Spec me a full loop for an Enthoo Primo

I recently purchased an Enthoo Primo and would like to try water cooling but I'm a novice when it comes to water cooling. I want a loop for both my cpu and gpu so I am hoping the helpful people of this forum will be able to give me advice and help me choose the parts I am going to need.

The main reasons for wanting to go water cooling is to have silence and to have lower temps on my hardware, the appearance is secondary (for the time being).

I have done a little reading but deciding on the right parts is a bit confusing.

Currently I have a 2500k and a Sapphire 290X Tri-X (which is a reference design pcb).

The radiator compatibility of the case is as follows

Check Enthoo Primo owner's club thread.You'll see a lot of ready loops.
I would go for biggest rads you can fit.
120mm vs 140mm fans here is a bit of the problem cos there ain't many good 140mm sp fans.

I went with a 360 mm in the top and a 240 mm in the bottom but already I'm thinking about adding a 240 mm behind the side panel door. Before noise wasn't a problem for me but since owning this case I would like to get noise level as low as possible.my last case sounded like a typhoon. I should have gone for 480 mm top and 360 mm bottom and fans running as slow as possible.

Hooray Rofls is joining in on the watery action.

Down to business. A 360mm and 240mm will be a great starter for your build and will be pretty overkill for the 2500K and 290x. I am running my 780 and 2550K on 360mm at the moment and the GPU doesn't get north of 50C and the CPU is about 10C hotter due to not being able to 100% properly mount it yet. I was really impressed by the alphacool Nexxxxxxxxos rad that I got (I chose it as it was the cheapest).

Pumps - D5 Vario for silence. Turn that baby down to 1 or 2 and you cannot hear it. When doing leak testing I had no idea whether it was on or not. I bought an all in one pump-res-mount system (EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140) that works really well and keeps that bit all neat and simple.

Fans are the only other things that are going to make noise. I just used the Noctuas and NZXT fans that I already had and set them to 50/60% in the mobo bios.

Tubing - I chose 16/10 as it seems to be a good middle ground between size and flexibility. Primochill advanced LRT is the noctua of tubing (except for looks). I got 3m just to be sure to have enough.

Fittings - Named barbs will do just fine. They work and will almost certainly not fall off. I got some compressions cause I like the way they look. Make sure to buy extra and that they are the right size before putting everything together.

Blocks - I love the design of the EK CSQ blocks and managed to get a Nickel-Plexi GPU block and backplate super cheap so didn't really look into other blocks and all that stuff. Turned out well as it looks awesome and performs awesome too.
CPU block I got was a EK CSQ Nickel-Plexi Supreme LTX which I am hesitant to recommend. On one hand it was super cheap and looks baller - on the other it should be used with a backplate (adds to the cost) and I am having problems with temps that could be due to it lacking cooling capabilities.

Coolant - Go to halfords and get 5L of De-ionised water for £3. I chose dye for mine so didn't worry about additives as it's all in the dye but others can fill you in on what is cheap and works.

Have you had a look at the Alphacool cool answer kits? I can't link it due to competitor sites but there's one that includes a d5 pump/bayres combo, 4x nb eloop fans, their cpu block, coolant, 60mm thick 480 rad, 6 comp fittings and tubing all for £240. Them you can get some de ionised water, 2 more fittings and a gpu block and enjoy the silence!

Resa69 said:

Have you had a look at the Alphacool cool answer kits? I can't link it due to competitor sites but there's one that includes a d5 pump/bayres combo, 4x nb eloop fans, their cpu block, coolant, 60mm thick 480 rad, 6 comp fittings and tubing all for £240. Them you can get some de ionised water, 2 more fittings and a gpu block and enjoy the silence!

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll take a look.

No problem. It's a shame OCUK don't support the alphacool brand.

I've just put a loop in an Enthoo Primo, will be posting pics later this week when the UV cathodes finally get delivered. They really are a dream to work with, and you can fix thick rads (RX range from XSPC) in the bottom and top without stressing about clearance. Like you, I have a 2500K.

My loop was consisted of all XSPC kit from Overclockers so I didn't have to worry about compatibility and sizes. You can even fit a Bay res, and a DVD writer in there with the thick rad and still have space for another writer if you need one.

Michaeljcox24 said:

I've just put a loop in an Enthoo Primo, will be posting pics later this week when the UV cathodes finally get delivered. They really are a dream to work with, and you can fix thick rads (RX range from XSPC) in the bottom and top without stressing about clearance. Like you, I have a 2500K.

My loop was consisted of all XSPC kit from Overclockers so I didn't have to worry about compatibility and sizes. You can even fit a Bay res, and a DVD writer in there with the thick rad and still have space for another writer if you need one.

Click to expand...

Look forward to the pics.

Did you have a look at the kit

Alphacool radiators seem to be really good quality however I have had 2 of their rotary barbs fail on me.