Help me build my first custom loop

[iiNNeX]

Hello all,

As the title states I need help with choosing components for my first custom water cooling adventure. I have done some extensive research but still have some questions that were left unanswered on other forums, so I decided to make a thread for it all and see what the wonderful community here can come up with.

Now the aim for the build is performance while still being silent (or as close as possible without sacrificing too much cooling power).
With that in mind I have chosen the following components:

Be Quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 purchased
Intel i7 6700k processor purchased
Asus Formula VIII Z170 RGB Motherboard purchased
Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB kit (4x8GB) @ 3200mhz DDR4 memory purchased
Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSD purchased
Samsung 850 Evo 1TB SSD purchased
EVGA Supernova 1000 P2 power supply purchased
2x EVGA GTX 1080 FE purchased

The water cooling components that I have chosen so far are:

Pump/Res:
Pump: EK Water Blocks EK-D5 PWM G2 Motor (12V DC PWM Pump Motor)
Pump Top: Bitspower D5 / MCP655 Mod Kit V2 - Black Sparkle Finish
Pump Top: Bitspower D5 MOD TOP Clear "S"
Res: Bitspower Dual / Single D5 Top Upgrade Kit 250 (Clear Acrylic Cap)
Res Accessories: Bitspower Z-CAP II With G1/4" x 3 (Clear Acrylic Version), Bitspower G1/4" Black Sparkle Aqua-Pipe II
Coolant: Mayhems Pastel Blue Berry

Blocks:
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal + Nickel CSQ purchased
GPU Blocks - EK GTX 1080


Radiators/Fans:
HWLabs Nemesis GTS 420 purchased
3x NB BlackSilentPro 140mm PK-PS PWM Fans purchased

HWLabs Nemesis GTX 360 purchased
3x NB BlackSilentPro 120mm PL-PS PWM Fans purchased

Fittings/Tubing:
4x Bitspower None Chamfer Crystal Link Tube OD 16MM - Length 1000mm - Clear - BP-NCCLT16AC-L1000
20x Bitspower G1/4 Enhance Multi-Link For OD 16MM - Black Sparkle - BP-BSEML16
Other varios 90 degree fittings from Bitspower in Black Sparkle


- iiNNeX

 

[iiNNeX]

Sounds like you have done some decent research and everything you have picked out seems fine to me.

Personally I would keep things simple for a first build.

Check all your parts air-cooled outside of the case before building.

One disadvantage of hard tubing is that you can't leak test then fit your components.. So take your time and leak test carefully. Make sure you really understand how the fittings work and how tight they should be.

Have you thought about how you are going to fill and drain the loop. A propper drain port is well worth it.

Thank you for taking the time to respond mate.

I have already tested all parts using a 212 Evo for cpu cooling and all work well. I ll test the 1080 when I get it too before stripping it for the block.

And yes I agree, it's why I will try to be really careful and invest in high quality rigid compression fittings with preferably double o rings to further prevent leakage.

edit: Oops missed the part about a drain port. Yes I have thought about doing one.

Drainage system:
- Q fitting with blocked off ends
- bitspower minivalve with male to male fitting with blocked off ends
And then some soft tube laying around for the times I ll need it. I ll try to do the drainage at the lowest point in the system (probably the front rad, at the bottom right)

 

[iiNNeX]

Personally I think and reviews agree the hardware labs black ice nemesis are the best low fan rpm rads but they are annoying wide and don't fit all cases as I found out today when I have to swap one of mine for a different make grrrr.

Honestly there will perhaps be a degree difference so doesn't honestly matter so long as you have enough rads.

Oh and ditto on the drain port. My last two builds didn't have one and it's annoying and messing to drain your system.

Don't they have that odd texture to them though? I would ideally prefer a flat black look which their SR2 MP radiator offers. But it is pricier than the Nemesis GTS and GTX range.

 

[iiNNeX]

Go 420 rads over the 360. Bigger is better and like you said there are a great choice of 140 fans now. I went with vardar er fans as from the reviews I have read they are the king of low speed fans, run as low as 280 rpm.

Yeah that's what I thought as well, and wow really? I knew they go pretty low but wasn't sure what their performance to noise ratio really was at that point. I plan on running fans as fast as possible as long as they don't exceed 20db, which only NoiseBlocker seem to be able to do. At 1400rpm they are 20.5db. So at something like 600-800 they will be virtually silent.

On top of that the case has epic sound deadening from the reviews I watched.

 

[iiNNeX]

I thought they did too until my brand new ones arrived yesterday. They are smooth now. But much wider than the normal rads. My 120 rads are 133mm and the 140 are 155mm so can be a massive pain in a lot of cases.

Nothing wrong with your choice though and if going overkill on number and size of rads there will be little cooling difference.

Mines a similar system to yours and I've got a 420, a 360 (after the 420 wouldn't fit) and a 280 rad. I like the fact that for surfing with you cup and 1080 they will be enough cooling to work with the fans off. Silence is bliss

Oh right I see, do you have the GTX or the GTS? And wow that 15mm extra might be a deal breaker for a lot of people who are tight on space :/

The case arrives on Monday so I will take better measurements then and see what will actually fit. But yes in that case (no pun intended), 2x 420mm and 1x 280mm should do nicely in this system, and won't break a sweat even if i add another gpu later

 

[iiNNeX]

Check reviews on fans, don't ever go by manufacturers listed db. I'm not saying the noise lockers will be noisy but manufacturers lie ( eg sound measured from different distances etc) there is no legal standard. I have had vardar before and they shift a lot of air for minimal noise.

I always rate this website for their fan and radiator http://thermalbench.com/category/fans/

Really review here http://thermalbench.com/2015/06/29/ek-vardar-f4-120er-120mm-fan/3/

Thank you for that site, I have visited it before and totally forgot about it. I will have a look on there

The Noiseblockers were recommended by a youtube channel I follow called Singularity Computers. Dude does a lot of extremely high end builds and seems to use those fans a lot unless the client specifies otherwise, hence my preference. I've always had Noctua fans before.

 

[iiNNeX]

A mix, the 420 and 360 are gtx and the 280 is a gts.

And yeah the width is a massive pain. Like I said I've had to swap the 360 for another make as its 1mm too wide shame. I thought about taking the angle grinder to it but thought twice lol.

Like I said, noctua are great fans and prior to vardar I used them all the time. I like that vardar will spin at 200 rpm though where's the noctuna won't start to spin till 580/600. At 200 you definitely can't hear them. That was the only reason I swapped brands to be honest

I take it the only difference between the GTX and GTS is the thickness?

Just noticed in that fan review that there is nothing really to choose betwen the five fans he reviewed including the noctua except the vardars go lower rpm and shift more air at the same rpm as the noctua but more air meant more measured noise.

Go with what suits your colour scheme

Yeah it's usually the case, the 120mm fans are a bit more competitive but still won't make more than a degree of difference when choosing between premium fans at low rpm.

Before I order any rads I ll wait to measure the case, as ideally I want all 3 big rads I mentioned earlier from HWLabs, but if they don't fit then EK will have to do.

 

[iiNNeX]

Yeah GTX is thick and GTS is thin.

And yes always a good idea to measure the case before ordering. Unfortunately for me my rads came before my case lol

Have you got any idea why OCUK doesn't stock almost anything water cooling wise?

Like going onto the Rotary and Extension section, everything on the first page says "Sorry this product is not available anymore" :/

To be honest not many other sites seem to stock a good selection of Bitspower parts, and I don't just mean fittings. Might have to make an order from the US and get it shipped here at this rate.

edit: NVM my search result put me in the archive section instead... Found a few more parts but still not as many as US sites seem to stock. Hmm. Might have to convert to a different pump top, like the MOD TOP-S from Bitspower as I can't find the extreme anywhere.

 

[iiNNeX]

Well I seem to be a bit stuck already... So after watching so many videos on youtube of trusted tech youtubers who show build logs of various hardline systems I have picked a parts list. That is the same one that you can see above in my OP.

The problem is that half the stuff isn't available anywhere in the UK market.

I was able to find the pump and the bitspower pump mod kit (in black), however when I looked for the pump top it doesn't exist. The only sites I found it in are US sites, and again the youtubers I watch are from either the US or Australia.

So I thought ok well it can't be that bad I ll have a look for the other items and perhaps order this one item from the US.

Well the fittings are another problem I came across. After some consideration I decided to go all out on Bitspower only fittings of various types, but sadly the few bitspower fittings we do have on most popular UK sites are almost of no use to me. For one they are not stocked in many colours and two there are a lot missing (extension fittings, rotary fittings and so on). Even most 90 degree bitspower multi link fittings were out of stock lol

Managed to find the res but then couldn't source the aqua-pipe... and just in general headaches like that. Looking at most people's builds in the UK they seem to be primarily using EK, and especially the pump/res combos they do. As much as I like some of them, it is way too overused and I really do prefer the look of bitspower products (apart from CPU and GPU blocks, which EK does do best in).

So I think it's come down to either sourcing half my loop's parts from the US and paying the whatever import fee % is, or change out to mostly EK/Primochill stuff.

 

[iiNNeX]

I had the same problem with my build. I've gone primo chill Petg but I already have a d5 so sticking with that. Most of the main bits are Aqua computer stuff including a lovely glass reservoir which lights up and you can get adaptor a so it connects to d5 and Dec and their own pump.

But even then, to buy all the items I wanted I ended up buying from.4 sites including a German site for the more specialist Aqua computer accessories. Most uk stockists will have a few items but never the whole massive range. Shame.

Thank god I'm not the only one haha. Almost got to the point where I was considering soft tubing just because of the 4x the amount of fittings available in the UK...

Right so I had a chat with Bitspower Taiwan directly and also found a Dutch site which seems to have most of what I need. The import fees are nowhere as bad as I thought so I ll just grab the stuff I do not have here from them, and might as well source all the fittings too as they actually workout slightly cheaper after putting 20-30 fittings in the basket. Again as you said most UK sites only seem to stock a few of each type and it's quite hard to order a system's full of fittings from 1 place, let alone all WC components lol.

I told the Bitspower rep that I will wait till tomorrow before I send him the list of items for a final quote because I need to measure the case and see ideally how many fittings I'll actually need. I will try to bend the tube as much as I can to minimize cost but still, a few 90 degrees will probably be present somewhere. Especially around radiators and the pump/res.

I ll keep this thread updated with any progress.

 

[iiNNeX]

Because of the difficulties in finding stock ive ended up ordering extra fittins and for some reason I have 7m of tubing

Total spend on water bits so far is £700 :O

I best make a good job of the build.

7m ?! Then again seeing as it's my first time and sourcing stuff is bad here, I think I ll order quite a few tubes too, for practising and in future if I decide to change up the loop.

By the way does it matter which acrylic tube I buy, manufacturer wise? The bitspower fittings I am looking at are OD 16mm (http://www.bitspower.com.tw/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=155_165&products_id=3475), so any tube with OD 16mm should fit?

edit: removed the competitor link.

As they are reasonably cheap for the size you get.

Thanks!

 

[iiNNeX]

It's my first time with hard tubes and I know I will mess several up plus I will always have spare in case I change the loop or add another card.

They were so hard to find in stock, thought it best to buy more than I need rather than less.

As to fitting your compression fittings it can be a nightmare esp between two different manufacturers. The tubes have quite a lot of variation between brands and some 16mm tube may only be 15mm and hence becomes a slack fit.

Try and Google your brand of fittings with your brand of tube and if people say okay then you are good to go or you can't find people who have had issues.

Which is why I ended up with the same brand fittings and tube. Makes life easier. I've had enough hassle already.

1. Thought I bought an orange internal case 6 months ago. Turns out its red and I had already bought orange fluid so having to change that.
2. My nemesis 280 rad doesn't fit as nemesis rads are 8 mm wider than other brands and won't fit by one mm so have had to swap for a 360
3. My reservoir won't fit as it will block my gtx card by 3mm so deciding whether to swap it for a 50mm wide one or I do have the option of placing it somewhere else in the case but will make the piping up twice as hard. Still can't make my mind up on that one yet

And now I know why I only do a new water build every four years lol

Ps. Drop the link to the competitor, not allowed.

Yeah I ll see if I can get some bitspower or EK tubing as both are confirmed to work well with the bitspower fittings. Also I am going to switch to PETG, easier to bend and stronger under pressure, plus a tad cheaper too.

So the case arrived today and I have stripped it down and began taking measurements... Sadly my original plan cannot work. There is no way 2x 420mm rads can go in there at the same time:

However if I do a HWLabs Nemesis GTS 420 at the top and a GTX 360 at the front it works, just:

If both rads are the GTS variants it gives me a bit more space:

Obviously flipping the rads around so the ports are facing the back on the top rad. The front rad won't have it's fans there, they will be between the front side of the chassis and the front panel but I am doing a worst case scenario.

What do you think? You reckon the GTS 420 at top and GTX 360 at the front will fit well? It is my preferred choice but I am worried about that top right fitment...

Currently my sad case looks like this lol:

 

[iiNNeX]

Lol looks like my case, mine is in bits all ov my man shed.

Looks okay so long as you think you can get the pipes to the rads.

Ever heard of Barrow fittings? They seem to be made b the same OEM as Bitspower but do not have the logos all over them. From the threads I found online it seems like a lot of people are using these, and they are available in the UK for almost a 1/3 of the cost of what a bitspower fitting costs delivered.

My other question is, how many fittings do I need? So like the Barrow G1/4" Matte Black Compression Fitting For 16mm Rigid Tubing -45 fitting looks like the one that is just used for connecting the rigid tubes, and I need 2 of those per components correct? And then block off fittings/caps as well for the holes I am not using on the res, as well as any extra 90 degree fittings for odd turns?

Thanks

 

[iiNNeX]

Well screw it, SLI it is...

Now EK better bring the blocks out as soon as these 2 bad boys arrive or there will be murder... lol

Anyone else here share similar impatience as me?

edit:

While i'm at it, might as well import £850 worth of bitspower and Black Ice goodies

 

[iiNNeX]

This may be a stupid question, but looking at that Bitspower Enhance 90-Degree Rotary fitting, what size PETG tube does that take? On the official site it just says it's compatible with the Crystal Link Tube Series. Does it take all size tubes?

It is not a stupid question, I was stupid enough to order the wrong fitting I returned them to get the normal 90 degree within an end fitting lol

Testing different coloured fluids now while waiting for my new sleeved cables from Icemodz

 

[iiNNeX]

Tell the whole world how much you're spending, it's really impressive. Tempted to ask you to print off the receipts and send them to me.

On a scale of 1 to very mad, how mad are you? Like seriously why are you even jelly ? There are people who spent 5x the amount I have on custom builds and I have nothing but admiration for their creations.

I've wanted a custom PC like this for a long time and it has taken a long time to finally get to the point where I can afford it without getting a loan or some ****, so I'm not sure what your problem is

 

[iiNNeX]

iiNNeX - can you tell me where you're importing your Bitspower fittings from? I've been having a hell of a mad time trying to source the exact fittings i'm after ... which just happen to be the EXACT same fittings that you've gone for!

Whilst we're at it, you have the exact same case as me! - and you're also building a double rad custom hard tubing loop... same as me!

And the same cpu and motherboard! WTF.. haha!

I'll have to start my own thread to 'show off' my current efforts and get some feedback on my build, i'll be sure to let you know when it's up!

Just received my Black Ice radiator today and my Bitspower GTX 1080 waterblocks (SLI) ;D

EDIT: I made my own post see link in signature.

Well initially I wanted to get the fittings from the UK but even OCUK didn't stock the stuff I wanted, especially the res/pump combo stuff I have so I had to get it from abroad. I am not sure if I can name websites on here so I will just PM you.

Probably a 0, ie not mad at all. I have a very nice system thank you, so I'm not 'Jelly' as the 12 year old net kids like to say. I have admiration for your creation too, as it looks like a very nice build (and has interest to me as I'm going with some similar kit). Which is why I found it a shame that it came across like 'look at me I spent this much' with showing receipts etc.

Anyway, enjoy your build

I see, well I apologize if I came across that way but really I was just stupidly excited as i've never spent more than £1500 on an entire system before so wanted my little bit of bragging rights after so many years of admiring other people's 5-6k rigs lol.

Looks great! How quiet is it at idle?

Very, you can't hear anything. The most you can hear in fact even at load is the stupid coil whine these 1080s make. Everything else is dead silent. Fans run at 1000RPM currently and pump is at 60%.

 

[iiNNeX]

Well my motherboard decided to kill my 950 Pro SSD and then decided to slowly start killing it's own features one by one lol Bye Bye Asus you have been nice to me..

Decided this was time for some change. I sold my 6700k and ordered a silicone lottery 4.9ghz 6700k + delid. I have also changed the RAM to 32 GB of Gskill Trident Z @ 3400mhz and the mobo is now an MSI Z170 Xpower with a monoblock.

Due to the distance between the pci-e slots on this board, I had to ditch the SLI bridge from EK and have decided to go for just tubing in between.

Here is a progress picture:

 

[iiNNeX]

Got any finished pics mate?

Got one when leak testing:

Then installing windows

Need to take some better pics and tidy up cable management more, not sure if i ll keep the red cables tho.

 

[iiNNeX]

Love it mate! You should get black and white cables like mine, would suit it well.

So have you got 3 fans in and 3 fans out? Whats it like for dust?

What temps are you getting and if you did it again would you change anything?

Cheers

Thanks bud, and yes 3 fans in and 3 out, currently running at 60% and the pump at 100%, it's dead silent haha. The only noise i hear is the stupid coil whine on these cards. It's not as bad as some might think but I am very OCD so it hurts

Temps are good, haven't got exact figures at the moment but my temp sensor displays a max of 40C on the water temp under heavy loads/gaming/stress test. GPUs never go above 46C, CPU is random highest I Saw it was 72C on RealBench and that's when it was OCed at 4.65ghz. My room is quite hot tho, as I love sitting in shorts in the winter

I wouldn't change much, maybe if i had more money then I'd have gone for a big caselabs case and a lot more rad space and fans, to run them at even lower speeds but thats purely because i want to not because i need it.

I am actually half tempted to sell this machine as a whole, bought a supercharger kit for my E46 M3 and it's coming up to a slightly higher figure to get it all installed and mapped than I thought it would.

But we ll see. Doubt I ll find many buyers for something like this, it ain't cheap haha.