Need help with my first Water Cooled Custrom Loop

[Auroraa]

Hello, and thanks for taking a few moments to possibly help myself for years to come.

I built my beast of a PC back in August and am already looking to upgrade to my first custom water loop to help my temperatures with overclocking.

My specs:

CPU: i7-7800X at 4.6 ghz
GPU: Asus Strix GTX 1080Ti OC 11Gb
MB: Asus Prime x299-A
RAM: 16GB 3200mhz DDR4 GSkill TridentZ RGB

I'm upgrading my case to the Thermaltake View 71RGB soon, I just need to buy it.

Now, onto my Question which I'm sure a lot of people who are trying to do their first loop has. Metals. I'm confused on the mixing of metals because I see so many kits mixing metals and they have high reviews but I watch many videos by Jayztwocents and he hammers it hard about Galvanic Corrosion.

I'm wanting to get The EK Block RGB waterblock but It was a nickel plated Copper, doesn't that immediately contradict the mixing of metals? or am I over thinking this?

They also don't make Nickle Radiators so wouldn't that immediately contradict the mixing of metals?

I'm sure that I'm overthinking this a little too much due to the fact this is my first water loop and am looking to make it really nice with rigid tubing and go all out on my first one. but if anyone with some experience give a little help and clear my head a bit I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[maxfly]

nickel and copper will only have a minor reaction together. as long as you do regular maintenance and use an corrosion inhibitor like petras w/distilled water or one of the pre made solutions youll be fine. pretty much all blocks are now made with a nickel plating altho you may be able to find a few copper blocks.
what you want to absolutely avoid is mixing aluminum and copper. you will generally see corrosion within a few weeks. no matter what you use as an inhibitor.
some advice as you start to buy your gear. do a DETAILED mock up of your loop. then triple check your fittings before you hit BUY. inevitably you will need something you didnt anticipate lol. do as much price comparing as you can stand and include shipping as part. the most important advice is take your time and make sure your fittings are on nice and tight before you start your leak test. and of course come back and hit us up if you need any help.
thats a sweet rig, i really like the case. enjoy the build!

 

[Auroraa]

nickel and copper will only have a minor reaction together. as long as you do regular maintenance and use an corrosion inhibitor like petras w/distilled water or one of the pre made solutions youll be fine. pretty much all blocks are now made with a nickel plating altho you may be able to find a few copper blocks.
what you want to absolutely avoid is mixing aluminum and copper. you will generally see corrosion within a few weeks. no matter what you use as an inhibitor.
some advice as you start to buy your gear. do a DETAILED mock up of your loop. then triple check your fittings before you hit BUY. inevitably you will need something you didnt anticipate lol. do as much price comparing as you can stand and include shipping as part. the most important advice is take your time and make sure your fittings are on nice and tight before you start your leak test. and of course come back and hit us up if you need any help.
thats a sweet rig, i really like the case. enjoy the build!

Thanks man I appreciate it, I've been looking for the past 2 weeks I've watched like 40 hours worth of youtube. doing research and learning as much as I can, so if I mix nickel and copper since that seems like what I may have to do, I should definitely go with copper rads and not aluminum or does radiators not matter for mixing metals? ive never really seen much information from the stuff I have watched and read, about the metals that the radiators consists of.

 

[MaddMutt]

Thanks man I appreciate it, I've been looking for the past 2 weeks I've watched like 40 hours worth of youtube. doing research and learning as much as I can, so if I mix nickel and copper since that seems like what I may have to do, I should definitely go with copper rads and not aluminum or does radiators not matter for mixing metals? ive never really seen much information from the stuff I have watched and read, about the metals that the radiators consists of.

The Radiators are made of copper tubing that the coolant comes into contact with. The rest of the Rad is made from aluminum to help dissipate the heat Many of the Major Manufacturers will use copper and then put use a small amount of Nickle(Like .005" - .010") to keep the copper from tarnishing.
What Maxfly is talking about is the metals that come into contact with the coolant. Having a copper CPU cooler and a aluminum GPU cooler is BAD. Also stay away from coolants that contain dyes. From my OWN experience, the dye will separate from the coolant and clog up the system.

Keep asking if you are not sure of something. I hope this helps

 

[Auroraa]

The Radiators are made of copper tubing that the coolant comes into contact with. The rest of the Rad is made from aluminum to help dissipate the heat Many of the Major Manufacturers will use copper and then put use a small amount of Nickle(Like .005" - .010") to keep the copper from tarnishing.
What Maxfly is talking about is the metals that come into contact with the coolant. Having a copper CPU cooler and a aluminum GPU cooler is BAD. Also stay away from coolants that contain dyes. From my OWN experience, the dye will separate from the coolant and clog up the system.

Keep asking if you are not sure of something. I hope this helps

So when im looking at which radiators to get I need to make sure its coming into contact with the copper and not the aluminum? sounds a little confusing. what major companies would you recommend to be good for radiators? I've looked at Thermaltake and Alphacool and they seem good go to's but always need a good outside look from my novice assumption.

Like I said before I really know nothing, other than what ive read and watched so im kinda going into this with ears wide open to outside help and ideas and tips. its going to be a struggle enough for my first attempt with rigid tubing and im sure your first time was crazy enough picking out which fittings and what radiators, pump, and res and waterblocks. that's where im stuck at currently. but hopefully this next week and a half ill have a good idea and be a bit more confident. do you think that with this liquid cooling I could push past the 4.6 ghz on my 7800X?

 

[maxfly]

yep definitely want copper/brass rads. most rads are copper cored now a days but some are brass which is fine. the difference in cooling between the two are usually non existant. avoid aluminum of any kind in your loop if your going with nickel blocks and copper/brass rads. once you have figured out what kind of rads your going to run do as much research as you can on the specific size you want- 360x120x60mm, 420x140x45mm etc then you will want to pick out your rad fans according to the rad size you go with. usually your case will dictate what kind of rads you can go with so be sure to double check what thickness will work and where. most mannies just say 360 or 420 they dont list the thickness you can use. once you know for sure what rads you want to run you can start to look at solid fans for the size etc youll be running.

Madd beat me to it! responding to two posts at once is a fail!

solid rad manufacturers are alphacool, EK, hardware labs are a few to look at. tbh those are the only ones i consider. they all make several different sizes and thicknesses to choose from.

 

[Auroraa]

My current idea is I would like to cool both my 1080Ti and my 7800X so id like to have two rads, one mounted on the top and one on the front. I would like to have a 420 on the top and a 360 up front or vice versa. not sure if that would be overkill but with the View 71 RGB it comes with 3 140mm fans, so id like to utilize them on a rad. I just need to find two copper Rads now that I like and fine copper fittings, then I should be good to go I think.

Nickle plated Copper fittings is the same concept as the waterblock in terms of mixing metals? its just a coat? so its basically going to have the better cooling performance that copper has (or so I have read)

 

[MaddMutt]

My current idea is I would like to cool both my 1080Ti and my 7800X so id like to have two rads, one mounted on the top and one on the front. I would like to have a 420 on the top and a 360 up front or vice versa. not sure if that would be overkill but with the View 71 RGB it comes with 3 140mm fans, so id like to utilize them on a rad. I just need to find two copper Rads now that I like and fine copper fittings, then I should be good to go I think.

Nickle plated Copper fittings is the same concept as the waterblock in terms of mixing metals? its just a coat? so its basically going to have the better cooling performance that copper has (or so I have read)

As Maxfly said on manufactures - Some of these ALSO make everything (CPU Block, GPU Block, Rad, Pump, Fittings, and Res) Alphacool, EK, Hardware Labs, Watercool, and Koolance just to name a few.
He is a link for water cooling complete kits http://www.performance-pcs.com/complete-kits. If you have question regarding one of these kits, just e-mail them your question

 

[maxfly]

with fittings youll find that they are all made of brass with either a painted surface or a chromed surface. very few if any are nickel plated. as far as mixing metals your gtg as brass is just as safe as copper in a loop. being that they are coated with something there really isnt anything to worry about. just take care when connecting your fittings to avoid getting contaminants inside the fittings, tubing ends or res. you will notice posts about crud growing in someones loop. its almost always caused by something organic getting in the loop and causing discoloration(usually green).
your fittings are probably not going to gain or lose you anything temps wise. fittings are generally chosen for their looks and reliability. youll find that ek, alphacool, bitspower and xspc generally receive good reviews. there are many many more to choose from those are just some of the better ones.
i forgot to mentio that the way rad measurements are shown are Length-360mm x width-120mm- height(how thick it is)- this can vary greatly, from 20mm to as much as almost 100mm. the norm is 25 to 60mm.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

A few companies to look at for custom cooling gear are EK, XSPC, Swiftech, Alphacool, Aquacomputer, BlackIce, etc. The retails to order from are Modmymods and PerformancePCS.

Majority of these reputed custom H20 companies use compatible metals. Only EK has released a affordable kit that is an all aluminum only kit while still selling the standard copper and nickel. You don't want to mix their EKFluidGaming kits or its components with everyone else.

Hard tubing? It will be more difficult to do then soft tubing but that is up to you. Surely it will cost more if you went soft and then hard down the road.

Stick with premixed liquids imho from reputed companies. Keeps you within their warranties and less worrying.

Are you on a budget or are you pretty much open to anything that fits the build and or theme? Try and build a theme if you haven't. Based on something or someone or w/e you like. Have fun with it and be less stressed. You kinda remind me of myself back in 2009-2010 when I first started my custom liquid cooling endeavors and haven't looked back and there's nothing wrong with asking a ton of questions or even the ones you feel uncomfortable of asking. Ask away.

If you want to make things easier, go with an all EK setup.

Don't forget, think of how you want to control all of this cause some people get fancy with controllers as you can be limited what is compatible with said controller. Same thing can be said about cases. Do your custom H20 homework and blueprints first and see what is needed and then go case shopping to what you feel comfortably will fit everything perfectly and still have the ability to fill, drain and maintain a loop while still having room for expansion.

Here's a good beginners video if you haven't seen to ease the nerves. Don't forget to clean your gear extensively before assembling and running a 24 hr leak test with towels at every connecting spot.

 

[Silver Surfer]

My current idea is I would like to cool both my 1080Ti and my 7800X so id like to have two rads, one mounted on the top and one on the front. I would like to have a 420 on the top and a 360 up front or vice versa. not sure if that would be overkill but with the View 71 RGB it comes with 3 140mm fans, so id like to utilize them on a rad. I just need to find two copper Rads now that I like and fine copper fittings, then I should be good to go I think.

Nickle plated Copper fittings is the same concept as the waterblock in terms of mixing metals? its just a coat? so its basically going to have the better cooling performance that copper has (or so I have read)

The 1080Ti is quite the toasty card and since you're running a 6 core CPU as well, I suggest 2 independent loops, IF, you have any overclocking intentions.

Even with zero overclocking intentions you'd best have overkill on the rads to get the job done to run the 1080Ti and the 7800X in the same loop.

 

[MaddMutt]

with fittings youll find that they are all made of brass with either a painted surface or a chromed surface. very few if any are nickel plated. as far as mixing metals your gtg as brass is just as safe as copper in a loop. being that they are coated with something there really isnt anything to worry about. just take care when connecting your fittings to avoid getting contaminants inside the fittings, tubing ends or res. you will notice posts about crud growing in someones loop. its almost always caused by something organic getting in the loop and causing discoloration(usually green).
your fittings are probably not going to gain or lose you anything temps wise. fittings are generally chosen for their looks and reliability. youll find that ek, alphacool, bitspower and xspc generally receive good reviews. there are many many more to choose from those are just some of the better ones.
i forgot to mentio that the way rad measurements are shown are Length-360mm x width-120mm- height(how thick it is)- this can vary greatly, from 20mm to as much as almost 100mm. the norm is 25 to 60mm.

^ To add some clarification to the Maxfly's last statement. The Width of the Rad is the Width of the FAN that it will SUPPORT. The vast majority of Rads are 120mm or 140mm Wide but you can find a small few in 80mm, 92mm, and 200mm.
The length of the Rad is a Multiple of how many FANS it will FIT. The vast majority of Rads are based off of 120mm or 140mm Wide FANS but you can find a small few in 80mm, 92mm, and 200mm length. A 240mm Rad = 2 x 120mm FANS, A 280mm Rad = 2 x 140mm FANS.
I will give a general description of the Thickness of a Rad. I do not completely understand the { Fluid Flow Rate - Rad Mass - Fan Speed }. The vast majority of Rads that you will see are 30mm - 60mm Thick AND have a FPI number (Fins Per Inch).
Here is a chart from a Black Ice Nemesis 360GTX Rad (398mm x 133mm x 54mm with 16fpi). I do not know if this chart is standard or any additional information. Hopefully someone will help me in this area

Recommended..........Capacity........Stealth......Supercruise ....8-Core CPU.......GPU SLI/Crossfire......FANS
120GTX...................450W............■..............■..................■.....................1...........................1 X 120mm
240GTX..................1000W...........■..............■..................■.....................TRIPLE...................2 X 120mm
360GTX..................1800W...........■..............■..................■.....................QUAD.....................3 X 120mm
480GTX..................2200W...........■..............■..................■.....................QUAD.....................4 X 120mm
140GTX..................550W.............■.............■...................■.....................1..........................1 X 140mm
280GTX..................1200W...........■..............■..................■......................TRIPLE..................2 X 140mm
420GTX..................2000W...........■..............■..................■......................QUAD....................3 X 140mm
560GTX..................2500W...........■.............. ■..................■......................QUAD....................4 X 140mm

 

[Auroraa]

I really do appreciate all the help you guys are giving me on this topic, definitely more help than I thought I was going to receive.

My case comes with 3 140mm fans so I might just go ahead and get a 420mm Rad and have those running with that on the top of the case and possibly grab a 360 and 3 Thermaltake RGB fans and use those on the front of my case to help with distribution of heat. If I were to give a list on some items that I have looked into and threw a list together on here could any of you guys possibly take a look and see if I am forgetting anything?

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The 1080Ti is quite the toasty card and since you're running a 6 core CPU as well, I suggest 2 independent loops, IF, you have any overclocking intentions.

Even with zero overclocking intentions you'd best have overkill on the rads to get the job done to run the 1080Ti and the 7800X in the same loop.

I'm not sure if my case will be big enough for two independent loops. im not against changing cases though. I haven't made a case purchase at all I have all my computer parts in my rig at home this is just a matter of a transfer to a new case once I get my custom loop in. Would me having two rads suffice for two loops?

 

[maxfly]

absolutely, post up your thoughts so far. we will be glad to help.
youll be fine with two large rads in a single loop. ive been running dual gpus and a very hot cpu in almost the same type of loop with no issues.
BTW that case is a bad mofo. the top is by far the best design ive seen for wcing. the ability to mount your rad and fans outside of the case. rather than trying to hold the rad up while you tighten down screws is saaweet. not to mention you have enough room to mount fans in a push pull configuration. it looks like you can fit pretty much any thickness rad you want up top. man that is badass. seriously, if you guys havent looked it over you really should check out a review of it.

 

[Auroraa]

Alright so as you know I am looking into getting the Thermaltake View 71 so as for the rest of the watercooling loop these are kind of my thoughts.

Pump/Res

Thermaltake Pacific DIY LCS PR22-D5 300ml 5-Speed Adjustable D5 Pump/Reservoir Combo

Waterblock

CPU: EK-FB ASUS PRIME X299 RGB Monoblock - Nickel

GPU: EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Strix RGB

Tubing

Thermaltake Pacific DIY LCS 1000mm Lengths V-Tubler PETG Hard Tubing (4-Pack) OD 16mm (5/8") x ID 12mm (1/2")

Radiators

Top: Alphacool NexXxos XT45 Full Copper X-Flow Radiator 420

Front: Alphacool NexXxos ST30 Full Copper Radiator 360

Fittings im still up in the air on but that's my general idea as of right now. Also has anyone had any experience with using a riser cable to vertically mount the GPU? im thinking about doing that since this case has the capability to do so. thoughts?

 

[maxfly]

looks good. solid pump choice, solid monoblock, solid gpu block!
i dont have much experience with thermaltakes wcing gear but i havent heard anything negative about them either. try to find reviews if you can. the general rule of thumb is to use the same manufacturer tubing and fittings to avoid any leaks.
i would go with the xt45 360 in front just to give you some extra cooling capacity over the st30. if you ever see yourself going sli it might be a good idea to look at the ut60 420 as well. alphacool makes really solid rads. just make sure you flush them really really well before you put them in your loop. they used to have issues with getting their rads cleaned out properly. i havent heard anything lately but its better to be safe.
your getting close to the build line!

 

[Auroraa]

So I should put the 420 in the front of the case and the 360 in the top? I don't see myself SLI 1080Ti's but who knows? Did you know anything about vertically mounting GPUs? also whats the best way to flush a rad?

- - - Updated - - -

Also if say I held off on watercooling my GPU how hard is it realistically to add in a GPU line later on down the line say a few months from now?

 

[maxfly]

So I should put the 420 in the front of the case and the 360 in the top? I don't see myself SLI 1080Ti's but who knows? Did you know anything about vertically mounting GPUs? also whats the best way to flush a rad?

- - - Updated - - -

Also if say I held off on watercooling my GPU how hard is it realistically to add in a GPU line later on down the line say a few months from now?

no your golden with the 420 up top and the 360 in front. what i meant was it may be a good idea to look at thicker rads.
im sorry i forgot to answer that. your case allows for vertically mounting the gpu so your gtg. as long as your adapter cable is high quality it should be fine. itll look sweet in that case.
the best way to flush a rad is to fill it up with distilled water and shake the crap out of it until your arms are gonna fall off! im kidding. grab a clear glass bowl and drain it into the bowl. if it comes out clear you dont have anything to worry about. if you see little specs of green or black you have to do the process over again until the water comes out clear. most modern rads are gtg from the manny but some(alphacool) need a bit of love.

 

[Auroraa]

I totally overlooked the different models in your post so that is my fault and I do appreciate all your help. now I guess its time to look into what fittings I need. since im doing rigid fittings I prob mostly only need compression fittings. is there a site that I can do a model build in the case with my parts so I can see how many compressions I would need compared to the 90 degree fittings I might possibly need?

- - - Updated - - -

Also on top of all these technical pieces I need to figure out, what kind of coolant would look good with some RGB effects? if thought about getting some UV coolant (unsure on color yet) and some RGB UV strips and seeing how that might glow.

 

[Auroraa]

With a lot of research and time put in I think I may stray away from the front 360mm radiator as of right now, and just have the fans in the front. if temps become a problem ill add in the 360mm rad that I talked about above but just to reduce some of the cost im just probably going to go with the 420mm.

I went onto performancepcs and found some Monsoon fittings? I hope they are going to be a good brand? thoughts?

With the many drawn up pictures and my crayon abilities. I think I have come to the conclusion that ill need 5 compression fittings, 2 90 degree fittings a 180 degree T-Fitting a ball valve, and a stop valve for my fill hole. hopefully this is going to be what I need. I also am going to change my tubing size to 3/8 x 1/2 just because it seems as a lot more fittings are available for that size.

All in all im trying to reduce cost without really reducing performance or quality. because when I added everything to my cart it was closing in on $1k haha

if you guys have any thoughts about this or give me some input id appreciate it, thanks.