My very first custom loop
Hey,
I would like to share my very first custom PC loop. What caused me some trouble, some things i did not expect, etc.
I used the following parts:
- B850 AORUS ELITE WIFI7 ICE (https://www.gigabyte.com/uk/Motherboard/B850-AORUS-ELITE-WIFI7-ICE-rev-1x)
- AMD Ryzen™ 7 9800X3D (https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/9000-series/amd-ryzen-7-9800x3d.html)
- DOMINATOR® TITANIUM RGB 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 DRAM 6000MT/s CL30 (https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/p/memory/cmp64gx5m2b6000c30w/dominator-titanium-rgb-2x32gb-ddr5-dram-6000mt-s-cl30-intel-xmp-memory-kit-white)
- DOMINATOR TITANIUM DDR5 Lighting Enhancement Kit — White (https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/p/pc-components-accessories/cmplekit2w/dominator-titanium-ddr5-lighting-enhancement-kit-white)
- SAMSUNG 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB (https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/nvme-ssd/990-pro-2tb-nvme-pcie-gen-4-mz-v9p2t0bw/)
- THERMAL GRIZZLY AM5 Contact Sealing Frame (https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/contact-sealing-frame/s-tg-csf)
- THERMAL GRIZZLY Duronaut (https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/duronaut/s-tg-d)
- ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX™ 5080 16GB GDDR7 OC Edition (https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/graphics-cards/tuf-gaming/tuf-rtx5080-o16g-gaming/)
- PHANTEKS AMP GH 1000W White (https://phanteks.com/product/amp-gh-white-1000/)
- Hyte Y70 Touch Snow White (https://hyte.com/store/y70/cs-hyte-y70tti-ww?z)
- EK-Quantum Surface P360M - White (https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-surface-p360m-white)
- EK-Quantum Velocity² D-RGB - AM5 White Edition (https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-velocity2-d-rgb-am5-white-edition)
- EK-Quantum Vector³ TUF RTX 5080 - Plexi (https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-vector3-tuf-rtx-5080-plexi)
- EK-Quantum Kinetic TBE 160 VTX PWM D-RGB - Plexi (https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-tbe-160-vtx-pwm-d-rgb-plexi)
- EK-CryoFuel Solid Azure Blue (https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-cryofuel-solid-azure-blue-premix-1000ml)
- Corsair Hydro X Series XF Hardline 14mm OD Fitting White (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/p/custom-liquid-cooling/cx-9052013-ww/hydro-x-series-xf-hardline-14mm-od-fitting-four-pack-aca-a-white)
- Corsair Hydro X Series 90° Rotary Adapter White (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/p/custom-liquid-cooling/cx-9055014-ww/hydro-x-series-90aa-rotary-adapter-twin-pack-aca-a-white)
- Corsair Hydro X Series XT Hardline 14mm Tubing — Satin Transparent (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/p/custom-liquid-cooling/cx-9059005-ww/hydro-x-series-xt-hardline-14mm-tubing-aca-a-satin-transparent)
- Barrowch multimode OLED Water temperature meter and flow meter (http://www.barrowint.com/product/jtl/BARROWCH\_Fitting/Digital\_display\_fitti/1204.html)
- Barrow Stop Plug Fitting - With Coin Slot (http://www.barrowint.com/product/jtl/BARROW\_Fitting/zfsxjt/1260.html)
- Alphacool HF connection terminal TEE T-piece round, G1/4 - White (https://shop.alphacool.com/en/shop/fittings/adapter/multiple-adapter/17629-alphacool-hf-connection-terminal-tee-t-piece-round-g1/4-white)
- Alphacool Eiszapfen 2-way ball valve G1/4 - White (https://shop.alphacool.com/en/shop/fittings/ball-valves/anz-alphacool-eiszapfen-2-way-ball-valve-g1/4-white)
- CableMod ModMesh (https://eustore.cablemod.com/configurator/?load=de16a9fe0eba)
- LianLi UNI FAN SL-INF White (https://lian-li.com/de/product/uni-fan-sl-infinity/)
- LianLi UNI FAN SL-INF REVERSE BLADE White (https://lian-li.com/product/uni-fan-sl-infinity-reverse-blade/)
The first thing I want to say, which I did not expect, that custom water cooling is really expensive, like really really expensive. All watercooling parts cost me 50% of the hardware components. But in the end I am fairly happy with the endresult!
The second thing that annoyed me was EKWB. I chose their CPU, GPU-Waterblocks, Pumps, etc. because their products look the nicest in my opinion. But i waited soooo freaking long for their parts. It put me like 2 months behind. I waited for over 3 months in total for every last part of them. I hope they will get back on their feet soon. Because after receiving everyting and unpacking it, I knew i made the right choice. Because in person everything looks very nice, smooth and clean. I did also look after some Alphacool waterblocks, but the CPU blocks are just ugly in my opinion so are the velocity³.
The next part which made my heart beat like crazy was disassembling the graphics cards. I have never been so carefuly before in my life, I think. But after all it was actually really easy, if you are careful. I just did not expect a major drop off in temperature, because with the TUF cooler I reached a max temperature under load at around 65°C, which was quite stunning for me. Because my last PC had a 1080 which ran at around 78 to 82°C. Overall the TUF 5080 looks pretty aswell in my opinion.
After disassembling the card, I did not expect the PCB to be that small. It feels like 90% cooler and 10% PCB. Even the PCB from my 1080 was bigger.
Once i finished assembling the card with the new watercooled block, I tested it in a test-rig, to see if I get it to post, detect it in GPU-Z, etc. But at that very moment my heart dropped down, because when I started the PC I instantly got a blue-screen which said "Video-memory error" or something like that. I was quite in panic and rebooted the PC again and ended up in Windows. But for some reason GPU-Z did not detect the card, so I rebooted the PC again and then everything was fine. I had no coolant in the block, so I did not stress the GPU what so ever, but the idle temps of 44°C seemed ok for me and I decided to say it was good.
I then started preparing the motherboard, case, etc. I did the following radiator and fan-setup:
- 3 bottom reverse blade fans intake
- 3 front reverse blade fans intake with a radiator
- 3 top exhaust fans exhause with a radiator
Once everything was in the case, bending the tubes was my next step. I have never done this before so I tried to get as many 90° angles as possible, but two turned out to be impossible to be just 90° angles. The first was from the outlet of the GPU-waterblock to the input of the top radiator and the second was from the outlet of the front radiator to the intake of the pump. The first one was actually the hardest, because I had to bend one 90° to the left and in that angle I had to start another 90° upwards. I had to redo this pipe like three times untill I it to my satisfaction. The second one was actually easier, I had to bend 90° upwards and in an 45° angle, 90° to the pump.
Once done with the tubing, I had to leak test everything, and it turned out just fine. And this was the result before the first cleaning fill. I was really happy with the result.
I was a little shocked when I saw the clear cleaner getting such discolored. But this was normal
Sadly I did a very bad mistake, not flushing the radiators one by one, without being connected to anything. So i got some manifacturing leftovers at my cooling fins. Do you think that I should be concerned about this? My idea was, when I do my first maintainence on the system, I will get the CPU and GPU block out of the case and flush it from the opposite flow direction.
After flushing everything I finally filled it with the desired coolant, and oh my lord, It looks so freaking cool in my opinion.
After a few days I noticed something strange around my GPU-block. Do you know what that could be?
The only thing I am not quite sure if that is okay, is my CPU temperature. In idle or while browsing I have around 45°C CPU with a liquid temperature of around 32 to 34°C with an ambiente temperature of around 23°C. While gaming witcher 3 or satisfactory the CPU is at around 52 to 55°C with a liquid temperature of around 37,5°C. Do you think that it behaves as it should be or did i do something wrong with the mounting or something like that?
GPU on the other is seems perfectly fine for me. Under load in satisfactory or witcher 3 I have around 49 to 53°C with a liquid temperature of around 37,5°C.
I do have a quite high fancurve, so the fans spin mostly at around 1200 rpm. Noise level is very good. When watching some videos or playing games, I do not notice anything from the fans.
The only thing I would really love to change about this build is the high density of black parts. I did not find any black plugs for the mainboard (USB, cable mod, etc.), white graphics card cooler or white pumps that fit my taste. So I made this compromise which you can see in the pictures.
I am very sorry, if it is too long, but I just wanted to share my experience. I would really like to get some feedback if you like it and why, or not and why, what I did good, what I did bad, what I could have done better, etc.
Thank you! :)
Posted Aug 11, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC