That's a good handfull of change for a water loop.
Some helpful tips really quick about cooling.
Because you have a big reservoir, only means you can store a heat.
Having lots of radiator as suggested above, dissipates that heat.
BUT there is a very important factor is that waterblock design. Now given the amount of copper used, is really going to determine how much heat can be absorbed and dissipated into the water flow, rate of flow and volume make a difference, but nothing much more than how that water block is designed on the inside as well.
While in search through the years to find a waterblock that was solid copper has been difficult. The problem is pricing. If you look at a water block that costs well over 100$, you can pretty much bet, your going to have a heavy piece of copper.
Now the main goal for your liquid is to cool that copper as opposed to dissipating heat into the water. The water is to cool the block, the block cools the cpu. So what I'm saying is keeping a mass of copper at a lower overall temp, your waterblock can sustain a lower cpu temp as it's holding or retaining x amount of heat. If you add a fan to the outside of that full copper waterblock, you can dissipate even more heat from it and what's nice about that is the heat dissipation is happening better as the copper is being cooled internally and externally.
Back to reservoirs, I don't like to store too much heat. It's not necessary and usually for cosmetic over anything else to help you feel that you got your moneys worth. I think they are really nice looking, but very space consuming.
you want most of your water in the loop to be inside of rads over tubes and water blocks. This means your constantly removing heat rather than storing it and traveling with it.
Would copper tubing be superior and considered extreme performance? Yes 100%. Nylon is an insulator. it retains the heat in the water instead of dissipation while in travel. I imagine there would be some places you could thermal glue some small heat sinks and litterally be able to use less radiator surface area as the liquid is cooling along turn three where it looks like a small NB hsf has been glued on. It would be a maximum dissipation loop.
Can liquid be cooled below ambient temps? Yes, but not in your water loop as your constantly adding wattage. The cpu would never go below ambient temps unless you use chilling such as a bucket of Ice you dipped a radiator in.
Speaking of Rad fans, a lot of way to get total coverage to the rad fins, would be to space the rad fans 1/2 inch to a full inch away from the radiator. This will help cover that dead spot in the middle of the fan. You can use less space with lower CFM fans.
When purchasing a radiator or two, you want lots of fins and lots of passes, and what I mean by passes is how many times the tubes go through the fins between entrance and exit. The more fins and passes the better. This ensures maximum heat dissipation.
Rads and paint. Yea, paint looks neat. bare metal dissipates best. you decide.
How does any of this reflect the way I purchase a water cooling kit?
Hopefully it helps you to understand a little bit how water cooling works on a basic level if any at all. When I see 250 - 300$ going up into a "kit" I always want to advice to shop around and learn a little bit about what you might consider spending moneys on. It could mean as much as 10c drop in temps.
You may ask, how do I calculate what's needed for radiator surface area for the amount of heat I want to dissipate. Well it's how much and how fast. It's the timing of it all. The faster you can cool your liquid, the faster you can heat it.
Let's say you have 2 x 120.2 rads. You run only 2 fans, I bet that loop will be hot with a Big video card and OCed Cpu. You can start to add fans until they blow cool air through/off the radiators.
As this is an example, if you have 4 x 120.2 and run only 2 fans, you may find the fans aren't quite as hot. Well that is strictly from natural radiation, some may call this passive dissipation of heat or even fan-less. Imagine you put all 8 fans on, your going to have plenty of cooling to add plenty more heat. THIS is what gives you "headroom" for overclocking.
Now there is a final contract to your cooling system and that is the contact point from cpu to waterblock. So much involved, almost and equally important for attention. Thermal interface material and mounting pressure will play a big role in heat dissipation to your water loop. Lapping - De-ldding, TIM application - "should I use a dot?" "should I use a line?" are all methods you would want/need to test in order to answer that question for yourself. If one asked a ShrimpBrime about it, the answer would have been "I spread my budda thank you" meaning I lay a nice thin coat across the entire IHS plate.
A little hint to you newer guys. If you lay a line or a dot and press the Cpu down with some pressure for about 15 seconds and pick the motherboard off the table with the heatsink or waterblock, you have good contact between cpu and cooling device. If the heatsink or waterblock pulls right off, then you need more paste. If you can just about pick the board off the table, then you have a really nice contact going on and man that heat will travel across the entire surface area.
Can air get trapped in the TIM (thermal interface material) ???
Yes. That is why you have a brand new tube of paste and will test contact and see for your self what works best. You can experiment a little. Set the block or hs down on one end with a slight angle and set the cooling device down as if it where on a hinge. Straight down approach. But will tell you it Never hurts to give one or two twists to "seat" the cooling device into the paste. doing this will help drive air pockets out to the sides and out as you clamp down with the mounting.
Your Loop finally building it "got all the parts guys!"
Do yourself a big favor if your new to this. Build the water loop to specs, then pull it out of the case in one piece and test it on the work bench or bath tub or something. Better to find a leak before putting it on all your expensive hardware. If you don't have a leak GREAT!! Install and DOUBLE CHECK all the fittings any ways.
HFGL - and remember, the more copper grams the better
