Water Cooling Help

[Wa9onBurn3r]

Hey fellas!

First time posting here, also first time i am water cooling that wasnt a Corsair H100 haha!! so i aplogize now if its all a mess of information. i have been doing research and some help would just make it awsome!

So far my system is built and running. and i have a good idea of how i want the system to look.
plalsticoating the motherboard armour , ram plastic and case completely white. Coolant will be blue.

my system:
Intel I7-6700k
Asus maximus VIII formula
G-skill Trident Z 32gb 2800mhz
Samsung 950 pro M.2
2x Samsung Evo 850 250gb Raid
gtx680 direct CU2T (will replace when 1000 series releases)
Fractal Define S Windowed

Needless to say my system is built to be overclocked. and i do plan to overclock it. i want to start getting the components of the water cooling loop for it and there are a few things i am stumped on and could use help. i will be watercooling the GPU, CPU Motherboard Block with this set up

i plan to mod the front bezel to stuff 140mm fans inside there to save more space for a full 420mm radiator(EKWB - EK-CoolStream CE 420 (Triple)) mainly to try and keep the space open and clear for the res and pump. resevoir i was thinking of putting in a BitsPower Water Tank Z-Multi 250 (Limited White POM Edition). but not totally sure if that will Fit in that case with a pump in the bottom. maybe the 170mm version would be a better choice??? i keep thinking about the Roof clearance with the reservoir and pump installed. i don't want it to hit the fans and radiator. which comes to the next part. the radiator on the top(EKWB - EK-CoolStream SE 360 (Slim Triple)). i have pretty much set that in stone because of the size and motherboard clearance with fans attached. and i believe with my system it will be Clear of the motherboard(barely)

SO with my terrible thought process being just thrown down on paper.
-the issues i am having is what pump i should choose. making sure it can pump the coolant without problem through the setup.
-i will be doing hard tubing acrylic i believe is the best choice???
-should i learn to bend acrylic or buy couplers?
-i want the coolant to show very well because i will be using the Mayhems Aurora Coolant. what is the best tubing size to use?
-and what fitting sizes should i be getting?

i will once done show pictures of all the system being done beginning to end. i wwant it to look clean and pretty haha!

cheers guys.
Ken

[kaito1410]

Welcome to the forums!
While we wait for the experts to chip in, I can answer a few of those questions:
1. I believe the general consensus is that Laing D5 pumps are the most reliable. While head pressure isn't as strong as the DDC, it should pump through your loop without a problem.
Daz also mentioned the D5 Strong is slightly more reliable than the D5 Vario, but the Vario runs quieter when set to 3rd speed or below.
2. Again, I will just reference Daz's video (they are pretty informative) Acrylic is plenty sturdy as long as you don't smash it with a hammer, and it looks better/more clear than PETG. You can also avoid any plasticizer/coolant mixing issues with acrylic tubing.
3. I'd probably get it, and it's not very expensive either.
4. Aurora is a show liquid, not suitable for 24/7 use (just letting you know). 12mm/16mm tubing is a preference thing, check out this video which I believe looks to be 12mm tubing in the fractal design S case.
5. Whichever tubing size you pick, you should get the corresponding fitting size. (But make sure you get ridged tubing fittings not the soft tubing ones)

Enjoy your water cooling adventure

[Wa9onBurn3r]

I really appreciate the reply kaito. Gives me a bit more to think about! I just did a quick search and it seems the mayhem is as you said, not good for every day use. Now, if I was looking to push this system to the limits and get the cooling down pat. What coolant would be highest recommended ? The theme I am trying to go for is a blue color that "pops" with a white case, white motherboard armour, most likely adding white to the radiator sides and black wherever else it shows. Undecided on white or blue or black sleeved cables. Fans I'm looking at are high static pressure corsair fans to be able to color those rings as well.

Jsut really need to pick a pump that will push well. I want it to be "showy" and "useful"

Water cooling noob here trying to learn and know more haha

[kaito1410]

No problem Ken, I just started custom water cooling a year ago and I'm still a noob myself
I believe the coolant doesn't affect thermal performance that much (maybe 1-2 degrees?). I would look into mayhem pastel blue or white, both which would look great.
If thermal performance is your main goal, then you should look into getting two radiators, one on the front and one on the top of the case.

I happen to have a white/blue build myself. My D5 pump is running dual 240 radiators and cpu + gpu with no problem. If you want it to look showy, maybe invest in a dressing kit.
Anyways before I sprout some wrong info I hope some of the expert builders in this forum will help you out!

[Wa9onBurn3r]

No problem Ken, I just started custom water cooling a year ago and I'm still a noob myself
I believe the coolant doesn't affect thermal performance that much (maybe 1-2 degrees?). I would look into mayhem pastel blue or white, both which would look great.
If thermal performance is your main goal, then you should look into getting two radiators, one on the front and one on the top of the case.

I happen to have a white/blue build myself. My D5 pump is running dual 240 radiators and cpu + gpu with no problem. If you want it to look showy, maybe invest in a dressing kit.
Anyways before I sprout some wrong info I hope some of the expert builders in this forum will help you out!

Yea DEFINaTELY doing dual radiator. I'm thinking the EK SE 360 top and the CE/SE 420 in the front. But I will be cutting out the front of my fractal define s front bezel to mod a grill for airflow as the fans up front can fit between the metal and front bezel. Just hope I can squeeze 140mm inside that area though. That is one worry haha

The pastel blue does actually look really nice. And I think it would contrast well against the white black. Just not sure how much coolant I should look into? Litre or two?

Would be a matter of picking the pump and the resevoir to fill. Looked at a couple 250mm resevoirs as well as some lower ones. Also even looked to see if I could put two resevoirs in. But not sure I could fit them with a radiator. Might have to buy the front rad and then measure to see if I could make it work without it looking retarded. But with that, the GTX1000 series that releases soon could be an issue. Depending on the length of the PCB and I can only get so much stuff in advance till it does release haha

[Hooded]

to the community Wa9onBurn3r

Hard tube bending advantages.
- smoother bends adds less resistance to the loop than sharp 90° fittings
- is much cheaper than buying all those fittings

Hard tube fittings advantages.
- easier to figure out tube lengths
- easier to fit in tight places

I prefer to use a mixture depending on how I wish my loop to look and work.

Type of hard tube to use, Acrylic IMHO.

Not a big fan of front rad. Drawing air into the case from the front over the rad warms the air above ambient. So your dumping a lot of the heat you just removed back into the system. Unless your pushing air out the front.
I like top rad and bottom rad or top rad and rear rad. Depends on how you want your airflow to work in the case. With a top and bottom rad, you feed air in on both the front and the rear fan area's. With top and rear you draw air in from bottom and front.

You will get the best temps by using good TIM on all your blocks, and a good air flow into case and across rads . Ice Dragon is supposed to be the best high performance coolant.

Daz's Darkside slim rads are smaller than any of EK's less expensive as well.
Any D5 or DDC will run your loop easily. However a DDC may be easier to fit in the case having a much smaller foot print than the D5. Both are a great series of pumps.