Water Cooling Noob Questions

[Bruno_A]

Recently, I acquired an EVGA GTX 1080Ti FTW3 Hybrid, which came with an extra full cover backplate and water block from EK Water Blocks for a price of £300. I took the EK water block and backplate out to assemble the original hybrid cooler, which even though is great (49C max at load), is way too noisy. Also, I am not able to put the tempered glass side panel on anymore, as the graphics card is wide and the tubes are not very flexible, and it also came without the original backplate. which is a bummer. My solution here would be to buy an aftermarket cooler like a Raijintek Morpheus II, which doesn't look too bad and performs really well, but costs £71 and comes with no fans. Also, I was planning on buying a good air cooler from Noctua, such as the NH-D15S, which also isn't cheap. Basically, I would be spending a pretty penny on cooling alone. With that said, I'm planning on spending more and build a water cooling loop for my graphics card and CPU, since I already have the water block and backplate for the graphics card. Being almost completely new to water cooling, this brings me some questions:

 

What to look for in fittings?

I used the EKWB configurator and it suggested these fittings. Upon reading the description, I saw that these fittings are made from CNC-machined Nickel Plated Brass, and the ring (which is the thing you "twist" to make sure the tube is secure???) is made from aluminium. Hearing about Galvanic Corrosion, if my water blocks were made from copper, do I need full copper components such as radiator and fittings?

 

Nickel plated components

Again, regarding Galvanic Corrosion, if I have a bare copper CPU water block and nickel plated copper GPU water block, will this cause Galvanic Corrosion?

 

Choosing a radiator and radiator performance

I could be wrong, but the main component that will be responsible for most of the cooling performance of the loop is the radiator? If so, should I go with a bigger radiator, or with a thicker one? My case supports up to a 360 radiator, however, I would rather go with a 280 radiator for the full loop. Is this advisable, or should I just go with a 360 radiator? Also, how can I "measure" the performance of a radiator? For example, EKWB offers different thicknesses, and I could go with a slimmer 360 radiator or a thicker 280 radiator. Could I "measure" the performance based on the volume of the radiator? Also, again, regarding galvanic corrosion, I noticed that, for example, on the specs of this radiator, it has copper tubes, aluminium housing, copper fins and brass chambers. Does this matter at all?

 

Choosing a pump

My main goal with this loop is performance when in load (gaming, etc), and absolute silence when doing office work and general use. I'm not too worried about fans, as I already know what I'm going with, however, I am worried about the pump. I heard that some pumps can be quite noisy. For example, the pump on the AIO of my current Hybrid 1080Ti is a bit noisy. slightly noisier than my fans, and to someone as picky as me when it comes to sound, even though I don't always notice it, when I do, it takes me a while to un-notice. What is your experience with pumps and would be a quiet pump from EKWB? The pump that the configurator chose is this one. Is this any good?

 

Identifying the material used in the components

The previous owner of this card included the water block and backplate for free. He said that the water block was a copper water block, however, the part that touches the VRM and the GPU diode are silver. It is definitely not aluminium, as it's quite heavy. Could this be nickel plated copper?

 

 

 

Sorry for the long post and the stupid amount of questions.

 

Many thanks,

Bruno.

 

[Salticid]

I can answer some questions...  but really, just spend some time reading around and I would very much suggest watching some guides on YouTube from people like Linus, Paul's Hardware, Jayztwocents.  You'll get your answers really fast that way, from pro modders and water cooling builders.

 

Regarding Galvanic Corrosion
There is no way to avoid this completely, and no way to completely avoid mixing metals just a little.  Probably the best thing you can try is to stick with a single manufacturer for all your components, like EK, but even then you're going to run into something like with the fittings - Copper is often considered too soft and is too expensive for fittings.  

 

Reducing the amount of mixed metals as much as you can is the best you can hope for.  That means sticking where at all possible to Nickle Plating and pure copper.

 

So, Copper or Nickle Plated Copper for your contact plate(s) on your water block(s).  Nickle Plating on your fittings.  The insides of Rads and the fins of rads are almost always going to be copper.  There maybe some brass  used, but if so then only in areas that will not contact water - if you're using a reputable company.

 

If you see parts that have aluminum, look for 3 things.

First, is the aluminum part potentially going to contact the liquid in the loop?  If no, such as in the housing of the Rad - which is a removable sleeve the Rad sits in - or the cap ring of a compression fitting, then don't worry about it.

 

Second, is the Aluminum Anodised?  If so, then that is a protective coating that combats galvanic corrosion.  If the anodized aluminum is in contact with the water in the loop, you should make sure to perform regular maintenance and watch it carefully for signs of corrosion, but if you're buying from a company like EK, you shouldn't find any aluminum, anodized or not, in contact with the water - UNLESS it's one of their aluminum build kits.

 

Third, is it an aluminum based build kit?  If so, you will find that ALL parts: contact plates, fittings, rads... will be aluminum.  These are OK, as they don't mix in any other metals with the aluminum.

 

Any liquid you use in your loop should have anti-corrosives in it.  Pre-mixes or concentrates to be mixed with distilled water will already have that.  If you only use distilled water you will need to add it and a biocide yourself.  This will help to combat what amount of galvanic corrosion you can't avoid simply because of the mix of Nickle and Copper.  But these two are only lightly reactive to each other, which is why it's common to see them mixed together in loop components.  So as long as you run a regular maintenance, you should be just fine.

 

Trust good and well tested companies like EK, they will not steer you wrong when it comes to metals.  They have the reputation they have for a reason.  If this is what they recommended for you, then it is a good configuration.

(I know I keep mentioning EK, but that's because I have the most experience with them.  There are several other excellent names in water cooling too.  Just make sure you pick a good, trusted name that's been doing this for a while.)

 

Oh, lastly, EVGA water blocks are indeed nickle plated copper contact plates, yes.

 

Radiator Thickness

There is a point of diminishing return.  The thicker the radiator, the more air flow resistance you have - this is also true of more fins per square inch.  Once you move into thicker than base Rads, you need to make sure your fans are Static Pressure.  The rule of thumb I've seen is at least 1 120 per component cooled, or a 240 if your component is known to run hot, and/or you plan to OC.
 

Doubling the width of the Rad essentially adds that second 120.  But it can look heavier and/or cause clearance problems, and as stated the thicker rad has more airflow restriction.

 

Thermodynamics states that more surface area with more even and easy air flow gets you the best heat transfer.  So if you can, I would go for the thinner Rad(s) with more length up to as much as you need (or want).  I'm using 2 360's but then I expect to eventually upgrade to cooling more items on my board.

 

So, how you choose to configure your Rads, what you choose to use, is largely up to your actual cooling needs, if you want to plan for more expansion later, how much space you have to build in and how you want it to look.

 

All that said, your Rads are tertiary in cooling importance, at least in my book. 

 

Most important is the thermal transfer from your CPU/GPU heat spreader to the contact plate of your water block, and the thermal pads over other components on your Graphics card/motherboard (if using a monoblock etc).  If this is not good, then nothing else in your system is going to help.  I would suggest using the paste that EK gives you - they usually include Thermal Grizzly, which I am kind of a fangirl for.

 

Second in importance is the fans.  If your fans are not effectively getting air over the fins of your Rad, then the Rad can't work well.  But you state you have your fans sorted, so moving on.

 

Pumps

Manufacturers of blocks and reservoirs etc, like EK, all basically buy pumps from the same couple of manufacturers.  No one else makes them.  The Water Cooling Brand then sticks them to a cover and sometimes in a housing with their own branding on that part.  So it doesn't matter where you buy your pump from, if you get a D5 pump from EK it's the same D5 pump pretty much anyone else offers.  Same if it's a DDC. 

 

Both run relatively silent, from what I'm told... I have a D5 and set to speed setting 4 it's downright silent - but that's also with a 'silencer' housing over it and padding between the mounting and the place on the case it's mounted.  Consider padding when you mount yours, and if you get a D5 getting a silencing housing if the company you buy from offers one.  

 

IDK if a DDC pump can get a silencing housing, because they require (or at the very least should have) a heatsink, because they run hot.  Consider this if you're looking at a DDC, because this adds some cost. But then so does a silence housing on a D5.

 

What's important to consider for Pumps is:
Head Pressure - this is more important than flow rate for your loop.  The more resistance in your loop - meaning the more 90 degree turns, more components cooled, and more height the pump has to push upwards to, the more head pressure you should have.  D5s have less head pressure than DDCs

 

Flow Rate - The speed of water through your loop doesn't actually make a whole lot of difference in your temps after a certain point, so a very high flow rate isn't actually much of a boost over a moderate and strong flow rate that is consistent.Head pressure actually does help more because it helps to make sure all areas of your loop are filled, and air pushed out.  There is actual test data out there proving this.  That said, D5s have better flow rate than DDCs

 

Is the Pump PWM? - It sounds like you want to be able to easily control your pump speed from your computer depending on your need and what you're working on.  So in this case you should make sure to get one that is PWM capable.  Otherwise you will need to set it to a single speed or find a way to mount it such that you can access the pump speed dial at the very bottom of the thing with a screwdriver - not easy to do. 

 

That said, as mentioned above, the flow speed of the liquid doesn't actually make much difference here.  What you actually want to control/change more than pump flow is your fan speed over the Rads. So maybe spending extra on PWM isn't so important and you might want to spend that extra on a flow monitor.  I will say that with the silence kit and padding on my D5, it wouldn't matter what speed setting I have it on for noise.  Thing is dead silent set to 4, all I hear is fan and even those are super quiet. 

 

But if PWM is important to you then get it.  EK makes them.  The only reason I didn't get it is I couldn't get an aio res/pump kit from them with a res in the size I wanted, and it would have cost me an extra $100 to get the extra res tube.  So I went with something less expensive for now and figure I'll upgrade later.  In the meantime, I do not regret my choice.

 

I think I hit most of the major points here.  If I have more time later (no guarantee I will) and you want me to I can try and find some vids to support some of this, but again I recommend you go find them.  They're easy to find, interesting, and easy to watch.  Very informative. 

[Bruno_A]

On 4/1/2019 at 6:54 PM, Salticid said:

I can answer some questions...  but really, just spend some time reading around and I would very much suggest watching some guides on YouTube from people like Linus, Paul's Hardware, Jayztwocents.  You'll get your answers really fast that way, from pro modders and water cooling builders.

 

Regarding Galvanic Corrosion
There is no way to avoid this completely, and no way to completely avoid mixing metals just a little.  Probably the best thing you can try is to stick with a single manufacturer for all your components, like EK, but even then you're going to run into something like with the fittings - Copper is often considered too soft and is too expensive for fittings.  

 

Reducing the amount of mixed metals as much as you can is the best you can hope for.  That means sticking where at all possible to Nickle Plating and pure copper.

 

So, Copper or Nickle Plated Copper for your contact plate(s) on your water block(s).  Nickle Plating on your fittings.  The insides of Rads and the fins of rads are almost always going to be copper.  There maybe some brass  used, but if so then only in areas that will not contact water - if you're using a reputable company.

 

If you see parts that have aluminum, look for 3 things.

First, is the aluminum part potentially going to contact the liquid in the loop?  If no, such as in the housing of the Rad - which is a removable sleeve the Rad sits in - or the cap ring of a compression fitting, then don't worry about it.

 

Second, is the Aluminum Anodised?  If so, then that is a protective coating that combats galvanic corrosion.  If the anodized aluminum is in contact with the water in the loop, you should make sure to perform regular maintenance and watch it carefully for signs of corrosion, but if you're buying from a company like EK, you shouldn't find any aluminum, anodized or not, in contact with the water - UNLESS it's one of their aluminum build kits.

 

Third, is it an aluminum based build kit?  If so, you will find that ALL parts: contact plates, fittings, rads... will be aluminum.  These are OK, as they don't mix in any other metals with the aluminum.

 

Any liquid you use in your loop should have anti-corrosives in it.  Pre-mixes or concentrates to be mixed with distilled water will already have that.  If you only use distilled water you will need to add it and a biocide yourself.  This will help to combat what amount of galvanic corrosion you can't avoid simply because of the mix of Nickle and Copper.  But these two are only lightly reactive to each other, which is why it's common to see them mixed together in loop components.  So as long as you run a regular maintenance, you should be just fine.

 

Trust good and well tested companies like EK, they will not steer you wrong when it comes to metals.  They have the reputation they have for a reason.  If this is what they recommended for you, then it is a good configuration.

(I know I keep mentioning EK, but that's because I have the most experience with them.  There are several other excellent names in water cooling too.  Just make sure you pick a good, trusted name that's been doing this for a while.)

 

Oh, lastly, EVGA water blocks are indeed nickle plated copper contact plates, yes.

 

Radiator Thickness

There is a point of diminishing return.  The thicker the radiator, the more air flow resistance you have - this is also true of more fins per square inch.  Once you move into thicker than base Rads, you need to make sure your fans are Static Pressure.  The rule of thumb I've seen is at least 1 120 per component cooled, or a 240 if your component is known to run hot, and/or you plan to OC.
 

Doubling the width of the Rad essentially adds that second 120.  But it can look heavier and/or cause clearance problems, and as stated the thicker rad has more airflow restriction.

 

Thermodynamics states that more surface area with more even and easy air flow gets you the best heat transfer.  So if you can, I would go for the thinner Rad(s) with more length up to as much as you need (or want).  I'm using 2 360's but then I expect to eventually upgrade to cooling more items on my board.

 

So, how you choose to configure your Rads, what you choose to use, is largely up to your actual cooling needs, if you want to plan for more expansion later, how much space you have to build in and how you want it to look.

 

All that said, your Rads are tertiary in cooling importance, at least in my book. 

 

Most important is the thermal transfer from your CPU/GPU heat spreader to the contact plate of your water block, and the thermal pads over other components on your Graphics card/motherboard (if using a monoblock etc).  If this is not good, then nothing else in your system is going to help.  I would suggest using the paste that EK gives you - they usually include Thermal Grizzly, which I am kind of a fangirl for.

 

Second in importance is the fans.  If your fans are not effectively getting air over the fins of your Rad, then the Rad can't work well.  But you state you have your fans sorted, so moving on.

 

Pumps

Manufacturers of blocks and reservoirs etc, like EK, all basically buy pumps from the same couple of manufacturers.  No one else makes them.  The Water Cooling Brand then sticks them to a cover and sometimes in a housing with their own branding on that part.  So it doesn't matter where you buy your pump from, if you get a D5 pump from EK it's the same D5 pump pretty much anyone else offers.  Same if it's a DDC. 

 

Both run relatively silent, from what I'm told... I have a D5 and set to speed setting 4 it's downright silent - but that's also with a 'silencer' housing over it and padding between the mounting and the place on the case it's mounted.  Consider padding when you mount yours, and if you get a D5 getting a silencing housing if the company you buy from offers one.  

 

IDK if a DDC pump can get a silencing housing, because they require (or at the very least should have) a heatsink, because they run hot.  Consider this if you're looking at a DDC, because this adds some cost. But then so does a silence housing on a D5.

 

What's important to consider for Pumps is:
Head Pressure - this is more important than flow rate for your loop.  The more resistance in your loop - meaning the more 90 degree turns, more components cooled, and more height the pump has to push upwards to, the more head pressure you should have.  D5s have less head pressure than DDCs

 

Flow Rate - The speed of water through your loop doesn't actually make a whole lot of difference in your temps after a certain point, so a very high flow rate isn't actually much of a boost over a moderate and strong flow rate that is consistent.Head pressure actually does help more because it helps to make sure all areas of your loop are filled, and air pushed out.  There is actual test data out there proving this.  That said, D5s have better flow rate than DDCs

 

Is the Pump PWM? - It sounds like you want to be able to easily control your pump speed from your computer depending on your need and what you're working on.  So in this case you should make sure to get one that is PWM capable.  Otherwise you will need to set it to a single speed or find a way to mount it such that you can access the pump speed dial at the very bottom of the thing with a screwdriver - not easy to do. 

 

That said, as mentioned above, the flow speed of the liquid doesn't actually make much difference here.  What you actually want to control/change more than pump flow is your fan speed over the Rads. So maybe spending extra on PWM isn't so important and you might want to spend that extra on a flow monitor.  I will say that with the silence kit and padding on my D5, it wouldn't matter what speed setting I have it on for noise.  Thing is dead silent set to 4, all I hear is fan and even those are super quiet. 

 

But if PWM is important to you then get it.  EK makes them.  The only reason I didn't get it is I couldn't get an aio res/pump kit from them with a res in the size I wanted, and it would have cost me an extra $100 to get the extra res tube.  So I went with something less expensive for now and figure I'll upgrade later.  In the meantime, I do not regret my choice.

 

I think I hit most of the major points here.  If I have more time later (no guarantee I will) and you want me to I can try and find some vids to support some of this, but again I recommend you go find them.  They're easy to find, interesting, and easy to watch.  Very informative. 

I’m so sorry for the massive delay replying, but I’ve been inactive. Thank you very much for taking the time to write such an incredibly detailed reply. I decided to go ahead and and order:

• AMD Nickel & Plexi EK Velocity waterblock;
• EK REVO D5 140 PWM pump and reservoir;
• All nickel EK fittings;
• 3M of white Mayhems tubing;

The parts arrived two days ago and I started to assemble the kit as soon as I got home. It didn’t go too well and I had to clean up a wet mess. Everything turned out well in the end and I learned quite a lot. Anyway, here’s a picture of my build now:

Spoiler

It doesn’t look the best, and I know it doesn’t, but I will be upgrading my case to a Phanteks P600S soon, hopefully, and I will rebuild the loop, probably using an extra radiator.

[Salticid]

3 hours ago, bruny06 said:

 

  Hide contents

It doesn’t look the best, and I know it doesn’t, but I will be upgrading my case to a Phanteks P600S soon, hopefully, and I will rebuild the loop, probably using an extra radiator.

I have no idea what you mean!  It's your first loop and a start.

Perhaps not as elegant as you initially imagined, but it looks great!  It will serve you well for now and you learned a lot as you mentioned.  And frankly the look of any loop is miles better than air coolers and wires any day.  =D

 

Great job!  I love the color.  

Have you done any benchmarking or temperature checks?

[Bruno_A]

9 hours ago, Salticid said:

I have no idea what you mean!  It's your first loop and a start.

Thanks a lot

9 hours ago, Salticid said:

Have you done any benchmarking or temperature checks?

I'm glad you ask that. On my case, the CPU, an R5 1600 at 1.28V 3.8GHz, would quickly hit 80+ degrees Celsius, and the GPU would hit 60+ degrees Celsius. I took the front panel off and it improved the temperatures drastically. When benchmarking the CPU alone, temperatures go to around 54 degrees Celsius, depending on room temperature, and when benchmarking the GPU, temperatures go to around 44 degrees Celsius, again, depending on room temperature. Now, what I'm really curious about, is the fact that the way my loop is set up, the fluid passes through the CPU before the GPU, and the CPU needing a lot less cooling power (100W, roughly, according to HWInfo, versus 250W of my GPU), but the CPU gets much hotter than the GPU, reaching around 61 degrees Celsius when both the GPU and CPU are being stress tested, versus 46 degrees Celsius of my GPU. Basically, the CPU gets quite a bit hotter than the GPU, even though it requires less than half the cooling capacity. Could this be due to the water block size? Even though the graphics card needs more cooling, the water block is also much bigger.

 

Ohh, quick question, is it safe to have the reservoir filled almost to the top? Here's a picture of my reservoir, at the moment. The fluid level is marked as red:

Spoiler

 

[Salticid]

On 4/12/2019 at 9:07 PM, bruny06 said:

but the CPU gets much hotter than the GPU, reaching around 61 degrees Celsius when both the GPU and CPU are being stress tested, versus 46 degrees Celsius of my GPU. Basically, the CPU gets quite a bit hotter than the GPU, even though it requires less than half the cooling capacity. Could this be due to the water block size? Even though the graphics card needs more cooling, the water block is also much bigger.

 

Ohh, quick question, is it safe to have the reservoir filled almost to the top? Here's a picture of my reservoir, at the moment. The fluid level is marked as red:

  Hide contents

 

Apologies for the long delay in reply.

 

I'm not exactly sure what your first questions is exactly...  Are you asking if the order of your loop is causing an issue?  Or if the contact plate to your CPU's Heat plate is not large enough?

 

So, I am an Intel person and don't have as much experience with AMD/Ryzen.  That said, those temps seem high to me on the CPU and should be much closer to what you see on the GPU I think.

 

So ticking the questions I think I see you asking:
*  Is it your loop order?

No.  Loop order doesn't matter, the liquid in the system reaches and equilibrium throughout regardless of loop order.  Order doesn't matter except for making sure the reservoir comes before the pump.

 

*  Is your CPU Contact Plate too big/small?

No.  From what you mentioned, you got the AMD Ryzen model of the EK CPU water block.  It is designed to correctly direct jet water over the hottest section of the CPU heat transfer plate, and circulate it around the rest of the plate before exiting the block.  It's long tested and should be working fine.

 

Your GPU block is larger because you're not just liquid cooling the main GPU Core, (in pretty much the same way the EK CPU block does), but you are also circulating water over the VRMs on the card - and if the 1080 TI FTW3 is done anything like the 2080 TI FTW3, possibly the chokes too though I don't understand why.  That plate cools specific contact points along the whole of the card, and so water is circulated all along those, though more passively than over the GPU Core itself. 

 

So what is going on with the temps on that CPU?

 

Most often when you see temps like this that have not come down significantly from air cooling, the main issue is lack of contact of the water block plate with the Thermal Transfer Plate on the CPU: 

*  Perhaps you haven't tightened down the support brackets enough and they have come loose, or you didn't tighten the block down enough against the CPU.

*  Possibly you forgot to take the protective plastic off the contact plate of the block - this happens more than you know.

*  Possibly there's something in the way of your tightening the CPU Block down enough, check clearance and that a mosfet, choke or VRM heatsink on the Mobo is not getting in the way of contact between the CPU and the water block.

*  Maybe your paste job was not great for some reason, or your paste was old - unlikely but just throwing it out there.

 

Check all of these things.  The temps you're seeing are too high and bothersome.  It's a pain to take your loop apart I know, but it's worth it for the life and safety of your components and to get them working correctly.

 

I see something else in this picture now that I'm looking.

It looks like possibly you have the water flow on your EK Water Block backwards.  This could also effect temps much like any of the above, if the water flow is not being properly directed through the jet flow system.  On my own EK block, EK did not label an actual In and Out, but there is a specific In and Out.  That can be changed by taking the plate apart and turning a component 180 degrees, so they call the system adjustable and don't label the ports.

 

Check to make sure you have the In and Out correct when you put it back together after checking the other things.  You should be able to just see the microchannels on the contact plate directly on the out side. The In side, you can't really see them because water is channeled tightly into that center slot to force jet it along the center of the contact plate and then through the channels.  This is why if you're trying to force the water flow backwards, it's just not going to be effective.

 

On the stock out-of-the-box configuration of the Intel blocks, the out port is the one closest to the EK symbol.  I am not sure if it's the same on the AMD ones.

 

I also noticed you went with a 240 Rad at double thickness.  This isn't causing any issues with your cooling, if it were you would see issues with your GPU temperatures too.  But it also means you have a touch more air resistance so you may not be getting optimal cooling from the rad.  When you get a bigger case, I would recommend adding more fans for a push-pull or another rad - but a thinner form factor.  It won't make a huge difference, but could help in hotter weather by 5 to 10 degrees.  That said, it may not be worth it.  Push-pull eats room and creates the headache of having to match fans and sync speeds, and that or an extra rad may really not be necessary.  It's a little hard to say without fixing the CPU temp issue first and then seeing how your temps are over a long test with your current setup, relative to your room temperature.  It was just a thought.

 

Oh, and I noticed up in your OP when reviewing you mentioned you now have a clearance issue with your new hybrid cooling block on your GPU.  Sorry I missed this before.  When you're looking for a new case, since you're water cooling now, consider getting one with a vertical GPU mount.  That should head off any further clearance issues before they happen - though you can check specs and do the math for a horizontal mount too.  Just make sure the case you get allows the pci ports for the card.  I was disapointed to find I can't use the vertical mount on my box because it's only got 2 pci ports and my card takes up 3.  Oh and keep in mind, the PCI extension cable is always sold separate from the case itself, an extra cost.

 

Last, you asked about the fill level of the reservoir.  Yes, that's perfectly fine.  Those pump/reservoirs can even be mounted on their side, and when you do that you want as close to no air as you can get in the system, so some people go for as close to a vacuum as they can manage.  Air is the second biggest issue in a loop, so getting rid of all of it you can is never a problem.

[Bruno_A]

On 4/16/2019 at 6:22 PM, Salticid said:

Apologies for the long delay in reply.

 

I'm not exactly sure what your first questions is exactly...  Are you asking if the order of your loop is causing an issue?  Or if the contact plate to your CPU's Heat plate is not large enough?

 

So, I am an Intel person and don't have as much experience with AMD/Ryzen.  That said, those temps seem high to me on the CPU and should be much closer to what you see on the GPU I think.

 

So ticking the questions I think I see you asking:
*  Is it your loop order?

No.  Loop order doesn't matter, the liquid in the system reaches and equilibrium throughout regardless of loop order.  Order doesn't matter except for making sure the reservoir comes before the pump.

 

*  Is your CPU Contact Plate too big/small?

No.  From what you mentioned, you got the AMD Ryzen model of the EK CPU water block.  It is designed to correctly direct jet water over the hottest section of the CPU heat transfer plate, and circulate it around the rest of the plate before exiting the block.  It's long tested and should be working fine.

 

Your GPU block is larger because you're not just liquid cooling the main GPU Core, (in pretty much the same way the EK CPU block does), but you are also circulating water over the VRMs on the card - and if the 1080 TI FTW3 is done anything like the 2080 TI FTW3, possibly the chokes too though I don't understand why.  That plate cools specific contact points along the whole of the card, and so water is circulated all along those, though more passively than over the GPU Core itself. 

 

So what is going on with the temps on that CPU?

 

Most often when you see temps like this that have not come down significantly from air cooling, the main issue is lack of contact of the water block plate with the Thermal Transfer Plate on the CPU: 

*  Perhaps you haven't tightened down the support brackets enough and they have come loose, or you didn't tighten the block down enough against the CPU.

*  Possibly you forgot to take the protective plastic off the contact plate of the block - this happens more than you know.

*  Possibly there's something in the way of your tightening the CPU Block down enough, check clearance and that a mosfet, choke or VRM heatsink on the Mobo is not getting in the way of contact between the CPU and the water block.

*  Maybe your paste job was not great for some reason, or your paste was old - unlikely but just throwing it out there.

 

Check all of these things.  The temps you're seeing are too high and bothersome.  It's a pain to take your loop apart I know, but it's worth it for the life and safety of your components and to get them working correctly.

 

I see something else in this picture now that I'm looking.

It looks like possibly you have the water flow on your EK Water Block backwards.  This could also effect temps much like any of the above, if the water flow is not being properly directed through the jet flow system.  On my own EK block, EK did not label an actual In and Out, but there is a specific In and Out.  That can be changed by taking the plate apart and turning a component 180 degrees, so they call the system adjustable and don't label the ports.

 

Check to make sure you have the In and Out correct when you put it back together after checking the other things.  You should be able to just see the microchannels on the contact plate directly on the out side. The In side, you can't really see them because water is channeled tightly into that center slot to force jet it along the center of the contact plate and then through the channels.  This is why if you're trying to force the water flow backwards, it's just not going to be effective.

 

On the stock out-of-the-box configuration of the Intel blocks, the out port is the one closest to the EK symbol.  I am not sure if it's the same on the AMD ones.

 

I also noticed you went with a 240 Rad at double thickness.  This isn't causing any issues with your cooling, if it were you would see issues with your GPU temperatures too.  But it also means you have a touch more air resistance so you may not be getting optimal cooling from the rad.  When you get a bigger case, I would recommend adding more fans for a push-pull or another rad - but a thinner form factor.  It won't make a huge difference, but could help in hotter weather by 5 to 10 degrees.  That said, it may not be worth it.  Push-pull eats room and creates the headache of having to match fans and sync speeds, and that or an extra rad may really not be necessary.  It's a little hard to say without fixing the CPU temp issue first and then seeing how your temps are over a long test with your current setup, relative to your room temperature.  It was just a thought.

 

Oh, and I noticed up in your OP when reviewing you mentioned you now have a clearance issue with your new hybrid cooling block on your GPU.  Sorry I missed this before.  When you're looking for a new case, since you're water cooling now, consider getting one with a vertical GPU mount.  That should head off any further clearance issues before they happen - though you can check specs and do the math for a horizontal mount too.  Just make sure the case you get allows the pci ports for the card.  I was disapointed to find I can't use the vertical mount on my box because it's only got 2 pci ports and my card takes up 3.  Oh and keep in mind, the PCI extension cable is always sold separate from the case itself, an extra cost.

 

Last, you asked about the fill level of the reservoir.  Yes, that's perfectly fine.  Those pump/reservoirs can even be mounted on their side, and when you do that you want as close to no air as you can get in the system, so some people go for as close to a vacuum as they can manage.  Air is the second biggest issue in a loop, so getting rid of all of it you can is never a problem.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply to my questions, and sorry for the massive delay replying to you, but I’ve only recently been able to re-assemble my loop.

 

I was saying that the way the loop works, the CPU is cooled before the GPU, and as the GPU has a much higher TDP than the CPU, it doesn’t make sense for the CPU to run hotter than the GPU. I tried to simply replace the thermal paste and make sure the water block is properly tightened. This didn’t make any difference. I then took the time to disassemble the loop and plug the “in” and “out” the right way, which I hadn’t when I first built the loop, and used the rest of the EK clear fluid that I had left. The fluid I had wasn’t enough the loop, so I added more distilled water. The fluid has chemical properties that prevent corrosion and growth, and as I had mixed it with distilled water, potentially making it weaker, I bought and added some drops of Mayhems Biocide and Inhibitor, for peace of mind. The only difference in running the loop this way is that no dirt gets accumulated on the CPU water block fins. Before I changed it, I noticed some black spots of some kind of dirt accumulating on the CPU water block. With that said, I believe that the reason for labelled water “in” and “out” is that no dirt gets accumulated on the CPU water block.

 

What I might do tonight is take out the CPU water block again and see how the thermal paste is spreading and take a picture of it as well. Regarding the clearance issue, luckily, I am just about able to close the side panel on the case with only a few millimetres of clearance.