first time cooling loop

[desmodus]

After reading up as much as I can on various forums and guides, I've come up with my first custom loop which I'd appreciate some thoughts/advice on. Firstly, my hardware to be cooled in my HAF X case:

 

i5 4690k which will be OC'd

gigabyte gtx 780 WF3

 

and my loop components:

http://www.pccasegear.com/sc/BlW

 

EK supremacy EVO cpu block

EK full cover EK-FA GTX 780 WF3 Acetal Nickel gpu block

EK D5 Vario X-RES 140 pump/res combo

1x EK Coolstream PE 360 Triple and 1x PE 240 Dual rad

10x Alphacool 13/10 G1/4 compression fitting

Masterkleer PVC clear tubing (13/10)

EK-Ekoolant clear premix coolant

5x BitFenix Spectre Pro Black 120mm PWM fan

 

Anything that I've missed or should change? The only problem I can potentially see is the thickness of the radiators at 40mm. This is mainly due to the clearance between my motherboard and the mounting points for the 360mm rad in my case. Just eyeballing it looks about 70mm which should give me enough clearance with the fans in place. I had planned on putting the 240mm rad in the drive bay behind the main front intake case fan, which should have enough room for a thicker one - but will this be necessary? Price atm is about $750 (aus) with shipping, and although it isn't a major issue I would like to keep it reasonable.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[desmodus]

Just as a 2nd question, what are people's thoughts on the coolant? All my parts are copper, nickle-plated copper or brass (which is mostly copper) so there shouldn't be any reactions between the blocks/rads. Therefore, would plain old distilled water with a silver kill coil be sufficient?

[Spanx24]

Your parts list looks solid and compatible.  One thing you might consider is some angled fittings (45s or 90s) which can give you better looking runs of tubing.  When I'm putting together a loop, I literally just sit there and stare for about an hour to plan out the most aesthetically pleasing look (ie. "ok if I have a 45 here, and a 90 here, then I can use a straight fitting here and here, blah blah blah").  

 

The clearance between the rad and mobo may be an issue, I've had to exchange a rad for this exact reason.  A standard 120mm fan is 25-30mm thick, so you'll be cutting it really close.  Using a 40mm thick rad vs a 30mm thick rad doesn't give you near the performance gain as going from a 240mm rad to a 360mm rad, the big performance gain comes from surface area more than thickness.  So to answer your second rad question, no, the thicker rad behind the front intake isn't really necessary - but if it fits....

 

As far as coolant goes, the difference in viscosity between aftermarket coolant and distilled water is minimal, meaning the performance gain will also be minimal.  The different metals in your specific loop can cause very minimal corrosion, but over a long period of time - it's not something I would be concerned about with your chosen components.  If you want clear tube and colored coolant, go with aftermarket.  If you don't care about the color go with distilled water and a kill coil.

 

All in all it looks good!  

[Random_her0]

Just a heads up, unless you are incredibly lucky or incredibly indifferent to the aesthetics of your loop then expect to need a few other fittings as Spanx24 pointed out. Your need for these will probably become apparent as you started putting the loop together, so don't be too disgruntled if it doesn't all fit together like a charm first time.

 

Can check out some of my build logs for some info, or watch any (or all) of SingularityComputers YouTube vids. They are great for ideas, inspiration and techniques!

[desmodus]

cheers for the feedback.

 

i'm not exactly going for the prettiest of loops, just something to get my head around what is needed and figure it all out for myself. i can watch as many vids as i want, but there's nothing like doing it myself to really learn. i'll probably pick up a few angled fittings as suggested though