This is for a new, scratch-built gaming PC.

The two GTX280s are going to be water cooled no matter what. The water blocks are built into the cards, and they put off the most heat, so they’re the priority.

The motherboard’s nb/sb is “H2O ready” so it’s more an option of including it in the loop without any extra work.

The processor is actually my least concern. If I don’t put a water block on it and include it in the loop, I’ll just throw an nice Zalman heatsink on it like I have in my current gaming rig  (and soon to be new work rig), which works more than fine.

Most likely I’m just going to focus on water for the 280s and maybe the nb/sb, since I really don’t want to run two water pumps/systems. The whole water thing is more of a novelty for me than a necessity, which is why I’m going with the Reserator XT kit as opposed to building something custom from parts- I don’t have the time to spend fiddling with it.

I haven’t started assembling the PC yet, I’m still waiting on some parts from Newegg tomorrow, but I’ll let you know what the final decision was.