Water cooling for a beginner.

[Leo86]

Hey guys and gals. I recently completed my new build as of a couple of days ago, centered around an RTX 3080. Unfortunately I did not get the one I ordered due to low availability, but instead I was offered a Zotac Amp Holo 3080 for msrp. Performance wise I am much pleased as everything runs butter smooth at 1440p with everything maxed out, but the noise it produces at over 60% fan speed is awful! I've successfully undervolted and underclocked it to 0.850mv, at 1860mhz and 95% power draw, which will keep it at below 75 degrees Celcius while gaming. This is at max 60% fan speed.

 

Yet, I feel unsatisfied. It annoys me that they've used such cheap fans on such an expensive piece of technology. I'm trying to return it for another brand, but that might easily prove futile due to the global shortage. And my patience is gone, as I already had to wait 7.5 months for this GPU. My second option then, which I honestly dread for fear of doing something wrong, is watercooling it. I have never watercooled anything pc-related, and the little I know comes from watching LTT, gamers nexus and Jay'z two cents. If someone could point me in the right direction, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

My build is:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Leo86/saved/h4rhkL

 

For water cooling I'm looking at these parts:

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-vector-trinity-rtx-3080-3090-d-rgb-nickel-plexi

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-tbe-200-d5-pwm-d-rgb-plexi

 

For the radiator I am more unsure. Can I reuse the two silent wings 3 from the case? Should I get a 120x360mm radiator and get 3x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM 120mm fans for the front, and move the silent wings to top and bottom for intake/exhaust? What fittings do I need? What liquid should I use? And how do I fit/install all these parts in my case?

 

Of note; I've already removed the 5.25" HDD/optical bay from the case. The one HDD I have is located underneath the PSU shroud, so the entire front section of the case is completely open. If prices for 4gb SSDs fall, I'm looking to replace the HDD. One thing I'm sure of is that I will not use hard tubing. Soft tubing seems so much simpler, and I don't mind a few floppy tubes running around my system, if it makes it considerably easier to do this/do future system repairs.

 

I'm also considering going all in with water cooling, as my cpu is stable at 5.1ghz with stock voltage. I'm currently not overclocking it to that level, due to the noise level of the fans. This was also before I added the 3080 to the system, which increase heat considerably.

 

Noise is the most important factor in this build, complete silence is preferable (even the HDD clicking sounds annoy me :P). I also live in Norway, which might affect part availability.