so realistically, set aside this pcie spec thing.
would my mobo really die from the ~5% extra power draw from pcie? I managed to snag a gtx 1070 on the same day the rx480s released, so i decided to get the gtx. but I still have a pc with a r9 390 i want to replace, for power savings.
i'm replacing my eloops with phanteks which have the white fan blade on black frame. Hope they work out well for you. I'm running the all black versions of the phanteks on my main setup with 12 radiator fans, and it has been silent and awesome!.
i've only had ek varders on my ek predator 360, but they ran very nicely.
i do have a ton of 120 and 140mm phanteks fans , MP, XP etc and they all work great. Low noise. i have 12 of the 120mm MP on my 2 radiators.and a few of the 140mm XPs for general air flow in my build.
I also have...
intermittent blue screens, every day or 2. then just flat out stopped booting. ran my oc'd i7 920 @3.8 nicely for years hah. finally retired this pc too.
the multiframes i had were awesome, asides from them dying on me after a few years. The e-loops however left me a bad taste in my mouth. I have 6 of them due to having 2 of the swiftech x320 prestige all in one water coolers.
i had a pair of x300 5tb drives, they ran fairly warm under load, with a 120mm fan dragging air across it. i think 45c under load. now running a pair of 8tb hgsts instead, these get to 41/42c in the same conditions.
i wouldn't sit on an asus mobo so long.. i had a x99-a, worked fine for 2 weeks then died. then i got another x99-a.. doa.. eventually got a x99 sabertooth, and thats been working for a month now. a lot of reviews on the asus x99 series mobos show doa, or early failure.
i just recently upgraded my system, i7 920 at 3.8 also, had it running since 2008. Built a i7 4770k system in 2014 but never got around to using it.
just built a i7 5930k that i'm happily using with a very mild oc for now. I mainly upgraded for the newer things like pcie 3, running a samsung 950...