EK or Thermaltake for custom loop?

[WaterlooDude]

Hello guys! 

I am looking forward to start a new custom-loop build. Since I have never done this before, I wonder what brand has the most reliable liquid cooling parts.

My personal choices lie between EK and Thermaltake after doing some research.

TK has good integration with their own products. If I go with TK, I will probably use their new RGB fans and strip.

But EK has such a good reputation... And the NZXT Aer fans look just as great. 

Regardless of the loops, the case choice is either TK the tower 900 or core p7 for me. 

Cheers!

[Lurick]

EK, all day every day  

Primochill or Alphacool are great too

[WaterlooDude]

@Lurick

I checked their products and I am impressed as always. 

The clean plexi/nickel blocks certainly implements my plan of "blue and white aesthetics" well.

Gonna try double loop with blue and white coolant. 

[Himommies]

5 minutes ago, Lurick said:

EK, all day every day

Thermaltake has some really nice parts

 

You do realize you can buy like your fittings from Thermaltake and the Res from Ek right

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, WaterlooDude said:

@Lurick

I checked their products and I am impressed as always. 

The clean plexi/nickel blocks certainly implements my plan of "blue and white aesthetics" well.

Gonna try double loop with blue and white coolant. 

I assume you're doing soft tubing, right?

Forgot to ask  

[Bananasplit_00]

Thermaltake and liquid cooling? NOPE

 

EKWB

Watercool

Primochill

XSPC

Bitspower / Barrow depending on how much money you have  

Alphacool if you can deal with them being a bit of an ashole with some things

Mayhems

 

those are the ones that come to my mind in no perticular order of quality. id trust all of them. Watercool and Alphacool make the best blocks, EK havent launched anything remotely close to inovative when it comes to blocks in years while everyone else has moved on and inovated lol. Byski could be added if you feel like trusting a chinese brand.

[Lurick]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

Thermaltake and liquid cooling? NOPE

Agree. The only thing I've touched that hasn't gone to hell from Thermaltake is the Pacific line of fittings from them.

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, Lurick said:

Agree. The only thing I've touched that hasn't gone to hell from Thermaltake is the Pacific line of fittings from them.

i wouldent trust them with fittings tbh. im using EKs AFC fittings personaly because they just look great and also i kinda found 12 for $12 LOL. they are pretty nice unless you decide that tightening them empty is a good idea and you need to get the pliers out to fix them... Bitspower / Barrow make the best fittings for sure, Barrow are just chinese ones without the logo basically, same quality but much cheaper. 

[WaterlooDude]

8 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Thermaltake has some really nice parts

 

You do realize you can buy like your fittings from Thermaltake and the Res from Ek right

That sounds like an excellent suggestion to me! Thanks!

[Lurick]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

i wouldent trust them with fittings tbh. im using EKs AFC fittings personaly because they just look great and also i kinda found 12 for $12 LOL. they are pretty nice unless you decide that tightening them empty is a good idea and you need to get the pliers out to fix them... Bitspower / Barrow make the best fittings for sure, Barrow are just chinese ones without the logo basically, same quality but much cheaper. 

Upon review of my Amazon history, I stand corrected and remember it now, I was looking at the Pacific line but ended up with some Swiftech fittings/extensions for my EK fittings  

[WaterlooDude]

6 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Thermaltake and liquid cooling? NOPE

 

EKWB

Watercool

Primochill

XSPC

Bitspower / Barrow depending on how much money you have  

Alphacool if you can deal with them being a bit of an ashole with some things

Mayhems

 

those are the ones that come to my mind in no perticular order of quality. id trust all of them. Watercool and Alphacool make the best blocks, EK havent launched anything remotely close to inovative when it comes to blocks in years while everyone else has moved on and inovated lol. Byski could be added if you feel like trusting a chinese brand.

Definitely will not go for cheaper Chinese products on liquid cooling. I heard their brands like deepcool had a lot of leaks. 

My budget sits around 1500 for the loops. 

[WaterlooDude]

10 minutes ago, Lurick said:

I assume you're doing soft tubing, right?

Forgot to ask  

Probably hard tubing, really want to give myself a challenge. 

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, WaterlooDude said:

Probably hard tubing, really want to give myself a challenge. 

Then I can say this, do NOT buy fittings and tubing from two different places if at all possible. If you get your fittings from one place, buy the tubing and bending kit from them as well.

[WaterlooDude]

Just now, Lurick said:

Then I can say this, do NOT buy fittings and tubing from two different places if at all possible. If you get your fittings from one place, buy the tubing and bending kit from them as well.

You are right, best not to risk it. 

[Lurick]

Just now, WaterlooDude said:

You are right, best not to risk it. 

Yah, that's one mistake I made when I started

The tolerances between manufacturers can be different and cause lots of issues.

You can definitely buy rads from elsewhere though, just make sure to not buy any aluminum parts.

[Limecat86]

6 minutes ago, WaterlooDude said:

Definitely will not go for cheaper Chinese products on liquid cooling. I heard their brands like deepcool had a lot of leaks. 

My budget sits around 1500 for the loops. 

1500 US dollars? Wow, that's plenty. I have been using EK products since I started with water cooling. It's pretty good stuff.

[WaterlooDude]

Just now, Lurick said:

Yah, that's one mistake I made when I started

The tolerances between manufacturers can be different and cause lots of issues.

You can definitely buy rads from elsewhere though, just make sure to not buy any aluminum parts.

Thanks a lot for reminding me not to mix the fittings and tubings!

Aluminum is like a big no for me in any liquid loops. 

[WaterlooDude]

1 minute ago, Limecat86 said:

1500 US dollars? Wow, that's plenty. I have been using EK products since I started with water cooling. It's pretty good stuf.

1500 Canadian lol... 1500 USD is way toooo much of an overkill

[Enderman]

Do not get thermalfake crap, it's bad quality and increases the chance of leaks.

You should also not be buying everything from the same manufacturer, there is no watercooling parts manufacturer which is perfect at everything.

You should also be ready to spend $600+ for quality components.

 

Bitspower fittings and tubing, EK waterblocks, mayhems fluid, D5 pump, etc.

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, WaterlooDude said:

Definitely will not go for cheaper Chinese products on liquid cooling. I heard their brands like deepcool had a lot of leaks. 

My budget sits around 1500 for the loops. 

Barrow are literally just bitspower but dont have the name just so you know. the only downside of going with them is the shipping time and loosing the bragging rights of haveing bitspower  

 

anyway i cooked up the loop in Northern Bee for under 1/6th of that budget lol. what are you cooling? i might suggest you some parts  im not especially amazing on all this, but i know some of my stuff at least so id be glad to help out  

 

13 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Thermaltake has some really nice parts

no. just no. they are all super shit. everything with that brand you should just turn away and run from. Cases might be an exeption because i havent seen those crumble yet but they just do not make quality things at all.

5 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Upon review of my Amazon history, I stand corrected and remember it now, I was looking at the Pacific line but ended up with some Swiftech fittings/extensions for my EK fittings  

seems more likely, those fittings would probably have leeked as well lol

3 minutes ago, WaterlooDude said:

Probably hard tubing, really want to give myself a challenge. 

sure, its going to be hard to get right id guess but the results are really nice. part of me wishes i had gone with it but in the end im really happy with my soft tubeing loop, the fact that i can swap out parts without draining everything is actiually pretty nice.

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Then I can say this, do NOT buy fittings and tubing from two different places. If you get your fittings from one place, buy the tubing and bending kit from them as well.

bendig kit isnt as neccesairy to be from the same place, but yah you should probably buy it all from one brand so you know its compatible to 100% and wont be a fire sprinker once you fill it  

2 minutes ago, Limecat86 said:

1500 US dollars? Wow, that's plenty. I have been using EK products since I started with water cooling. It's pretty good stuff.

literally the only thing i regret in my loop is the EK Supremacy CPU block. its just straight up not as good as what i could have gotten in any way. it dosent look especially great, it dosent perform especially great, the build is mediocer at best, it arrived with oxidisation already on the bottom and the mount is just not nice in any way. I so SOOOO wish i would have waited to get myself a Heatkiller IV Ultimate instead because its just so much nicer of a block.

[WaterlooDude]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Barrow are literally just bitspower but dont have the name just so you know. the only downside of going with them is the shipping time and loosing the bragging rights of haveing bitspower  

 

anyway i cooked up the loop in Northern Bee for under 1/6th of that budget lol. what are you cooling? i might suggest you some parts  im not especially amazing on all this, but i know some of my stuff at least so id be glad to help out  

 

no. just no. they are all super shit. everything with that brand you should just turn away and run from. Cases might be an exeption because i havent seen those crumble yet but they just do not make quality things at all.

seems more likely, those fittings would probably have leeked as well lol

sure, its going to be hard to get right id guess but the results are really nice. part of me wishes i had gone with it but in the end im really happy with my soft tubeing loop, the fact that i can swap out parts without draining everything is actiually pretty nice.

bendig kit isnt as neccesairy to be from the same place, but yah you should probably buy it all from one brand so you know its compatible to 100% and wont be a fire sprinker once you fill it  

literally the only thing i regret in my loop is the EK Supremacy CPU block. its just straight up not as good as what i could have gotten in any way. it dosent look especially great, it dosent perform especially great, the build is mediocer at best, it arrived with oxidisation already on the bottom and the mount is just not nice in any way. I so SOOOO wish i would have waited to get myself a Heatkiller IV Ultimate instead because its just so much nicer of a block.

Sounds interesting. I am cooling my CPU and 1080 ti SLI. Any suggestions?

[Enderman]

8 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Barrow are literally just bitspower but dont have the name just so you know. the only downside of going with them is the shipping time and loosing the bragging rights of haveing bitspower  

They are actually not, they have different manufacturers. They just look identical.

The down side of going with them is that they have no been used by tens of thousands of people like bitspower has, so the sample size to know how reliable they are is a lot smaller.

[Limecat86]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

literally the only thing i regret in my loop is the EK Supremacy CPU block. its just straight up not as good as what i could have gotten in any way. it dosent look especially great, it dosent perform especially great, the build is mediocer at best, it arrived with oxidisation already on the bottom and the mount is just not nice in any way. I so SOOOO wish i would have waited to get myself a Heatkiller IV Ultimate instead because its just so much nicer of a block.

Did you contact EK about the oxidisation? Was it a bare copper block or did had a plating? I had a bare copper supremacy MX first and later upgraded to a nickel plated Supremacy EVO due to the MX block gotten tiny cracks on one of the G1/4 threaded ports and started to leak.

[Bananasplit_00]

5 minutes ago, WaterlooDude said:

Sounds interesting. I am cooling my CPU and 1080 ti SLI. Any suggestions?

id go for as mentioned, Heatkiller IV blocks from Watercool for both, possiably Alphacools top of the line stuff for the 1080TIs if you can, as i mentioned, deal with them being pricks about some things. reservoid is entirely up to you, EK make nice ones from what i know. rads im not any good at, i just picked up the first ones i saw off the used market but the XSCP rad i have is from what i have been told really nice. depends on what look you will go for too with a lot of this, but id say you probably want about as much radiator as i have which is a front 360mm and a top 240mm. if you can fit it, id go for a 280mm over the 360 though

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

They are actually not, they have different manufacturers. They just look identical.

The down side of going with them is that they have no been used by tens of thousands of people like bitspower has, so the sample size to know how reliable they are is a lot smaller.

true, its not like they are made by the same factory, but from what i have seen and heard they are basically just as good. you have a good point about the sample size though

27 minutes ago, Limecat86 said:

Did you contact EK about the oxidisation? Was it a bare copper block or did had a plating? I had a bare copper supremacy MX first and later upgraded to a nickel plated Supremacy EVO due to the MX block gotten tiny cracks on one of the G1/4 threaded ports and started to leak.

Bare copper, they said seeing as it didnt impact performance they would do nothing.

[unknownmiscreant]

14 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Barrow are literally just bitspower but dont have the name just so you know. the only downside of going with them is the shipping time and loosing the bragging rights of haveing bitspower  

 

anyway i cooked up the loop in Northern Bee for under 1/6th of that budget lol. what are you cooling? i might suggest you some parts  im not especially amazing on all this, but i know some of my stuff at least so id be glad to help out  

You're experience seems somewhat different, but all the barrow stuff I have had is no-where near as nice as EK stuff. I bought most of my stuff from EK. However switched from a EK D5 res combo to a Barrow obsidian res and standard EK D5 pump top. The res is no-where near as nicely made, less material was used to make the parts, the parts had not been machined as nicely and it did not fit together quite as easily. Not to mention the mounting hardware being appalling. The screws were too long for any conceivable use I struggled to get them through the holes in the plastic clips due to them being so long, one even had metal filling in the screw head, and the holes in the brackets were slightly to small to accept the screws.

 

Not to mention that it LEAKED!!!! I drained it, and left it upside down on tissue paper overnight, but couldn't spot any leak in the morning, so I guess I hadn't tightened the top down hard enough, but it was still on pretty tight, and about the same if not tighter than what I tightened the EK res to and it never leaked.

 

The barrow rotary fitting I have does not rotate as nicely as the EK one I have. Although the barrow 3-way splitter is ok.

 

I got a bitspower plug earlier today, and that seems ok quality, and the threads seem a bit nicer than those on my barrow rotary fitting

I personally will not be buying anything more from barrow in the future, whether its cheaper or not. Whether bitspower is any good remains to be seen, I have little experience of them, and have not done any research into them, but I will likely stick with my EK ACF fittings and other EK parts for now as they are all very nicely made and machined.