custom cpu & gpu loop, first time water cooling, need help

[tacostand69]

hey guys i was thinking of getting into water cooling my computer mainly because my current AIO cpu cooler has broken and my gpu gets up to 80c at max load after about 1 hour of use (i dont constantly push it that far but it just means i can't OC it) i was wondering if the parts i've chosen are good, if there are better ones for maybe a bit less or a bit more. how much tubing will i need (i'm going hard tubing PETG and bending it using heat)

relevant specs:
CASE: fractal design define s window
CPU: i5 4690K
GPU: gtx 1080 g1
PSU: EVGA supernova g2 750w
mobo: msi z97 gaming 3

water cooler parts i'm looking at buying:
EK FC1080 GTX G1 Plexi/Nickel Nvidia GPU Waterblock
EK Supremacy EVO CPU Waterblock Nickel
EK PWM Fan Adapter for GPU Waterblocks (50cm)
Thermaltake C1000 Opaque Coolant Red 1L Premix
EK XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM Pump/Reservoir Combo
EK HD PETG Tube 10/12mm 500mm (4 pieces)
EK HDC 12mm Rigid Tube Fitting G1/4 Red
Thermaltake Pacific Hard Tube Bending Kit for ID 10mm x OD 12mm
EK CoolStream PE 360 Triple Radiator (front mounted for my GPU)
EK CoolStream PE 240 Dual Radiator (top mounted for my cpu)
EK Vardar 120mm Fan F4-120ER 2200RPM Black (5)

are these good? will i need anything else? how many fittings should i get if im going to just attach them at the reservior/radiator etc? is this too much radiator? how much coolant do i need?

lastly i would like to keep the theme red and black for my case. any and all tips/help are welcome
thank you

 

[Blas]

I have EK for my loops (https://imgur.com/a/gtpb0), works and looks great.

Number of fittings: you need to plan carefully your loop to determine this. Normally, each block/rad/res element in the loop will require two fittings, one IN, one OUT. However, as you are using hard tubing and these come in 50 cm sticks, you should try to make a 3D schematic of your loop to determine whether 50 cm tubes are long enough for all segments. If you check the pics of my PC, you will see in the orange circuit, the topmost horizontal tube has fitting in the middle: that was because the tube that went from the orange rad to the front reservoir, after the bends, needed to be longer than 50 cm, so i had to use intermediate fittings.

Need anything else? Yes, you will need a draining circuit. Check again my pics, the lower part of the circuit (which is not visible when the door is closed) is made of flexible tubing, and there are valves at the end of the tubes: this is to make the emptying of the circuit possible for when maintenance or changes are needed in the circuit. Place your draining circuit at the bottom of the case, so that gravity helps emptying it when needed. This is very important, otherwise making any servicing can be very problematic and risky.

Radiators: i have 360 + 240, i used to have 2 GPUs in crossfire (2 x Radeon 6970) and a heavily overclocked Core i7 920 and it was already overkill. Now i have a Ryzen 1700 and an Nvidia 1070, and even under full load i barely get temps over 60C on the CPU, 50C on the GPU. So in my opinion, 360+ 240 is way too much, you can get along with a single 360 (which will reduce the cost and complexity of the loop, and make building it easier).

Coolant: One liter is probably enough, although i would buy 2 L, in case some misshap when filling, or simply to have more coolant available when you service the loop (replacing some component, for example).

Good luck with it, and let me know if you have further questions!

 

[tacostand69]

I have EK for my loops (https://imgur.com/a/gtpb0), works and looks great.

Number of fittings: you need to plan carefully your loop to determine this. Normally, each block/rad/res element in the loop will require two fittings, one IN, one OUT. However, as you are using hard tubing and these come in 50 cm sticks, you should try to make a 3D schematic of your loop to determine whether 50 cm tubes are long enough for all segments. If you check the pics of my PC, you will see in the orange circuit, the topmost horizontal tube has fitting in the middle: that was because the tube that went from the orange rad to the front reservoir, after the bends, needed to be longer than 50 cm, so i had to use intermediate fittings.

Need anything else? Yes, you will need a draining circuit. Check again my pics, the lower part of the circuit (which is not visible when the door is closed) is made of flexible tubing, and there are valves at the end of the tubes: this is to make the emptying of the circuit possible for when maintenance or changes are needed in the circuit. Place your draining circuit at the bottom of the case, so that gravity helps emptying it when needed. This is very important, otherwise making any servicing can be very problematic and risky.

Radiators: i have 360 + 240, i used to have 2 GPUs in crossfire (2 x Radeon 6970) and a heavily overclocked Core i7 920 and it was already overkill. Now i have a Ryzen 1700 and an Nvidia 1070, and even under full load i barely get temps over 60C on the CPU, 50C on the GPU. So in my opinion, 360+ 240 is way too much, you can get along with a single 360 (which will reduce the cost and complexity of the loop, and make building it easier).

Coolant: One liter is probably enough, although i would buy 2 L, in case some misshap when filling, or simply to have more coolant available when you service the loop (replacing some component, for example).

Good luck with it, and let me know if you have further questions!

thank you heaps for answering my questions and giving me tips. i will take all of this into consideration, i may buy a few extenders just to be on the safe side but it should probably be fine, what fittings will i need to connect the tubes to the extender fittings? concerning the rads i have heard that you should have 240 for everything your going to OC and my gpu gets really hot and the ambient temperature isn't even that hot at the moment ( during summer Australia gets really hot so i wanted to be able to deal with that as well as Ocing the card) if you still think it's a bit much then i think i will go with your idea of a 360 rad. lastly do you know any good videos of people actually fitting the tubes and reservoirs etc together? i haven't been able to find any and i want a general idea of how to set up tubes. thanks again

 

[Blas]

If you have never built a watercooling loop, i would recommend you use soft tubing for the first time. Hard tubing looks great, but it is also more difficult to work with.

If you use hard tubing, you have to use Compression (HDC) fittings: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/fittings/compression-hdc
If you use soft tubing, you have to use Compression (ACF) fittings: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/fittings/compression-fittings

If you need to use extenders: if you want to use an extender in the middle of a tubing section (as the example i pointed out in my rig), you need to pick an extender with two female ends (see that each extender can be M-M, M-F, or F-F: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/fittings/extenders-and-spacers), and two fittings.

Rads: even if you plan on overclocking, i think a single 360 is OK for your parts. But it's up to you, if you want to build a kick-ass loop (or even a double loop as mine) use 2 rads. A single 360, IMHO, is enough, use it as a base and build up as you want. Watercooling is also about it being flashy and nice looking, it's just as much an ego thing

As for tutorials, there are surely lots of them, like f.e. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR9jEczwCZ4 But just google "watercooling tutorial" and surf the different videos and webpages, you'll find good advice in all of them.

Enjoy! And let me know any further questions you might have.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

the parts are OK (not excellent, but OK). I'd keep only the GPU block of that list. there are better other parts for the rest.
you do need few more parts to create a drain port - ball valve, few adapters and fittings.

now to the hard question: why would you spend over 500$ on liquid cooling ? for the same money you can get new coffee lake i7 and a couple of additional fans. high GPU temperatures can probably be fixed without liquid cooling with couple extra case fans.

 

[tacostand69]

hello again
i've decided to swap over to soft tubing to lower the cost/time/effort of the build but i think i will still stay with both rads. i was wondering how many fittings i would need for all the parts (2 rads, pump/res combo, T splitter coming off pump to drain port and rad, cpu & gpu block) i do not think i will need any extenders with the soft tubing being as long as it is so we're good there. one other thing, i was going to get the ek cryofuel and the distilled for it, is there any other additives i need or does the cryofuel have everything already?
cheers

 

[JCorprew]

ek crap

HEY HEY HEY if you haven't "settled" on ek stuff yet read my best answer for this post referring to ek blocks. They are bad bad bad. the plate bends as they were not originally made for am4. They will "work" for sometime. but they will bend overtime and then not seal on the cpu to provide adequate cooling. May leak with the bending. read up on the product, and once you think you read enough ask and read more.