Updated 4/16/2026 r/watercooling 's discord is a good resource. This is my personal recommendation copypasta. Order is sorta ranked, but don't take it as gospel...just my opinion and others may have a different view. CPU block: Optimus,, Alphacool Apex, Watercool Heatkiller, Aquacomputer, Thermal Grizzly, Bitspower Summit. I'm not a fan of monoblocks. GPU block: Watercool Heatkiller, Thermal Grizzly, Optimus, Alphacool Core 1, Bitspower, Bykski if on a budget. Reservoir: Watercool Heatkiller (great modularity and quality), Singularity Computers, Optimus, Iceman Cooler. For distribution panels (flat panel res): Alphacool, Stealkey, EK, Bitspower, custom made. Pump: D5 PWM or Alphacool VPP Apex. Only get a DDC 4.2 PWM if you are tight on space. Aquacomputer's D5 Next has a built in temp sensor, display and RGB. More $, but more features. Pump should always be below your reservoir. Radiator: Hardware Labs (GTS/GTX/L-Series), Corsair XR5/ XR7 or Bitspower SF/XF (rebranded Hardware Labs L-Series), Watercool Heatkiller Rad (L or S), XSPC, EK Surface rad S, P or X models. In general it is recommended that you have at least 240mm of radiator per water cooled component. With higher wattage and overclocked components, I recommend at least 360mm per component in order to achieve quiet operation. Watercool Mo-RaIV if you want an external rad. Fans: Phanteks T30 is the king of (120/140mm) fans, Noctua A12-25 and A14-25 Chromax is 2nd best, bequiet Silent Wings 4 are very good. Coolermaster Mobius is good. Arctic P12/P14 have the best static pressure/noise ratio per $. Phanteks D30s are decent RGB fans. Tubing: I recommend 14mm for tube size. It balances aesthetics, bend-ability and fitting brand choice. Corsair's PMMA tubing (acrylic) is easy to work with, decently priced, and comes in clear, satin, black and white. Brand doesn't really matter, but 100% get acrylic rigid tubing and NOT PETG! If you want to do soft tubing, black EDPM (EK, Alphacool, Watercool all offer this) is best. Clear soft tubing can fog in my experience. If you do go hard tubing, a bending kit can help with doing precise multi bend runs (Bitspower makes a great one). Free hand can produce great results with practice. Fittings: Barrow. Best price to quality ratio and better quality than the majority of other brands by a large margin. Best place to get Barrow fittings is from Formulamod.com or Aliexpress. You will save a lot of money going this route. Bitspower is also great, but expensive. EK Torque fittings are aesthetically very nice and are mostly high quality (but EK can't produce inventory ATM). Optimus fittings are obviously top quality, but also ridiculously expensive. Thermal Grizzly are new to the market but initial quality seems very high. Make sure to get a drain valve (or quick disconnect) and a water temp sensor. Koolance makes the best quick disconnect fittings. Fluid: Save yourself a lifetime of pain and regret and stick to clear fluid. If you want colored, fine, but don't bother with opaque or particle fluids. Aquacomputer DP ultra, Koolance 702 or 705 and Mayhems X1 are regarded as the best clear fluids. Cleaning your radiators before you put fluid in your system is very important! Tools: I would classify bending mandrels as optional but I would definitely get an Aquacomputer Dr. Drop or EK Leak Tester (leak tests your system with air) and Primochill Rigid Finishing Bit (must match your tube size) if you are doing hard tubing. After that, it's your standard bending insert (I recommend Bitspower's), tube cutter (a mini table saw is great for this), heat gun etc. Other hardware: It is HIGHLY recommended you invest in the Aquacomputer hardware ecosystem for controlling your fans and pump (3pin RGB as well). Aquacomputer sells many great pieces of hardware and their software is leagues better than anything from the likes of Asus or Corsair's iCUE. The Octo/Quadro are PWM controllers. They control your fans and pump through the Aquasuite software. The High Flow Next is a multifunction (flow, temp, fluid conductivity, etc) sensor with a display. The D5 Next is a D5 PWM pump with a display and water temp sensor. The Farbwerk 360 is an RGB controller (3pin, but also Corsair through adapters). 100% get an Octo or Quadro. Also, buy quality thermal paste like Thermal Grizzly Duronaut, Noctua NT-H2 or Kingpin KPX. Case: Often overlooked, but your case determines a lot when it comes to water cooling. You need enough space for your GPU block, reservoir, radiators, etc. The reason you see everyone with a Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO RGB/EVO XL is because it has all of those things. Phanteks NV7/NV9 are good. Fractal's Meshify/North XL are good. Corsair 7000D/X and 5000X/D are ok. HAVN HS420 is very good, Hyte Y70 Touch Infinite is ok. If a case looks like it has bad airflow, don't use/get it. You are likely going to spend over $1k on a custom loop... if your case wasn't designed with custom water cooling in mind... you are wasting your money and your experience will be terrible. LMK if you have any questions. Updated 4/16/2026