First time watercooling ; Requesting checkup.

Ok, heres my first shot at kitting this thing with watercooling. (be gentle. :')

The top radiator is a Black Ice Xflow 420 slim.
Thin as hell, but bigger wont fit, and it has crossflow fittings.

The front radiator is an EK Coolstream CE 420.
Bog standard, should fit nicely.

The CPU block is a Heatkiller VI Pro all Nickel.
Good block I think? Tests seem to favor it.

Motherboard is an Asus ROG Maximus VIII Formula.
Name is a mouthfull, but it has cool features plus its watercooled.

Videocards are Zotac AMP GTX 1080 Arctic Storm.
x2. The preinstalled good looking waterblocks make it easy.

Pump and Res are an EK-XRES100 Revo D5 PWM with an extended 250 reservoir.

I'm also gonna sneak in an Enginia Rock Flowmeter somewhere.

Im not sure what would be the best spot for a bleed valve though, but I think it should be somewhere near the bottom?
Right now ive got it planned next to the flow meter at the start of the loop.

For tubing im still entirely in the dark; Hardtubing does look cool, but not sure if I can do it.
Fat diameter whitewall flex tubing with black anti cinch coils might look cool (it will be an RGB lighted case).

I was thinking it might be better to have the loop dump into the reservoir from the top, but im not sure if it works that way.

Fans is also still a mystery to me. Im guessing with such massive radiator surface, low RPM would suffice?
The fans are likely hidden behind radiators (push on intake, pull on exhaust) so they dont have to look all that fancy. Are the EK vardars any good?

I realize this might be considered a big loop, so can the D5 pump chug it?

What do you guys think? Tips? Thoughts?

Full specs for those interested;
CPU: Intel i7 6700k
GPU: Zotac AMP 1080 Arctic Storm (x2)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LED CMU64GX4M4C3200C16 (4x16gb)
MOBO: Asus ROG Maximus VIII Formula
PSU: Corsair RM1000x 1000 watts
Storage:
1x Samsung 950 256Gb M.2 (boot)
1x Samsung 850 EVO 2Tb (games)
4x WD Green HDD, 3TB (9Tb archive; RAID 3+par)
Case: EVGA DG-87 (I know it looks like a trinitron TV, but I like it!)

Let's start with the general build and then will move into the cooling components.

First, have you bought the components already?

For the motherboard, why are you going with such a overkill mobo for this build? Does it have a feature you cannot find elsewhere?

I would look art getting better Hdd for your raid setup other than WD greens. This is not the place to be cheaping out on parts, look at c something like a WD red or comparable drive instead.

As for the RAM what are you doing that you need 64gb of ram. If you are not utilizing it your money is just being wasted as it will bee sitting there doing nothing. We normally recommend 16 gb for a gaming rig with some choosing to go 32gb but this is the normal upper limit.

Now to the water cooling components.

You look like you will have enough rad to support your load. Another thin rad you can check out is the alphacool st30.

As for the bleed valve the location looks ok, basically you just want it too be the low point of the loop.

Hard vs soft tubing is kinda a personal preference. Soft tubing is easier to work with and a little more versatile if you change parts. Hard tubing can look a little better when done right but is a little harder to get right and does not adapt well to changes in hardware. Whichever route you go make sure you get the appropriate fittings for your tubing size and style.

I'm sure I'll think of more as we go along but that will get us started.

Lochekey said:

Let's start with the general build and then will move into the cooling components.

First, have you bought the components already?

Click to expand...

No I havent.

Lochekey said:

For the motherboard, why are you going with such a overkill mobo for this build? Does it have a feature you cannot find elsewhere?

Click to expand...

I mainly like it because it has Aura control (RGB lighting), a good looking shield cover, a waterblock (unnecessary but neat), and a great collection of fan and pump headers that can be controlled through asus' fantastic suite.

Lochekey said:

I would look art getting better Hdd for your raid setup other than WD greens. This is not the place to be cheaping out on parts, look at c something like a WD red or comparable drive instead.

Click to expand...

I already have 2 of them in my archive machine. I wanted to phase out having a second PC in my room by upgrading my archive to a RAID5 for extra redundancy and sticking it in my main rig.

Lochekey said:

As for the RAM what are you doing that you need 64gb of ram. If you are not utilizing it your money is just being wasted as it will bee sitting there doing nothing. We normally recommend 16 gb for a gaming rig with some choosing to go 32gb but this is the normal upper limit.

Click to expand...

If you are going on a dinner date with adobe, it better be all you can eat. Granted, its a bit lavish, but at this point why not. I intend to do some premiere/aftereffects work on this rig, so I figured going bananas on the RAM would be a laugh.

Lochekey said:

Now to the water cooling components.

You look like you will have enough rad to support your load. Another thin rad you can check out is the alphacool st30.

Click to expand...

The reason for the black ice rad at the top is that it is low restriction, and more importantly; it is crossflow (in one end, out the other) which makes piping it a lot easier.

Lochekey said:

As for the bleed valve the location looks ok, basically you just want it too be the low point of the loop.

Hard vs soft tubing is kinda a personal preference. Soft tubing is easier to work with and a little more versatile if you change parts. Hard tubing can look a little better when done right but is a little harder to get right and does not adapt well to changes in hardware. Whichever route you go make sure you get the appropriate fittings for your tubing size and style.

I'm sure I'll think of more as we go along but that will get us started.

Click to expand...

Hardtubing seems a lot more work, but in the end it also seems to be the most rewarding. I'm just afraid ill end up with 50 dollars worth of mangled PETG and a massive bag of useless fittings when I find out its all a bit too difficult for a first timer on a loop this size, without any hands-on help from someone experienced. In short; I want it, but it looks intimidating 'AF'.

As for your WD Green drives in Raid 5, I have had very bad luck trying to use those in Raid 5. I would constantly have drop outs because they don't have TLER.
I have been using WD Red 3 TB drives in Raid 5 with fantastic results.
I have 4 different Arrays in Raid 5 or 6 using 22 drives for 3+ years and have only had 1 drive showing wear and never had a drop out.
I don't know how a WD Red would mix with your Green drives, but it would be a great advantage for you to phase the Green out when you can.
I have replaced at lost at least 10-12 Green drives over the last 6 years.
That looks like your are going to have a very nice water cooled rig when you are done!