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.

 

[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.