Planning first custom loop. What brand(s) do you guys and gals use/recommend?

[FoxKitsune]

So I am planning to build my third rig later on this year around Black Friday time as I am sure by that time Ryzen will have had the time to mature as well as Vega. Now with my first rig being air cooled and my second (current) rig having an AIO water cooler for the CPU and would like my third rig to have a custom loop cooling both the CPU and the GPU, especially since I will be planning to build in a small form factor case where it flow is limited to mostly positive airflow (intake fan/s only). Now I know of a couple brands from watching various Tech Tubers over the past couple years and was wondering what brands to be looking into and what brands to be wary of. The couple brands that I've heard most commonly of are Thermaltake and EKWB. I've also come across a company called XSPC which claims on their website to be the leader in high-performance components though have never heard their name pop up once in the past couple years that I have been following the various Tech Tubers that I watch such as LinusTechTips, Bit Wit, Salazar Studios, or JaysTwoCents. Though I admit that just because I've never heard of them or talk of them that that doesn't mean they aren't a good brand.

Now along with wondering what brand(s) you all use and/or recommend I was wondering what size tubing I should be looking into as since I will be working in such a small form a factor and will likely be restricted to either a single 140mm or 120mm rad I was wondering if the size of the tubing mattered. Although I imagine that if I go with a larger tubing size that I may be required to go with a thicker rad or does that not matter? I know that the thicker the rad the more heat dissipation and that the more fins there are per inch also helps as well.

Finally before ending off here I figured I'd mention that one of the cases that has caught my attention is the Fractal Design Node 304 as it has a rear 140mm fan and two 92mm fans in the front. Now I imagine that there are 184mm Radiators out there in the wild that I can purchase and with some case modding could fit both a 140mm rad in back and a 184mm rad in front. However would a single 140mm rad work for both a CPU and a single GPU? Or would there be too much heat? Luckily I don't plan on having a HDD in the system so it shouldn't be too hard to get creative with alternative mounting solutions for 2 SSDs in order to fit both rads in the case if need be.

 

[Mattz982]

So the general rule is 120mm per component. This is in no way an exact amount, I have a 360mm and 280mm rad for my CPU and GPU, meaning I get good temps and its nice and quiet. I dont think EK make any 184mm rads, and I wouldn't trust an off brand radiator. I would personally look to a larger case (still small tho). The Fractal Design Define S Mini is a good case, Jay did a build in it.
My personal favourite brands are EKWB and XSPC (EK blocks and XSPC rads), although the XSPC rads where more for confining to a budget. I would go with all EK rads and blocks, and then bitspower fittings, mayhems or thermaltake fluid, and probably Primochill tubing, go with PETG tubing. But thats my personal opinion
TL;DR
Tubing size doesnt really matter, and nor does loop order, but I think you need more radiator space because 140mm just isnt gonna cut it

 

[FoxKitsune]

So I did some better searching and I've found a company called Hardware Labs and they have a line up dubbed Black Ice Nemesis Micro GTX which are 92mm and 184mm rads; as well as Nemesis M80 GTX and M160 GTX which are 80mm and 160mm respectively.

Here's a link: http://hardwarelabs.com/nemesis/micro/m184gtx/

Would you consider this Off-Brand? And if the general rule of thumb is lets say 120mm-140mm per component then theoretically a 140mm in rear and 184mm in front in the Node 304 would be sufficient correct? I will say I do like the Define S Mini and it is most certainly number 1 on my list of cases I would choose if I chose not to gamble with a smaller case such as the Node 304 as it is very friendly with water cooling.

 

[Mattz982]

They aren't 'Off-Brand' as such. They aren't as mainstream as other brands, but I know JayzTwoCents used to use the nemesis radiators in his PC, i think. And there would be enough cooling then with the two radiators. The only problem i see is that the 184mm radiator is 54mm thick, and when you add 25mm for a fan as well, I don't think there will be enough clearance. On the website it doesn't say there is any water cooling support, so it might be a mod that you have to do to force a 240mm radiator in the front with some slim 12mm fans. Personally, I don't think its worth it, i'll list the reasons...

Reasons it's not worth it:
1) Part of watercooling is to get a pc quieter. The slimline fans are not very quiet, and with such little radiator space normal fans would have to work more
2) Radiators still rely on air flow, and it is restricted in this case, meaning more noise and higher temps.
3) You can't see the loop, so any aesthetic value is lost
4) The price to performance just won't be good, it'll be like the terrible MPG on a V8 Mustang

Reasons it's worth it:
1) It'll be a fun project
2) You get to try your hand at something new
3) You can give modding a go
4) You will see better temps, even if only a slight decrease

 

[GruntBlender]

Hey, I made a little tool to help calculate temperatures and heat dissipation. Might help. https://github.com/novikovech/liquid-cooling-calc
With radiators the bottleneck would likely be airflow.

Oh wow, nevermind, I hadn't taken waterblock performance into account. I'm still working on that tool.