Water cooling kit advice

[Cb2394]

Ok,  so I am looking to get into water cooling for two reasons. First,  I picked up a 1700x during black Friday that likes OCing over 4.1, but my hyper 212 led doesn't quite do the job of cooling it above 4.075, and honest doesn't do that too well at about 86°c full load with some spikes. Second,  wifey bought me a cooler master h500 which, with the RGB fans, aesthetically it's begging for nice custom water loop. 

My question,  are custom water loop kits good performers? And if so, which are the good buys?

I've been looking at the EKWB L240 and slim 240, thinking it would be smarter to go with copper over aluminum,  the EKWB A240 is much more inexpensive,  for better expandability in the future.

Are there more kits to look at besides EKWB? Is my logic flawed and is it better just to piece a loop together? Do I need better performers than the 240s I mentioned? 

I've been doing my best at reading up and watching reviews and guides and such but I'd prefer to get opinions from those with much more experience than my extreme lack there of, thank you all in advance. 

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, Cb2394 said:

are custom water loop kits good performers? And if so, which are the good buys?

yeah. they are really good, but expensive. most products from bitspower and ekwb will do you well. but i'm not that into watercooling, this is about the best advise I can give you

[RollinLower]

are you planning to just cool the CPU with this loop? because the 240 kits from EKWB should definitely be enough then.

imo it is always better to go with a copper loop kit vs a aluminium one, because it's much easier to expand upon the loop lateron if you go with copper components. 

 

i think alphacool also makes loop kits, tough they are kinda expensive. EKWB is the tried and true option in this regard, and they make nice high-end components so definitely a safe bet.

[fabafaba]

11 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

imo it is always better to go with a copper loop kit vs a aluminium one, because it's much easier to expand upon the loop lateron if you go with copper components. 

Yup. I'm currently running an EKWB A240G with the 360mm expansion kit, and I'm not too happy with it. The cooling performance isn't quite on par with copper loops and I'm stuck with two thin (26mm) rads and no way to really customize my loop any further. There are no T H I C Cer radiators avaiable, there are no hardline fittings, you can't use tempsensors unless you find one made from aluminum, which I haven't.

So now I'm planning a full copper loop and will be left with +300€ worth of aluminum stuff I can't use.

 

EDIT: Just checked to make sure, EK does in fact have aluminum hardline fittings. Oops.

[Cb2394]

21 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

are you planning to just cool the CPU with this loop? because the 240 kits from EKWB should definitely be enough then.

imo it is always better to go with a copper loop kit vs a aluminium one, because it's much easier to expand upon the loop lateron if you go with copper components. 

 

i think alphacool also makes loop kits, tough they are kinda expensive. EKWB is the tried and true option in this regard, and they make nice high-end components so definitely a safe bet.

 

As of right now,  yeah just the CPU, I'll add a GPU if/when I upgrade my zotac 1060 6gb, but honestly it would cost more and be way to much trouble than the card is worth to get a block for it. And thanks for the tip about alphacool, their 240 is actually a bit cheaper,  so time for more reviews and research.

 

14 minutes ago, fabafaba said:

Yup. I'm currently running an EKWB A240G with the 360mm expansion kit, and I'm not too happy with it. The cooling performance isn't quite on par with copper loops and I'm stuck with two thin (26mm) rads and no way to really customize my loop any further. There are no T H I C Cer radiators avaiable, there are no hardline fittings, you can't use tempsensors unless you find one made from aluminum, which I haven't.

So now I'm planning a full copper loop and will be left with +300€ worth of aluminum stuff I can't use.

 

EDIT: Just checked to make sure, EK does in fact have aluminum hardline fittings. Oops.

Thanks for the first hand confirmation,  that effectively nixes aluminum kits out, I don't like building myself into a corner, I'm a bit here,  a piece there, kinda guy.