For Science!

As long as you are not hacking up an AIO, I think its okay. Just because its an corsair AIO, does not mean its the same radiator as their custom loop line up. In terms of having two loops with a shared reservoir, Yes, its possible, but serves no functional purpose as: A) It doesn't give you the ability to independently maintain the loops as you have to drain both to work on either B) It doesn't give you any redundancy as if the pump fails on one loop, the other one will not push liquid around the other. C) You do not really aggregate the power of your radiators since the water is mixed only within the reservoir. Which are the three primary reasons for either having multiple pumps or having 2 loops. So to me, it sounds like a lose-lose-lose scenario. Cutting up a glass bottle for a custom reservoir is fine if you can make it water tight at the fittings.

Probably the best option is to keep them separate and have a CPU cooled by the AIO, and then a GPU-only custom loop. For a few reasons: The radiator in the AIO is aluminium, so you don't want to ruin your nice GPU block with potential corrosion. Pushing liquid at the speed of a D5 through a AIO pump will probably turn it into a generator and cause issues. Once you cut open an AIO, the warranty is gone and it will not have G1/4 standard fittings But to answer some other questions: In most cases, serial is always better than parallel pumps. Probably there is a way to unmount the display, but it will probably be difficult to keep the fluid temperature sensor (I assume there is one)

I'm sorry, exhausting air cooler than ambient is not possible. The only reason why humans can use fans to cool down is because we sweat and thus take advantage of evaporative cooling, unfortunately most PCs cannot sweat.

That's a more complex question as you have fluid (air) dynamics to take into account. Is the air just shot out the back of the case? In my custom loop, hot air is exhausted out the front and top of the case, so I can definitely feel the room heat up while I game.

I think they look good, you can save money by buying the standalone pump if you plan to reinstall it on the distroblock. https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-loop-ddc-4-2-pwm-motor

A genuine DDC pump will all be give or take similar, where higher versions have some perks (from any reputable brand, they are all OEMs of Xylem/Laing). I would focus more on features that you want such as SATA power and PWM control. I would say PWM control is very desirable as at full speed, it is not a quiet pump (I run mine at 30% speed). A good heatsink is worth the investment as in my reading, the top killer of DDCs is lack of cooling, as it is often overlooked. I personally use Alphacools heatsink: https://www.alphacool.com/shop/pumpen/pumpenzubehoer/18980/alphacool-laing-ddc-metal-bottom-black-nickel Cannot guarantee its mounting compatibility with the distroblock, but I think its fine.

Almost certain D5 will not mount for a DDC block, its just way too big. Probably better to just get another DDC and have a think as to why your old one died. Probably insufficient cooling, or was run dry. So heatsink and airflow together with good operation habits will keep the pump alive for years.

Good luck! No idea about Canadian retailers, but I think you'll find one somewhere Its still going to be difficult, working in the Ncase M1, but I'm sure it'll be rewarding. The TX240 is a better choice than not having a radiator, or a passive one, so I think given your predicament, its a good choice.

Would the XSPC TX240 ultrathin radiator change your situation?https://www.xs-pc.com/radiators-tx-series/tx240-ultrathin-radiator

In case it is somehow inspirational: If you have a 1 slot GPU configuration, you can definitely squeeze in a HWLabs GTS radiator together with a 15 mm slim Noctua fan in pull-exhaust. For clean cable management, I think going with the GTS on the top is also a good idea.

Would hazard a guess that you only have 12 V (red) and ground (black), and thus the LED connection is likely on the PCB or within the hub of the fan. Long story short, don't cut either of the cables.

Well, as a minimum you pay money, and you get some more performance. So its not the worst case scenario where you pay money for less performance. Is +20 fps worth 700 euros? depends on your perception of the value of 700 euros. You brought up the concept of a "worth upgrade" which is totally subjective and down to you to decide as usual.

Yes, understandable. My production machines are custom looped too, and I just build them with enough failsafes that they are reliable, and so do not suffer from any heat issues. As AIOs are almost designed to fail, I think using them in a production machine is probably the least sensible out of the three options. I recently changed all the fans on my loop, but you know, it was more of a chore than an "exciting next step". Its not that I had to learn or do something particularly exciting in order to choose better fans, and install them on pre-decided locations on a PC case. This is what I mean by stagnation, ordering a new GPU or CPU, and installing it and whacking a waterblock on it and having a reliable, cool machine for the next 5 years is great from a functionality perspective, but once you do one, its all very similar. To "spice it up" a little bit, I try to come up with new ways to route my hardline tubing every few years, but my imagination is a bit drying up in recent years, and have not been able to come up with an exciting design that I want to implement or thinks it looks nicer than what I have.

The DCP is insanely overpriced then. D5 any day of the week.

PCs obviously start (or at least should) as functional pieces of equipment. You build one to do something with it. For some people like me though, after you've built a piece of equipment that works, my mind moved onto the direction of: I'd like this PC to be more quiet --> Custom loop If I'm going to do a custom loop, I'd like it to look nice --> Hardline custom loop So at that point the PC went beyond a functional piece of equipment and turned into a semi-art piece. Right now I'm trying to design some custom parts and 3D print them so that I can bring some life back into the hobby for me which stagnated a little bit as there is a strong sensation of "Well, I've already done that" when it comes to "regular" custom water cooling.

"Honey, I need to take a shower, can you start mining on your GPUs again?" SFF custom loop cooling is a whole next level challenge, I just finished doing maintenance on a Ncase M1 custom loop which I think I min-maxed in terms of cooling potential. I also have a ThorZone Mjolnir sitting on my desk, but I think it can only do a CPU loop as the space usage is not as great.

I once also tried to come up with a design, and then shelved it away. Now that I've learned how to operate a 3D printer, it might see the day of light one day. Having said that its difficult to come up with a good aesthetic design, which isn't my strong point

For those that enjoy the actual building of PCs, where are you at now, and where do see yourself progressing into in the future? I think there are many paths that people take (sometime multiple paths) and I myself kind of want to do something new from another path, but haven't found something for myself yet. Advanced paths in the PC building hobby examples: Custom loop cooling Extreme overclocking / Competitive overclocking Custom case modifications Small form factor (performance per litre) Home network / Server / Dedicated NAS PC Unconventional cooling (e.g. Passive, whole room cooling, etc) DIY Custom peripherals

Reminds me of the Threadripper Quad GPU builds I did a few years back. We used Thermaltake View37's which layout worked quite well to achieve essentially a wind tunnel. I used a ATX board, but as you can see in the picture there is quite some horizontal real-estate, so I think your motherboard should fit too.

A 360 mm AIO will be a bit better than a top-line dual tower CPU cooler (e.g. Noctua D15). But will likely come with AIO associated headaches, so pick your poison. Depending on whether you want to keep the case or not, I guess you are limited to introducing better case fans, bunt these usually make limited impact. And last but not least, I guess if your CPU/GPU is not thermal throttling then "getting too warm" is not really something you actually need to be concerned with, and you have to set your own limits somewhere.

1) It is fine to mix and match, just make sure you don't excessively mix metals (e.g. Aluminium parts with copper/nickel parts). Brass, Copper, and Nickel play nice with each other. If you put in Aluminium, all must be aluminium. 2) Knowledge is power, ease of installation scales with knowledge. Parts needed barebones should be: Pump, waterblocks, liquid, radiator, tubing and fittings. Everything else is optional. 3) Hard tubing looks nice if done correctly, and lasts longer than soft tubing. Soft tubing can be replaced easily, and the installation is easier. Chemical resistance and therefore coolant longevity is better on hard tubing.

The gains are minimal, so not worth doing imo.

No, this is not corrosion. To me, the pictures of the tubing just looks like regular microbubbles to me. I find heating the loop with a load (e.g. RealBench) helps move these microbubbles along the way with a decent flow rate. The stuff in the GPU block is coolant that has seeped inbetween the acrylic and the block and "dried" there. Its a common occurance as there is no O-ring that keeps the water out of that region. Its kinda ugly, but not corrosion and will not impact the loop in a big way,

Looks fine to me, a common misconception is that you expect to see thermal paste on the whole surface of the cooler/IHS after unmounting a cooler. This is incorrectly, and you want to ideally have the majority of both surfaces to be clean, which indicates a good metal-to-metal contact, which is what you want, and a remaining fractal/lightning pattern for where contact was inadequate. That more or less looks like what you have, and so I think you application and mounting pressure was adequate.

imo, no.