my custom built water cooling system plan

[WhiteFireDragon]

i'm finally building a water cooled system and i just wanted to run the parts on here for other opinions first. all these parts are going to be going in a thermaltake armor:

pump- liang ddc2 with petra top
rad- PA120.2
res- EK-RES150
cpu- fuzion
gpu- MCW60
NB- MCW30
tubes- 7/16"
fans- 2x yate loons

i really want to only spend about $300-350, but $400 is the MAX i want to spend for parts and this brings me exactly to $400 (+/- few dollars). if i had to lower the performance just a little, which part should i sacrifice for a cheaper one? i know i would save 60 bucks if i got an MCR220 instead... but the thing is i'm only doing this once and never plan on upgrading this WC, so i want to do it right the first time. i don't want to cheap out on parts, but don't want to empty my wallet either.

a few more qustions:

1) although i won't be doing SLI or crossfire, there's 3 blocks in the loop. do all 3 match in terms of restrictions? i don't want just one of them to be the restriction bottleneck

2) how am i suppose to mount the thermochill radiator? do i need to drill holes or do any other mods or does it fit right in?

3) two 120mm fans will take up 6 bay slots. but having this radiator in will actually take up 7 slots since the area where the tubes enters and exit take up space also right?

4) will 7/16" tubing fit all these parts?

5) i will be using all stock case fans and an additional two yate loons. two will push while two will pull air for the radiator, with the stock fans close to the mesh and the yate loons closer to the inside of the case on the rad. would it really matter that much to have air inside the case going through the rad and out of the case or air from the outside going through the rad into the case?

6) any other tips/suggestions/advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[taylormsj]

1. The d tek fusion has like no restriction lol, now block compares to it, but the ones youve listed are what i would go for.

2. Youll have to look on the internet to see if any other people have mounted the rad that way, or look for yourself and see what can be done

3. ^

4. 7/16" slides over hi flow barbs relativly easy, but to get it over comse barbs and connectors you have to heat the ends of the tubing in boilding water to fit them, ive got 7/16 and its a bitch to get over the D5 connectors, but its worth it

5. Wont matter too much i would have thought

6. What stuff are you going to be cooling, if something like a quad and an 8800 AND a northbridge i would buy a PA120.3 considering its not that much more money, and then mount it off the back using a radbox, or mount it on top of your case with some modding Also, id go for the medium yate loons for that rad. How much is the pump you want compared to the D5 pump? I thought it outperforms the DDC2 and its cheaper over in the uk.

taylormsj

 

[WhiteFireDragon]

1. The d tek fusion has like no restriction lol, now block compares to it, but the ones youve listed are what i would go for.

4. 7/16" slides over hi flow barbs relativly easy, but to get it over comse barbs and connectors you have to heat the ends of the tubing in boilding water to fit them, ive got 7/16 and its a bitch to get over the D5 connectors, but its worth it

5. Wont matter too much i would have thought

6. What stuff are you going to be cooling, if something like a quad and an 8800 AND a northbridge i would buy a PA120.3 considering its not that much more money, and then mount it off the back using a radbox, or mount it on top of your case with some modding Also, id go for the medium yate loons for that rad. How much is the pump you want compared to the D5 pump? I thought it outperforms the DDC2 and its cheaper over in the uk.

taylormsj

1) are the apogee GT and aquaextreme mp05-LE better alternatives? any other cheaper low restriction blocks that are still good i should consider? i'm trying to save money

4) are there any official 7/16" adapters or do i just have to force it to fit in some of the 1/2" threads?

5) after i had blocks to the CPU, GPU, and NB, there shouldn't be anything that produces heat other than the HD. that means air temps inside the case and outside will be relatively the same, so then it shouldn't matter to have intake or exhaust from the front right?

6) my parts won't put out TOO much heat. for now, i only have a 7900gt and athlonX2. AMD runs a little cooler. and NB won't put out enough heat in the loop to make a significant difference i don't think. i had to suck it up and went with a PA120.2 instead of MCR220 since i had 3 blocks to cool.

my goal for this project is to have everything inside the case. i like the clean look of it so i don't want anything sticking out or hanging. there is no way to fit a PA120.3 internally, otherwise i would have gotten it. and since i'm getting a double rad instead of the triple, that's why i chose a push/pull fan setup for the rad to have more air flowing through. all the yate loons are going to be the high speed version with fan controller in case i want to lower the rpm and noise. this whole fan/rad setup is pretty much equivalent to a triple rad thermochill with low or medium fans only on one side right?

i also considered the D5 pump, but i went with a liang ddc2 with petra top mod here because it has much more head and i thought that would be beneficial since i have 3 blocks in the loop. which of the two is overall better pump? there's no other pump less than $100 that is better for this setup right?

EDIT- i just edited the first post with links to all the parts

 

[taylormsj]

1. No go with the d-tek fusion is what i meant to say, it gives the best performance (the ek supreme suposdely gives a little better, but fusion has better flow rate and option for nozzles)
4. Nope, you dont need to use much force to get them over metal barbs.

6. Id stay with the pa120.2, not the MCR 220