https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-kit-s360
I have always wanted to do a custom loop but its pretty pricey. I saw this and it seemed to be at a great price point. Does anyone have experience with this brand. I was also thinking of getting a Thermaltake kit, but have heard lots of issues with the res cracking.
Anyways love some feed back!!
Don't get a thermaltake kit, or their radiators. They use aluminum, where almost everyone else uses copper or nickel plated copper for radiators and blocks. Even their own kit comes with an aluminum rad and copper cpu block. If you mix metals in a water loop you will end up with corrosion and destroy your gear.
As for the EK kit, if you can I would get the L360 instead, as it has a thicker radiator which will cool better.
What is your pc build now, and are you just going for cpu only or including gpu as well?
The DDC pump is notorious for overheating though so make sure the pump has some air flow going by it. It's a decent kit EK makes good stuff.
And if you ever buy Thermaltake water cooling parts I will come to your house and beat you with a pool noodle.
Do:
EK
Swiftech
XSPC
Bitspower
Don't:
Phoybia
Thermaltake
Right now I have a 4790k cooled by a corsair 110 and a air cooled 980ti. I figured for now I would watercool that CPU and eventually when the 1080ti come see I would add that into the loop
I will help you deal with the infidels
EK WB fans, radiators and especially their CPU blocks are good, nothing to complain about. I would rather have D5 than a DDC pump, they are a little larger but better. A D5 can be expensive but they last a very long time. I've noticed that aliexpress and the likes of direct-from-china stocks D5's, cheaper but long lead times.
I can recommend Swiftech too, their D5 is a good buy.
Easily mitigated with the right coolant. I think Thermaltake uses Propylene Glycol (same as in some cars) as the anti corrosion agent. I cannot recommend them though, as they charge ludicrously much for their alu rads. In testing, alu rads fare pretty badly compared to brass/copper rads. If they were cheap, maybe, but not a chance for the pricing they have. It is probably possible find a Swiftech QP rad cheaper, a proven good radiator that the Thermaltake can't compete with at all performance-wise. Or EK, XSPC or Aphacool for that matter, also proven good radiators. I have Alphacool radiators myself, when I got them their pricing was very nice. Not so much nowadays.
So can this loop handle adding a GPU later on?
More or less yeah. Personally I'd prefer a d5 pump but it will work.
Aluminum mixing with copper, nickle, or chrome can't be stopped regardless of coolant. You either use all aluminum or you can mix copper, nickle, and chrome but you don't mix them with each other.
Ever checked out the cooling system of a car? There are plenty of different metals, aluminum and copper in particular.
As an auto tech by trade I can tell you it causes issues especially if your coolant isn't changed when its supposed to. Also I will add auto cooling systems have alot larger passages for coolant to flow through and there are plenty of places the deposits can sit and not cause too many issues.
So as far as pumps go. How does the one in this kit compare to other ones? If I did add a gpu later would it be worth upgrading the pump as well?
Ddc pumps have less head pressure than D5s so the more blocks you add the more heavily it affects flow rate. If you want to add a graphics card block that's fine but adding two might be a bit much. And no upgrading pumps isn't worth it get what's going to work.
This. 100% this. Thank you.
Yes, and as you know that's why the coolant is supposed to be changed at the specified intervals. All makers of liquid cooling systems for computers recommend rather short intervals, even if there are no mix of metals. Intervals are typically less than in a car or truck for example. If Thermaltakes specs are followed, there are probably not much problems.
AIOs for example almost all have a copper plate in the CPU block and an aluminum radiator. It is, as all knows, not supposed to be possible to change the coolant in those. Still they have a couple of years warranty and an expected life of ~5 years. Anti corrosive agents is what saves them. I have several disassembled AIOs, both home and at work. Usually there is a little corrosion in them, but not much even if they are 4+ years old. Anti corrosive agents in the coolant at work.
And of course a car/truck coolant system isn't the same as a computer coolant system. Temperatures are much higher in automotive applications for example. That's why Linus borked his "whole room water-cooling" project pretty hard. The automotive coolant he used had no anti algae agents as it is supposed to reach ~100C regularly. It's the principle of mixed metals I'm trying to shine a light on. I have also been an auto tech and seen pretty terrible maintained vehicles. Still it's not rocket science to use the proper coolant and observe proper service intervals. Pease use your brain people :-)
I still don't recommend Thermaltakes aluminum radiators, too expensive. If the right coolant with anti corrosive as specified is used, there will probably not be much problems. I've be curious to test some of their stuff, but their insane pricing has made me stay away. Thermaltake boasts about "great performance", I suspect proper testing against a brass and copper radiator would paint rather different picture. And probably a not very flattering one for Thermaltake.
That would depend on how powerful the pumps are though. The DDC pump type usually have higher head pressure, but less flow rate compared to a D5 pump type. There are several different versions of DDC pumps and a couple of D5 as well. High powered and low powered. At the same wattage, a DDC usually has higher head pressure.
Like the old 18 Watt DDC made by Swiftech: MCP35X that has 4.4 meters of head pressure. A 24 Watt D5 typically has about 4 meters, but on the other hand better flow-rate. Swiftech has a new DDC, the MCP50X that has even higher head pressure, 4.8 meters at ~25 Watts.
What does it mean though? Just as SoulFallen says, high head pressure "powers through" restrictive blocks. For a given loop, you need enough head pressure to get high enough flow rate. A standard D5 is enough for most loops, I have one with two radiators, a CPU block and two GPU blocks. Earlier I had a 18W DDC (MCP35X) and it was fine too. A thing with high powered DDCs are that they tend to be nosier than D5s. A high power DDC at max RPM tend to whine while a D5 tends to hum more.
The DDC pump in that EK kit linked is only a 6 Watt pump. Still it has a head pressure of 3.8 meters. It is probably good for a couple of blocks (and probably very quiet). The reason for my recommendation for a D5 is that it is a very common pump in the industry, a known good performer, usually very quiet and it also last a very long time. Not unusual for them to last 5-10 years even in PCs that run every day. Typical MTBF for a D5 is 50k hours.