moos

Thank you very much, I just ordered my full and first water cooling set!! 

@Peopie figured right. The liquid in a custom loop moves around so fast that the liquid temp equalizes. This should be common knowledge by now. You can place one of these http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8341/ex-tub-442/Bitspower_G_14_Temperature_Sensor_Stop_Fitting_BP-WTP-CT.html?tl=g30c229s579 anywhere in your loop were it's in constant contact with the liquid and presto.

Glad you posted this. Not something I had thought about just did it on my r4 worked like a charm good shiz man

That makes sense, I'll try it out again when I get home today.  I was short my front rad when I was doing this as it was leaking because EK didn't put an o-ring in one of the valves...  I'm draining again today to put it back, so I'll double check.  Thanks a bunch.

The single 60mm 480 should be sufficient to start.  SP120s are ok at 7v, the quiet editions are fairly quiet.  There's also your standard GT-AP15s if you can find them, NF-F12s, nb eloops and multiframes.  Most rads of that size are low FPI, so you won't need massive airflow per se, but it's all about finding that balance between cost noise cooling and aesthetics.
 
290s are fairly powerhungry IIRC, although my uneducated guess would say an 860 would be enough.  I'll leave that to other to answer though =)  
 
Good luck!!

CPU/GPU loop with 2 360 rads using a D5 vario at it's lowest speeds.  It's pretty much inaudible, you should give it a shot 

Fans are largely a personal choice.  They present a balance between noise and cooling performance.  Technically, any fan would work, it just may not be optimal for what you need.  If aesthetics are your primary concern and you get decent temps, by all means go with the BitFenix fans, but expect temps to rise against a more static pressure oriented fan.  If you need better cooling performance you may need other fans.  It all depends on what your goals are, really, and the BitFenix fans I put in another build are very very quiet.  Good luck!

Ah right, be interested to see how that goes ... unfortunately I don't have the tools or space to do all of those things, so simple tubing for me i'm afraid ..
 
 
Ah, for some reason I thought acrylic tubing would be soft and pliable like pvc tubing .. my bad. But yes, the primochill tubing was what I was looking at previously. Like the previous comment, would love to do something like glass or acrylic, just don't have the tools, space, or experience.
 
Any advice on adding a drain? I assume at the lowest physical point of the loop and use silver/non-corrosive materials?

I used the Corsair sleeved modular ones to sort of "hide" the stock cables, and used BitFenix extensions for the 8 and 24 pin.  Much cheaper option for the same result  The HX definitely holds it own, though I must confess my new build is running off a 760i