New to watercooling

[karbounos]

Hello,

 

I'm going to start my first custom water loop and I'm still on the search. The main reason I change to watercooling is its look and my future plan is to full mod my case.

 

So, I'm here to listen to your ideas and advices on my dilemmas.

 

My case is the NZXT Phantom 820. I'm going to cool the following parts:

 

CPU (4790k)

Mosfets (Maximus VII Hero)

RAM (16G Vengeance 1600)

chipset

 

Waterloop general plan:

pipes: Nickel painted copper (I've already had 2 meters in straight line - I can find as many as I need for free)

CPU: EKWB EVO supremacy

RAM: EKWB RAM x4

reservoir: piston cylinder liner

pump: I've not decided yet

rad: top 360

 

Problems:

I feel I don't have enough space in my case (I don't want to remove the front bay cage)

I'm not sure if steel is proper material for a reservoir

I like the silver like color of nickel but I don't want to change my pc's look to a shapeless mass of nickel, so there's a dilemma between nickel and plexi ekwb waterblocks.

I don't know what looks better: using fittings or elaborating the copper pipe?

 

About the rad:

I was thinking about alphacool nexxos monsta 360 or phobya g-charger 360 but the reviews about the second are mixed.

 

Notes:

I know ram watercooling is almost meaningless. Also, my gtx760 oc edition is enough for me atm and a new full plated waterblock for it + my used gpu worth as a new gtx970.

Bitspower offers a chipset + mosfet + cpu combo block (aiz97m7hr) but I'm not sure if this combo gives enough space for a ram waterblock.

I know a lot of my questions are based to personal preferences, so please share it according to your personal experience.

 

thank you 

[karbounos]

if it's stainless steel it might not be too bad, but if i'm honest, why are you using car parts for a res when a regular res isn't all that expensive?

 

Well, I haven't found any proper metallic reservoir in the market. Also, I like the industrial theme overall, so there's a probability to have a full 60's antique industrial mod.