EK Water Cooling kit questions.

[Trik'Stari]

I am considering buying an EK L120 water cooling kit, and was wondering if anyone on here had one, and what their thoughts on it are as to its reliability, quality, and performance. First time water cooling build for me, right now price is the biggest factor, and the fact that I cannot use drive bay reservoirs because I have an air 540.

[Createinator]

I am considering buying an EK L120 water cooling kit, and was wondering if anyone on here had one, and what their thoughts on it are as to its reliability, quality, and performance. First time water cooling build for me, right now price is the biggest factor, and the fact that I cannot use drive bay reservoirs because I have an air 540.

Its a great way to start custom water cooling. EK kit components will fit without an issue, will serve your purpose and won't be as expensive as buying each part individually. Drive bay reservoirs are a waste of money, do not buy them.

[rjbarker]

I'm using all EK Blocks in my Rig....EK is defintiely good WC'ing gear.

[Trik'Stari]

Thanks for the input. Any thoughts on the pump that comes with the kit? I'm looking at the cheapest kit on frozencpu under EK brand. I really like the water block, and that I can put it on my current FM2 motherboard, and later on my Intel z97 beast steam box (god I cannot wait to participate in the death of console! YESSSSS)

 

Edit: Is the pump strong enough to support more rads and some gpu's? Or would it be strong enough to run a triple 120mm radiator instead of the single 120?

[rjbarker]

What pump is it?.......as far as pumps go there is only one I go with...Laing D5 vario !!!

[Trik'Stari]

It looks to be an EK brand pump red combo. Not sure if it is a d5 variant or not. I'm looking at an actual kit.

[Bagmup]

The DCP pumps are fine.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/19625/ex-wat-255/EK_L120_Complete_Single_120mm_Liquid_Cooling_Kit_EK-KIT_L120.html?tl=g57c607s1947#blank

[Trik'Stari]

Good to know. I wish I could get the cheapest xspc kit but theres a divider in the 2 bays on my case and I really dont feel like modding it. Also the xspc kit i was looking at is a triple 120 rad instead of a single 120 which is awesome because its cheaper as well (because reasons?). Once again I appreciate everyone's advice.

[D3LTA9]

Good to know. I wish I could get the cheapest xspc kit but theres a divider in the 2 bays on my case and I really dont feel like modding it. Also the xspc kit i was looking at is a triple 120 rad instead of a single 120 which is awesome because its cheaper as well (because reasons?). Once again I appreciate everyone's advice.

The DCP pumps that come in that kit are pretty weak. They will be fine for a gpu and a cpu  but that would be your limit to keep a decent flow rate so if you plan on adding say another gpu or maybe a VRM block down the line you may want to consider a d5 pump. Otherwise the DCP pump should be fine.

 

EK's products are generally a bit more expensive than XSPC. XSPC is probably a bit more budget orientated and some people have had bad experiences with their bay res/pump combo units warping/becoming noisy (personally mine was fine but the pump did get a bit noisy after a while), both companies do some great products though so will come down to what is in your budget.

 

Rad wise, it depends on the series but the XSPC RS series are cheap, thin and perform very well. You definitely would want more than a 120.1 though. Would say 120.2 (240mm) for  a cpu and 120.3 (360mm or a 240mm and 120mm) for cpu and gpu. People do use less but I personally like to know I have a bit of head room with my cooling capacity and flow rate as it eliminates possible bottlenecks in your loop, a couple less thing to check if you do not get the results you want.

 

The XSPC or EK kits are a great way to get into watercooling though so I would recommend them. Get everything you need to start and much cheaper than individual parts.  

[Trik'Stari]

Thats been my real concern with these kits, unknown issues with res's and pump's. I;m just wondering will offer the best quality and reliability (performance isnt a real issue now since I have a weak ass AMD APU that I am not overclock, nor will I ever because this mobo sucks).

 

Also, has anyone ever attempted to use a store bought acrylic bong as a home made res? Just a thought I had, would only be cool if you could make it sound like your PC was taking one constant massive rip though.

 

Edit: I guess it could be done if you put water in it, and ran a line off the top to a water coolable (built in) VRM cooler and just had a fan pulling air through it (not sure if that would be good or bad, I assume the pre built in vrm water blocks could be fine with just having air forced through them via a fan or pump since they are optional?)

[Trik'Stari]

Does anyone know if a larkooler skywater 330 is any good? and if it will fit an fm2 socket?