on koolance blocks you recycle the stock backplate.
Backplates are OK... there not really needed unless you have memory on the backside of the card in which then they help cooling the ram on the other side.
They also allow a more rigid mounting to compress the card between the block as well.
Last note, dont always go with best and top performance as the difference is a down to a few C's.... i would personally go with what u think looks nice, and then second performance, unless the block is terrible, which most arent now.
If your going to invest a lot of money on this, you may as well make it looks nice to your aesthetics.
Can you fit two 480's in that X9? I'm thinking two 120mm fans per component, plus two extra just 'cause. Eight fans with 45m radiators. That's what I must have. Thick, beefy, monstrous cooling. I mean, might as well, right?
yeah according to gusk, he managed to sneak in 2 x 480's.
Although i dont think you will require that much cooling potential.
A single 360 is overkill on a CPU alone, and a single 360 should handle your gpu's in SLI without much problems.
The only added benefit of having oversize rads, in overkill proportions is the fact you can down volt your fans to a quiter setting.
However if you ever wanted to change cases, you will be in tough luck finding one which can handle a 480 natively.
Are the dual pumps for redundancy? If one fails, will the other be able to push the water through the broken pump?
dual pumps give 2x head pressure and a increase of 1/3rd more flow.
Dual pumps were mostly used in the old days when we had restrictive cpu blocks, and other things which ate head pressure.
Increase of flow, makes your system overall more efficient.
As you get more flow, you get more holding potential in water.
Water works on a sense of equilibrium, until u exceed the holding potential of water where then you will form a gradient.
That typical number in which you will have a temp gradient off a single pump is 260-350W depending on cpu block and flow.
That basically means if you have a heat source that high, the temp of water will increase 1C after it has passed though that component.
Typically no CPU's now can dish out that heat range, so having your CPU block first will not impact the system in any noticable degree.
The only time where you will see a noticable amount is if your running quadsli / quadfire , where if all 4 of your gpu's were loaded, the water coming out of the cards would be increased more then a couple C, which can translate to a increased CPU temp. The best way to minimize this effect would be to increase flow, or put more pumps in a short version.
This is where u will get into a lot of debates about running multi loops.
Most occasions a single loop is the far easiest. The temp difference between multi and single are very small as well, unless again, we are talking about big big heat loads.
Multi loops do however allow a better sense of control and fine tuning, however this will go into the advance stages of watercooling, where you are a perfectionist, and want the perfect efficient setup.
(incase ur wondering i have 3 loops, 6 pumps, 4 radiators and 3 reservoirs with a total coolant capacity of 2/3rds a gallon... yes its quite overkill, but i wanted the perfect system.)
Dual pumps also help with redundancy so you minimize down time.
Should a pump fail, you can still run on a "skeleton crew" until your replacement arrives.
This allows you to still have your system running doing all the tasks required without having to tear it down and wait for a new replacement.
I tell people think of a second pump as "insurance" because if we look at probability.... lets say you have 5% chance your pump will die... then you have 5% of 5% chance your second will die at the same time which probability plays in your favor. (unless u did something to damage the pumps and they both get damaged, like shove a piece of glass in the impeller)
To me it boils down to this..
If one has a 2000/3000/4000 dollar system, is 79 dollars extra really a problem?
That 79 dollars is a insurance that you wont have a downtime if and when a pump fails..
Most bay res's now have an option of dual pumps, so it wont even take up a lot of real estate inside the case.
Example of a dual pump bay res for both D5 and DDC:
The D5 vs DDC....
I love the D5, its a strong reliable pump built like a tank... however like a tank its BIG.
DDC's on the other hand, give a better head pressure, they are smaller, and can be fit almost anywhere...
They are now fairly reliable, however they tend to heat up, so its adviced you put them on heat sinks..
My DDC's with heat sinks...
Although i do like bay res's i do have some issues with them.... its namely the amount of liquid which can be stored.
The more Coolant u have, the longer hold time til equilibrium you will achieve... that means, it will take longer for the system to reach equalibirum, which is in net, the highest the temp your coolant will run.
Although it offers no performance benefits, having a big tube RES is quite eye candy...