So, after some frustration and wondering why in the world I even attempted to go the WC route, I have finally finished my first "major" mod of my rig (aside from adding some cards and swapping fans).  All I did (for part 1) was to put my CPU on the loop.  With that, I realize that many of the components I have are massive overkill for just my CPU, but I'm planning on moving my GPU's to WC as well (at some point in time).
 
This is the parts list:
Pump:  Koolance PMP-450
Res:  Koolance RP-452X2 (Rev 2.0)
Rad:  Black Ice Xtreme 3 X-flow
Block:  Koolance CPU-370
Fans: Cooler Master High Performance SickleFlow 120mm (x3). 
Assorted fittings, tubing, coolant, etc...

 
Prior to this, I was going with the blue theme.  The top three fans in my case (Corsair 700D) were Blue LED fans


 
I decided that I wanted to move to a Red theme - so the fans for the Rad are red and I replaced the bottom 140 and the back 120 fans with red LED as well. 
 
Anyway, on to the process and some lessons learned.  Setting it all up was, for the most part pretty easy.  Two major rules I learned:

1. Never cut your tub to the length you know you need - allow a few inches more and trim it back as needed.  This is especially important if you have a bay res that you plan on sliding out to fill.....
2. Never give up - there is always a solution (or RMA...)

Now, after I finally got all the tubing to the length I needed, I hooked everything up, jumped the PSU, filled the res, flipped the switch and......nothing.  The pump wouldn't spin.  After cursing, throwing things, grumbling at the family, wishing bad things upon good people, I remembered rule #2.  Taking a deep breath, I started to try and figure out what was going on.  I pulled the res/pump out and hooked up a simple loop (out of the res and right back in).  Worked like a champ.  So, nothing wrong with the pump.  Maybe I just missed something and didn't have it hooked up right (maybe the molex was bad).  Reassembled everything, hooked everything up, jumped the PSU, filled the res, flipped the switch and.....yup....nothing.
 
Anways - long story short, but to prove never give up....I had an air block in the system somewhere.  Not sure exactly where but it finally worked itself out.  Of course that was after I filled the entire system with a full bottle of coolant and sat the rig on it's back for the whole night. 
 
Ok...so, it's working.  On to leak testing...


 
24 hours later and it's working like a charm. 
 



 
Not wanting to be left out of the loop (pun intended), my son decided I needed an awesome case badge for my rig.

 
Well, the first chapter of the water cooling saga is closed for me.  Going to let this run for a little bit and let things settle in (and the TIM bake for a bit).  I'll post back with how the temps faired against my old H70. 
 
 

Attachment(s)

Attachments are not available: Download requirements not met

How was the filling/bleeding on that res? I'm looking at the same one and have heard some horror stories about that process.

Honestly, the whole process was a bit of a pain. However, I'm not sure if it was the res, the pump or the configuration of my loop. I ended up having an air lock in the system somewhere (my guess the rad since it is the largest and highest component of the loop). What I ended up doing was tilting the case back, filling it with a whole bottle of coolant and then sitting the rig on its back so the res was facing straight up. I left it this way over night to try and force the air lock to release - which it did. I then topped the res off and, for the bleeding, it want't bad at all. I think, because of what I had to do, there weren't many air bubbles left. Still not sure if it was the res or just the set up, but it was not really done in the "traditional" route. I just hope I don't have the same kind of issue when I use the other side of the res. as for filling, there is both a top fill port and one on the top of the face of the res. since it is a bay res, getting to the top fill port, in my case, wasn't easy. Using the one on the front face plate was nice and easy. Personally, I think Koolance did a good job at redesigning the 2.0 version from the previous (1.3, etc.).

That looks sweet!
I really like how that rad has the outlet at the other end to hide longer tubing.
Looks super clean.

Macros


That looks sweet!
I really like how that rad has the outlet at the other end to hide longer tubing.
Looks super clean.

Thanks!  That is the main reason I picked the X-Flow.  From the outlet on the rad to the pump is only about 3 inches.  It's good because it cleans up the tubing a bit - but also a pain trying to manuever and get it all connected.  I was actually expecting a leak somewhere in that section. 

Very nicely done!

nice work! looking good

Thanks for the feedback.  And thanks for the BR.  While stressful at times, it was loads of fun.  Can't wait to get in to some more - but I'll let that be for another time.

Thanks for sharing! Ill keep your tips in mind when setting up my WC system. It'll be my first ever and I'm pretty excited.