Building a rig with 3 or 4 radiators and probably 2 loops?

[QuantumSingularity]

Okay guys, a client of mine said he wanted me to build a cool PC for his son's 15th birthday, money is no object. He said and i quote "Just build the system you dream of and would build for yourself with no budget limit". All the hardware is already ordered and in shipping, except for the custom loop parts. The setup in question is this

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor  (€447.99 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock X670E Taichi EATX AM5 Motherboard  (€518.89 @ Computeruniverse) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (€238.75 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€128.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Gigabyte AORUS Gen5 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 5.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€326.99 @ Alternate) 
Video Card: MSI SUPRIM X GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card  (€1929.00 @ Galaxus) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Elite ATX Full Tower Case  (€939.89 @ Caseking) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic PRIME PX-1300 1300 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€286.80 @ Galaxus) 
Total: €4817.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-29 10:05 CEST+0200

 

And you will notice an airplane hangar for case. That is because i want to fit in a 560mm radiator in the front, 420mm on the top, 420mm on the bottom and if possible 420mm radiator on the side (still waiting for response from Phantecs if the case can fit a 560mm on the front and the 420mm on the side rads at the same time). The idea is to have 1 loop with 560mm front + 420mm bottom rads cooling the GPU and 420mm top + 420mm side rads for the CPU. It's an extreme overkill i know, but bare with it. The problem is that the last custom loop system i've built was before the pandemic and it was nowhere near that complexity. I think of going with EKWB on this one. The parts i have in mind so far:

EK-Quantum Surface X560M - Black

3x EK-Quantum Surface X420M - Black

EK-Quantum Velocity² D-RGB - AM5 Nickel + Plexi

EK-Quantum Vector² Trio RTX 4090 D-RGB ABP Set - Nickel + Plexi

The question is - could a single giant loop with 3/4 radiators work and in that case would a single pump be enough to provide the correct flow? Or is it better to go with my initial plan of 2x2 loop configuration with 2 pumps and 2 reservoirs where CPU and GPU have separate cooling loops and each pump has to push only through 2 rads? As for the reservoirs you might notice they are missing - it's because i am trying to hunt down 2x Resident Evil double helix reservoirs (i wanted a PC with one of those for soooo long) but if i can't find them, i'd probably go with 2x EK-RES X3 250 D-RGB. Also what will be the best order for this setup? reservoir > rad 1 > pump > component > rad 2 > reservoir (ofc will prefill the 1st reservoir that's before the pump) or reservoir > pump > rad 1 > component > rad 2 > reservoir ??? All the fans will probably be either NoiseBlocker ELoop B14 or Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap. Ordered both of these to see which would fair better with the static pressure at completely silent setup. To make my life even more miserable, it will be hard line tubing all around, so yeah... kinda need to make this work the first time. 

Also this all has to happen by 10th of August.

[ChrisLoudon]

Hi buddy,

 

I would go dual loop but only because its cool and if you have the space, why not? You will get better flow rate as well but tbh, it doesn't make a huge difference to thermals.

 

I just built a hardline dual loop in a TT Tower 500 and am pretty please. 2 res-pump combos, 2 x 240 rads and 2 x 120 rads. Yes it does actually fit but the Dremel and glue came out to play.

 

On the note of the case, have you thought of the TT Tower 900? Its a whopper but its setup for dual loop straight off the bat and looks pretty nice. Its also really easy to do a symmetrical build so if you have a terminal case of OCD then it helps with the voices..... THE VOICES...

 

Also, don't worry about loop order as again it doesn't make much of a diff if you decide on a single loop. If you do then maybe a 2nd pump would be handy.

 

I think your client's son is gonna get a kickass system regardless of what you go for!

[QuantumSingularity]

I want something that still represents a kind of a normal PC case. The Tower 900 is basically a Megacity One tower block from Dredd. I know many people like it, but it's certainly not my cup of tea. I'm not super invested in making it completely symmetrical, because in a normal case it's not that noticeable. I just want to make it look clean and sharp, so only 90° bends and straight lines. 

As for the thermals - i am not worried at all about them, because there is more than enough thermal mass to deal with double the amount of heat output. It's flow that's a concern because i don't want the pump(s) to struggle moving the water. Longevity aside, it's actually noise i am more concerned about. The fans won't be exceeding 800RPMs at any point, keeping the system dead silent, so straining pump will be really noticeable. 

This actually leads me to another question - are DDC pumps worth taking a look? So far i haven't used a DDC pump yet, only D5 pumps, but from what i've read they are smaller and allow for higher pressure, but lower flowrate. Each of the loops will have a quite a few 90° bends, so higher pressure is a plus, but pushing through 2 massive radiators and a block also calls for a good flowrate. How do i balance that?

[thrasher_565]

d5 pumps wont get any strain plus with hard line it will be ever better. distoplats on the other had will kill thow flow a but thow. but still wont be a problem.

a d5 at 100% should be quiet but other said there's is not... and there rated for like 10+ years so... you gtg.

 

in thory 2 loops is there so you dont dump the gpu heat at the cpu... and the added rads can just help them both but meh. if it is better then one loop its vary miner form what i was told. looks cool thow. can be easer if you need to take one part out but with hard like tubes changeing anything wont be as easy as tubing.

 

ddc pumps are louder and dont last as long like 4-5 years ish. only really for small itx builds imo.

 

flow rate is not a probly ether.

Edited July 30, 2023 by thrasher_565

[ChrisLoudon]

On 7/29/2023 at 12:19 PM, QuantumSingularity said:

are DDC pumps worth taking a look? So far i haven't used a DDC pump yet, only D5 pumps, but from what i've read they are smaller and allow for higher pressure, but lower flowrate. Each of the loops will have a quite a few 90° bends, so higher pressure is a plus, but pushing through 2 massive radiators and a block also calls for a good flowrate. How do i balance that?

So, the D5 vs DDC topic will likely cause some debate. I've used both and only had 1 issue with a DDC fail within EK's side distro block for the o11 Dynamic.

 

TBH, either is a workable solution and while the DDC's are a little louder, you don't need to have them (or any pump) pegged at 100% duty cycle.

 

With regards to any concerns with flow rate, I'm confident that you aren't going to have any issues if you go for a dual loop setup. 

 

My Dual loop in the Tower 500 build hovers around 8L/s on each loop however, my triple rad Hyte Y60 build only flows at 2L/s and I don't have any thermal issues in either build.

 

I didn't see it on the shopping list but you should think about a 1 or 2 flow meters. The BarrowCH OLED's are kinda cool.

 

 

[ApolloX75]

D5 vs DDC, I've used both many times and I've been running Freezemod DDC knockoffs for several years even with no failures. They all work well, soft tube or hardline. 

 

Flow meter is an absolute must for a big loop. I use the Aquacomputer NEXT personally and love it.

[QuantumSingularity]

Thanks all. I order 2x D5 pumps and 2x Barrowch FBFT03 - one for each loop. Hope they will arrive this weekend so i can spend some time building the loop at peace and not after work during the week.