Starting New WC Build (First Time) - EKWB Kit?

Finally getting around to putting together a new build (come on Ryzen reviews ) and have always wanted to do a custom WC loop. My plan is to just water cool the CPU for now, but want to leave room to possibly add another radiator for the GPU in a year or two. Doing this for both performance and a maybe a little more silence. Based on my initial research and using the EKWB configurator for my case (here), I'm leaning towards this kit: EK-KIT P240.

But, I wanted to get the community perspective on a couple aspects:

- What do people think about combo pump/reservoirs? I know it helps save a little space, but are there any major drawbacks?
- I know EK is well regarded, but are there components included that I would be better off buying from another manufacturer?
- Would I have to upgrade something if I add another 240mm (or 360mm if I give up on the 5.25 drive bay)?
- Any other things I may be missing if I just went with the kit? Bleed line is the only thing I could see right away.

Thanks!!

jhzero1984 said:

- What do people think about combo pump/reservoirs? I know it helps save a little space, but are there any major drawbacks?

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I started with a pump/res combo. They work great. The only major drawback comes when bleading and draining. It was a major pain to get all the air out of the loop.

jhzero1984 said:

- I know EK is well regarded, but are there components included that I would be better off buying from another manufacturer?

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Depends on your loop. I wanted a high-performance radiator that would work great with low speed fans while being thin. The best option was the alphacool's in my sig.

jhzero1984 said:

- Would I have to upgrade something if I add another 240mm (or 360mm if I give up on the 5.25 drive bay)?

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No. I have that same EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM in my build. It's great. In my loop I have cpu, gpu, 280 rad, and 360 rad.

jhzero1984 said:

- Any other things I may be missing if I just went with the kit? Bleed line is the only thing I could see right away.

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Not really. A great starter kit.
Few things to think about that I recommend for now or in the future:
Look at your case and see if everything fits. You might need to get a couple 90 or 45 degree fittings.
PWM Fan adapter and PWM fans. One of the biggest benefits of a water cooling system is the lower noise point. Consider swapping all of your case fans out to pwm fans.
Water tubing plugs are a big help when draining and filling. They allow you to plug a line when it's not connected.
A funnel if you don't have one.
A drain line is not necessary. I'm not using one now. But it'll surely make life easier.

A kit is one way to do it. Personally I did my own first one from a custom combination of parts as I didn't want the corner cut kit parts to hold me back.

It's not as tough to select parts for a custom build as you might think.

I found the following video to be very helpful when I went to start my first build.

doug_7506 said:

Look at your case and see if everything fits. You might need to get a couple 90 or 45 degree fittings.
PWM Fan adapter and PWM fans. One of the biggest benefits of a water cooling system is the lower noise point. Consider swapping all of your case fans out to pwm fans.
Water tubing plugs are a big help when draining and filling. They allow you to plug a line when it's not connected.
A funnel if you don't have one.
A drain line is not necessary. I'm not using one now. But it'll surely make life easier.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the feedback.

Case arrives this week so I can be hands on with it before finalizing overall design. When measuring it all out, I will look to see what angled fittings will be necessary.

Good call on the PWM fan adapter and PWM fans. Definitely will be adding those to the list. Also will pick up a couple plugs as well.

Zarathustra[H] said:

I found the following video to be very helpful when I went to build my first.

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Thanks! Already gave me a few things to think about. Will definitely come back to watch this again when I'm ready to install.

Only reason the kit jumped out was it included almost all the components I was planning on, but at a bit of cost savings compared to buying them individually.

jhzero1984 said:

Thanks! Already gave me a few things to think about. Will definitely come back to watch this again when I'm ready to install.

Only reason the kit jumped out was it included almost all the components I was planning on, but at a bit of cost savings compared to buying them individually.

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No worries. Yeah, there are definitely cost savings, huge ones. The kits are phenomenal deals. This is what made me question them a bit. They must have had to cut a lot of corners compared tot he separates in order to hit those cost goals. Yes, I know volume can make up for some of it, but not all of it.

This is why I was too much of a skeptic, and just decided to bite the bullet and go all in on the custom side, rather than use a kit from either EK, Swiftech or Alphacool.

personally i prefer the res and pump separate. simply because at some point in the future one will need to be replaced. side benefit is slightly more flexibility in positioning of components. though i will admit i started with an MCP35x res/pump combo. but when it came time to replace the cracked res, i didn't go back to it.

Nimisys said:

personally i prefer the res and pump separate. simply because at some point in the future one will need to be replaced. side benefit is slightly more flexibility in positioning of components. though i will admit i started with an MCP35x res/pump combo. but when it came time to replace the cracked res, i didn't go back to it.

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I started my first build with an XSPC Photon 270 D5 Res/Pump combo. I'm starting to regret that decision. The pump is a little noisy (maybe I didn't install it well, or I got a bad one, I don't know) and in order to fix it, replacing the pump, it's going to be a lot more work than it otherwise would be.

I'm considering picking up a separate res, and EK's dual D5 PWM pump. Not because I need the dual power, but because my understanding is that two pumps each operating at lower speeds are quieter than one pump operating at high speed.

First off, case arrived today. Quite an improvement of my much beloved but aged Lian Li PC 65. New case is slightly bigger, but feels so much roomier. And, the key point, won't require Dremel work to make it workable for internal watercooling.

That said, after doing a lot of research last night, I was leaning against the kit and spending the extra for a separate pump and res (albeit buying a lot of the same kit pieces). Now looking at the case, it feels more logical. Prefer the flexibility of hiding the pump and having more options to mount the res. I'll list the parts when I make some final design decisions.