Liquid cooling or air cooling

I used the HAF X case for the longest time until I upgrade to my 900D.

Firstly, you're opening a can of worms here, as there are plenty of charts out to show you air cooling can do just as good a job as liquid cooling.  But one thing, air can't do that liquid can is noise.  Liquid Cooling will always be quieter than air cooling.  But if we're talking about comparing a single closed loop cpu cooler vs the Noctua, the Noctua will be quiet and do just as good a job.

Now, the HAF X.  Let's talk about it and why your fan set up is important on deciding which cooling set up you'll want.  It comes with one 200mm at the top (rear) and one on the side, a long with another fan in the front.  You're 200mm on the side and your smaller fan in the front are intakes, with one 200mm on the top as an exhaust.  If you're using a noctua, you'll want another 200mm on the top and flip your rear 200mm around so that they are both intake. Have your Noctua facing backwards with possibly another fan on the case for your exhaust. Giving you much more intake than exhaust. This will cause it to be louder, but this is your optimal setting.

Now should you choose a closed loop, it depends on your OC.  If you don't plan on overclocking any, then a simple H60-H80 (corsair) hooked on the back pulling air in will be sufficient without the need of a second 200mm on the top.  In fact, there are several benchmarks done where people mod their HAF X and completely block the front half of the top of their case (where the 200mm is missing).

Now should you choose to overclock, and want to go liquid, the H100 is an amazing cooler.  Simply install it on the top of your case pushing air out to match the already 200mm up there, and install a 120 or 140 on the rear for intake and you're fine.

Regardless, you're not going to see any difference between a Corsair H100 and a Noctua when just cooling your CPU.  Liquid cooling will give you a much quieter system when you're OC'ing everything and want silence. 

Though liquid cooling is better on video cards compared to air cooling your cards, unlike cpus where air cooling is just as good as liquid cooling.  And you get better stability out of liquid cooling your motherboard than using stock/air cooling on it (especially when OC'ing your cpu, having all ram slots populated, and running high speed memory).

Hopefully none of that is too confusing.

If the budget allows for a custom liquid cooling system then it's a great way to go to keep everything cool and quiet. The HAF-X running a full air cooled setup isn't bad either - that's what that case was designed for. FYI - You can still use the HydroLux fan & light controller on a non-water cooled setup as well.

Good Luck and can't wait to see pics whenever you get it!!