Liquid-cooling compatibility

[Raytheus]

Good day, everyone 

 

I am a complete amateur, building my first-ever pc with the money I painstakingly saved and I hope to liquid-cool both my intel i9-13900KS and msi suprim x 4090 gpu. 

 

I planned to configure them using corsairs configuration tool but then learnt that they do not have a waterblock for my gpu. However, EK does. But, I worry if it will be compatible with corsairs cooling solution involving their pipes, pumps, reservoirs, radiators and fittings. I hope to have your recommendation betwen hardline and softline tubing as well (for lack of a better word). May I have your keen guidance, as far better and experienced builder that I hope to be?

 

I would like to know if EK quantum vector 2 waterblock for Msi sprim x 4090 gpu will be compatible with corsairs cooling products and solution. 

 

For your reference, I am building this in a corsair tower case. 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Raytheus

[Shimejii]

Im going to be brutally honest with you. If you are a complete Amateur, dont bother liquid cooling with custom parts on such expensive hardware. You mentioned you had to painstakingly do it, its simply not worth it at that point. 

 

4090 Air coolers are PLENTY for them, you dont need to water cool them. For the CPU, get a 360/420 AIO, and call it a day. Its going to be way more cheaper and honestly, it wont perform all that different. Dont overspend just because you can, its not worth it. Value your money more since custom cooling in most instances is fairly dumb, its just a cosmetic thing thats not needed. Plus Maintenance  on it is going to be needed, whereas you just have to blow out the dust on a Air cooled 4090 and just blow out the dust out of the rad on the AIO

[fonzz1e]

it depends on your comfort level, if your ambient temps are high (higher than 30c) then custom cooling make sense

 

most watercooling parts is brass/copper, them problem is when u introduce alu into it (if alu parts touch the coolant it'll a bad day)

 

inlet & outlet ports are mostly be g1/4, so it won't be an issue

 

top brands are optimum, watercool heatkiller, aquacomputer, hardware labs... IMO alphacool, ek & corsair is midrange

decent budget brands bykski, barrow, freezemod etc

[SquintyG33Rs]

there will be no problem mixing brand components as long as you don't get uber cheap aluminum radiators off aliexpress or the explicitely aluminum parts from ek.

but as others have said as an amateur it is absolutely not something we'd recommend doing. it looks cool yes but you don't have any experience trouble shooting a computer when it's all air-cooled parts easy to manipulate. when it's all in a a waterloop it's going to quickly turn into a nightmare for you. soft tubing is more forgiving for this as you can get the blocks off or move components without draining. but I really don't think you should ever do a hard line build as a first attempt. 

 

If you really want to do that (I mean clearly money isn't a concern) do the build fully aircooled first, run it like that for 6 months to see any problems you might run into. and then watercool the whole thing after that. 

[RevGAM]

I'm not a looper, but I watch videos, and I agree with them.

 

I can say that, while hard tubing (Jayz2Cents recommend PPMA) can be used to make it look amazing,  soft tubing is much easier to work with, especially if you need to maintain,  add or replace  components of the PC or loop.

 

Since this is your first build, you really don't want the extra stress of trying to install a loop and get it to work. It might discourage you for any future computers.

 

Do you know how to dry test a loop for leaks? Do you know how strong your pump needs to be? Can you calculate the feet/meters of tubing you need? Putting a soft-tube loop together isn't as hard, but there are definitely challenges. I've done some amateur plumbing and that was frustrating despite being even easier than a loop!

 

And stay away from any of the really cool-looking liquids - they tend to have particulates that'll settle out and gunk things up.

 

Get yourself an AIO or top air cooler. 

[Raytheus]

Thank you all for your kind and patient guidance! I sincerely appreciate your concerns and input and shall take a deeper look at my cooling considerations. I will probably go with air cooling for now but please feel free to inform/guide me as you wish. Thank you, once again.