Advice for a Noob

AMB73 · 28 Aug 2019 at 13:11

Hey all,

I am planning on water cooling the rig in my sig with the EK P360 Performance kit and wondered if this would be sufficient enough to add the 2080ti into the loop?

Hoping the 360 rad will be enough......

Also, what order for cooling? GPU>CPU or CPU>GPU?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

MikeTimbers · 28 Aug 2019 at 13:45

I can't see how that makes economic sense. I can't see your sig so I don't know what CPU you have but a 360 will probably be OK unless you have a heavily overclocked cpu.

My concern is more with that system's cost. I'm not saying that the kit is overpriced; it's not, it's less than the individual items on OCUK but I question whether paying nearly £400 for a single pump/res, single cpu block and a 360 rad can possibly be worth spending that amount of cash.

Your cash not mine, but I'd be looking for cheaper options. I've had expensive cpu blocks and dirt cheap ones and there's little performance difference. One of my rigs has a £15 Chinese block and it works perfectly adequately. I bought a Chinese copper 240mm rad and although it's not currently in use, it passed my leak test and was clean inside first time. Barrow fittings are just as good as EK or BitsPower and cost half as much. My experience of EK tubing was that it leached plasticiser and so won't be one I personally could recommend. Fluid is fluid; I've used plain old distilled water without a problem.

As a self-confessed noob, you buying a kit is fine and all, but wouldn't you like to learn from the process? Do a bit of digging, find some options?

AMB73 · 28 Aug 2019 at 14:05

Thanks @MikeTimbers

My rig is - Delidded 7700K @ 4.5Ghz - 16GB GSkill Trident RGB @ 3200Mhz - Asus Z270E Mobo - MSI Ventus OC 2080ti - NZXT X62 AIO

Slight overclock on the CPU.

Having no experience with water at all i just thought it made more sense to buy a kit and reviews online appear to be all positive for the EK range. Have looked at individual prices and factoring in the waterblock for the GPU @ £117 and possibly a new case im looking to spend at least £500 i guess.

Just a bit cautious of spending less and having issues in future.

This is also early stage planning at the mo and i realise i have some research to undertake.

MikeTimbers · 28 Aug 2019 at 21:35

What case do you have?
Are you doing this for silence or temperatures or overclock or a combination of those?
Do you want RGB?

LePhuronn · 29 Aug 2019 at 12:02

Don't bother with a kit. The price difference between individual components and the kit isn't that much, and the kit is literally the bare bones you need to get going. I guarantee you you'll need to buy some adapters to help with tube routing and you'll probably not have enough soft tube either, especially if you make some cuts and then change your mind. There's also nothing for a drain port in the kit either, which is a strongly-recommended component of your loop, so that's an extra expense as well.

Also you're locked with the aesthetics of the kit. Using EK as an example, what if you don't want the CPU block in acrylic and copper? What if you don't want the acrylic DDC top? What if you want black fittings?

Do some reading, do some measurements of your case and plan out what you can squeeze in there. Plan a few different routes out on paper or drinking straws/pipe cleaners/lengths of string to see which is the tidiest route (order makes no difference as long as you have the reservoir feeding the pump directly) and then measure again where the fittings will go and how tight the tube bends will be so you see if you need adapters and extenders. Then make a big-ass list of everything and report back here.