Let me first start off with saying that's an absolutely fantastic parts list. Here's my personal advice on some of the parts.
1) Swiftech Komodo blocks are pretty cheaply made. They actually just drill out the acetal/acrylic portion and have almost zero machining on the copper itself. In real terms, that's not going to mean a whole lot, it just personally irks me. GPU blocks are almost entirely about aesthetics these days, as even a 10C difference in GPU temps means literally nothing. Personally though, I'd never buy them.
Didn't know this about these blocks, I assumed being as they are same blocks as EVGA's Hydro Coppers they would be decent. I will look into this more.
2) EK or Bitspower tube reservoir will do you good.
Added to my research list.
3) The dual D5 EK pump top can not be matched. Excellent performance, and the mounting system completely decouples your pumps. Even at the '5' setting, you certainly won't hear the pumps over the GTs.
Thanks, I just looked this up and it looks perfect for my needs. My current basic design was using 2 reservoirs, this will only use 1 which is good (cheaper
) and it seems I can block two ports (inlet/outlet) and run the pumps in series.
4) With the point above in mind, a pump controller is really unnecessary with D5 Varios. It's more of just something to tinker with. If you know that going in, then by all means.
The pump controller certainly isn't necessary, you're dead right. Because I was planning on getting the fan controller I thought it would be nice to control the pumps as well, just a nicety I guess. To be honest as great as the aquacomputer gear is, I will probably just go with the lamptron which will do fans, temp and flow just fine. It should also do pumps but there is an issue with D5's atm, there is someone working on a PCB to remedy this, so maybe something for the future.
5) Primochill Advanced LRT over XSPC. No plasticizer issues with Advanced LRT.
Thanks, put to the top of the list.
6) Push almost always has better results than pull. The only reason to do Push/Pull is to be able to spin your fans down. Otherwise, the GT's will have no issue dissipating your heat with those two 360s. So if you want to run them full on, just go with push.
The reason I was thinking pull, at least with the bottom rad was to use it as in ingress point and keep exhausts the top and rear of the case. Still much research/testing to do here, I will take your advice on-board. I was hoping to run the fans at slower speeds while still maintaining good cooling so push/pull might be the way to go.
7) While Gigabyte's UEFI is fricken amazing, as are the chosen components and general ability, the RoG features seem just too damn good to pass up this round. The Maximus VI Extreme will be shipping with a delidded retention bracket, if you just want to skip out on the heat spreader entirely. The PLX chip on it is great too, which will be important for your SLI setup. Though honestly, you might think about going SB-E with a 3820. 40 PCI-E lanes vs. 16 is a pretty big deal for a monster system like yours.
The Asus is definitely at the top of my list at the moment. As for going 2011 it's something that I have contemplated seriously. 1055 is definitely winning atm, but only just so that may change before I pull the trigger.
8) EK also sells mounting kits made specifically for delidded/IHS-less procs. That's pretty cool.
Running the chip naked is certainly an option but I would rather not use liquid metal on the block. Again something I will look into more.
