'll get a fan that pretty much competes with 2-3x more expensive fans.
 

It's very common to have some of the fins get damaged/bent when handling rads. They're made of aluminum or copper, thus making them fairly soft. All of my rads have bents fins from dropping fittings on them etc. Just like @Semper said, you'll lose some cooling effectiveness, but very little - unless the damaged are is large and prevents airflow significantly. In your case, you shouldn't even notice it. 
 
Do make sure the liquid channel is indeed intact, but if there is no visible damage on it at all, you should be completely fine. Luckily the channels themselves aren't quite as fragile as the fins, and most modern rads tend not to have them directly under the screw holes or they have protective plates under the holes to prevent damage - though I would still be careful when handling rads. I've had to repair channels on a couple older rads damaged by using wrong screws, and it's not great fun. Personally I have a hard time trusting my own (sort of botched) repairs so it's usually a death sentence for the rad.

I don't know what you're smoking but 1) these are the best fans I've ever seen and 2) how the hell is this ripping off Noctua? Please explain that.
 
I'm glad Corsair decided to work with Sunon on these fans, they have long had experience with maglev bearings. I replaced 3 Noctua NF-F12 IPPC PWM fans on my 360 rad with these and I couldn't be happier. I've never been satisfied with any fan, and I've been through every decent quality one. GTs, Venturis, FP120s, eLoops, Vardars, NF-F12s etc. I ended up with Noctua because they had the least amount of noise issues, good low-speed performance and a nice sound signature. And that warranty service. Too bad even the Noctuas had some ticking issues.
 
Now that I have these ML120s, I'm not going back. These fans have ZERO bearing noise and no motor noise at low speeds. Performance wise they're as good as any fan I've ever had - just quieter. Plus, they have by far the best sound signature I've ever heard. Bitching about these fans being loud at 2k+ rpm is just special kind of stupid. Please do show me a fan that isn't loud at high speeds. 
 
I ended up setting the upper rpm limit at about 1300rpm, after that the noise of air ripping through a rad starts to get too much for me. If you want a fan that combines no bearing noise at all, no ticking, great rad/heatsink performance, incredible MTBF, 5 year warranty and probably the best noise-to-performance ratio available, these are your fans. Pro tip: get the dual pack and suddenly they're pretty cheap. I bought dual packs for 24€ each which IMO is dirt cheap for fans like these.
 
Meanwhile, Noctua are sitting on their asses releasing nothing new. I'm glad SOMEONE came up with this. I'm Noctua fanboy but I'm done paying a premium for fans that are no longer that special.
 
FYI; you MUST use pwm control with these fans. With voltage control the maglev bearing won't work properly which will cause noise issues

I had a leak due to a 45° EK-AF fitting that pretty much completely failed. It's a miracle I didn't end up with serious damage. I figured I might aswell move the rad from the roof to the front and generally re-do the loop. It's basic as fuck, but I'm working on a non-existent budget. The camera on my Honor 6 really doesn't do it justice either. I'll still need to fix the LED strips and sleeve those ugly ugly wires, but meh. I'm a lazy bastard.
 
 
 
 

I don't know what you're smoking but 1) these are the best fans I've ever seen and 2) how the hell is this ripping off Noctua? Please explain that.
 
I'm glad Corsair decided to work with Sunon on these fans, they have long had experience with maglev bearings. I replaced 3 Noctua NF-F12 IPPC PWM fans on my 360 rad with these and I couldn't be happier. I've never been satisfied with any fan, and I've been through every decent quality one. GTs, Venturis, FP120s, eLoops, Vardars, NF-F12s etc. I ended up with Noctua because they had the least amount of noise issues, good low-speed performance and a nice sound signature. And that warranty service. Too bad even the Noctuas had some ticking issues.
 
Now that I have these ML120s, I'm not going back. These fans have ZERO bearing noise and no motor noise at low speeds. Performance wise they're as good as any fan I've ever had - just quieter. Plus, they have by far the best sound signature I've ever heard. Bitching about these fans being loud at 2k+ rpm is just special kind of stupid. Please do show me a fan that isn't loud at high speeds. 
 
I ended up setting the upper rpm limit at about 1300rpm, after that the noise of air ripping through a rad starts to get too much for me. If you want a fan that combines no bearing noise at all, no ticking, great rad/heatsink performance, incredible MTBF, 5 year warranty and probably the best noise-to-performance ratio available, these are your fans. Pro tip: get the dual pack and suddenly they're pretty cheap. I bought dual packs for 24€ each which IMO is dirt cheap for fans like these.
 
Meanwhile, Noctua are sitting on their asses releasing nothing new. I'm glad SOMEONE came up with this. I'm Noctua fanboy but I'm done paying a premium for fans that are no longer that special.
 
FYI; you MUST use pwm control with these fans. With voltage control the maglev bearing won't work properly which will cause noise issues

Those temps are perfectly normal if you don't have a delidded chip. My liquid cooled 1.32v 4770k hits 65-70c in Witcher 3 with sub 40c liquid temp, which is why I'll be delidding this chip like every Haswell I've ever owned. So far I've just been too lazy to do so, but soon I'll re-do my entire loop so I won't have any excuses not to do it any more.
 
The TIM between the IHS and the CPU die isn't good but it isn't exactly horrible either. The problem is usually just bad contact. Delid the chip, get rid of the epoxy glue or whatever the gunk is they use to glue the IHS to the chip and then use liquid metal TIM between the IHS and the die, and be amazed by the temps you get. Delidding, when done right, is easy, safe and definitely worthwhile - especially with Haswell chips.

Upgraded to non-ticking pwm fans all around. Silence, finally. Also removed the butt-ugly LED-solution and added a much better quality DIY RGB set. Wish I had a proper camera to do all this justice.
 
edit: I just realised my pain medication also makes a cameo in this photo. Ignore the happy pills in the basket.
 

I'd go with a 1070 unless you can get a 980 Ti for significantly cheaper. A 1070 will consume less power and produce less heat, but imo that's not all that important. What is important is the way Nvidia has been doing things - a 1070 will very likely last you longer than a 980 Ti. With Nvidia I definitely always prefer going with the latest generation, which is why when faced with the same decision I went for a 1070 instead of a 980 Ti and paid a bit more.

Yeah, they are. The EK kits contain fully custom-grade parts. However I'd recommend getting one of the newer kits that have D5 pumps. It's really the only pump I'd truly recommend. Also I think it's a good call not watercooling your gpu for now. It's really not worth it to put a 290x under water any more. Just make sure to plan the loop so that it'll be easy to expand it when you decide to put your new card under water.
 
And finally; don't cheap out when doing custom h2o. It'll come back to bite you in the ass later.

You can't use them on a rad obviously. Get an anti-vibration rubber gasket, they're cheap and fairly effective. There should be 240mm ones as well if you don't want to use two 120mm ones. I think I'm using a 360mm one from xspc or something.

You can't use them on a rad obviously. Get an anti-vibration rubber gasket, they're cheap and fairly effective. There should be 240mm ones as well if you don't want to use two 120mm ones. I think I'm using a 360mm one from xspc or something.

So yeah, this build is ALL about having to make compromises. I'm chronically fucked when it comes to financial things thanks to some not-so-nice medical stuff. That means building a PC requires sacrifices and, yes, compromises.
 

 

 
It's been a while since I've had a custom liquid cooled system for myself, last time was like in the Q6600 days. I just haven't had the money for it. Last year I built custom loops for several of my friends and that left me with some extra h2o gear. I put together a CPU loop using that leftover gear and I was supposed to put my R9 290 under water as well, but I ended up having to RMA it. Instead of a new card I chose to get my money back and decided to wait for the GTX 1070 to launch. It took some patience but I did exactly that and saved up some more money to buy one. I got my card a few weeks back, and a few days ago I got an EK 1080 block and backplate for a very reasonable price and went for it. It's nothing special but for me personally this is a big deal. This build shouldn't even exist with how tight money has been for the past year+. Shit like this makes me happy.
 
Next up is removing those unsightly RGB LED strips and replacing them with better quality ones I have lying around. One thing I'd really love to do is sleeve the cables (the D5 cables at the very least) but that'll have to wait until I have a) the money and b) the motivation. I wanted to get rid of the horrible Founders Edition noise and hoped for steadier boost clocks and that's exactly what I got. Plus it's nice to look at and even my girlfriend said it looks "cool and pretty" which is a BIG deal (it means it can stay on the table - yay). Sorry for the wall of text but I really wanted to get it out there. This stuff actually has some meaning to me. It's a damn nice way to kill stress, pain and anxiety too.
 
Only did a quick temp test in Witcher 3; maxed out at 40c GPU, 37c water and 55c CPU after 35 minutes in 32c ambient temp, Corsair ML120s running at 1100rpm. Still bleeding the airbubbles out. I knew I might be risking it with having only a 360x40 rad but I really could not afford buying more. Besides, I figured I should be okay considering the GTX 1070 isn't that difficult of a card to keep cool. All in all, the last time I was this happy with a personal build was when I was looking at my first loop with an Athlon XP 2400+ and a Radeon 9800 Pro in like 2004.

The 970 for that price is definitely worth it. However I would suggest saving a bit more and then buying a 6600k instead of the 6500, and I'd also get a bit better PSU.

I don't know what you're smoking but 1) these are the best fans I've ever seen and 2) how the hell is this ripping off Noctua? Please explain that.
 
I'm glad Corsair decided to work with Sunon on these fans, they have long had experience with maglev bearings. I replaced 3 Noctua NF-F12 IPPC PWM fans on my 360 rad with these and I couldn't be happier. I've never been satisfied with any fan, and I've been through every decent quality one. GTs, Venturis, FP120s, eLoops, Vardars, NF-F12s etc. I ended up with Noctua because they had the least amount of noise issues, good low-speed performance and a nice sound signature. And that warranty service. Too bad even the Noctuas had some ticking issues.
 
Now that I have these ML120s, I'm not going back. These fans have ZERO bearing noise and no motor noise at low speeds. Performance wise they're as good as any fan I've ever had - just quieter. Plus, they have by far the best sound signature I've ever heard. Bitching about these fans being loud at 2k+ rpm is just special kind of stupid. Please do show me a fan that isn't loud at high speeds. 
 
I ended up setting the upper rpm limit at about 1300rpm, after that the noise of air ripping through a rad starts to get too much for me. If you want a fan that combines no bearing noise at all, no ticking, great rad/heatsink performance, incredible MTBF, 5 year warranty and probably the best noise-to-performance ratio available, these are your fans. Pro tip: get the dual pack and suddenly they're pretty cheap. I bought dual packs for 24€ each which IMO is dirt cheap for fans like these.
 
Meanwhile, Noctua are sitting on their asses releasing nothing new. I'm glad SOMEONE came up with this. I'm Noctua fanboy but I'm done paying a premium for fans that are no longer that special.
 
FYI; you MUST use pwm control with these fans. With voltage control the maglev bearing won't work properly which will cause noise issues

Upgraded to non-ticking pwm fans all around. Silence, finally. Also removed the butt-ugly LED-solution and added a much better quality DIY RGB set. Wish I had a proper camera to do all this justice.
 
edit: I just realised my pain medication also makes a cameo in this photo. Ignore the happy pills in the basket.
 

So yeah, this build is ALL about having to make compromises. I'm chronically fucked when it comes to financial things thanks to some not-so-nice medical stuff. That means building a PC requires sacrifices and, yes, compromises.
 

 

 
It's been a while since I've had a custom liquid cooled system for myself, last time was like in the Q6600 days. I just haven't had the money for it. Last year I built custom loops for several of my friends and that left me with some extra h2o gear. I put together a CPU loop using that leftover gear and I was supposed to put my R9 290 under water as well, but I ended up having to RMA it. Instead of a new card I chose to get my money back and decided to wait for the GTX 1070 to launch. It took some patience but I did exactly that and saved up some more money to buy one. I got my card a few weeks back, and a few days ago I got an EK 1080 block and backplate for a very reasonable price and went for it. It's nothing special but for me personally this is a big deal. This build shouldn't even exist with how tight money has been for the past year+. Shit like this makes me happy.
 
Next up is removing those unsightly RGB LED strips and replacing them with better quality ones I have lying around. One thing I'd really love to do is sleeve the cables (the D5 cables at the very least) but that'll have to wait until I have a) the money and b) the motivation. I wanted to get rid of the horrible Founders Edition noise and hoped for steadier boost clocks and that's exactly what I got. Plus it's nice to look at and even my girlfriend said it looks "cool and pretty" which is a BIG deal (it means it can stay on the table - yay). Sorry for the wall of text but I really wanted to get it out there. This stuff actually has some meaning to me. It's a damn nice way to kill stress, pain and anxiety too.
 
Only did a quick temp test in Witcher 3; maxed out at 40c GPU, 37c water and 55c CPU after 35 minutes in 32c ambient temp, Corsair ML120s running at 1100rpm. Still bleeding the airbubbles out. I knew I might be risking it with having only a 360x40 rad but I really could not afford buying more. Besides, I figured I should be okay considering the GTX 1070 isn't that difficult of a card to keep cool. All in all, the last time I was this happy with a personal build was when I was looking at my first loop with an Athlon XP 2400+ and a Radeon 9800 Pro in like 2004.

So yeah, this build is ALL about having to make compromises. I'm chronically fucked when it comes to financial things thanks to some not-so-nice medical stuff. That means building a PC requires sacrifices and, yes, compromises.
 

 

 
It's been a while since I've had a custom liquid cooled system for myself, last time was like in the Q6600 days. I just haven't had the money for it. Last year I built custom loops for several of my friends and that left me with some extra h2o gear. I put together a CPU loop using that leftover gear and I was supposed to put my R9 290 under water as well, but I ended up having to RMA it. Instead of a new card I chose to get my money back and decided to wait for the GTX 1070 to launch. It took some patience but I did exactly that and saved up some more money to buy one. I got my card a few weeks back, and a few days ago I got an EK 1080 block and backplate for a very reasonable price and went for it. It's nothing special but for me personally this is a big deal. This build shouldn't even exist with how tight money has been for the past year+. Shit like this makes me happy.
 
Next up is removing those unsightly RGB LED strips and replacing them with better quality ones I have lying around. One thing I'd really love to do is sleeve the cables (the D5 cables at the very least) but that'll have to wait until I have a) the money and b) the motivation. I wanted to get rid of the horrible Founders Edition noise and hoped for steadier boost clocks and that's exactly what I got. Plus it's nice to look at and even my girlfriend said it looks "cool and pretty" which is a BIG deal (it means it can stay on the table - yay). Sorry for the wall of text but I really wanted to get it out there. This stuff actually has some meaning to me. It's a damn nice way to kill stress, pain and anxiety too.
 
Only did a quick temp test in Witcher 3; maxed out at 40c GPU, 37c water and 55c CPU after 35 minutes in 32c ambient temp, Corsair ML120s running at 1100rpm. Still bleeding the airbubbles out. I knew I might be risking it with having only a 360x40 rad but I really could not afford buying more. Besides, I figured I should be okay considering the GTX 1070 isn't that difficult of a card to keep cool. All in all, the last time I was this happy with a personal build was when I was looking at my first loop with an Athlon XP 2400+ and a Radeon 9800 Pro in like 2004.

Asked a friend @IRC who owns the card in question. His temps at stock settings were 52c or lower in a room with very high ambient temp.

That doesn't sound good at all. 68c is what I'd expect from the air cooled version 1080 Xtreme Gaming. If the radiator fan is getting even half decent airflow and isn't somehow sucking in like super super hot air, there's definitely something wrong. I'd contact the manufacturer or wherever you bought the card.
 
Have you tried adjusting the fanspeed? 68c definitely isn't okay or good or acceptable in any way for a water cooled card, even if it has just a 120 rad.

For now the 980ti hybrid may perform a little bit better when both cards are overclocked to the max, however I'd still go for the 1070. Give it some time and the 1070 will be doing better than the 980ti. Nvidia has a history of neglecting previous generation cards. Then in addition to that there's the fact that Pascal-cards will do better in upcoming DX12 titles, perhaps in Vulkan games as well. I had to make this exact same choice but in the end it was fairly easy. The 1070 is a much safer choice, IMO. When it comes to overclocking, you really can't say Pascal cards don't oc well. It's just that GPU boost 3 is so damn efficient that there's little left to do yourself. With some minor tweaking pretty much any 1070 should reach 2Ghz+ on air.
 
Also, I wouldn't recommend hybrid cards like that anyway. If you want to put a card under water, do it right. Those AIO coolers are surprisingly loud and pump issues are very common.

For now the 980ti hybrid may perform a little bit better when both cards are overclocked to the max, however I'd still go for the 1070. Give it some time and the 1070 will be doing better than the 980ti. Nvidia has a history of neglecting previous generation cards. Then in addition to that there's the fact that Pascal-cards will do better in upcoming DX12 titles, perhaps in Vulkan games as well. I had to make this exact same choice but in the end it was fairly easy. The 1070 is a much safer choice, IMO. When it comes to overclocking, you really can't say Pascal cards don't oc well. It's just that GPU boost 3 is so damn efficient that there's little left to do yourself. With some minor tweaking pretty much any 1070 should reach 2Ghz+ on air.
 
Also, I wouldn't recommend hybrid cards like that anyway. If you want to put a card under water, do it right. Those AIO coolers are surprisingly loud and pump issues are very common.

Works for larger purchaces (Mindfactory always charges 20€ shipping per order, unless it's way large) but quite often shipping makes it almost as expensive as here. Sucks to be us, huh.

I don't know what you're smoking but 1) these are the best fans I've ever seen and 2) how the hell is this ripping off Noctua? Please explain that.
 
I'm glad Corsair decided to work with Sunon on these fans, they have long had experience with maglev bearings. I replaced 3 Noctua NF-F12 IPPC PWM fans on my 360 rad with these and I couldn't be happier. I've never been satisfied with any fan, and I've been through every decent quality one. GTs, Venturis, FP120s, eLoops, Vardars, NF-F12s etc. I ended up with Noctua because they had the least amount of noise issues, good low-speed performance and a nice sound signature. And that warranty service. Too bad even the Noctuas had some ticking issues.
 
Now that I have these ML120s, I'm not going back. These fans have ZERO bearing noise and no motor noise at low speeds. Performance wise they're as good as any fan I've ever had - just quieter. Plus, they have by far the best sound signature I've ever heard. Bitching about these fans being loud at 2k+ rpm is just special kind of stupid. Please do show me a fan that isn't loud at high speeds. 
 
I ended up setting the upper rpm limit at about 1300rpm, after that the noise of air ripping through a rad starts to get too much for me. If you want a fan that combines no bearing noise at all, no ticking, great rad/heatsink performance, incredible MTBF, 5 year warranty and probably the best noise-to-performance ratio available, these are your fans. Pro tip: get the dual pack and suddenly they're pretty cheap. I bought dual packs for 24€ each which IMO is dirt cheap for fans like these.
 
Meanwhile, Noctua are sitting on their asses releasing nothing new. I'm glad SOMEONE came up with this. I'm Noctua fanboy but I'm done paying a premium for fans that are no longer that special.
 
FYI; you MUST use pwm control with these fans. With voltage control the maglev bearing won't work properly which will cause noise issues