MODZERO

UPDATE 3.0 I ran out of time on Tuesday, so I'll keep this short.... This first phase is complete, the build is hooked up on my desk and I'm happy to say the 750watt PSU is working a charm with the RTX3080FE suffering zero power issues under HEAVY load. ... Really I wanted to buy the Shock Blue controller and shoot it with one in the shot, but they ain't cheap... so it'll have to wait. It's an awkward angle but there it is, MODZERO SHOCK. ... Always gotta share those backside shots.. lol.. So proud to have Samsung on this one, 4TB of total solid-state storage NICE! ... With the side fan bracket removed you get a better view of that lovely Noctua NH - D9L cooler. ... The cables turned out well, not the best out there, but I'm proud of that. the rear fan on the 3080FE cooler sits damn close to the PSU. that 24pin arcs pretty well to still provide that fan with plenty of exhaust space out to the rear side of the chassis. ... So that's phase 1. Taking the Sliger S610, putting great hardware and the best in air cooling to produce something that'll smoke anything the PS5/XBSX can produce. Job done.... So now it's time to take it to PCMR tier god mode. Under full gaming loads with the PC about 2-3 feet from me on the desk, it remaining reasonably quiet. You'd certainly be pleased with it. But any fan curve is too much fan curve in my eyes. So next opportunity I'll begin its migration to the S620. Where I intend to run two 240mm rads (internally) withe EK 120FLT combo + CPU/GPU blocks. EK sent me a box stuffed full of love! First up I'll shoot the S620 empty then go about fitting the fans, primarily as I'll have to route and sleeve them.. only this time I've got all those bloody RGB cables to deal with... Not too sure how best to make a clean job of those. I might convert them into 4-pin PWM headers and daisy chain the lot into a single 4pin ARGB connector.... It'll be a slow burn and I intend to leave the S610 running intact until all the loop prep in the S620 is in place. I'll get some benches done and post those.. will be good to see how it fairs against is future WC variant. Until then... Thanks for taking the time to read this.. it's a dying form. You'll miss it when TicTok becomes the PCMR channel of choice. ha J.

UPDATE 2.0 Let's see if I can bring this up to date with this post then maybe look at what's next (for this build). At the end of the last post, I'd just about completed making all the fan cables and routing those to the OCTO controller. So really, with no great mods planned... Once I've made all the power cables, it's done... pretty much. ... I went with MDPC-X Blue Carbon and Liquid Carbon sleeve (here). I'd asked Nils about the Microsoft Shock blue and he'd recommended the carbon combo. It contrasts well with the Noctua blue bumpers and I'm hopefully If I do find a wrap for the front panel, it'll all pull together. ... I find sleeving to be the love/hate task of all builds. The end result is always worth it and the only way is through, you just gotta get it done. It's the most time-consuming part of any of my builds and at 37 with young kids, getting it finished takes an age. At most I'll get a few hours a week to plug away at it. Downtime, when you have kids, is normally spent on the sofa contemplating the merits of prophylactics... and if I do find the energy to put some hours in, sleeving is one of those things you don't really wanna do when you're knackered. So I (perhaps stupidly) always start with the 24pin, it's the largest and I like to think you're halfway done once the 24pin is in. ... I picked white combs, in super tight spaces I think combs make a lot of sense, the best builds out there don't use them. Look at pretty much everything JR23 has made.... wow! but with this... I wanted white, and I wanted LOTS of them. Planning it out I knew the 12pin EPS would have you travel across the GPU and up so I needed a good bend, the 24pin would have to come outward, bend 180' and then pitch another 90' into the socket... and the 12pin GPU with its stupid side placement would have to hug the GPU and bend around and up... I needed combs... ... Love how the panels just pop off! During this sleeving stage, I had all the sides off, stacked on my desk. The S610 really is a well-thought-out bit of kit. ... That space below the PSU is great, you're able to get at all the PSU cables, and when fully assembled it's a great spot for ventilation. 750watts! Silverstone PSUs are a pleasure to sleeve, they have 1:1 pinouts... no more needed. ... 24pin in and Molex being made for the OCTO. I've better shots of the 24pin for later... ... Octo is all wired in and looking pretty. ... So you can see the 24pin shape clearer there... it had to do this, as when I transplant this build into its chubby brother the S620 I'll be mounting an EK 120 FLT on that surface the OCTO is on.. so the PSU cables couldn't foul that space. The OCTO will be rotated 90' and mounted on the underside of the top panel. ... It sat like this for a week or so... and then I started the final push... the nasty Nvidia 12pin. Now I'd had a plan. MDPCX had no intentions of stocking the connector and the tight wire placement meant that any heat-shrinkless sleeving wasn't gonna happen. I couldn't chop up the adapter the GPU comes with as I'd no terminals that would fit... But not to worry as Sliverstone answered my calls! ... ... Check out the pinout too!! So the approach would be simple enough. I hung up the cable with weights to straighten the wire then fitted the GPU and cut the cable to length. Then I sleeved the GPU end the old-fashioned way with heat-shrink and touch of CA. ... The old issue with this is, getting a clean finish from the sleeve. if they don't sit pretty side by side it can look messy. so I did it six at a time.. lol. Precut all the sleeve, remember the other end isn't crimped yet so the length wasn't an issue. Then I put a dot of CA onto the sleeve/wire with the heat-shrink in place. this was so I could pull the sleeve tight for when I got to the other end of the cable. otherwise, they'd slide up the wire and I'd make a reet shit job of it. ... ... All the combs! lol.. That was a quarter of the job done and I was happy with the progress. I then got into it and stopped taking photos.... oops. ... ... ... In a case this size you've nowhere to hide, and little room to cable manage. The individual wires have to be spot on. When using combs it's easier to get a clean run but you end up dealing with the pinout between that last comb and the connector. With a larger build that space can be 10+ cm and so the position/route of each wire around the wire next to it, isn't as key. With ITX it's near impossible to get a perfect finish. But I was proud of these and proud of the 12PIN too. ... I'm out of time so I'll post again on Thursday with some full shots and a plan for the S620. Thanks for reading!!! Please leave a comment. What do you think? J.

UPDATE 1.0 Progress! yay! I think I'll probs get this near done (first stage at least) in this post. So I'll probs SPAM the life out of it on FB (sorry folks). The most time-consuming part of this project is the cables, it's the same with every build. Buying custom-made extensions are great! and I recommend Pexon (here) if that's what you want to do. However, making all the cables yourself so you have that truly custom fit and finish is what I feel (at least partially) separates modders/builders today. Anyone can build a PC and hide all the mess. Take a tight space and make it look otherwise takes something else. and that, more so than anything else, was the goal with this, as it was with MODZERO JUICE (here). Now I'm average at best! when it comes to making cables, I'm shit at soldering, and even after over a dozen MODZERO builds I still make a mess of crimps more often than not.. So I tend to order A LOT more than I need and take my time. ... I ended up using my trusty NH-D9L again. I'd used the same cooler on the first stage MODZERO ASHEN (here). I'd wanted a black chromax cooler and sure enough, Noctua sent me the NH-U12S CHROMAX.BLACK and it'll fit, in the S620 with no side-mounted fans. But alas, plans changed and I found myself looking at all Noctuas coolers with clearance in mind. The NH-L12S or the NH-L12S Ghost Edition made a lot of sense but would require regular height RAM and neither of which are part of the .BLACK range (yet?). So the only Noctua SFF cooler in black would be the tiny NH-L9i chromax.black. A brilliant cooler, I used one on MODZERO JUICE (here) and its performance blew me away. Though, I doubted it'll cool an i7 11700k with a 125watt TDP shown to pull a sustained 180watt!!!!!!!! So I needed something with chops, that was low-profile that wouldn't hide the RAM, ahhhhh the RAM..... ... Teamgroup T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB 16GB 3600MHZ (here) So I decided to pull out the NH-D9L again, I bought a new Chromax 92mm fan for it and got test fitting... ... That's a good 3mm! when paired with CHROMAX NF-A12x15s on the side bracket. ... That'll serve me nicely! The D9L has that great double tower aesthetic built around a 92mm (can fit two) fan. Pair that with the Z590i, the i7 11700K, two Samsung 980 Pro 1TB drives, and the 16gb XTREEM kit and that should deliver great performance. But first I had loads of cables to make. ... With the S610 all the panels pop off, they do so with a reassuring click. removing all the sides reveals a black powder-coated frame with some truly very thought-out design features. You can fit two slim 120s up in the top or, when you opt for the handle you fit that center bracket dropping you down to one top 120mm (slim) fan but you get that great SOLID aluminum handle. ... All the Noctua Chromax fans use removable cables, which is a delight! I have six Chromax fans going in here and an ITX board with only two headers.. So I wanted to daisy chain the bottom pair and the side bracket pair and make custom length cables for the top slim fan and the CPU fan. Then, route them all into an OCTO controller mounted to the PSU housing.. ... ... Board and PSU in I hoped the OCTO would just line up nicely on the PSU cage.. It didn't.. haha, so a quick job with the file... ... ... Nice, now to get the cables run. ... I couldn't source female PWM connectors so I stripped the ones that came with the fans, cut them to length, sleeved, and put new male connectors on. ... NOT great! but a little length of heat shrink and it'll serve. ... ... I love this controller! With MODZERO SEVEN I finally bought an Aquaero put the heatsink on it, had a custom mount, and ran everything through it, it's awesome! But I use about 3% of its capabilities! and they ain't cheap!! So when I was speccing MODZERO DYNO (here) I bought the OCTO, the cut back little brother of the Aquaero. This thing is amazing! it runs the same software as its bigger sibling and offers 8 channels (30w per channel) + expansion. It's the perfect controller. ... The internal USB header was a pain in the ass, unlike the Aquaero the OCTO uses a tiny connector on the controller so I couldn't make a new cable. Instead, I had to cut to length, sleeve, and re-crimp the Internal USB end. ... ... The PSU cable routes nicely around the top fan. I had to train it (left it held in place with small clamps) but now it's not visible from any meaningful angle. ... All six fans fitted and connected to the OCTO controller. Looking good! ... It sat like this for a week on my desk. The next task was bound to be harder... The clearance between the GPU and the PSU was tight and I knew I'd have to route the cables along with the GPU and up for the EPS and had to keep in mind that these cables would need to transplant into the S620 and thus I must consider the Pump/Res placement when routing my 24pin. Plus..... I had to do something about the 3080FE 12pin!! ... Thanks for reading, if you have, I'd love a comment. I enjoy writing the build logs any questions or thoughts, have at it below.. I mean.. look at it.. the top 120 is the intake and the side are an outlet! That can't be right, can it? I'll be back soon. J.

MODZERO SHOCK Hey folks, I'm back with another b(uild)log... I'm not sure where to start with this one... I was finishing up with MODZERO DYNO (here) feeling unimpressed with the final build thinking 'ughhhhh ATX sucks, I wanna get back in another SFF case'. Parvum has always been my 'goto' chassis of choice but as I'm still actively developing MODZERO SEVEN (here) I started thinking of all the other epic chassis on the market. I've always liked the NCASE M1, the LOUQE GHOST S1, Dan Case S4, and the Formd T1! I'd no concepts in mind, no real drive to do anything new or extreme with any of the above... at that point, I wanted to build a clean, air-cooled rig I'd be happy to have on my desk and take along to LAN events. But then Covid put a stop to LAN events and the shortages killed supply and most of my sponsors had their marketing budgets slashed and thus weren't able to support (at that time). Can't believe it's June 2021 and much of that is still valid. I wasn't in a rush, so it just occupied that space at the back of my head for a while. I think, at this point, the PS5 and XBOX SX were about to be released and RTX 3000 & and RX6000 series were doing the press rounds. Intel was rumored to have the 11th gen just around the corner and thus the motherboard players would have new chipset boards to push. It started to feel like an opportune time to reach out and see how I'd fair. But first I'd need a concept. Then I won dec MOTM over on builds.gg! $500 + a bunch of credit with EK and PPCs. Now I had a budget! I'd seen a bunch of builds on Instagram in SLIGER cases, I'd not heard of Sliger but for the most part, they had that shoebox design that I was looking for. Then they posted teasers of the S610/S620, it had a cleaner design on the front than the 500 series and I loved the chunky handle! it also looked amazing in white with a black top/handle. I wanted them both... the concept became clear... build a console-killing mini beast running the latest from Intel/Nvidia (seeing as the consoles were all AMD/AMD) and cool it with the best air cooling on the market. I'd no real mods in mind, just 100% handmade custom MDPCX cables, panel to panel Noctua cooling, and great midrange hardware! So I sent out the emails and starting spending my winnings on bits. SLIGER S610 (here) ... ... ... The case was the first to turn up, I bought the S610. It was the only thing I wanted and Performance PCs sold Sliger products. I got in touch and they placed the order with Sliger. In the time it took to come, a few things happened. Well, one thing happened (here). ... I didn't even have a RTX3080! This build was intended to be a console killer, not a PCMR wet dream! In my mind, I was aiming at a 3070 maybe a 3060 and most like an 11th gen i5 as again, I was thinking I'd be buying it! But this block blew me away! There was no way I was getting a couple of rads in the S610 and I was still in love with the idea of class-leading air cooling! So one build became two! I reached out to Sliger and explained I was building in the S610 on-air aiming at the console market with a super clean build. Then I said, I'd like to squeeze two 240mm rads and a full custom loop in the S620 and asked if they would be up for coming along for the ride. They were! shortly after the S620 arrived on my doorstep. Thanks Sliger! ... ... ... The guys over at Sliger have been great too! they sent me an extra front panel for the S620 (as I may attempt a distro.) and for anyone that follows them on Instagram (here) you'll know they are a small company in the US, that design and manufacture their products in the US. I was getting a CaseLabs vibe and I'm all for it! More about the S620 later. My last three builds have been proudly sponsored by AMD, I started out back in the 90s with AMD and it's been an absolute honor to have their support. Before it, I bought the chips that went in my builds and until ZEN landed. Like everyone else.. those were Intel products. With a good body of work to my name now, I thought I'd try my luck and reached out to Intel. Now, I was asking for a product that wasn't out yet and I'm a nobody! I've never been sent anything pre-release, never signed an NDA. I was having this conversation (asking for sponsorship) on two fronts. With Intel I'd sent them a pitch asking for an i5/i7 and with the Gigabyte I knew they'd release an ITX Z590 board, just because they hadn't announced it yet, didn't mean it didn't exist. Sure enough, Intel released the 11th gen of CPUs, and along came Aorus with the Z590i (here) ... ... I've been posting stories and images over on my Instagram for months check em out (here). I figure this build log will be image-heavy as it is. I run the X580 ITX board from Aorus in my MODZERO SHEILD build and love the similarities. Intel got back in touch and offered to support the build, they kindly sent me over an i7 11700k! I was super stoked! Does anyone else recall those awesome press kits Intel sent out? with the cool product boxes (you'd have seen them in all the youtube coverage)? Yeah? ... LOL! Made me chuckle, doesn't matter in the slightest! I'm super proud to have Intel support this build and to be able to add Intel to the list of awesome brands I've worked with. Pre ZEN only the very few used to get anything from the big blue (sponsored), yeah markets have changed, but for an old player like me, feels good to have them on board. ... So I'm rocking the Intel Core i7 - 11700K which suits me just fine, as I'm running the AMD 5800X in my other build (SEVEN). Nice to have that matching core count. Looking forward to benching them off against each other. ... Noctua sent me over all the Chromax! I'd posted unboxing and product shots on my Instagram (here) so check em out if you're into it. I'll talk about them more when we get into the build I ended up NOT using the cooler they sent me and went with my trusty NH-D9L and did buy another 4 fans. I've some thoughts on Noctuas Chromax, remind me if I forget later on. Remember I mentioned I'd won BOTB over on Builds.gg (here) well that opened some doors! I run an 860 EVO drive in the back of that which caught Samsung Memories eye over on Instagram. They sent me a message which turned into a zoom meeting with their creative team. They only wanted to use the project in an ad they were shooting!!!! HOW COOL is that! Long story short, I wasn't down with shipping my pride and joy halfway around the planet so I pointed them at BenQ and moved on. I went back to them weeks later and pitched this project. WOW! Did they hook me up! ... 2x Samsung 980 PRO 1TB 1x Samsung 870 EVO 2TB ... I posted a bunch on Instagram if you wanna see it. As mentioned, I'd adjusted the scope of the build after EK blew my ginger bollocks off with the 3080 FE block.. so now I needed a 3080FE.. Which, is no easy thing. I've no relationship with Nvidia, and those guys in the community that do weren't getting GPUs sent their way either. It was a case of FINDING STOCK. Who am I kidding, it was a case of sitting on a PartsAlerts discord server for 11 hours a day with a Telegram app pushing notifications when/if Nvidia pushed the stock to the UK. Orders were (still are) being fulfilled by Scan.co.uk and unless you were hitting that product page within seconds of it going live, you were fucked. so I was fucked. over and over.... and over again. Sure, 8-5 whilst working from home It's easy enough to have the discord open on another screen.... and yeah, telegram does an OK job at covering those other points in the day. But I quickly found that even this wasn't enough. You needed to be logged into your scan account as the capture security stuff would cause you to lose out... you needed to use cash (not a credit card) as any transaction approval would cause you to lose your basket. But most of all, you had to be ready...... At most, there would be 1 drop every couple of weeks, 14k ppl would hit the discord link, and maybe! maybe! Scan would have 30+ GPUs. It took weeks just to get to the product page and there actually be an option to 'add to basket'. I lost out twice due to using a credit card and at least twice to server errors. When I finally landed one, I can tell you it was the most stressful nerdy tech purchase experience of my life! ... It's a thing of beauty! minus that abomination of a 12pin power connector! *puke*. It arrived and I left it in the box (half-open) enjoying its splendor whilst I waited for the time I could start this build... well I got bored of waiting, drained MODZERO SEVEN, and swapped out my EK cooled 5700XT anniversary edition with the RTX3080 FE running on air. I made new cables (only as far as the adapter) and for a couple of weeks, when I could, I enjoyed the power and performance this GPU delivers. Two things, however. Mounted inverted, the FE cooler is horrid! it would spin up SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO loud even with a headset on you'd be thinking someone was parking a truck outside. Secondly, that 12pin is like taking a shit on the bonnet of a supercar. ... But something else was happening, MODZERO SEVEN runs a 700watt gold SFX PSU from Silverstone, up until very recently it was the very best they offer in that form factor. I fitted the 3080FE with the primary intention of finally finishing Half-Life ALYX! using Oculus Connect and the Quest 2 the 5800X paired with the 3080FE offered a MAXED out VR gaming experience which is, put frankly, INCREDIBLE! The world is full of only two types of people. Those who have experienced ALYX and everyone else. Problem was..... The PC would just turn off! not driver crash, not crash ALYX, it would die. Now I knew Nvidia claimed 750watts is needed for the 3080 but in all the years I've been a PC gamer I've never known a GPU to actually push those requirements. Nothing I could do would give me a stable experience so after at most, a couple of hours progress in-game and hours of troubleshooting. The 3080FE came out and went back in the box. ... So I did the sensible thing and sourced the solution! I've got some good shots coming up. So why call it SHOCK, it's not going to be one. I've no intention of pushing the boundaries... instead firmly taking aim at clean aesthetics and whats with the *? well let's get this started. ... I ordered the case with white panels, a black top, feet, and handle. I knew I'd use Noctua Chromax black fans and most everything else internally would be predominantly black. The XBOX is black and the PS5 Black and White. The S610, the one I ordered at least is black and white. I wanted a console experience but needed a distinction. I thought about the XBOX game pass on the PC as a platform then remembered this. ... This would be the color scheme for my console killer, and thus its controller and namesake. The Microsoft Xbox Shock Blue controller. I took a good look at all the blues MDPCX offered and went with Blue Carbon. The blue Noctua offer as bumpers on their Chromax products wasn't too far off the SHOCK shade of blue and I'd hoped to vinyl wrap the front panel on the S610. Really simple, no modding, just clean. So let's get to it. J.

Hey folks, I finally got round to doing something with these extra shots I took. I'd wished they'd come out better. This paint is awesome in natural light, my mistake was publishing the final shots using a black background. Looking back, I should have taken it outside. A few of these are cool. Enjoy. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I'm heading back to the wonderful world of ITX next. I've two builds on the books with a third and fourth planned for later in 2021. Working name of MODZERO SHOCK coming up in the new year. Sliger has kindly supported the build with their great looking S620 chassis. Check it out here I've also bought the S610 both are coming in White with black top panels, black handle/feet. Silverstone and Noctua are on board too so the plan is to bring a console size/spec console killer build to life. I'm in love with the new FE coolers so it'll all come together once I can get my hands on a 3060ti/3070. Hoping to go with Intel on this one. If anyone LOVES to green 011D above I'm selling it, so send me a DM. I'll include the matching RADs for a little extra. I'd keep it if I had any use for it. as it is, the whole build has been retired and the case is back in its box ready to go. Thanks for coming along for the ride. J.

UPDATE 6.0 - IT'S DONE! Well, It's finished and I'm really interested to hear what you think of it. I'll jump in and share some photos then I'll give you my take on how it turned out. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Overall, I'm pleased with the results. I set out to do something a little outside of my norm. I picked a bold colour scheme and ran with it. Now, has it worked? No, I don't think so. I'll try and explain. The paint is amazing! it's a pig to shoot! the pearlescent effect makes it hard to get a consistent colour result and its harder still to capture the flake. Now, its automotive paint, it is Mclaren paint! Its meant to be outside and sure enough under the sun it really delivers. Indoors, in my office, it actually looks darker and slightly dull. Point some studio lights at it and the colour shifts lighter to almost blue/green (which looks ace! but crap on camera). The fittings and the tubing I really like, it has an almost engine hose finish. I wish I'd stuck with the chromed accent rings though... Not sure the black rings really add anything. Either way, I'm a fan of the EK torque fittings. It was high time BP had some competition in the fittings space. The yellow isn't great. I actually have the blocks pushing a yellow light too, otherwise, the coolant looks too much like custard! the colour is stronger in the res as its deeper, more intense in the cpu block as the LEDs are brighter. Its really quite washed out in the GPU with it only getting light from one side so far away from the coolant and the channels being so shallow. So loving the yellow... But the loop design I'm delighted with! When I kicked this off EK got in touch asking if I'd like a distro they had planned for it (at the time it wasn't released) So from the off I wanted to get this out the gate to show off that distro. But the build hit delays with hardware then covid killed a lot of marketing budgets causing more delays and so I shelved the build. None of the above was a problem though, I build maybe one PC a year and rarely in doing so am I without a PC. So I really enjoy just being able to pick it up and put an hour in here and another hour there. Granted this one, like my last has been harder now I've young kids. By the time everything was in hand EK had a hand full of different distros on the market and the PC-011D was already a HUGE hit! I mean it was a huge success long before I decided to build in one. I'd taken that TopGear McLaren photo and saw a version of the 011D that embodied some of those design cues. but ultimately the build went in a different direction. picking the purple lighting out in the ram and the case and putting more yellow into the coolant actually makes it look more like a Cyberpunk 2077 or Joker themed build with a Razer logo on it. haha. Either way, I'm happy with how it's turned out though perhaps it is not how I'd originally intended. I kinda think I occupy an odd position in the modding scene. I'm not young, I don't have loads of free time (or much at all) or do this professionally as an extension of say an education or fulltime job. I'm far from the best and my work isn't overly exciting. But it is constant. I do what excites me and build PCs that are intended to be used 24/7 hard! I enjoy writing these logs though they often just read as blogs and rarely see huge numbers of view or responses. The forum is losing to social media which is a shame but I'll keep it old school as long as I can. I'm an enthusiast, I love it! I had access to a 386 a 486! (as a kid). Loved overclocking the snot out of old Pentium chips pre 1ghz days (as a tweenager). Started building as I couldn't afford to buy a workstation (when I was a teenager). Cherry-picking AMD Athlon chips (1400+ 1700+ 2200+) and OC'n them to match the performance of my mates who could afford to buy prebuilt work stations. I fell in love with Charles Harwoods work and I've spent my life since trying to achieve something close... I've stuck with it and continued to be excited by the industry. In recent years I've been lucky enough to have amazing support from brands I love!!! That's all come about slowly and wouldn't have happened at all without the support and encouragement from the likes of Adam Faulkner, B-Neg! The Parvum boys and a few others. I enjoy the process, all the while others are raising the bar and taking PC modding to a new place. It's a great community, one I wish I was more involved with. I keep learning and think I get better with every project. I've got another couple photo sets I'll be posting on Insta and Fb (if you follow on there?). I shot it on a white background too which came out pretty cool. Not too sure what the future holds for this one. I'd love to put a 5900X in there with the 3900XT or a 3080FE with that super block EK have done. My next project will be the EK vert ITX case they teased at their expo! (please!!!) My first MODZERO build was in the Silverstone FT03! I have a fondness for vert cases. I'm thinking of doing it fully blacked out. black everything! with ZMT soft tubing! I guess we'll see. ... Thanks for coming along for the ride. J.

WOW it's an effort to scroll to the bottom of this log!! :D ... I've edited my finalshots down to 88, I'll get that down to 24 fully edited ones and post 6. J.

UPDATE 5.0 - IT'S SO CLOSE Well, it's the next day, I'm back with another slice. ... So I filled it up, bled it and booted. Faught the awful Gigabyte RGB software and didn't feel much better about using the Razer software suite just to set the case RGB either. On the plus side, while all the RGB was cycling it gave me some better ideas on what colours to set. But I'll get to that down the bottom. Did anyone notice that the bottom run in the above shot is now different from how it was documented in the log? Well, I said I'd come to regret that double female 90' fitting and here is why. It's pretty heavy and that's all pulling on a rotary fitting up on the GPU which meant it wasn't great at holding its position. Having sat and looked at it for hours (as you do when you boot up these sorts of projects) I was falling out with my runs. It just felt as though the angles were slightly off. Not just on the bottom run but the two 90's coming from the rads seemed too short, with their connected runs pulling on them slightly causing them to not look quite straight. So I shut it down, drained it, removed the bottom run and cut a single length with both the 45'and the 90' bends in it. ... But that wasn't all. When booted up, the CPU, RES and GPU are lit up. I wanted to set a single colour and be done with it, this one wasn't about all the RGB glory hence the non-lit fan choice. However, each lit component seemingly holds different LED ICs so the hue wasn't a perfect match (component to component). The RES looks amazing!!!! I'm totally sold on the flat res! it's great! Magnitude uses a higher density strip which looks great too but so close to the GPU the difference was obvious. Even dimming the blocks didn't really help. Now the GPU is only lit from one edge and I'm running a EK solid coolant so the lighting effect really dropped off the closer it gets to the IO. All in all, I wasn't too happy with the look. Remember I'd swapped out the terminal for an old school looking EK one. Well, that was a mistake. The Vector block terminal is also lit so I thought f**k it, let's swap it back in. ... Looks loads better. All the runs meet in this middle point, but with them being black they seem to blend into the overall look without being on show. ... MDPC sent me a couple of stickers with my last orders so I've started putting them on my work. I'm really not one for stickers.. but those look epic. So I also decided to redo the top run from RAD to CPU. As I'd said the 90' bend from the RAD wasn't spot on and I'd thought it was looking a bit awkward from certain angles. With the only terminal and that CPU run as it was, that centre point looked more of a clutter. With a new cleaner single run using only a 45'bend it opened up the block more. Looks much better IMO. So whats left.. ... This worked a treat! With me having the rads push air out the chassis I didnt need the RAD filters. But the case has grills above the PSU, IO and PCI brackets that are not filtered. so I cut up the RAD filters and peeled off the mag strips to make some new dust filters. ... They work great! the Rads, of course, pull a lot of air in through those places. The filters are working a treat. ... The original colour concept for this project. The case is the green, the coolant is the yellow, the carbon/orange (seats) is the cables. the chrome (alloys) are the fittings. Secondly to that this project is meant to be Razer branded. The case has the etched logo on the front but I want to take it further. ... My neighbour has an A2 plotter so she hooked me up with a great big Razer logo. ... ... Only I screwed it up.... wow it's hard putting these on when they are so big. But not to worry, we plotted another. ... This time it was a little bigger and cropped to go on at an angle. ... ... Really pleased with that. As the glass is tinted it mutes the lights and with the fans and tubing being black to does a good job remaining subtle. The great big white logo pulls focus and shows off the green and thus the exterior nicely. It's then a lot of fun looking through and picking out the details. I've plotted a few more bits, But I can't decide if I want to put them on. I've got 'RAZER' and a few different 'For Gamers, By Gamers'. I thought perhaps the 'for gamers, by gamers' could work on the rads and maybe 'razer' on the res. But as I said, I can't decide. What do you think? For now, I'll leave you with these. ... ... ... ... I'd been holding off shooting it as I'd not been totally sold on the vert mount. It has horrid sag that required I prop it up with a trimmed slice of tube between two of the bottom rad fans. Propped it looks great, but EK announced and have since started shipping their own vert so I kindly asked for one and held off taking the final shots. The mount arrived last week. So that's next. J

UPDATE 4.0 - THE LOOP It's been over two months! crazy! Well, I'm back and we're almost finished here. Go make a cuppa as this one is looong and picture heavy! ... This is where we left off, just about everything in place but waiting on a re-supply from EK. ... The goodies came in. So let us take a quick look. That's mostly the new Torque extenders, but I needed a few more fitting too. ... Some black accent rings. I'd originally planned to go chromed rings, chrome fittings. However, I chose some black tubing by Corsair so went for black rings to match. ... The Torque extenders, three lengths, 28mm, 14mm, 7mm. Nice. ... ... ... Backplates really do complete the look of a blocked GPU IMO. Really, they should come with the block. You have to remove stock backplates to install the block and often you can't put them back on. That said, these backplates are so nice! Historically I've always been happy to add one to the basket when buying the block. Keeps the block costs under control I guess. What do you think? Should they be included? ... I can't believe I didn't own one of these already! I've since rebuilt my MODZERO ASHEN project into a new case with some new hardware and called it MODZERO SEVEN. I ended up using this tester soo much during that rebuild and honestly think it's saved me hours as I found my distro unable to hold pressure more than once. In the past, I've always been confident in my loop and if I get through fill/bleed without a leak then I'm happy it's good to go. I remember seeing SNEF use something like this years ago and thinking it was a great tool. Glad I've got one. It'll show up later in the post. ... A couple more Vadars, these are for behind the flat res. In the last update, I'd mounted the res on some custom standoffs to provide airflow. It had been my intention to pull air in through the huge filtered vents on the rear side panel then out the rads. These are going in to provide a flow of cool filtered air. But it turned out to be a little more challenging. I'd given up on getting three fans in due to the D5. I chose not to swap out for a DDC as the front would still have the same clearance issues. So two 120mms would be fine. ... The top needed a little modding. so the bolts I had could go through the fan and into the res. I removed the res, fitted the fans using six out of the eight holes then lined up the res and bolted through the top holes of that top fan then attached the bottom. ... Worked out well. Yes, it would have looked better had I gotten three mounted and maybe it would have looked better even if these two were mounted more in the middle. I think though, even without these fans the rads would be sucking in air wherever it can get it and so much of that would still have come through from the back. At least with these, I can ensure plenty of cool air. ... I removed the stock sleeving and did an acceptable job with some MDPC. ... I wired the pump directly into the PSU. ... But before I wired the pump I daisy-chained the rear fans. ... ... That, along with the pump were the last of the controller wiring. Time to wire-up the OCTO. So that happened next. ... I'm in love with this thing! MODZERO SEVEN was the first time I'd used the an Aquaero (6LT) and that was a game-changer too (I've always known they were good, however, I'd almost always built ssf builds and made do with just wiring pump/fans to the motherboard and controlling via the BIOS). The Aquaero 6LT changed all that. Using the above method you're bound by either CPU or GPU temp (sometimes you can use the chassis temp) to control your fan curve. so when you jump into a game that temp rockets and so do your fans (granted not to the volume of an air cooler). Using the Aquaero (still referring to MODZERO SEVEN) I fitted two inline temp sensors to the loop (really only needs one) I put one on the RAD IN and the other on the OUT of the second RAD. In aqua-suite, I based the fan curve on coolant temp. The result was silent gaming. The fans are nice and slow and ramp up very slowly, maxing out at 60% as my testing showed that was enough to keep the coolant under 40ç. Rarely do my fans hit 1000RPM which (Noctua P12s). When I started this build I'd wanted to use the EK connect, this was the first ATX project in a long time and it was set to have 9x120mm fans plus the pump so really didn't want to put that through a mobo header. I fear the EK connect is a couple of generations off worthy of recommendation so I looked around. Whilst the Aquaero is amazing it's super expensive! even more so once you put the heatsink on it. But then I stumbled on to the OCTO. Initially, I thought it was an extension board to the Aquaero. It has twice the channels at half the cost and if you're in need of a controller (yeah the Aquaero can do ALOT more then just fan control) the OCTO is awesome. It runs the same Aqua-suite software and it's set up / control is pretty much the same. The OCTO will be my go-to controller for a while. ... ... SO, THE LOOP! ... Let us jump into this. I made it up as I went along. The more I tried to plan it the worse it looked in my head. I just couldn't get a loop on paper that I'd be happy with. I had a few key things I wanted to achieve and I had to let a couple of them slide. Firstly, I'd wanted to go parallel with the CPU/GPU, pretty sure I showed those efforts in the last update. That didn't work out due to alignment (But I will revisit this later as I have an update on it). Secondly, I wanted to keep things to single bend runs and do everything in 45' angles. I sort of always have, it looks super clean, the runs are easier to achieve and it means you get to play with more angled fittings. Lastly, I wanted to do a run from the bottom to the top rad. Everyone and their dog has this case, and since EK rocked the water-cooling market with their distros, pretty much 99% of 011D builds use them. I want to get a clean loop without that distro look. With parallel out the window, I was struggling to plan how the loop would get from the chipset block to the GPU and back to the res. I tried a couple of test runs with some PETG (as that's all it's good for... Acrylic for life hahaha) this layout interfered with the GPU riser cable so I went with this. ... It's completely hidden by the GPU and it took some tinkering to get it to line up. the chipset block is far shorter (in height) than the Magnitude so it took a 7mm extender from the chipset to get it close. ... I always try and aim for 'block-rad-res-block' when making a loop but appreciate the difference isn't huge regardless of order these days. To get that clean look it meant I'd have to have the CPU/CHIPSET return the loop to the res. NOT IDEAL. ... Look how close it is to the bottom RAD. Looks great! All the pump/res outputs needed to be 90's to clear the bottom rad. With the pump outlet, I used a T fitting and fitted the temp sensor for the OCTO. Again, not ideal. However, with the loop returning to the res from two blocks without cooling, taking a temp from the pump out would be a good indicator of how effectively the rads were cooling the coolant. You'd expect it to be at it's coolest when coming out the rads and it's hottest leaving the GPU. This way I could keep my eye on how warm that res might be getting (due to cpu/chipset return). Really, I should have put the T connector on the chipset res inlet run as I've probs restricted my flow by putting a bar directly in front of the pump (it worked out ok). ... Next came the run connecting to the two rads. I really thought this would be easy. I'm not sure if I want to blame EK or Der8auer for this one. You have some control over the rad position up top (slide it back and forth) the bottom is a static fit. I'm running two different model EK rads (PE/SE) and the connectors aren't positioned the same. So simply fitting the rads, linning them up and running a tube between when was out. With the tube run being so close to the frame, unless the run was 100% straight, it looked a million miles out. So I tried a couple of things. The above was using a single offset fitting. ... Then I did that.... puke. ... But in the end, it took a combination of moving the rad back a little and putting an offset fitting on both ends. ... OH! This is the tubing! it's ace! The only product from the corsair WC stack I like. ... GPU came next. So at this point, I've got the loop in my head. I'd finally accepted running the loop back into the res from the chipset and was running with it. So the plan was thus... PUMP - GPU - RAD - RAD - CPU - CHIPSET - RES - PUMP Two 90's off the pump got it out in line with the GPU. Sticking to 45' angles in my runs I used the torque extenders to align the runs from the GPU. ... ... I then put a double female 90 to connect the two (something later I regret). ... I tried to mirror the other run but to a double female 45' (rather than the 90') so it could take a 90' bend into the RAD. Which worked out well I thought. ... I was starting to like it, the black tube has an almost automotive rubber hose look which I liked a lot. I also added a drain port with a ball valve (another first for me). It works out pretty well. Just remove the front glass and attach a tube. open the valve and the res dumps out in seconds (getting it out the rads takes an effort). ... The last run, I tried to mirror the bottom and take a 90' bend off the RAD into a single bent run to the CPU. I think at the time I wanted to fill the space and thought this looked cool. ... It works, looks clean and I was happy. So I opened up that cool leak tester and gave it a go. ... Pumped it up, left it for 20mins, the needle hadn't moved so I prepped the coolant. ... lol, starting to regret the B&W thing now... hahaha. Hopefully, the final shots will be worth it. Can you spot the mistake? ... Yeah, I'd just assumed the Cryofuel Clear would play nice with the concentrate. I'm a fool. Haha, so I popped out and bought a big old bottle of Di-Water. ... yeah... b&w right! Wow! this update is loooong. I'll sign off here and be back with another later today maybe? Thanks for reading it! J.

UPDATE 3.0 - HOW TO LOOP, NO I'M ASKING YOU? Back again with another nudge in the right direction. Gonna be picture heavy but convey little progress, so strap in. haha In update 1.0 (seeing as update 2.0 was just a gallery) we left off with slight mods to the vert GPU mount. So I guess we can take it from there. ... The Aorus Xtreme is a monster! with the block on and sat vertically in a position to allow enough clearance for the SE360 + 25mm fan it all but blocks out the CPU block... and you'd not know I have a chipset block on there either... But I kinda like it. It's a great looking GPU block and with yellow coolant in that area of the case, it should balance well with how I see it looking finished (in my head). ... I sat back and thought two things... terminal and parallel. ... I'm fully not a member of the 'RGB everything' way of life... but love how picking a single colour from any number of hues can make for a great-looking build. Long gone are the days of soldering inline resisters to 3mm LEDs to 5v/12v molex feeds. But, tbh, that's all it took to make a CPU/GPU block look awesome!. ... So I decided to swap out the default terminal on my GPU block for one of the more OG EK types from an old GTX980 STRIX block I still own. ... Aesthetics weren't the only reason, the DRGB terminals are larger (blocking more of my Magnitude block) and they have a wire that I can't sleeve! (aaargg!!) dangling down to the backside on the block. ... Ah yes... that's it. loads better! So now I got excited! Without the distro, I'm still to decide on a loop... but the idea of going parallel was shaping up to be a good one. Now, it doesn't line up.. its about 5-6mm off at a 60' angle. In my head, that wasn't gonna be a problem. A slight off bend in the tube might swallow the difference or maybe get more creative, take the CPU down off 90's and tight bends back up to the GPU. ... ... But in reality, once I'd put fittings on both blocks, the wiggle room was minimal. Now if I were Alex Banks I'd design and CNC my own terminal to offset the alignment. and, whilst I've used Fusion360 in the past, I couldn't genuinely see myself finding the time to pull it off. SO with my thoughts of parallel wonderment fading I thought... I'd try some offset fitting... ... NOPE! It looks so busy! I don't like it. so parallel is out. ... This thing by the way! is a game-changer, now to be fair, EK must be the LAST company to put these into their fittings but with this little tool, getting them off is a breeze. I'm not too much a fan of using it to put them on though. I think most leaks are due to crushed o-rings. Using one of these to tighten your fittings is too easy over tighten. So with the parallel thing off the table, I took another look at the layout. So many ppl have built great looking rigs in this case, looking for inspiration was easy enough. a simple hashtag search on Instagram got the juices flowing and it kept pulling me in the same direction. I want my rads blowing out the case with as much air being pulled in through the dust filters on the rear panel. So I got to it. I did a couple of Instagram stories on daisy-chaining rad fans (go check em out) then set to putting my beautiful FLT 360 in place. ... ... Oh yes, this thing is solid! and just oozes quality and it should right, they demand a pretty penny! It just makes so much sense! I fully intend to use others in future builds. I truly see a 120 DDC version being my PUMP/RES of choice in all future ITX builds. But at this point, it was looking like perhaps I couldn't use this one... If you fit it directly to the mid-wall it'll block off 95% of all air that could be pulled in from the back. Plus, as its the D5 version it a pretty close fit in the back chamber too. So, use the supplied brackets right?? Well, doing that pretty much blocks off front res in/out ports (yeah you can use the ones on the bottom, maybe... but that fill port is only on the front! Something I'd like to see EK change). So I wrote off the D5 and reached out to EK for the DDC version. The DDC version has smaller brackets (DDC pumps are not as deep) so with the DDC version I thought the bracket would still enable clearance for the top/bottom ports but more importantly, I'd be able to fit a further three Varder fans behind it, really use the space and make the most of the chassis design. but actually. no. even the DDC brackets would stand the res out to proud, meaning I'd not be able to get my fittings installed. So I made my own brackets... kinda. ... I had these spaces from a CPU HSF from years ago... I thought if I cut them down to about 15mm that'll provide enough clearance for the fittings and enough airflow for two varders (not three as the D5/DDC would still foul the midpoint) to pull in that beautiful clean flittered cool air. ... ... ... Looks pretty good right? I did consider making six but... er.... yeah I totally f**ked up two attempts at jr hacksaw cutting a straight line, so after some filing down I settled on four. In that top image of the spacers, you see some rubber inserts.. yeah, that didn't work out either. So how is the clearance I hear you say...? ... Pretty good. OH!!!! Before I forget! in my photos in the last update.. turns out I'd mounted the chipset block upside down!!! At the time, I'd not thought that possible. Plus, I'd already boot tested it without a loop, as, if you can remember, I dropped the whole thing shooting the Magnitude block. ... Do you see the cutaway near the sticker? yeah, I didn't. lol... its the right way round now and it booted that time so I'm pretty sure it's not fried. ... Love these Torque fittings! it's as though the more adapters you add, the cooler it looks!!! ... psst, the block is still the wrong way round in that shot. But let us move on. FAN CONTROLLERS!! The choice is huge!!! or is it. Having pretty much exclusively built ITX WC systems fan controllers just weren't needed. I'd put the pump RPM signal through a fan header and daisy (if needed) the rad fan(s) off the CPU fan header. I'd pretty much set a custom curve based on GPU temp in software where I could, or set a curve in the BIOS based on CPU temp. Then I built MODZERO SEVEN, that Parvum R1.0 ITX build I've not shared yet. Well, that has got two 240 rads and two 120mm intake fans on the same footprint as my Parvum X3.0 build ASHEN. So for that project, I had an Aquaero 6lt mount built into the chassis (another design perk by the mighty JR23). The Aquaero is a game-changer, I'm so late to the party with these but as I'd said, I'd not really needed one before. Now I don't think I'll do another build without it... or without its software at least!!! As I found this little beauty! ... The Aqua-Computer OCTO. Smaller than a credit card, mounts on 2.5" drive mounts, 8 channel fan controller + 4 sensor inputs. Best of all runs on the same software suite as the Aquareo. I run the Aquaero 6LT in SEVEN. I run the two 240 rads through their own channel (daisy each set of fans) the intake fans on a channel and the pump (that's 4, all the channels the Aquaero has onboard, granted those four channels will run 50+ fans if you wanted). I then run two inline loop temp sensors on each end of the rad runs (using two was pointless, looks cool though). In the Aqua-Suite software, I set the pump to 33% and forget about it and I have the rads running low and slow unless the coolant temp pushes 40'c by which time the fan curve ramps up the rad fans and tickles the intake fans. It's amazing! taking a curve off your coolant temp is THE way to do it. If motherboards had sensor inputs and a way in the BIOS to control fan speeds off them then it would be game over for the fan controller. But until then, this is king. Now, I could be wrong about the OCTO but from what I can tell, it does all the same stuff the Aquaero does just without writing it to internal device memory and with further input limitations. But how I see it is, it'll do everything I have my Aquaero 6lt doing at a third of the cost. ... Mounted on the reverse of the chassis drive mount plate/cable hider type thing... I think that's it... So how does it stand now? Well, I'm waiting on resupply from EK. They released their Torque extenders and I'm in need of that GPU backplate. So fingers crossed that'll come in soon. I've made all the cables!!!! and they look awesome!! I've posted some shots on Instagram (sorry) but I'm keeping progress B&W to build tension for the reveal... and posting shots of b&w cables is sort of like watching Avatar on a B&W CRT TV from the 80s. ... See... Haha. I'm stuck on the loop. I knew using the FLT over the distro would make the loop more of a challenge but equally, it was that challenge that excited me. I've some ideas and that'll be my next update. Thanks for reading folks. J.

Yeah me too, but then again the Grand Tour hasnt delivered either. But anyway... thanks Maybe, $650 US. Much of the hardware and cooling was provided. I've covered the cost of the paint work, the MDPCX supplies for all custom cable work, the fan controller and M2 SSD. Its a rough approx. J.

UPDATE 2.0 - OH NO THEY DEEDNT! Sorry for the delay, turns out it editing photos with a three-month-old baby strapped to your chest just isn't the way to do it. I'm trying hard to push this project forward, almost everything is in hand now so truly its just a case of carving out the time to move it along. Let's meet the hardware!!!! ... AMD UK - RYZEN R7 3700X (LINK) Yeah, that box is empty! haha! The truth is I've had most of the core hardware much longer than the cooling. Then Half-Life Alyx came out.... and that's why they created test benches. I've got Adam over at Thermaltake UK to thank for much of the industry support I receive. But most of all for my introduction to the guys at AMD UK. Thanks again AMD and as always, thanks Adam. SILVERSTONE TECH - ST1200PT PSU (LINK) ... 1st build with Silverstone on side! Though I've maybe built just a couple of PCs at most! that haven't used their products. Simply put, they are the best (IMO). ... ... GIGABYTE UK - X570 AORUS MASTER (LINK) / AORUS RTX 2080 XTREME (LINK) ... The boxes may well be pretty beaten up (pretty sure every online tech-site had them before me) but these two beasts are hungry for their forever home... on liquid cooling... here with me... in rainy North Wales. Oddly enough the RTX2080 had slipped through my hands once before. They sent it to me for my ASHEN build but that cooler is huge! so with a heavy heart, I sent it back in exchange for an RTX2070 (I know right!). I've never really been one for board partner designed pcb/coolers (yeah a couple the EVGA efforts are pretty sexy), having historically always opted for the reference design. Mainly because those are the first to get water blocks. I think this may be, as back in the day, it felt like CPU/GPUs were more thermally limited. Slap a block on them and you'd see better clocks... MUCH better clocks. Today, sure you'll get that extra slice, but mostly the chips are tapped out, fresh out the box. IMO, it's more about keeping them quiet under load and looking great doing so (forever dreaming the next-gen will rewrite the OC rules again, boost clocks have ALOT to answer for!). The Xtreme cooler is extreme... at idle its silent but slap a couple of tabs open in chrome and those fans will come to life and with them a beautiful dance of RGB pride. So first thing first (whilst I played through ALYX) I turned that bollox off. Instead, opting for a dim red effect. Looked awesome! ... ... ... Looks great right! The fans never spun up past 70% under sustained gaming load and it was comfortably quiet sat on a test bench next to me (granted.... I was wearing a headset... but that's why I'm water-cooling it duh). This motherboard, on the other hand, is gorgeous! Truly I think Gigabyte did a great job with their X570 range of boards. I run the ITX offering in my other build MODZERO SEVEN (It's a transplant from ASHEN, I'll post photos of it once I've happy with my loop runs) and that's been great too! ... ... On my bench I'd been running a single 8-pin EPS as that 3700x isn't going to tax it much, but I'll make the full 16 for the build. Depending on the 4000 series compatibility I do see perhaps the 3900X(T) in its future. Now, if you're not already and are so inclined. Follow me on Instagram, I mentioned it in the last post (and I'm sure I'll mention it again) but I'm making 'stories' of some of the smaller build stuff. I'd recently posted me swapping out the chipset cooler for EKs Quantum Chipset block and I'm pretty sure I'd shared my experience fitting the Vector Aorus block on the Xtreme. I eventually save each story so you can check them out from the profile page. https://www.instagram.com/modzero_customs/ So I guess we should take a look at this GLORIOUS TABLE OF EK LOVE! ... SO, what have we here... well. Blocks EK-Quantum Magnitude D-RGB - AM4 Nickel + Plexi (LINK) Quite possibly the most exciting WC product release of recent years. This thing is a labour of love and whilst to demands a high price tag, genuinely feel its worth it. Rads EK-CoolStream SE 360 (Slim Triple) (LINK) EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) (LINK) Both of these (as seen) have been painted to match the rest of the case. The Razer edition is the midi variant of the 0-11d so its slim down at the bottom and regular (yeah... let's say regular) thickness up top. Res EK-Quantum Kinetic FLT 360 D5 PWM D-RGB - Plexi (LINK) Another exciting release from EK, the flat res! This was always intended to be the EK distro for the 0-11D. But then covid happened and stock died and that brought with it delay after delay. So once I received the green light from EK for this project I actually opted for a res. I've still no idea how I'm going to do the loop... but this gives me options that a distro doesn't. Fans EK-Vardar EVO 120ER Black BB (500-2200rpm) - Dual Set (LINK) But... but... what about the X3M or the EVO RGBs! NOPE! If it's not Noctua, it's OG Vardar! (I just get that tattooed) The case, the blocks, res and ram all light up like Christmas! I'm not an RGB guy in the RGB sense.. er.. For me, I like that RGB means I can pick whatever colour best suits the build. Maybe, if I'm feeling like a tart, I'll add an effect to said light. Coolant EK-CryoFuel Lime Yellow (Concentrate 100mL) (LINK) EK-CryoFuel Solid Laguna Yellow (Conc. 250mL) (LINK) EK-CryoFuel Clear (Premix 1000mL) (LINK) Yeah, it's gonna be yellow... acid piss-yellow or big bird bleeding out yellow. Only time will tell. Fittings EK-Quantum Torque HDC 12 - Nickel (LINK) EK-Torque HTC-12 Color Rings Pack - Nickel (10pcs) (LINK) EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 45° - Nickel (LINK) EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90° - Nickel (LINK) Again, I've been doing unboxing 'stories' on my Instagram if any of that interests you. It was a big box and everything in it is beautiful! Now, I'm a few steps ahead in the real world so maybe I'll leave it here and post again sooner. But basically, I've put the blocks on the board and the gpu is pimped out now too. I test fit the gpu on the vertical mount and because the GPU pcb is wide/tall it blocks a lot of the CPU (can't show off that stunning Magnitude block... gutted). That said, the GPU block is glorious and stands proud up front. I've made a couple of tweaks and that's beginning to give me loop ideas. I'll leave you with a few more shots of that motherboard, only with the blocks fitted this time. ... Not so funny story, I tend to get into this after my wife and kids have gone to bed. Which often means I'm already exhausted. I can maybe pull a few hours out of a week (what!). So one night I'm thinking.. I've had that box of wonderful EK goodies sat there for weeks!!!! (mainly because the case was off getting painted, I wasn't neglecting it.. haha) pull your thumb out ya ass and move this forward. So I fitted the CPU block, chipset block and shot 100+ photos (95% as always, are shite). Loaded them onto the computer and edited three before I noticed the CPU block was upside down!!! I put this down to muscle memory though.. I've not built a PC that wasn't inverted, for years! so when the block went on, the board was upside down (right side up... whatever). Anyway, couldn't leave it that way.. so spat my dummy and went to bed. came back the next night and refitted and reshot. You live and learn.. #dumbass ... I'll not be running any SATA drives, why would you.. M2 options for days! I'm running sabrent drives on this. They are unreal value and perform great! ... Cheeky little chipset block, this reminds me of MIPS blocks anyone else ever used there products? I wonder if they are still in business (googles it). NOPE ... ... AORUS RGB Memory 16GB (2x8GB) 3200MHz (Limited Edition) (LINK) I guess I've not mentioned the RAM huh! it's pretty. I had it in my ASHEN build but retired it when switched out the loop. I hope to use the Ryzen DRAM tool and really dial this kit in. ... I'm excited, this should be good. Thanks for reading all that, or for just looking at the photos... until next time. J.

UPDATE 1.0 - IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME! Sure feels like its been a while, the last three builds have felt the same. It's getting harder and harder to find the time, organise and pull everything together. I'm closer to 40 than ever (funny how that works), married, two kids (under 3), a dog, a mortgage and a job to keep it all moving forwards. I adore PC hardware, its the one constant that has stayed with me my whole life. It's an absolute pleasure and a true privilege to have the support of these industry titans! It's been six years since I started modding under the MODZERO name and truly, I don't take any of this support for granted. I enjoy the process more than the result and without these sponsors, I'd get to build maybe one PC every 5 years. Each project is a labour of love, I don't go to the extreme and believe that a 'PC' should look like a PC. For me, it's all about clean lines, custom cables, sexy hardware and water cooling. With that in mind, come along for the ride. I'm not sure when I first mentioned I'd be doing a 0-11D build but I'm pretty sure Lian Li sent me the case well over a year ago! So where to begin, erm... Lian Li got in touch (I was honoured) and asked if I'd like to work with their Razer Edition 0-11D. I said I would and a couple of weeks later it arrived on my door from OCUK. I reached out to Gigabyte UK and they hooked me with some hardware goodies (I'll cover those in the next update). I then reached out to AMD UK and they sent me over some silicon loveliness (Thanks AMD, it's such a buzz having your support). Then, thinking this build was turning into something rather epic I reached out to Silverstone Tech (I'd not previously been sponsored by them). Side note - I've only ever used Silverstone PSUs (on my own builds), simply put, I believe they produce the best PSUs on the market. Certainly, others make great PSUs but for me, the simple design aesthetic and great cable pinouts make Silverstone my 1st choice. Anyway, they hooked me up with a couple of options (more in the next update). EK then sent me a message as they were working on their 0-11d distro at the time (showing this builds age). The OG plan had been I'd build this around that, demo their distro glory early release style. But a number of things went 'tits up' and everything got delayed... Life can be a bummer. THE CASE! ... ... ... ... It's your standard 0-11d with some added RGB and a Razer etched logo. Oh! and some green USB ports. To be honest, I love it! There is a reason this case is so popular, it looks amazing! I like Razer, I've used their products off and on since their inception and the green flare of the ports with the effect the etched logo will give once the RGB does its thing is all good news in my books. So what to do first... ... Yup! dismantle it! ... Which turned out to be a PIA. The price point on this case is awesome and I guess you gotta keep them costs low somehow huh... pressed steel and rivets it is then. But never mind, my wife treated me to a new drill (fancy) and I got to work hunting them down. Like this cheeky wanker hiding behind a black tape I'll not be able to replace. ... A lot of rivets later, the case was down to a frame. But why I hear you cry (cried no one) well, I'll get to that in a moment. ... The front IO and rear panel were difficult, well, a pain. That front IO panel doesn't want to come off and they integrated an RGB strip into the panel which needed to come out in a sequence. The back was a fight too, it seemed as though the order in which the frame would have been first assembled would call for top/bottom panel to be removed before the back would come away. I opted to drill out the mid-wall rivets on the bottom panel which provided enough flex for the rear panel to come away. So front, rear, top, back and feet are all off for some painting love. ... Oh, a couple of rads too! If you're on Instagram check me out, with this build as I've been doing certain bits documented as stories. I pulled apart the SE360 and PE360 rads with ease. EK have you mind with those rads. four hex screws, slide the ends across and the sides pull off. So, the case and rads in bits, they got packed up and sent on their jollies. This is where this one gets fun. Some time prior, I was watching Top Gear and the lads are ragging a McLaren 600LT around the track. ... This, McLaren 600LT!!!!.. in THAT green, with THOSE yellow callipers, forged alloy wheels, carbon panelling and a touch of orange in the model name stitching. THAT'S WHAT I WANT! Not the car! but the paint, the whole colour scheme. That's my 0-11D build in car form. As it turned out, getting that green wasn't gonna happen. McLaren doesn't list the colour on their website (not that I could find) and 3rd party colours without a reference were gonna be difficult. Very difficult. Still, I sent some emails and PM'd a few people. ... That's it! That is Luminaire green, a sample from Mclaren! Not that Mclaren knows that. I'll link the company that made it happen when I finish the build cos you really need the light to show off this paint! It has a metallic pearlescence to the hue (ponce)! it's three shade of green with a sparkle up close and wow do the panels look awesome! Yup, sorry... moving on. I'll show it off when it's done and the guy that did the paint is happy to provide the service to others (granted, it cost me three times the value of the case to get it painted) but compared to other sprayers I'd had quotes from he is reasonable, reliable, great communication and genuinely takes pride in his work. ... RIVETS! counter-sunk Lian Li black rivets... These I picked up from MDPC-X along with all my cable sleeve, connectors, crimps, wire, combs and terminals. They ship worldwide and only offer the best. #nocompromise again, more on this in a future update. ... Putting them in is so much easier than taking them out. Once you remember how to re-assemble the case that is! I got a panic on fearing I'd have to drill the rivets back out and mark the paintwork in the process. But alas... ... Oddly, I was left with 4 stubby thumb screws and a small piece of foam (which now, having written it down reminded me it was a pressure fit wedge to hold the LED strip from wiggling) Oops. ... I'm jumping ahead a little, but I bought the Phanteks vertical GPU bracket. I'd intended to hold out for the EK one they announced during the EK EXPO and if the ribbon on this gives me any grief I'll be sure to go back and place my order. I went with Phanteks for two reasons, it seems to have a smaller footprint and it positions the GPU further forward (closer to the side panel) than the Lain Li vertical bracket (oh yeah, that's the other one I was looking at..). Annoyingly I didn't get a photo but fitted there wasn't the clearance required to put the SE rad + a 25mm fan underneath. Which ticked me off as I'm sure I'd seen it used in another 0-11d build on reddit. But not to worry.. break out the old Dremel and touchup paint. ... Sorted. That'll do for now. I'll be back with UPDATE 2.0 perhaps at the weekend. I want to share the hardware I'll be using and maybe get some photos of all the EK glory they sent me!!!! I mean, WOW! They spoilt me. those guys. Thanks for checking this out, I appreciate I write a lot and maybe you just came for the photos (hey, we look at pron), either way, thanks. J.

Thanks, build logs are dying out for sure. But I still get a kick out of doing em. It's closer to a retro beige than white. My photography isnt great, couldnt get the color tone right in the edit. What do you mean 'Warped'? It's straight and true for sure! Does it really look warped in the photos? J.

UPDATE 8.0 - MODZERO ASHEN V2.0 COMPLETE I love building PCs, well, I love building the PCs I choose to build. The older I get the harder it is to find the time, pull things together, the longer it takes to finish these types of projects. As time goes on new modders/system builders enter the game and raise the bar (awesome), its never been competitive amongst each other, but often your skills will be reflected by your sponsorship opportunities (makes sense). I have always built around the products I want to use. It is those, that are often the focal point or the inspiration behind a project getting made. Be it a new case design or innovation, a radical GPU cooler design, line of WC fittings or blocks. As such, I can only afford to build myself a new rig every couple of years and even that is with the great support I've gained from sponsors. 100+ hours go into these (most of them) and I'm proud of each and every one. Over the last couple of years, I've been able to build a few for friends (NOT SPONSORED) which have enabled me to keep the 'MODZERO' brand (if you will) going between personal projects. As anyone with any sort of social media presence will know, content is king. ASHEN was inspired by a set of KEY CAPS I bought for my FILCO TKL. It was made possible by PARVUM being able to provide a truly unique customer experience. Absolute customization based on pre-existing great design. They are the ONLY company that offers this and there is a reason. I believe its a near-impossible business model. With no huge investment, be able to offer, design and deliver 100% scratch/modified cases at a marketable price point is so hard to do. It's certainly hard to do it well. They are not new to this, being perhaps responsible for some of the greatest builds of the last 10 years. I'm a fanboy sure, and I'm standing by them. SPECS CASE: PARVUM X3.0 CUSTOM ITX CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X RAM: HYPERX DDR4 3200MHZ 16GB MOBO: GIGABYTE AORUS X570I PRO WIFI ITX GPU: AMD RX 5700XT 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 8GB PSU: SILVERSTONE SX650-G SFX 650 WATT SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO 512GB & 860 EVO 500GB NOCTUA NH-D9L + NF B9 REDUX - 1600RPM PWM NOCTUA NF-P12 REDUX 1300 PWM EK-Vector Radeon RX 5700 +XT D-RGB - Special Edition EK-CoolStream SE 120 (Slim Single) EK-Torque HTC-12 - Black EK-Torque HTC-12 Color Rings Pack - Red EK-DDC 3.2 PWM (12V PWM pump) EK-DDC Heatsink Housing - Black EK-CryoFuel Clear (Premix 1000mL) FINAL SHOTS: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I'm really happy with the result, looks great! performs even better! having a CPU tower cooler (NOCTUA NH-D9L) means I've finally got airflow over the MOSFETs and that DDC pump. I can tell you... when it was just a CPU loop that bottom corner of my build would get so hot the LEDs in the RGB strip would fail! Now, with gentle airflow, it's comfortable to the touch and the temps are good. I like it so much, I'm starting over! Not joking. MODZERO SEVEN will be complete early next year. I'm taking all the hardware from ASHEN and putting it in another Parvum ITX case. This time, it's the Parvum R1.0 ITX. It'll house the distro from ASHEN all the X3.0 design improvements with the added benefit of housing two 240mm radiators from new sponsor Alphacool Watercooling. A full loop from EKWB and six Noctua Redux SP120 fans. oh, and an integrated Aquaero 6! ASHEN will not be retired though, I love its retro/enterprise (ish) design and so I've designed a pedestal add-on to mount 2x 5.25" bays with hot-swap drives. A SAS controller card, Quadro GPU and more Noctua cooling goodness. ASHEN V3 will become my UNRAID server. Furthermore, MODZERO DYNO is almost ready to kick off. My Razer themed 0-11D build is set to be something rather different from my ITX norm. I'm going big, loud (design) and shiny. Be ready for it. These three projects will be 2020 for me. Huge thank you to the companies that have continued showing support. AMD, NOCTUA, SILVERSTONE TECH, PARVUM, GIGABYTE and EKWB!!! you guys are awesome! J.

Looking forward to sharing these... J.

UPDATE 7.0 - ÍTS HERE! It's been a month since the last update. Which surprised me really! it's felt ALOT longer! So where to kick off... EKWB! HOOKED! ME! UP! I've used their products in every water-cooled PC I've ever built. Well, the first block I bought was the D-TEC Fusion v2, then EKWB was born and that was that. I've used almost every CPU block (family of blocks) they've put out there (except the first couple.. oops, where am I going with this..) for the longest time picking WC components was easy. EK blocks & Bitspower fittings and that ran true until about 6-9 weeks ago (yeah.. it was totally longer huh) when EK started teasing their Torque line of fittings. BP fittings are still a pain to source in the UK and cost more than they really should. I'd buy from Dazmods in Canada and get slapped with import duty (yeah... I did it twice and recycled the fittings... when you drop $400+ on fittings alone.. you tend to use em over and over). So with EK bringing a new design that finally rivals that of BP I could not wait to get my hands on them. ... I came back from LAN to find the biggest goodie bag from the legends over at EK, waiting for me at work. I'll come back to the fittings later on. However, lets recap. In the last post I talked about how I'd wanted to move to an all AMD build, sold my 2070 and bought the 50th Anni 5700XT. Gigabyte helped me out of a faulty board and sent over the X570 Pro Wifi and I upcycled my 2700X for the spanking value 3600X. I assembled and hit the UKs largest gaming festival for 5 days of burgers, beer and bugs! (wow being an owner of a Navi GPU was rough those first 5 weeks after launch). It wasn't until I was back playing games in my office with the build 2 feet away that the need for a loop switch loudly became clear. SO I drained the loop and got to work. Coz EK sent me this! ... ... ... ... ... Damn thats a great looking block! Now, my little X3.0 with its single slim 120mm RAD won't do well cooling both CPU/GPU so when I found out that block was coming I reached out to the best in air cooling (NOCTUA) and asked to showcase a couple of products! 48 hours later I had the coolers in hand! yup 48 hours! I've waited 5 months for hardware in the past.. WOW! NOCTUA NH-L12S (check it out here) ... ... ... ... This was my first choice, JR23 used the same coolers on both his X3.0 Parvum builds and having a nice 120mm fan cooling that X570 chipset would be a huge bonus! NOCTUA NH-D9L (check it out here) ... ... ... This was my backup plan. I loved the idea of a miniature D-frame tower cooler. Now I rather enjoy the colour of Noctuas fans, but with their Redux line available it simply had to be done. It's a perfect fit for this build! Noctua NF-B9 92mm REDUX 1600RPM PWM. ... Noctua NF-P12 120mm REDUX 1200RPM PWM. ... Couple REDUX 92mm for the D9L and a pair of REDUX 120mm for NH-L12S + RAD. So this got me thinking, something like this.... ... Oh yes! ... BEAST! So back to it, off with the block and on with the NH-L12S! I really wanted this to work! look how cool it is! But sadly, it wouldn't fit with my DDC pump being mounted where it is.. Boo! ... So plan B! Enter the NH-D9L! Now, this worked out better then I'd imagined! Not only did it fit within 1-2mm of the DDC pump but the blow directly over the DDC which makes a noticeable difference. ... Happy with the look I cracked on with the loop. I really enjoy the aesthetic of the original loop as so much of the design of this build was based on it. Swapping out the loop for a GPU block was simple enough (loop wise). ... ... Time to start playing with these Torque fittings! Oh they are so nice! Wait and see! (it's late... I'll spam the life out of this post tomorrow and then update in the week. I'll share a bunch of final build shots on Insta too) but for now. ... Goodnight. J.

UPDATE 6.0 - VERSION 2.0 IS COMING! ASHEN is getting a hardware upgrade, there were a few things I just didn't like about the original and when my B450i developed a fault meaning I could not POST beyond 2400mhz RAM freq I knew a rebuild was on the cards. SPECS: CASE: PARVUM X3.0 CUSTOM ITX CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X RAM: HYPERX DDR4 3200MHZ 16GB MOBO: GIGABYTE AORUS X570I PRO WIFI ITX GPU: AMD RX 5700XT 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION 8GB PSU: SILVERSTONE SX650-G SFX 650 WATT SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO 512GB & 860 EVO 500GB Having been provided with the board, I got back in touch to arrange an RMA and before I knew it Gigabyte UK hooked me up with the new AORUS X570 ITX monster! So the plan was simple enough, just swap out the board (plus new RAM, which I bought trying to diagnose the B450i fault) remake a few of the cables I wasn't happy with and carry on. However, once I knew an X570 was coming I got giddy and went looking for those IPC gains. ... ... ... *I thought I'd try my grey backdrop and soon remembered why I don't use it.. After seeing in the reviews that Navi was delivering on price/perf and knowing EKWB had a special block in the works I swiftly rehomed my RTX2070 and picked up the AMD RX 5700XT ANNIVERSARY EDITION. ... ... The last AMD GPU I bought was the RADEON HD5870 back in 2009, and that was the first ATi card I'd since the glory of the 9700pro five years earlier. At this point I was buzzing to be back on a full AMD build. So it was time to fly the Red flag. Firstly, remove team green... ... Check! Then dismantle the loop and pull out the board. ... Check! But here it took a left turn, I'd requested a CPU from AMD and EKWB had a care package inbound but I was off to Insomnia Gaming Festival 65! that weekend and wanted to be rocking that 5700XT. ... So in it went and off to LAN I went. ... The weekend was amazing! and whilst I was away from home the remaining hardware arrived. So thats all to come. ... ... Stand by. J.

I'm selling my NFC S4 Mini chassis peeps! Truly thought I'd keep it forever! it's simply one of those must-have cases. It's up on Bit-Tech but PM me if you're wanting to make an offer. https://forums.bit-tech.net/index.php?threads/nfc-system-s4-mini-extras-rare.364124/ NFC S4 Mini chassis (#80) + 2 extra side panels + power switch + NFC riser ribbonHDPLEX Hi-Fi 250W DC-ATX PSU + custom cables (plus originals)Dell 330W AC-DC AdapterNOCTUA NH-L9i COOLER + NF B9 REDUX If you're happy to cover shipping, I'll ship it worldwide. J.

MODZERO JABBA I've been working on this since I started ASHEN. I've been drip feeding my INSTA and FB with pictures mainly of the EK RTX2080 block (MSI AERO RTX2070!), But here is a sneak peek. ... ... ... I'm gonna post a build log on SFF and Bit-Tech as I did a couple of things differently this time around and I think it's better for it. It's roughly about 40mm longer than ASHEN but it's rocking an EK-CoolStream WE180mm RAD up front. J.

Hi folks, ASHEN has been nominated for MOD OF THE MONTH over at Bit-Tech.net, if you're active over on their forums swing by and show me the love. haha https://www.bit-tech.net/features/modding/mod-of-the-month/mod-of-the-month-march-2019-in-association-with-corsair/1/ also... J.

UPDATE 5.0 - IT'S FINISHED! SPECS: CASE: PARVUM X3.0 CUSTOM ITX CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X RAM: AORUS RGB DDR4 3200MHZ 16GB MOBO: GIGABYTE AORUS PRO B450i ITX GPU: GIGABYTE GAMING OC RTX 2070 8GB PSU: SILVERSTONE SX650-G SFX 650 WATT SSD: SAMSUNG 970 EVO 512GB & 860 EVO 500GB COOLING EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB EK-Velocity D-RGB - AMD Nickel + Plexi EK-CoolStream SE 120 (Slim Single) EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - Red EK-DDC 3.2 PWM (12V PWM pump) EK-DDC Heatsink Housing - Black EK-CryoFuel Clear (Premix 1000mL) It's finished! yay! and I love it! It's been a while since I've had a WC rig and rocking a Parvum build again feels great (see MODZERO FOUR). Since the last update, I replaced the single length of loop from the CPU out. So glad I did, I'm really happy with the loop now. I pulled out my studio gear and spent the day shooting it, but it wasn't my day, I just couldn't get the shots I wanted. I tried a white backdrop with the system off, black backdrop with the system running, two different RGB configs and shot again on black with the build turned off. Must have taken hundreds of shots, only to edit them down to about 16. My phone (pixel 2 xl) simply takes better photos than my Sony Alpha 58 (kit lens) and so I'm just not happy when my SLR shots don't look as sharp. Either that or I just suck.. haha. Think it's time for a new camera. These are the Pixel 2 XL efforts I've been posting to social media. Hope you like em. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I'll post the SLR shots over the next few days. So please come back and check em out. Huge thank you for the support from my sponsors! Gigabyte has taken good care of me and I continue to love their hardware back in the day their huge copper chipset coolers pulled me away from the Asus, ABIT and DFI boards. Having them onboard all these years later is great! AMDs support has meant so much. I'm not going back to Intel now, feels too good over here on the red (cough* GREEN cough*) team again. yeah, green I said it! It used to be AMD green vs Intel Blue right? or am I remembering this wrong? I guess its Red for ATI and the CPU division adopted it after the Geforce raise to dominance. Having EKWB onboard has been amazing! the first CPU block I bought was the D-Tek Fuzion V2, that also happened to be the last block I bought that wasn't made by EKWB. As they've widened their product range I narrowed my manufacturer choice.. It used to be, EK CPU/GPU, MIPS for the chipset, Bitspower for fittings and res with Thermochill (then Alphacool) for Rads with Scythe for fans. Now it's just EKWB all day long (you wait and see their latest fittings... rip BP). I'll be back with the MODZERO JABBA build in a week or two, then it's perhaps something a little bigger... I'm being sent the LIAN LI PC-O11 DYNAMIC RAZER EDITION. I rather like the idea of going back to basics. I'd like to do a monster spec, super clean build. Few/zero mods, just a great loop with even better cables. focus on pure aesthetic finish but deliver great performance. Threadripper 3 maybe? Thanks for sticking with me, thanks for reading all this, hope you enjoyed it. Peace. J.

Thanks buddy! I wanna do a HUGE loop next.. I've never worked in anything larger than a midi (Hex Gear R40).. but to be honest it's looking like I'll be doing a Lian Li 011 D Razer build. sweeeeet There you go. hopefully, I'll replace the CPU tube this weekend and maybe even pull out the photography gear. I'm just having too much fun rocking maxed out PUBG @ 1440p with 90+fps. J.

UPDATE 4.0 'LOOP 2 - LOOP HARDER' I'd admit it, this second loop was a mistake. The first loop was fine, but it wasn't quite ticking all the boxes for me. It looked to me like the loop had elbows! haha, the top and bottom runs were further forward than the centre CPU ones and so from every angle other than square on... it looked off. so out it came.. ... That lower length of pipe continues to be the hardest to get right. ... So while it was drained I thought I'd have another crack at some of the cables. A few of the 24pin wires were either slightly too long or just too short which pinched at the others or were too long and thus looked too baggy. I pulled those few out and redid them. I also took this chance to repair the damage I'd done to the RGB lighting. I had to replace both EK RGB LED strips due to my own stupidity. Doing so meant I'd now be using two headers on the board rather than just the one (one is 5 pin RGB goodness, the other is 5v dLED). That meant more cables, two extensions (one from each board header), each with a two-way splitter (had been using a single 4x splitter), then hook up to the LEDs. RBG connectors don't click and hold in place, I'm not a big fan.. and, as you really can't shorten or make your own cables, it meant a lot cable length needed to be strapped up and tidied away (psst, don't look behind the SSD). ... So there is it, it looked much better in my head. The idea was simple, lose the elbows... bend the runs back in line with the CPU runs and add another pair of double female EK 90s. Have all four of those fitting inline and have the four runs parallel and sitting pretty. Only, there isn't the clearance from the in/outlet on the res/mount to get a bend in and still keep the level with the CPU runs. So I ran with it and dropped the outer two runs deeper into the case, which looked okay. But those four fittings inline did not. it blocked the view of the velocity blocked and made the loop look necessarily busy. ... Oh hey JUICE! ... Looked alright from some angles.. plus, I liked this shot for the pump/res. Which by the way, will fit any Parvum X2.0. Get in touch with the parvum boys if you want one. So a couple of days go by... ... LOOP 3 - RETURN OF THE LOOP The perfect loop was obvious, it was simply the original loop intention... just take all four runs from the pass-through, bring them out inline with the RES in/outlets take four matching clean bends and cut in for the CPU. so... ... Four runs, four matching lengths, four matching bends. ... Cut the CPU lengths and added their slight bends to rotate the in/out on the CPU block inline with the other two runs. ... Flushed and filled with this wonderful stuff. ... Bleed the loop and let the bubbles do what they do. ... Immediately looks better! (can you spot it) I'm pretty happy with that, yeah... looks good (hmmm, but you've...) cool, I'll leave it and smash out a build log update (er, you not gonna fix tha...). ... ... Nope, gonna have to redo that. J. ps - the bend in the downward CPU tube is a couple of degrees too far, which is pulling that third run down. It's not parallel and thus is dead to me. haha. So, I've not done that yet... but I will, then it'll be time to get the big camera out and do some final shots. Thanks for checking it out guys.

UPDATE 3.0 The loop, take one! yup... It's a taken a few weeks to get another update posted and at the end of it, I drained the loop and started over... kinda... so where to begin. ... I use 12/10mm acrylic tubing, always have. PETG is for, er, those who prefer it I guess... I'm an acrylic guy. When I put together the case, I knew these bends were gonna be tight.. and tbh I'd no idea which way I'd do it. all I knew was the top and bottom with the in-out from the pump/res. with the middle two feeding the CPU and I had to get it through the rad between em. I did a test bend and got pretty close.. it was gonna be tough. ... ... If at first, you don't succeed, bitch and moan, swear, sack it off and come back to the next day... hahaha after a *couple attempts I got the two tight bends I needed without any warping or misshaped tube. glory! so that got the CPU out to the RAD and the RAD to the RES return. ... ... Couple more short throw 90's for the RES in, to the CPU in. ... It's just not a Parvum build until it's tasted your blood! ... ... Yeah, happy with that... (the loop at is). The wiring is okay. the EPS was a little too short and I just didn't want to redo it.. (MDPC sleeve isn't cheap and I was running low) but it'll serve. and between us, since this photo was taken, I pulled em out replaced a few wires that were either too short and clipped a few more that were too long. it's looking nicer. ... The front! This is where I began to fall out with my loop. In my mind, it was simple. The passthrough lined up with the pump/res, so top and bottom were sorted. two runs with clean simple, single 90's. ... ... It was the cpu that did me in. The EK Velocity is such a nioce block.. no way were I rotating it. lit up it's a true thing of beauty! But I needed to retain that spacing from the four pass-through points. I'd put those outer two runs in and they looked huge! So I decided to bring the centre two out as far as the edge of the rad, then bend inwards. But the problem was turning them inward to the correct in/out on the Velocity block. ... So the penny dropped..(granted it's really not that hard to work out... but please remember, I'm living on feck all sleep, stealing 20-30mins when I can, children.. such a blessing, ha!) bring the CPU out to meet the centre two runs. simple right? yeah.. only the bottom third run is just a few mm off being inline with that third hole. So both CPU tubes that came out to the centre two runs had to have an angle. ... So I flush and think, yeah, I like that... ... ... Until two days later when I decided I didn't. Next update I'll try and bang out tomorrow. Loop 'Take Two'! The shit sequel! (yeah, it's not good.. hahaha). But don't worry, 'Take Three' is epic! and now it looks the balls! But before I go, a couple thoughts on RGB. the wiring is horrid! thick splitters are all you can buy, you can't custom cut length and as I found out... it's important to read the warnings.. I blew both my EK RGB strips plugging them into the 12v header on the board.. not the 5v header the packaging, insert instructions, product page, website page ALL tried to warn me about. haha Thanks for checking it out. J.