Looking to replace my 8 year old rig with a full new watercooling build - I have some questions

[Cyrus Leander]

I am looking to replace my 8 year old rig that is built around an i7-5930K CPU and ASROCK X99 WS Motherboard with something a little more recent and whilst I am at it I will probably look to do a full custom loop, I current have my CPU under a Corsair H110i GT AIO.

I am still unsure as to whether I will be going AMD or Intel for my build, although I am heading towards a 7950X3D. I am not a heavy gamer and wont be overclocking, the rig will be used for a mixture of work and play. I stand up a fair chunk of VMs and do a significant amount of log analysis.

You will notice everything seems to be EKWB, this is due to the fact I like the idea of their EK-Matrix7 concept, but if that is just a marketing gimmick, I am happy for any good alternatives.

The first question I have is wrt the case, my shortlist is currently:

• Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL (ROG Certified) Aluminium Full-Tower
• Fractal Design Define 7 XL Full-Tower

I like a roomy case, but being able to see in through the side is not a necessity, nor is RGB, I would rather have something that is practical and functional with good cable management. What are general thoughts on these cases ? What other cases are worthy of consideration?

I am leaning towards a distro plate for the pump/res, I appreciate they are a lot more expensive, but I quite like the asthetics, so my shortlist depending on case is:

• EK Water Blocks EK-Quantum Reflection² PC-O11D XL D5 PWM D-RGB Distro Plate - Plexi
• EK Water Blocks EK-Quantum Reflection² Fractal XL D5 PWM D-RGB Distro Plate - Plexi

Again are there any others to consider or is pump/res superior ? Any major problems with distro plates? I would consider them a less flexible than a traditional pump/res, which may complicate things if they fail for whatever reason. One potential annoyance is the need to link the in/out of any unused outputs ie third radiator, but that seems minor.

As previously mentioned the potential CPU is a AMD Ryzen™ 9 7950X3D and I am looking to pair that with a Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard and either 64GB or 128GB RAM .

My CPU block shortlist is currently:

• EK-Quantum Velocity² D-RGB - AM5 Nickel + Plexi
• EK-Quantum Velocity² D-RGB - AM5 Nickel + Acetal
• EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Crosshair X670E Hero D-RGB - Plexi

Again, what others should I consider ? Is the Momentum monoblock a waste if I wont be overclocking ?

Current GPU is a ASUS TUF 6800XT , i will be looking to re-use that for the moment and will look to put it under water:

• EK-Quantum Vector TUF RX 6800/6900 D-RGB - Nickel + Plexi with backplate

Again, not sure what alternatives there are.

Next component is the radiators .... now here I really have no clue as to what to use. For the Lian Li I am considering a radiator top and bottom, for the Factal Design I am thinking front and bottom. They will be 360's but as to make .... my list has EK-QUANTUM SURFACE P360M - BLACK but I have no idea whether they are any good. I would really appreciate some guidance here. Fans are linked with radiator , I really love Noctua fans and was looking to use some NF-F12 Chromax black ones.

Finally (I think) we are on to tubing, fittings and coolant. Which is also a bit of a minefield to me.

Fittings - Due to the whole EK-Matrix7 thing, I have only looked at EKWB ones, the EK-Quantum fittings should enable me to have clean hard tube runs without too much trouble. What are the best equivalents ?
Tubing - WRT tube diameter , does it make any difference ? What should I be thinking about or is tubing tubing ?? I am looking to use hard tubing.
Coolant - Mystic Fog looks nice, but I have read some horror stories. Is it "safe" to use the funky coloured stuff ? To be honest I will probably go with Clear, I have read good think about Mayhems coolant, so was considering Mayhems XT-1 Clear.

Ok, I think that is everything I can think of for the moment. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[SirConfused]

If you're keen on aesthetics and willing to spend the cash on it then there's nothing wrong with it. Generally, a distro plate will limit your case choices to the more common options like the ones you've picked up. That's not to say they're bad cases by any stretch, I've been very happy with my O11D XL for a couple of years now. There are some newer options on the market which have different aesthetic options but you might struggle to find a distro plate if you're super keen on one.

I've read good things about the new DDC versions but having only bought one D5 pump (because it's literally been running for 12 years without failure) I'd be happy to recommend a D5 to anyone. As long as you're not going crazy with a super restrictive loop then either should serve you fine. Pump/res won't make any difference vs a distro plate.

There isn't much in it between water blocks these days, most are within a couple of degrees of each other so based on what you've said I would guess that the aesthetic matching set is probably more important if you're willing to spend the cash on EK kit. You could easily go with something else but it wouldn't fit in as nicely! The monoblock is most likely pointless even if you are going to OC as the heatsinks and quantity of phases on mobo's these days, especially something as overkill as the Hero, will more than do the job. That goes for the GPU block too, although I've heard some on this forum comment in a negative way about the quality of EK blocks in recent years. I can't summon anything to memory specifically on the latest round of AMD cards though.

In terms of rads, the question would be whether you want/have space to do push/pull. If yes, then go for a high FPI, thicc boi rad; if no then you could get away with a thick rad but probably at a lower FPI. Are you aiming for silence/ultra quiet or does a little fan noise not bother you? With a 7950X3D along with a 6800XT you're probably going to be dumping a lot of heat into the loop if you're actually putting a proper workload on that CPU. Maybe someone else can comment on that chip, I've not run a chip with that kind of power load myself.

Again on the aesthetics for fittings, you don't have to use EK but if you want it to look nice and match then make sure whoever you go with has the full array of whatever you need to do - including any drain port fittings etc that you might want to add.
Tubing diameter does have an impact on how easy it is to bend, but I've never done hardline so I'll leave that to someone else.
The really fancy coolants seem to be a no-go from most reports - they look great for a couple of months but they're only really designed for show builds, not daily driving. You can get colours and all that kind of jazz without any issue, I would just personally stay away from anything with bits floating in it! I've used various options from the mayhems range for years and never had any problems with it. The only thing I'd note is that I tried a UV build for a while and that does tend to give up the glow pretty quickly unfortunately.

 

[therealdippy]

I wanted to maximise cooling but had a height limit. After an extensive search I chose the 7XL although I had to change the feet to shave a few mm off.
The case is designed for the PSU in the base and has a shelf above so even with the perforations in the shelf airflow is limited as well as space. I only have 2 x 140 in the base for cold intake only.
The main locations for rads are front and top, although it is possible to fit one on the rear as well. Fractal state max 120 but I got a 140 to fit. With very slight modifications I have a 420 at the front and top, and a 140 on the rear. The front fans are pull through a relatively low fpi rad and supplemented by the two base fans to keep case air temp as low as possible. Then the top and rear rads have push fans to exhaust.

 

[Cyrus Leander]

Are you aiming for silence/ultra quiet or does a little fan noise not bother you?

A little fan noise does not bother me, my current rig is not exactly silent, but I dont want it sounding like a blade enclosure under load! I would prefer to keep it on the quieter side. Looking at the watercooling gallery I have seen a few builds that make use of the EK-QUANTUM SURFACE P360M , but Alphacool radiators seem to get some good press too.

 

[SirConfused]

I would say go for 2 rads for now then and see if you're happy with the noise you need to keep it quiet. Definitely get a temp sensor for the loop so you can keep an eye on it, the hero has a couple of headers for it by the look of things.
Personally I would say go for at least 1 thick rad to give yourself the option of push/pull for a lot more performance for not much more noise in case you decide you want/need it further down the road. The x360m is the ek range equivalent.

If you don't care about RBG then imo the corsair ML120 fans are great for the money and don't have any frills. I've had 6 running for a while and when the pc is idling I can barely hear anything over the pump running at about 50-60% on the desk next to me. Others will have recommendations of their own though.