Hi all
With the uncertainty of when Kingpin will be for sale to EU customers, I am thinking of building my first EVGA custom loop and have a range of questions before I begin pricing up.
 
What is the cheapest way to build a first time CPU & GPU loop? I have been informed that EK are the make to go for.
 
I read that mixing metals is bad and to avoid aluminium where possible. I am confused because most things seem to be aluminium or Nickel
 
Hydro Copper, Is it actually copper for the purposes of avoiding mixed metals? the description says "The base plate consists of nickel-plated copper" so this is ok to mix with nickel? how about Aluminium and Nickel? Should I just get an XC and a generic EK block instead to ensure compatibility?
 
A-Chip 2080ti - I want to be able to OC my card hard if I am spending this much. Is there any point in opting for the FTW ultra over the XC if I am looking for an overclockable A-Chip on water? I understand that the only purely binned chips are on Kingpins and as an EU peasant that isnt an option for now.
 
Samsung memory - I know that its still a debate but I have owned 3 RTX cards with micron memory and all have space invaded me within weeks, I wont accept another micron card as I dont trust them and would RMA for an exchange. I have also seen first hand how much higher samsung can be clocked compared to micron.  Are all the latest batch XC and FTW on samsung or is it still a diceroll at this stage?  
 
Thanks
 

LDigital82
Hi all
With the uncertainty of when Kingpin will be for sale to EU customers, I am thinking of building my first EVGA custom loop and have a range of questions before I begin pricing up.
 
What is the cheapest way to build a first time CPU & GPU loop? I have been informed that EK are the make to go for.
 
I read that mixing metals is bad and to avoid aluminium where possible. I am confused because most things seem to be aluminium or Nickel
 
Hydro Copper, Is it actually copper for the purposes of avoiding mixed metals? the description says "The base plate consists of nickel-plated copper" so this is ok to mix with nickel? how about Aluminium and Nickel? Should I just get an XC and a generic EK block instead to ensure compatibility?
 
A-Chip 2080ti - I want to be able to OC my card hard if I am spending this much. Is there any point in opting for the FTW ultra over the XC if I am looking for an overclockable A-Chip on water? I understand that the only purely binned chips are on Kingpins and as an EU peasant that isnt an option for now.
 
Samsung memory - I know that its still a debate but I have owned 3 RTX cards with micron memory and all have space invaded me within weeks, I wont accept another micron card as I dont trust them and would RMA for an exchange. I have also seen first hand how much higher samsung can be clocked compared to micron.  Are all the latest batch XC and FTW on samsung or is it still a diceroll at this stage?  
 
Thanks
 

I've been doing a whole lot of research myself in prep for an upcoming build and going water (was debating AIO vs custom, going to do custom I'm 95% sure).  As far as metals, just don't mix aluminum and copper.  Many copper radiators apparently have brass end pieces, not sure how that fits in (EK does for instance) maybe it's a neutral metal to copper.  Alphacool for example is all copper in their radiators, but the brass ends thing sounds like it's pretty common.  The "nickel plated" that you see is only on the external areas like where the block meets the CPU for example.  The part that touches the liquid will still be copper the way I understood the various things I read and watched.  
 
EK actually sells an aluminum kit for those that don't have as much $$$, however you'd have to use their aluminum GPU blocks as well, otherwise, corrosion.  Now, you can use a lot of inhibitors and stuff and maybe get away with it, but you'd have to know what you're doing.  Apparently most AIO's are a copper base with aluminum radiator, but they're a sealed system and the mfr's put very specific formulations of fluid in them to not have any corrosion.  Jayztwocents on youtube actually cut open an old AIO to check for corrosion after years of use since they're mixed metal and there was basically little to none (the fluid was an odd color that was it).  Again, that's due to the formulation of the fluid though and they know exactly what metals and quality/etc. of them are in the parts in their products.