First step to liquid cooling

Okay that was spontaneous

Are you sure you got your answer? Usually newcomers to watercooling have more inquiries....

Thank you for the Best Answer vote though!

People tend to go for 120mm rads on a regular basis because there is a wide selection of fans to shop around and there are a few good variants of 120mm fans that are best suited for rads in the 120mm category. You can look into 140mm fans but they won't have high static pressure and low db rating in the same package and to add to that, cfm isn't directly related to static pressure. Another reason may be that some people entering into watercooling don't like modding their cases and tend to think 120x versions of rads are easily support out of the box in a case.

Universal blocks are good since you can swap out a GPU without worry of buying a completely new block to fit while shopping for a GPU...the down side is that the overclock is limited by your airflow since the VRM and power delivery area are also critical components during an overclock.

Modding will come naturally to anyone watercooling irrespective if they are new or old to the scene. I did it and I can tell you it has its rewards

If you are on a budget then the 750L v4 on the raystorm kit is good enough to enter into watercooling however if you think an unreliability issue will give you sleepless nights while your rig is running...then I'd suggest going for a D5 kitted raystorm. Expensive, true, but it gives you the ability to upgrade your loop later down the road and add more radiator space and blocks in case you'll go for a crossifre or SLi config alongside full cover waterblocks.

In all honesty the 750L v2 pump was reliable enough to have 2 rads(360+240) a cpu block and 2 full cover GPU blocks so the v4 is a step up from it and I've read good reviews of it however if you look at the other end of the scale the pump tends to fail and leaves alot to be desired from. In a nutshell, the pump is good until it lasts and it just moves along. When it'll fail, it'll go out at the worst possible time. As per people who've used it, they say; "it chugs along"...

If you'd like my advice on the former, I'd go with these;
D5 RX240 v3 kit
D5 RX360 v3 kit



P.S: I forgot to add, if you get the variable speed D5's you can select the speed of the pump so if you run less components and a short loop you can have it set to 1 or 2. Add more stuff and you can crank up the speed. The 750L is a constant speed thus the inevitable demise sometime down the road...

If you study the graphs in the radiator subsection in the watercooling sticky you'll understand that the RX>EX both in terms of thickness cooling potential and noise output since the RX's are optimized for both low and high rpm fan ranges. EX's are tuned RS rads. FPI of a rad and fan rpm go hand in hand so a high fpi count will warrant faster spinning fans and louder overall setup. thicker low fpi rads will require less fan speeds and can dissipate similar heat as a rad of similar size but lower thickness at a higher rpm levels.

In essence the EX was made with the same thickness as a RS but with the proposed cooling potential of a RX.

I think Highflow.nl would be closer logistically for you, or do you have any other site that is closer to your locality?

So you're absolutely sure the pricing on hardware won't burn a hole in your safe deposit box...? aquatuning tend to charge a little bit more than regular.

Edit: apparently, Aquatuning don't stock xspc hardware...weird!
+ mylemon doesn't have much stocked unless there's more than what I'm seeing her; http://www.mylemon.at/kategorie/computer-hardware/kuehlung-und-lueftung/wasserkuehlung.html

Ah! I was beginning to wonder where caseking.de went; here's what i believ is the best solution for you atm, http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Watercooling/Internal-Watercooling/XSPC-Wasserkuehlung-Set-RayStorm-D5-RX240-V3::26827.html

With this kit, you just need to add a GPU block and 240/360 rad to your order and now that you'll be getting a D5, you can run your components without worry. Might want to look at the Alpahcool Monsta rads

If you're interested in this kit,
http://www.xs-pc.com/watercooling-kits/raystorm-d5-photon-rx240-v3-watercooling-kit
I think it's best if you can contact XSPC and see if they can ship you one or better yet outsource a location for you. If its worth anything, building a loop with the above components hand picked would cost you alot more than what you're paying for in that kit On another note, maybe contact Caseking.de and see if they can connect you with the same kit as I've linked above.

Or this kit linked below, but definitely do not go with the original kit you linked, as the pump is mounted inside the reservoir, it was, and still is, an XSPC bad idea!

If the pump fails and eventually it will, the entire reservoir has to be RMA'd, because the pump is sealed inside of it and you cannot change it out yourself!

http://www.xs-pc.com/watercooling-kits/raystorm-d5-rx240-watercooling-kit

^ Yeah that was a point I overlooked Thanks for pointing that out Ryan! The only downside I see with the bay res mounted D5 unit is the tubing runs. You'll need to keep some slack in order to take the res out and fill 'er up. Once you slide it back into case, you'll see that the slacked tubing starts to sag and not look tidy.

Good points! Lutfi

I like the looks of the single cylinder D5 pump/res as well, and tubing slack does happen with the bay res fill/refill as you said!

Yeah I side with the cylindrical res also, part of that resides with the fact that you can add this to the kit:
http://www.xs-pc.com/pump-accessories/d5-aluminium-screw-ring-black

OP could go for a rotary 90 degree fitting and attach to the res top along with some tubing but the M20 fillport may cause some issue and would need additional adapters thus increasing the number of slots occupied in the bay area.

Regarding the underlined in your original statement.

Just wanting to convey to you that water cooling is not totally silent, as you have fans on the radiator and they have to run, so please don't think water cooling is a silent cooling solution as it is not.

Originally water cooling came on the scene as a way to cool closer to ambient room temperatures to give more overclocking headroom.

Though a lot of the water cooling solutions today are aimed at the quieter side, they are not the best cooling performance options when it comes to overclocking.

That said: If you are after quiet running, and not overclocking headroom, you may need to keep looking for a low FPI (Fins Per Inch), radiator cooling solution that will cool with low RPM cooling fans, as low RPM cooling fans are much quieter.

Found this info at another website regarding XSPC radiator prefix meaning.

Model = Thickness @ FPI
EX = 35.5mm @ 19 FPI
AX = 40mm @ 16 FPI
RX = 64mm @ 8 FPI
RS = 35mm @ 13 FPI

IMO the RX even though it is 64mm thick with 8fpi can be cooled with low rpm cooling fans, which is pretty much the best of both worlds plenty of rad cooling area, and low noise cooling fans.

Excellent you are investigating your options!

The D5 with a PWM wire is only for RPM sensing, the pump wouldn't be able to draw its power from the mobo header, but 4Ryan6 can prove me wrong since he will have a better idea of its power draw.

On a side note, are you investigating the issues related to mounting a rad on the side panel? In effect which side panel are you looking at for mounting, right or left?

??? All my D5s get their power directly from the power supply 4 pin molex connector, and that's the only way I would run them, I hate to be the ignorant one here, but I was unaware there was a D5 PWM model? (but I will investigate that immediately after posting this)

As far as a D5 drawing it's electrical power directly from a motherboard header, I would absolutely not do that!