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Greetings, I hope this finds you well, given these trying times. I am about to build my first PC. I have owned several, but never built. The machine will be used for music production. I have purchased a Thermaltake Level 20 VT. It has USB 2.0 ports and several cooling options. I think, having read a number or reviews, that cooling the inside of the case may be a challenge. Of course, who knows? Maybe the review(s) only considered the stock 200mm fan. Not knocking the reviews though. The parts list follows with the questions: -board Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac (builtin Thunderbolt and very good DEP latency scores from Anandtech) -case Level 20 VT -power supply Seasonic Focus SSR GX 850 Gold -9900K (it seems AMD is doing well in multi core scores, but this CPU still does pretty good with single core performance) -no GPU...onboard graphics OK for music production -GSkill 3200 2 x 16 GB (on the motherboard qualified list) just out of curiousity, does that matter? -250GB Wester Digital N750 (small capacity, but will be migrating all music related storage from old machine) -Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer ii 240mm -5 x Arctic Cooling F12 PWM fans -2 x Arctic Cooling F14 fans (all fans are PWM) -Silverston 8 port fan splitter/controller Questions: Which is the better way to orient the PSU? What follows is my reasoning from reading, but not real life experience: -the power supply will be sitting at the bottom rear of the case. I believe PSUs intake at the top and exhaust at the back. So if I install the PSU upright, it will be sucking in cooler air from the bottom of the case and blowing it out the back. The case has a bottom opening with filter for a PSU. Will I be better off installing the PSU upside down and having it suck cooler air from outside the case. I understand that there needs to be clearance so that there will be adequate air to intake. Will put the machine on blocks to create about 6 inches of clearance. The other consideration is the Hybrid setting. I believe that shuts the fan down when the current draw is minimal. That might fry the power supply if it's upside down. On the other hand, maybe Hybrid will lower power demands and installing the PSU right side up would be better. Is the cooling/air flow correct for this case? -2 x 140mm fans intake (front), 2 x 120mm fans intake (bottom), 1 x 240mm rad exhaust (top), 2 x 120mm fans exhaust (top), 1 x 120mm fan exhaust (rear). I believe the Silverstone fan controller is setup so that it senses the fan speed of only a single fan and sends the speed signals to other fans based on the speed of that particular fan. Is that correct? I used all available fan locations as there doesn't seem to be a lot of direct input/output other than the back and bottom of the case. I have and am looking at some build videos, so that I can get an idea of what to watch out for. If you have any advice, in addition to responding to the above, to give, it would be appreciated. Having said that, I didn't write this to weasel a full blown tutorial out of you guys. Thanks, Graham

Thank you all for your guidance. If I understand this, it looks like 2w x 240 rads, 1 x slim fan in the rear. Regular rads with a separate reservoir and high quality fans and pump.

Greetings I am going to build a machine primarily for flight simulation. As many of you know, Flight Simulator X is CPU intensive. However, as time goes on, I will probably play other games and so I will put in a high performance video card. I will want to overclock the CPU and so will want to maximize cooling. A mid tower case is necessary, due to space considerations. I'd like to list the major parts and my cooling ideas. Also, I will list my concerns. The benefit of your experience and knowledge will be most apprecitated. Machine: -Arc Midi R2 -ROG Maximus VI Hero -4770K (I understand first take with overclocking shows the part gets very hot) -EVGA GTX water cooled Titan -16 gig (2x8) DDR2 2133 or 2400 -1000 watt Seasonic Platinum power supply -Blu Ray internal drive -2 SSD -1 spinning hard drive The main parts could change. But the need to overclock and cool the parts will remain the same; given the nature of FSX Cooling: As most of you know, the Arc Midi R2 supposedly can accomodate a 240 rad in the top and a 240 rad in the front (if middle hard drive cage is removed and bottom cage is repositioned. I am guessing that a 120mm rad can be installed in place of the rear fan. The bottom fan mount will be out of service due to relocation of the bottom drive cage. I calculated a max load of 800 watts at full load with a bunch of headroom (this number may be ridiculous...please bear with me as I am a newbie :). Plan -cool CPU, GPU and a potential future second GPU -240mm intake rad in front -240mm exhaust rad in top -120mm intake rad in rear -bottom 120mm position is not available -hook pump(s) up to 8 way PWM connector to have motherboard control rpm's based on cooling requirements I am assuming the configuration will produce positive case pressure and that that will reduce dust buildup inside the case, provided the intakes are properly filtered Proposed Parts I originally thought to purchase a Swiftech H220 and expand. My concern is that the H220 pump will not be adequate for 3 radiators. I could always add another pump, however I read elsewhere in the forum that dual pump systems should use the same pumps. I believe the H220 pump is not available as a separate item. I could be mistaken that the H220 pump will not service 3 rads. Therefore I'll list an alternate setup and if you think the H220 pump is adequate, I can always substitute the H220 for a pump/rad/reservoir/waterblock. -5 x Noctua NF-F12 for rads -2 x 240mm Swiftech MCR-x20 Drive combination Rad/Pump/Reservoir (uses MCP35X pump) -1 x 120mm Swiftech MCRx20 QP Res combination Rad/Reservoir -1 x Swiftech Apogee HD CPU water block. GPU waterblock is built into EVGA card. -8 way Swiftech PWM connector -tubing, connectors, coolant If H220 Used -H220 -3 x Swiftech Helix PWM fans (2 fans built into H220) -1 x 120mm Swiftech MCRx20 QP Res combination Rad/Reservoir -1 x 240mm Swiftech MCRx20 QP Res combination Rad/Reservoir -waterblock built into H220 -8 way Swiftech PWM connector included with H220 -tubing, connectors, coolant Questions -will 3 rads give me approximately 800 watts of cooling -will the fact that all 5 fans are blowing through rads cause overheating of other components (motherboard, memory, hard drive, etc). That is a concern based on the fact that all fan locations are taken up -is the configuration correct to maximize cooling regardless of wattage -will the configuration create positive pressure. Is that desirable -could the H220 pump service 3 rads (that would save a considerable amount of money). The H220 pump has a max 3000 rpm. -the MCP35X pump has a max rpm of 4500 and I assume it can't be matched with the H220 pump if more than 1 pump is needed. Is that correct -if I can use the H220, would replacing the fans with the NF-F12's be overkill I realize that many of the questions are product specifiec and perhaps are best addressed to the manufacturer. However, I imagine that the principles are those you have dealt with in the past. I also admit that I know very little about water cooling a pc. So there it is. A very long post. I apologize for its length. But I wanted to give as much information as possible to make it easy for anyone who wishes to reply. I would like to wish you all a good evening and thank you in advance for any help you can send my way.