frostburg

I'm planning (pending reviews) a 1800X / 1080ti system. Apparently there is not much point to sticking ryzen cpus in elaborate custom loops, so I'd like to use a Silverstone ft05 case (windowless, so I don't have to care about how it looks inside). My initial plan was to just stick in the biggest air cooler that fits (silver arrow ib-e, apparently), but I have read that very heavy coolers might cause issues in moving the computer around and this thing will be occasionally subject to trains and cars; would a "decent" 120mm aio be adequate (liquid freezer 120, h80 v2, do these even fit?)? Would those even benefit from the bottom-to-top airflow like an air cooler would (my key doubt)? Should I just fit a 360 mm radiator on the bottom and suffer/pay/have to drain the thing to move it? Please advise.

Foveon sensors are actually great when used in their limited shooting envelope. I'm glad that they make them.

Cinestill 800 is nice but I had some weird artifacts with it (beyond the absence of the anti-halation layer).

You can also consider the 10-18 STM.

Just get the longest one you can afford, if you don't have some special reason otherwise. Even for coins or dead insects, a longer working distance help avoiding unwanted shadows.

Other people have already given good advice (I'll add: get a D3300 and maybe the 35/1.8 dx lens, too), but I want to point out that basically every camera on the market is equally beginner friendly, if anything the entry levels are the hardest cameras to use due to the very modal controls (you have less knobs, so each knob has to cover more things). The only "hard to use" cameras that I can think of are items that beginners will never stumble upon randomly, like foveon sensor ones or scanning backs. Most cameras that you can buy leave hilarious room for error, to the point that you don't even need to learn to do things correctly, for the most part.

I'm well aware. I was suggesting an err... learning opportunity.

You should probably investigate the details more, as you were told, but I would say a Pentax K1000 / Olympus OM2 / Nikon F2 / Leica M3 / Rolleiflex 3.5 with the three Ansel Adams books (assuming that modern equipment will be provided by his school - I also suggest checking that the school is actually an useful one).

Keep in mind that at f/11 all decent lenses will be about equally sharp.

It doesn't really matter. The actual increase in the linear size of the image is minimal and 20 megapixels is more than enough for most applications (it's also irrelevant because consumer crop bodies are not generally used with lenses that are good enough to offer significantly more detail at 24 rather than at 20 megapixels).

They're extremely close. Nikon generally has better control ergonomics on prosumer crop bodies (this matters a lot more than 4 megapixels at this level), but the Canon ones are really similar to each other. To be honest I'm not particularly impressed with consumer Canon bodies from an IQ standpoint (disclaimer: I only shoot stuff that stands still using only primes), they're entirely serviceable if you know what you're doing, but you're generally going to do better with other equipment. You should also consider Nikons and possibly a Sony A6300. If you only care about image quality you're kinda in the price range of a first-gen A7 full frame mirrorless, but you're going to pay dearly for lenses thereafter. If you only care about image quality and are really brave the Sigma SD Quattro exists.

Just for clarity, you're doing this because you envision a scenario in which you only use a subset of those GPUs and want to have the full cooling surface available for each one?

There is no issue in the Define C case as long as you use ram under 40mm, as far as I know. The fact that it is thick is a plus, as long as it fits. Oh, the FD ones are made by Alphacool (the corsair ones are mostly made by Asetek, which also makes the Krakens).

The best expandable options are probably either Alphacool or EKWB (Predator 240, for 240mm), with a slight edge to EKWB due to the more powerful pump (Alphacool sells gpu blocks with integrated pumps, on the other hand).

A lot of "harsh environment" cases for industrial usage exist, but they're probably not very suitable to the needs of gaming builds. I'd consider something like the Silverstone MM01 before trying to build an airtight custom case.