Advice for first time custom loop?

[Telchines]

Hello, Im doing my first custom water cooling loop due to my 3090 vram temps being around 100-110C. I used the ekwb configurator and it was around $1000 so im trying to drop the price a little bit I would prefer $800ish

I speced out the EK-Classic Kit P240 D-RGB then just adding the EK-Quantum Vector FE water block and adding a 360 rad for a total of around $750 but didnt know if this would work

 

Im looking for any advice or ideas to help before I purchase it

 

My specs are: 

Case: Corsair Air 540

CPU: AMD 5600x

MOBO: Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wifi

RAM: 16GB DDR4

GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090 FE

FANS: 

4 Corsair AF120 

2 Corsair AF140 

 

[RONOTHAN##]

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-blocks/water-blocks-cpu/ek-classic-cpu-water-block-am4-d-rgb.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-blocks/water-blocks-vga/hydro-x-series-xg7-rgb-30-series-founders-edition-gpu-water-block-3090-fe.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/radiators/alphacool-nexxxos-st25-full-copper-360mm-radiator.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/radiators/alphacool-nexxxos-st25-full-copper-240mm-radiator.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/combo-pump-reservoir/ek-quantum-kinetic-tbe-200-d5-body-d-rgb-plexi.html

 

10 x https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/fittings-connectors/bitspower-g1-4-compression-fitting-for-soft-tubing-id-3-8-od-5-8-glorious-silver-2-pcs-bpta-cfs3858-gs.html

 

5 x https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-tubing-soft-hard/pvc-soft-tubing/mayhems-ultra-clear-tubing-3-8-x-5-8-10-16mm-tubing-mct10-16-30.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/watercooling-fluids/watercooling-fluids-additives/mayhems-inhibitorplus-15ml-minh15ml.html

 

Total: ~$560

 

Some of these parts are out of stock on this site, but you should be able to get them for about the same price on some other sites. You don't need to buy everything from EK, since while they make great stuff, they are usually more expensive than other brands for the same performance. This will get you a very functional loop for a bit cheaper, and still look pretty good.

 

The one thing I might change is to swap the tubing out for EK's ZMT stuff, it's absolutely awesome and the easiest tubing I've worked with. I'd try to go with soft tubing, especially for your first loop, since it's a lot easier to maintain and if you do have to upgrade something, it's much easier than having to deal with hard line tubing.

[Telchines]

11 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-blocks/water-blocks-cpu/ek-classic-cpu-water-block-am4-d-rgb.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-blocks/water-blocks-vga/hydro-x-series-xg7-rgb-30-series-founders-edition-gpu-water-block-3090-fe.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/radiators/alphacool-nexxxos-st25-full-copper-360mm-radiator.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/radiators/alphacool-nexxxos-st25-full-copper-240mm-radiator.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/combo-pump-reservoir/ek-quantum-kinetic-tbe-200-d5-body-d-rgb-plexi.html

 

10 x https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/fittings-connectors/bitspower-g1-4-compression-fitting-for-soft-tubing-id-3-8-od-5-8-glorious-silver-2-pcs-bpta-cfs3858-gs.html

 

5 x https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-tubing-soft-hard/pvc-soft-tubing/mayhems-ultra-clear-tubing-3-8-x-5-8-10-16mm-tubing-mct10-16-30.html

 

https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/watercooling-fluids/watercooling-fluids-additives/mayhems-inhibitorplus-15ml-minh15ml.html

 

Total: ~$560

 

Some of these parts are out of stock on this site, but you should be able to get them for about the same price on some other sites. You don't need to buy everything from EK, since while they make great stuff, they are usually more expensive than other brands for the same performance. This will get you a very functional loop for a bit cheaper, and still look pretty good.

 

The one thing I might change is to swap the tubing out for EK's ZMT stuff, it's absolutely awesome and the easiest tubing I've worked with. I'd try to go with soft tubing, especially for your first loop, since it's a lot easier to maintain and if you do have to upgrade something, it's much easier than having to deal with hard line tubing.

Yeah I was looking at the corsair custom loop configurator, they had it at a decent price but firstly was hard line which I dont know if I trust myself yet, and I thought their 3090 water block did not have an active backplate therefore not fixing the problem? unless im wrong

[RONOTHAN##]

2 hours ago, Telchines said:

I thought their 3090 water block did not have an active backplate therefore not fixing the problem? unless im wrong

You can watch LTT's video on the subject, the conclusion was that as long as you aren't mining crypto, just keeping the entire PCB cooler thanks to water cooling is enough to keep the memory temps at a reasonable level. The active backplate, while it does help, isn't really necessary unless you're doing crypto mining or something else that really stresses the memory of the card. 

2 hours ago, Telchines said:

Yeah I was looking at the corsair custom loop configurator, they had it at a decent price but firstly was hard line which I dont know if I trust myself yet,

You also don't have to buy everything from the same place. In my system, my GPU block is EK, my CPU block is a Watercool Heatkiller, I have one rad that's XSPC and another that's unlabeled (got it used ~5 years ago), all of my fittings are Bitspower, and I used to have an Alphacool pump and a generic reservoir. While getting stuff from the same brand would allow you to do the configurator method, it's not really necessary, especially if you know what you're doing. Temps are great in my setup, and while I could've gotten everything from the same place, it was cheaper to get it from all different brands, and each one of them (besides the radiators, they were just really cheap) is known for making that one specific component.

[Mick Naughty]

You can fit a 280 on top if you run the 360 fans on the outside of the case. Or if youre into modding, running a 280 on the bottom and keep the front fans as fresh intake. 

 

I prefer to buy the same brand blocks for the looks, as some look really bad. Same with the finished on the rads. Not sure if corsair offers the thicker bitspower 280 rads but id get them or ek's rad. 

Id also go for bitspower barbed fittings. Work great and much easier to use and can use the money saved to match them with angled fittings. 

[Telchines]

8 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

You can watch LTT's video on the subject, the conclusion was that as long as you aren't mining crypto, just keeping the entire PCB cooler thanks to water cooling is enough to keep the memory temps at a reasonable level. The active backplate, while it does help, isn't really necessary unless you're doing crypto mining or something else that really stresses the memory of the card. 

You also don't have to buy everything from the same place. In my system, my GPU block is EK, my CPU block is a Watercool Heatkiller, I have one rad that's XSPC and another that's unlabeled (got it used ~5 years ago), all of my fittings are Bitspower, and I used to have an Alphacool pump and a generic reservoir. While getting stuff from the same brand would allow you to do the configurator method, it's not really necessary, especially if you know what you're doing. Temps are great in my setup, and while I could've gotten everything from the same place, it was cheaper to get it from all different brands, and each one of them (besides the radiators, they were just really cheap) is known for making that one specific component.

Ahhh, I was thinking I would still need it, but makes sense thank you I ordered some of it last night. I went for mostly what you said just changed up to ek tubing and res since it didn’t come with a pump

 

4 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

You can fit a 280 on top if you run the 360 fans on the outside of the case. Or if youre into modding, running a 280 on the bottom and keep the front fans as fresh intake. 

 

I prefer to buy the same brand blocks for the looks, as some look really bad. Same with the finished on the rads. Not sure if corsair offers the thicker bitspower 280 rads but id get them or ek's rad. 

Id also go for bitspower barbed fittings. Work great and much easier to use and can use the money saved to match them with angled fittings. 

Yeah I’ve thought about adding two 140mm fans on the bottom of the case with a little bit of modding to help with intake. Can you really fit a 360 and 280 if I move those fans? I was planning on a slim 360 and a thicker 240 on top

 

[fonzz1e]

2x 280mm long 30mm thick rad works too, volume wise it's pretty similar to 360 rad

set the front & back fan as intake then top as exhaust

 

i would go with epdm tubing, get a barrow leak tester too

[Telchines]

51 minutes ago, fonzz1e said:

2x 280mm long 30mm thick rad works too, volume wise it's pretty similar to 360 rad

set the front & back fan as intake then top as exhaust

 

i would go with epdm tubing, get a barrow leak tester too

That’s fair, I’ll look into that and see where everything would position. What should I use the bottoms fans as then, because I took out the hard drive cages there and plan on adding fan slots there

[Mick Naughty]

4 hours ago, Telchines said:

Yeah I’ve thought about adding two 140mm fans on the bottom of the case with a little bit of modding to help with intake. Can you really fit a 360 and 280 if I move those fans? I was planning on a slim 360 and a thicker 240 on top

 

Already did a 360 and 280 fit just fine. Which I'd only do if I didn't have a choice. 

[Telchines]

49 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Already did a 360 and 280 fit just fine. Which I'd only do if I didn't have a choice. 

Nice I’ll get to ordering those then if it works, is milling out the bottom of the case for 2 120/140mm fans even worth it then? In your opinion 

[Mick Naughty]

3 hours ago, Telchines said:

Nice I’ll get to ordering those then if it works, is milling out the bottom of the case for 2 120/140mm fans even worth it then? In your opinion 

I definitely would still do it. Im not a fan of  having hot air intake on my setups. Especially with multiple rads. Would also help keep it positive if you're still gonna use a rear fan.

[Section31]

Buy some of the stuff used. For example i am finishing up friends waterloop upgrades up and have some excess to get sell including 

 

1. Corsair Xr5 360mm (Never Used) - 60Cad

2. Watercool CPU IV Pro (Just confirmed to be LGA1700 Compatible with Adapter) - 50Cad

3. Aquacomputer D5 Next -75Cad

4. Whole Bunch of Brand New(Huge Excess) Fittings- 8 to 12 Barrows 3/8 x 5/8, 6 BP Rotary 90 and 4 Barrowsch new style 90 Rotary (EKWB Torque design), Multiple Extenders (BP White, Formulamod, Touchaqua - 8mm to 40mm), 20mm Female-Female and 2 x Bykski QDC (100cad)

 

For new:

 

Fans i would go cheap so Arctic Cooling P12/P14 (60Cad for pack of 5) or something like A12x25/Phantek T30-120 (best rad fan). Many of us watercoolers are waiting for 140mm versions of A12x25 or Phantek T30-120.

 

Get an aquacomputer quadro (40usd at modmymods).  Not expensive and best fan/argb even controller and software out there. They also make the best digital flow/temp sensors in the next high flow and high flow next 2.

 

Reservoir - look at aquacomputer ultitube - the tube 150 is only 80usd at modmymods. I use both ultitube and watercool tube but like many like me will likely jump to optimus glass reservoir (rads too) in the future.

 

Rads - There are going to people upgrading to one of ekwb new radiator and watercool new internal rads. You can pick up the previous rads used by them. Generally they are using hwl gts/gtx rads or oem rads (corsair, bp) and those are best slim rads (challenges up to 45mm rads) and the 54mm thick rads challenge 60mm rads like ekwb xe rads. 

 

Fittings. I would avoid bp. Overpriced imo. Stay cheap and go darkside/barrows/barrowsch/bykski. Use savings elsewhere. The high end of fittings (only if you have budget) is phantek/optimus.

 

I was bp owner and they have been headaches for me. Ranges from easily chipping paint, stuck fittings and lids to leaking rotary 90. I literally lost two optimus fittings to bp 90 rotary. 

 

CPU for new look at blemish sales at watercool/optimus/aquacomputer/techn. Basically 20-30% off there blocks and you don’t notice it. Watercool blocks as low as 50euro and Optimus as low as 80-90usd. These are the top performing cpu blocks but also are top brands quality wise.

 

GPU blocks - not much options with founders but for future look at one of techn/watercool/aquacomputer and at top end optimus. Techn/watercool about same price as ekwb and perform fairly close to optimus though supported cards list is small. They all perform better than ekwb and much better quality. In the case of optimus, it’s regular xl backplate rivals ekwb active and its active backplate (3090 kingpin is suppose to be 20degrees lower temps than ekwb). Optimus does cost a lot so blemish blocks (with bf deals) are better options. 270usd less 20-30% makes them the top blocks to get. 

 

Solution: Mayhem X1/XT-1/Hades/XTR 4nm. Go distilled water and add some in. Around 16usd for 250ml concentrate 

 

Tubing: EPDM/Tygon for Black. Mayhem Ultra /Tygon for Clear. 

[fonzz1e]

coolant u can also use a mix of 20 to 30% mono ethylene glycol with distilled water (that's Mayhems XT1 according to their ingredients list) 

 

 

[For Science!]

17 minutes ago, fonzz1e said:

coolant u can also use a mix of 20 to 30% mono ethylene glycol with distilled water (that's Mayhems XT1 according to their ingredients list) 

 

 

That's not the only thing in Mayhems, they have very very poor documentation with regards to their coolants. You might as well use car engine coolant and that just ethylene glycol.

[Telchines]

On 9/15/2021 at 1:20 AM, Section31 said:

Buy some of the stuff used. For example i am finishing up friends waterloop upgrades up and have some excess to get sell including 

 

Unfortunately I already bought most of it, it’s a cluster of random things sooo if I forgot something I may be interested. Thanks for the advice

[Yoshimitsu]

On 9/13/2021 at 12:50 AM, Telchines said:

Hello, Im doing my first custom water cooling loop due to my 3090 vram temps being around 100-110C. I used the ekwb configurator and it was around $1000 so im trying to drop the price a little bit I would prefer $800ish

I speced out the EK-Classic Kit P240 D-RGB then just adding the EK-Quantum Vector FE water block and adding a 360 rad for a total of around $750 but didnt know if this would work

 

Im looking for any advice or ideas to help before I purchase it

 

My specs are: 

Case: Corsair Air 540

CPU: AMD 5600x

MOBO: Gigabyte B450 Aorus Pro Wifi

RAM: 16GB DDR4

GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090 FE

FANS: 

4 Corsair AF120 

2 Corsair AF140 

 

Buy from China. Bykski, Barrow and Barrowch are far better brands than most American and European brands and much cheaper. For Radiators Hardware Labs make some of the best.

[Ravendarat]

Every fitting I have ever used its Bykski and I have never found any reason to buy any others. They look good and are well built. The new style ones also use a silicone collar as opposed to o-rings, so much nicer to use imo.

[Section31]

On 9/18/2021 at 11:21 AM, Yoshimitsu said:

Buy from China. Bykski, Barrow and Barrowch are far better brands than most American and European brands and much cheaper. For Radiators Hardware Labs make some of the best.

actually read techpowerup review on watercool new rads. Challenger to hwl