First custom loop: Need a parts review before I start

[Bashrag]

This will be my first custom loop and I'm itching to dive straight into the deep end. I am building the PC in Vienna, Austria. I want to play around with OC-ing everything and would like to have a build that is as silent as reasonably possible

I updated my initial parts list based on feedback from r/watercooling and this is what it looks like now.

Type	Item	Price
Distro Plate+Reservoir+Pump	EK-Classic DP Side PC-O11D G1 D-RGB + DDC 3.2 PWM	€231.83
2x Radiators	Black Ice Nemesis radiator GTS 360	€144.80
CPU Blocka	EK-Quantum Velocity D-RGB - AMD Nickel + Plexi	€100.74
GPU Block	Heatkiller IV for RTX 2080 - Acryl Ni RGB	€144.95
GPU Backplate	B-Stock Heatkiller IV eBC for RTX 2080 - Black	€24.95
6x Fans	Corsair ML Pro RGB 120mm	€166.39
2x Tubing Packs	Bykski B-YKLWP, 500mm Acrylic Hard Tubes 500mm (2pcs)	€7.32
Coolant	EK-CryoFuel Clear (Concentrate 100mL)	€6.96
14x Straight Fittings	Barrow TFYKN2-T14 - Black	€34.02
2x 90° Fittingsb	Barrow TWT90KND-K14 - Black	€10.72
Controllerc	Aquacomputer OCTO	€55.36
Loop Totald	After shipping & discounts	€944.01

 

^a: EK has a Monoblock for my MoBo that costs €141.07. Is it worth getting? Would the additional VRM cooling help with OC-ing?

^b:  I noticed that the Barrow fittings are made of brass - would this be a problem? From what I understand the water shouldn't be coming into contact with the fittings, so there shouldn't be an issue with any Copper/Brass interactions.

^c: What's the difference between the Octo and the Quadro? Just the number of fans I can hook up? I choose the Octo since I have 6 fans. I am not sure if the ML120s can be daisy chained and plugged into the Quadro. Do I need a separate RGB controller?

^d: Are there any other parts I should be buying either for the loop like temp sensors, flow meters, etc? I will pick up some cheap mandrels and tools from AliExpress of course!

 

Here's my PC build.

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor	Purchased For €305.00
Motherboarde	Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE ATX AM4 Motherboard	€207.99 @ Mindfactory
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	Purchased For €120.45
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	€111.85 @ Amazon De
Video Cardf	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card	Purchased For €500.00
Case	Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic ATX Full Tower Case	Purchased For €121.50
Power Supplyg	Corsair RM (2019) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	€100.74
Total (PC)h		€1,467.53

^e: Is the Aorus Elite good enough for playing around with OCs or should I go for something different?

^f:  got a bunch of comments saying that it makes very little sense water cooling a 2070 Super and that I shouldn't bother with water cooling the GPU till I've upgraded to a 2080 Super / Ti. I think that's a valid argument and I'll keep an eye out for a 2080 Super or Ti on the seconds market. This also got me thinking about my CPU (even though no one brought that up) - should I upgrade to something chonkier than the 3700X before I water cool it? Water block prices for the 2070 S and 2080 S shouldn't be massively different (and AFAIK blocks that work for the 3700X should also work for the 3900X, etc.), so I might as well include a these blocks in my watercooling "wish list" and save up accordingly. Are there any arguments in favour of water cooling my 2070 S / 3700X?

^g: 750W should be enough to power everything. Is there any reason to consider something more powerful with a higher efficiency rating?

^h: Where is a good place to get some of those dope braided cables? I only know of CableMod thanks to Linus. 

 

Thanks y'all

[Bombastinator]

Re:b

copper and brass shouldn’t interact I think.  Brass has copper in it.  Bronze is copper and tin.  Brass is copper and something else (I forget what)  brass content can vary a lot.  Some chineses brasses have large amounts of lead (eek!) in them which might cause issues.  I don’t know.  Copper and many (but not all apparently) kinds of steel can react (there are apparently several kinds of stainless and some other alloys that don’t) and copper and aluminum can react. Nickel is usually nickel plated brass so that may be considered brass as well.

 

re: c

quadro means “four” octo means “eight”.  I dunno if that’s helpful or not.  I’m not seeing references to either term so I don’t know what additional ramifications might apply in this instance.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Bombastinator
Brass content comment modified

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, AkshayRao27 said:

 

The additional VRM cooling offered by the monoblock is unneccesary and should be perceived as an aesthetic piece, it also taxes your cooling loop quite substantially as the VRMs do get quite hot (but they can take it). The bigger problem in my opinion is the chipset fan for X570 which can be a source of annoying noise once the rest of the system is quiet. Brass is fine for fittings, almost all angled fittings are brass, radiators also typically use brass on their ends.  

 

Personally I do believe that watercooling loop fans need/should be controlled by the fluid temperature to ensure quiet and efficient operation, and so therefore a 2-pin temperature sensor that plgus into the OCTO would be desirable (I assume it can control fan speed by a temp input, otherwise the device is stupid). Flow meters are less necessary in my opinion since you can plug the pump into the CPU_FAN header which will cause a shut down if the pump were to not report an RPM.

 

CPU blocks are quite wide compatible so I wouldn't worry about it, if you do intend to upgrade the GPU, definitely do that before buying a block. Having said that GPU's are watercooled much more effectively than CPUs so I find watercooling GPUs for silence to be a good use.

[Bashrag]

22 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Re:b

copper and brass shouldn’t interact I think.  Brass has copper in it.  Bronze is copper and tin.  Brass is copper and something else (I forget what)  brass content can vary a lot.  Some chineses brasses have large amounts of lead (eek!) in them which might cause issues.  I don’t know.  Copper and many (but not all apparently) kinds of steel can react (there are apparently several kinds of stainless and some other alloys that don’t) and copper and aluminum can react. Nickel is usually nickel plated brass so that may be considered brass as well.

Good to know! Thanks! 

22 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Re:b

copper and brass shouldn’t interact I think.  Brass has copper in it.  Bronze is copper and tin.  Brass is copper and something else (I forget what)  brass content can vary a lot.  Some chineses brasses have large amounts of lead (eek!) in them which might cause issues.  I don’t know.  Copper and many (but not all apparently) kinds of steel can react (there are apparently several kinds of stainless and some other alloys that don’t) and copper and aluminum can react. Nickel is usually nickel plated brass so that may be considered brass as well.

 

re: c

quadro means “four” octo means “eight”.  I dunno if that’s helpful or not.  I’m not seeing references to either term so I don’t know what additional ramifications might apply in this instance.

I know - just by looking at the two it seems the Octo can take 8 fans as against the 4 fans that the quadro can take. But I don't know if there are any other differences. More importantly, I don't know if I can daisy chain 3 ML 120s on my top rad and plug them into fan header 1 and then daisy chain the 3 fans on my bottom rad and plug them into fan header 2 - if this is possible, the Quadro should be enough. If I need to plug 6 fans into 6 separate headers though, then I'll need an Octo, obviously.

21 hours ago, For Science! said:

The additional VRM cooling offered by the monoblock is unneccesary and should be perceived as an aesthetic piece, it also taxes your cooling loop quite substantially as the VRMs do get quite hot (but they can take it).

21 hours ago, For Science! said:

Brass is fine for fittings, almost all angled fittings are brass, radiators also typically use brass on their ends.  

This is what I was looking for - thank you!

21 hours ago, For Science! said:

The bigger problem in my opinion is the chipset fan for X570 which can be a source of annoying noise once the rest of the system is quiet.

Can those fans be controlled? Can you set a custom curve for those fans? I haven't seen any chipset waterblocks so I'm not sure if that's an options.

21 hours ago, For Science! said:

Personally I do believe that watercooling loop fans need/should be controlled by the fluid temperature to ensure quiet and efficient operation, and so therefore a 2-pin temperature sensor that plgus into the OCTO would be desirable (I assume it can control fan speed by a temp input, otherwise the device is stupid). Flow meters are less necessary in my opinion since you can plug the pump into the CPU_FAN header which will cause a shut down if the pump were to not report an RPM.

I read up a bit and it seems that the Octo ships with a temp sensor so I assume it can control fans based on coolant temps. I didn't know that bit about the flow meters. Thanks!

21 hours ago, For Science! said:

if you do intend to upgrade the GPU, definitely do that before buying a block. Having said that GPU's are watercooled much more effectively than CPUs so I find watercooling GPUs for silence to be a good use.

Understood. I'm still on the fence about putting the 2070 S under water - the general opinion seems to be that it doesn't make much sense from a performance perspective and that I shouldn't bother with a water block unless I have a 2080 S, 2080 Ti or a higher-end 30XX card. 

[For Science!]

1 minute ago, AkshayRao27 said:

Good to know! Thanks! 

I know - just by looking at the two it seems the Octo can take 8 fans as against the 4 fans that the quadro can take. But I don't know if there are any other differences. More importantly, I don't know if I can daisy chain 3 ML 120s on my top rad and plug them into fan header 1 and then daisy chain the 3 fans on my bottom rad and plug them into fan header 2 - if this is possible, the Quadro should be enough. If I need to plug 6 fans into 6 separate headers though, then I'll need an Octo, obviously.

This is what I was looking for - thank you!

Can those fans be controlled? Can you set a custom curve for those fans? I haven't seen any chipset waterblocks so I'm not sure if that's an options.

I read up a bit and it seems that the Octo ships with a temp sensor so I assume it can control fans based on coolant temps. I didn't know that bit about the flow meters. Thanks!

Understood. I'm still on the fence about putting the 2070 S under water - the general opinion seems to be that it doesn't make much sense from a performance perspective and that I shouldn't bother with a water block unless I have a 2080 S, 2080 Ti or a higher-end 30XX card. 

 

for your consideration: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-momentum-chipset-aorus-x570

I'm not so well versed with x570 boards so you'll have to check your own.

[Bashrag]

2 minutes ago, For Science! said:

 

for your consideration: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-momentum-chipset-aorus-x570

I'm not so well versed with x570 boards so you'll have to check your own.

Holy $hit thank you I have no idea how I didn't find that!