New Watercooling Loop

[Bluepiglet]

Hi,

I am trying to build a new water cooling loop for my build and need some advice on parts and prices. I would like to cool both my CPU: Ryzen 1800x and GPU: ASUS 1080TI Strix. I am using the Phanteks enthoo evolv atx case with a crosshair VI hero motherboard and 4 sticks of ddr4 ram. My budget is around 500 dollars for the entire loop.

 

I tried parting out an EK loop but it costs over 750 dollars, which is too expensive. Any ideas on how I could make something for 500 dollars?

 

My requirements:

2 x 280 rad max (clearance for 360 rads aren't great in my case)

Blue/Black

Hardline

500 dollars (can be a little over if necessary)

 

Thanks.

[Bananasplit_00]

The fact that you are doing hardline already pushes the price up quite a bit. For cheaper radiators and fitting go on the used market. You might find CPU and gpu blocks too but seeing as you are using a high end gpu and an am4 cpu I doubt it

[Bluepiglet]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

The fact that you are doing hardline already pushes the price up quite a bit. For cheaper radiators and fitting go on the used market. You might find CPU and gpu blocks too but seeing as you are using a high end gpu and an am4 cpu I doubt it

I know EK is a very high end brand for watercooling parts. Are there any other brands that you might suggest?

 

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, Bluepiglet said:

I know EK is a very high end brand for watercooling parts. Are there any other brands that you might suggest?

 

Bitspower, watercool, xspc and EKWB are the main ones. Alphacool are also decent but they are kind of dicks to everyone it seems. Mayhems are good for tubing and fluid. Don't use EKWB soft tube, it's apparently shit. Watercool make the nicest waterblocks iirc. Bitspower make the best fittings but I like the EKWB ones I have. Xspc make some good radiators, don't know more then that about them

[Bluepiglet]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

Bitspower, watercool, xspc and EKWB are the main ones. Alphacool are also decent but they are kind of dicks to everyone it seems. Mayhems are good for tubing and fluid. Don't use EKWB soft tube, it's apparently shit. Watercool make the nicest waterblocks iirc. Bitspower make the best fittings but I like the EKWB ones I have. Xspc make some good radiators, don't know more then that about them

lol ok. Thanks. I will check those out

[tom_w141]

24 minutes ago, Bluepiglet said:

Hardline

500 dollars

Pick 1

[Bluepiglet]

1 minute ago, tom_w141 said:

Pick 1

what if I do soft tubing? How much would I save?

 

[tom_w141]

4 minutes ago, Bluepiglet said:

what if I do soft tubing? How much would I save?

 

This is great entry level stuff

 

https://www.ekfluidgaming.com/

 

WARNING: Its aluminium so you must use EK cryofuel and you must only buy EK aluminium parts if you wish to expand your loop.

 

EDIT: I would suggest the 240G + 240mm rad expansion. For ~ $400 (it will only show me euro prices as its region locked)

[Bluepiglet]

2 hours ago, tom_w141 said:

This is great entry level stuff

 

https://www.ekfluidgaming.com/

 

WARNING: Its aluminium so you must use EK cryofuel and you must only buy EK aluminium parts if you wish to expand your loop.

 

EDIT: I would suggest the 240G + 240mm rad expansion. For ~ $400 (it will only show me euro prices as its region locked)

Ok. Thank you!

[PPCs-Matt]

3 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

The fact that you are doing hardline already pushes the price up quite a bit. For cheaper radiators and fitting go on the used market. You might find CPU and gpu blocks too but seeing as you are using a high end gpu and an am4 cpu I doubt it

That is not at all accurate. The difference between the cost of soft tube compression fittings and hard tube compression fittings is extremely minimal, as well as the tubing. So going hardline does not increase the cost of the loop to any noticeable degree as long as the builder can accomplish the bends that the build requires. But in general, hard and soft tube loops are very similar in price, things only get really expensive when you go from soft tubing to hardline.

[Revan654]

32 minutes ago, PPCs-Matt said:

That is not at all accurate. The difference between the cost of soft tube compression fittings and hard tube compression fittings is extremely minimal, as well as the tubing. So going hardline does not increase the cost of the loop to any noticeable degree as long as the builder can accomplish the bends that the build requires. But in general, hard and soft tube loops are very similar in price, things only get really expensive when you go from soft tubing to hardline.

 This. If anything Hardtubing can reduce the price a bit on the fitting side.

 

3 hours ago, tom_w141 said:

This is great entry level stuff

 

https://www.ekfluidgaming.com/

 

WARNING: Its aluminium so you must use EK cryofuel and you must only buy EK aluminium parts if you wish to expand your loop.

 

EDIT: I would suggest the 240G + 240mm rad expansion. For ~ $400 (it will only show me euro prices as its region locked)

 

I would advise against any aluminum radiators when doing a custom loop. those kits are basically an AIO with little bit better cooling.

 

If you want kits I suggest looking at these: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/kits

 

There all copper parts (Which will cool better).

4 hours ago, Bluepiglet said:

I know EK is a very high end brand for watercooling parts. Are there any other brands that you might suggest?

 

 

WaterCool is my favorite when it comes to CPU & GPU blocks. They make every other block on the market look cheap. When you hold WaterCool block & then EK block you will noticed a big difference specially in quality.

 

Bitspower for Fittings (If Bitspower is to expensive, Barrow has the same look & quality but half the price).

 

Aqua-Computer is also a very good company with WaterCooling.

 

I'm currently not a fan of AlphaCool due to there shady business practices & horrible support.

 

MonSoon is also a very good company too, There a very small company but there support is top notch. There products are very high quality (Mayhem even stated once, there tubing is the best on the market).

[tom_w141]

12 minutes ago, Revan654 said:

I would advise against any aluminum radiators when doing a custom loop.

Why? If you use all aluminium its fine.

 

12 minutes ago, Revan654 said:

those kits are basically an AIO with little bit better cooling.

Actually those kits slay an AIO.

 

12 minutes ago, Revan654 said:

There all copper parts (Which will cool better).

Technically you are correct but its literally like 1 degree...

 

12 minutes ago, Revan654 said:

Bitspower for Fittings

He's on a budget why even suggest such an expensive brand?

 

EDIT:

 

Quote

 https://www.ekwb.com/shop/kits

These are more expensive and don't contain gpu blocks...

[Revan654]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

Why? If you use all aluminium its fine.

 

Actually those kits slay an AIO.

 

Technically you are correct but its literally like 1 degree...

 

He's on a budget why even suggest such an expensive brand?

 

1 Degree, Nope. Copper cools better.

[tom_w141]

18 minutes ago, Revan654 said:

 

1 Degree, Nope. Copper cools better.

Nope.

 

If you are correct you won't have an issue linking supporting evidence will you?

 

Coppers main advantage is galvanic corrosion, as in it won't happen. Though it won't happen for aluminium either if you use solely aluminium.

 

EDIT: And he's gone. Yep any evidence will show that like for like Al vs Cu is a few degrees at best.

[Bluepiglet]

I am probably going to go for 2x280 copper radiators and hard line. I found a way to fit it into my budget (after extending it a bit). However I noticed that the 45 mm radiators might interfere with my dominator platinum ram? Is there any way I can fix this short of replacing my ram with another kit? e.g. some slight modding.

[PPCs-Matt]

1 hour ago, Bluepiglet said:

I am probably going to go for 2x280 copper radiators and hard line. I found a way to fit it into my budget (after extending it a bit). However I noticed that the 45 mm radiators might interfere with my dominator platinum ram? Is there any way I can fix this short of replacing my ram with another kit? e.g. some slight modding.

Get 30mm thick radiators then  You can find all of ours here: http://www.performance-pcs.com/radiators/shopby/radiator-thickness--30mm/

I personally recommend Hardware Labs Radiators for their build quality and performance, not to mention, they are pretty clean right out of the box as well!