I'm waiting a while before biting the bullet on this but would like some reassurance from the experts.
Hi Neutral!
Since I don't think anyone has mentioned it, here's a few pointers for you:
you don't appear to have a Reservoir in your parts list,.. a Reservoir isn't 100% needed, however you'll find it a hell of a lot easier to fill and maintain your watercooling loop with one.
1. by the looks of your picture diagram, you're expecting to use a Reservoir, so make sure you buy one
- EK do a very good Res/Pump combo unit: the EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (incl. pump) is the one i'm personally using and it's very good and not too huge.
2. make sure you consider a Drainage path, and a Fill port for your system.
a lot of us use a T-shape (3 way) or Q-shape (4 way) fitting, and attach a ball valve with a stopper as a drainage path. The ball valve allows you top open and close the drain, and the stopper on the end stops all the liquid leaking out if you or something accidentally manages to open that valve when you're -not- trying to drain it
Oh, I also suggest a bendy tube with a barb fitting on the end that you can screw onto the end of your ball valve before you open it, this'll let you easily feed your liquid into a container for draining.
3. Similarly, the fill path needs to be thought out. (I forgot to do this in my phase 1 build) - again looking at your diagram, you expect to plumb your loop into the top of the reservoir ... this means that you will not be able to unscrew the top of that reservoir in order to pour liquid in (something I was luckily able to do in my phase 1 build because I changed the pipe layout after realising I forgot the fill port!).
So you will need to plan out a fill path that also goes into the top of the reservior. - this can be done a couple of ways, either you do something similar to the drainage port and use a T or Q fitting, then pipe off that fitting onto a 'fill port' situated at the top of your case somewhere above the reservior. - or you make sure you have a reservoir top that has more than 1 hole! (again, back to my previous 'forgetting' to plan a fill port on my phase 1 system.)
Bare in mind that the EK-XRES 140 Revo that I recommended only has a single port on the top of the reservoir! so you'll have to buy an additional top to replace that with in order to get a multi ported top ... I bought the EK-RES X3 - Multiport TOP, works brilliantly.
4. Another word of advise, if this is your first time using hard tubing, and it sounds like it is... buy DOUBLE the amount of tubing that you think you're gonna need, seriously if you think 4 tubes will be enough, buy 8!
And stick to 1 bend on each run of pipe! - by all means, try 2 or more... but getting all of those bends to perfectly match up to your fittings is a nightmare for the tube bending virgin. Trust me I know, just take a look at my phase 1 system (link in my sig), can you see how... bent, those pipes are? I was aiming for perfectly horizontal pipes in in the pictures you see, but judging the exact distance or where to make your pipe bends is so hard at first... they never line up, which means you then have to stop un-bending the pipes to make them fit, and it starts looking like a mess. lol *sigh*.
So for your first try, I would seriously consider making your life easier by planning out only 1 bend per pipe, - use 90 degree or 45 degree fittings to get the pipes to connect into your hardware without needing extra bends at the ends.
5. and finally another related piece of advice, always buy more fittings than you think you'll need! - the amount of times I thought to myself (if I only had another 2x 90 degree fittings I could make this fit so much easier!).
Anyway I hope this helps, it's a bit of a ramble and a long read but I wanted to give you as much helpful information to go on as I could.
Draz.
