[pHaestus]

You are like a bipolar person jaydee, but you flip-flop from the "good enough" to "get it right" crowd instead. Why monitor temperatures? Cooling performance is evaluated by measuring temperatures and properly analyzing their meaning. Why to bother?

Ok let's assume (here's a big one) that commercial water cooling systems are engineered and optimized to perform as well as possible at a given price point given typical space/mounting limitations. In other words that the commercial mfgrs know what they are doing. OK operate on that assumption and decide you want to build a DIY cooling loop to save money and have more fun.

Given say half the budget of the commercial kit, would you want that DIY loop to perform 50%, 75%, or 90% as well as that totally optimized commercial system? The way you improve performance is by matching components, and one cannot do that without reliable test results. That is the value of properly conducted testing in my eyes.