Custom Loop Now or Wait?

[NJMevec]

So I did the math, the heat gun, acrylic tubing, saw, etc. etc. plus all of the fittings, tubings, would be about $1,500. I would go EK blocks for my 1700X and my 1080 Ti Strix, would love to do Corsair for iCUE compatibility with the fans I'd be snagging, but that's life I guess. The other option is wait, planning on doing a new rig potentially next tax season, "best" Ryzen CPU (4900X presumably if they keep the naming scheme the same), same for GPU on team green (3080 Ti?). Would also probably go with an Asus board with built in watercooling as well. My case and radiator set up would not change, it would be the edition of VRM cooling on the motherboard otherwise my tubing could probably stay the same, just new blocks. Clear coolant, no dyes. Pull the trigger now (now should read mid June truthfully) or should I wait until the new rig? Currently the 1080 Ti is air cooled and the 1700X has a Corsair H100i, 1080 Ti can't hold a stable OC even +50 on boost or core at any voltage or power draw limit, and the 1700X is stable at 3.8GHz with 1.35V for about 73*C under synthetic load, could push further but giving up thermals that I don't feel like doing. Won't see any huge decreases in thermals, mostly a looks thing whereas the new hardware hopefully isn't a total loss on the silicone lottery and the loop would actually be utilized. 

 

Now on to questions about the loop, see if it's good or if I should do anything different here. Would be first custom loop, so mostly been doing research by the seat of my pants.

 

Radiators:               2x Corsair Hydro X XR5 420mm (30mm thick)

Water Pump/Res:   ? EK Quantum Kinetic TBE 300 D5 looks nice, but don't need the RGB on it, so really up in the air. Looking at the Watercool Heatkiller 200mm and EKWB EK-D5 PWM G2 Pump, preferably 200-300mm to take up empty space on the side of my case

Fans:                      7x Corsair LL140 RGB fans, 3 front, 3 top, 1 rear. Love the RGB pattern on the fans and Corsair makes good quality fans. Could go MLs but prefer the RGB layout on the LL.

Fan Controller:       2x Corsair Commander Pro (just because of the 7th fan, Corsair support recommends not using a dual PWM splitter with the LL140s off 1 hub) with their RGB Fan controller

RGB Strips:            None, Fans will be enough RGB plus the blocks plus the RAM plus the motherboard

Tube Type:             16/12 Acrylic just to get the thicker tubing look and like the look of Acrylic, would go PETG but ambient in summertime of my room is around 80*F without a PC, with the PC running it can get up to 90+ worried about it melting

Fittings:                   EK Torque fittings, black, with the nickel accent rings, EK T-block with drain plug off the bottom radiator, 2x G1/4 temp sensors off both rads to monitor loop temp, EK Fill Port for top of res. 

Blocks (if current):   Corsair XC7 AM4 block with EK 1080 Ti Strix Rev 2 (non-RGB, no sense in $15 extra on a part I'll be swapping down the line that doesn't have iCUE compatibility) and EK Rev 2 backplate

Blocks (if upgrade): Corsair XC7 AM4 block (assuming gen 4 Ryzen is still AM4) with Corsair 3080 Ti (or whatever they call it) block and a black backplate from whoever, probably EK

 

With the pump I can't decide D5 PWM or DDC PWM so I can adjust to the flow I need while keeping volume down, not a whole lot of resistance and I'm thinking it'll be about 1.5m in tubing. Pump will be mounted basically in the middle of the PC if combo res/pump, outbound to the GPU, GPU goes with gravity to lowest radiator point with drain plug, other lowest rad point goes to CPU, CPU up to highest rad point, and leftover rad to return on res (if watercooled ASUS board gets thrown in then I would do from bottom rad to VRM, VRM to CPU, then CPU to rad, rad to return). If remote pump the pump would be the lowest point on the whole system, in line with the bottom connectors on the front radiator, drain plug between the rad and the res somewhere under the PSU shroud, otherwise loop config stays same. Pump to GPU, GPU to top rad, top rad to CPU, CPU to lower rad, lower rad to res, res to pump. If you need visuals to understand let me know I can do it up in sketchup at some point tomorrow, probably will be doing that anyway because quarantine boredom.

 

If there's anything I'm missing or parts swapping suggestions let me know. Again, mostly doing this for aesthetics, so I know Corsair may not be the best for the blocks, but they're good value and look nice. Thinking I may nix the RGB on the blocks so there's less cables I need to run around, plus with the number of RGB fans it may be overkill on RGB, if that's the case I'll use EK waterblocks because they're tried and true. With RGB on motherboard and RAM the RGB on the waterblocks would kind of tie the whole system together. Also to note, the current board is an ROG Crosshair VI (no wifi), the only color in the rig is my ASUS AC88 wireless card which is red, and I may paint the heatsink aluminum or matte black since I have the rattlecans to do so. That way everything is all aluminum/silver/gray and black. Currently all my RGBs are white and occasionally will change color with the holidays.

 

Case currently is a Dark Base 900 Pro (black and silver), no 5.25" bays has the extra fan bracket, so I have enough space for a 420mm rad top and front, 140mm on the rear of the case, and two 120mm fans on the bottom on top of the PSU shroud, but only one would realistically be pulling any air and it would be extremely ineffective when it comes to air intake at that. So I would do three 140mm front pulling air in through a radiator, three 140mm exhausting at the top through a radiator, and not sure if I should have the rear fan exhausting or pulling air in as fresh air. Intake could be spinning at a faster rpm than exhausting to keep positive pressure in the case since they're all software controlled. 

 

Sorry for the word vomit, kinda just typed everything out as it came to mind with the questions I have regarding custom cooling.

[For Science!]

13 minutes ago, NJMevec said:

Sorry for the word vomit, kinda just typed everything out as it came to mind with the questions I have regarding custom cooling.

Word vomit indeed, but I actually read it this time, so here are my thoughts.

 

If you have the money, sure you can do it twice over. Don't expect many things to transfer nicely though, especially if you're changing the GPU out.

 

D5 pump is better than DDC, if you have the space for it, go for D5. Consider drain port as essential for hardline builds. 

 

EK-Torque fittings are pretty good in my hands, thought I'd say that before somebody too opinionated flies in to crap on all non-bitspower fittings.

 

Since our hardware is similar here is a link to my build log for you to have some creative juices flowing. My wifi card was only in there temporarily, but yeah wish asus didn't do t hat red heatsink nonesense.

 

[NJMevec]

27 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Word vomit indeed, but I actually read it this time, so here are my thoughts.

 

If you have the money, sure you can do it twice over. Don't expect many things to transfer nicely though, especially if you're changing the GPU out.

 

D5 pump is better than DDC, if you have the space for it, go for D5. Consider drain port as essential for hardline builds. 

 

EK-Torque fittings are pretty good in my hands, thought I'd say that before somebody too opinionated flies in to crap on all non-bitspower fittings.

 

Since our hardware is similar here is a link to my build log for you to have some creative juices flowing. My wifi card was only in there temporarily, but yeah wish asus didn't do t hat red heatsink nonesense.

 

 

Yeah from what I've read fittings are fittings are fittings once you get to a certain quality threshold. I like the look of the Torque, especially since I can do black and silver like the rest of the case theme. As far new system goes, I would basically reuse the CPU block assuming it's the same bracket, reuse pump/res/rads, and bend up new tubing as required. So really only thing I'd need to rebuy would be a GPU block and some fresh tubing, so maybe $300 worth of stuff. Like your system, super clean! Makes me want to pull the trigger now even if it's not the smartest decision lmao