Deli

Now that the water cooling components have arrived, the building has really begun.

First out of the boxes were the heat sinks. The CPU water block was the easiest I have installed to date, while the GPU predictably took some time. The overall GPU size shrank significantly, reveling the nice lower motherboard heat sink once again (Yay!).

Next step was to build the custom cables and rework the wiring through the case. I think these white/blue accents add quite a bit of style to this build, and being able to customize the look makes the build a little more unique.

Finally, the water cooling prep truly begun. Installing the last major components of the loop ran into a snag with the large radiator. The selected radiator has a built-in reservoir, which added to the length and could not be installed correctly along the top. Thankfully, I was able to move the radiator forward thanks to the NZXT case extra long screw mounts. I couldn't get all the screws in, but there should be enough to keep the fans from vibrating and causing noise. This did mean that one of the front case fans had to be permanently uninstalled.

The pump and reservoir were purchased as a set and assembly was simple. They will be quite hidden from view. Before I started bending, I looked for a way to position the pump in a way that would minimize the number of bends in the case. This would make my job of bending the tubes easier and keep the look of the case as clean as possible. I found that mounting the pump on a drive tray, as originally planned, worked well and only needed to be raised about 7mm on washers.
Installing the fittings also added that final bit of chrome, and the selected blue fittings brought in a little more of the color accent into the case. I believe this gave a fairly consistent look to the build.

The tube bending took a considerable amount of time. Hardline tube bending is not a trivial matter and requires lots of measuring. Thankfully I purchased the complete bending kit from Monsoon, which came with measuring tools, but it took over an hour until I had enough confidence in the measurement to bend and trim my first tube. The process of measurement was tricky, but I believe that simply has to do with the awkwardness of making measurements in a confined 3D space where the rulers can't be secured to anything.
As for the bending, it took a few tries until I was able to make bends with millimeter accuracy. I kept to the simple bends at first, making sure that the minor mistakes I was making wouldn't ruin the looks. I saved the most noticeable double bend for last and the result was more than acceptable. I would say that many who have worked around power tools and is a little patient would have about the same experience after bending and cutting only 5 tubes.

I test fit the bent tubes before securing the ends of the tubes on. I went with Monsoon fittings, which require the extra step of attaching the ends of the tubes with adhesives before securing the ends of the tubes into the case. Once the ends of the tubes are on, there is no undoing the adhesive and getting the ends back. Same thing goes for the tube they are connected to. I would highly advise a full test-fit before gluing any ends onto a pipe. A dremel tool may also come in handy, as some of the ends might need to be sanded down and flattened to ensure the end caps adhere straight.
Once the test fit was done, I followed the instructions on securing the end caps from YouTube videos published by Performance PCs ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEHPVLaMY9zeDOynltKhgdA ).

This is also about the time I noticed a good number of my fittings had parts where the blue paint had chipped off, revealing the chrome underneath. I had worked over a tile floor and had dropped two fitting, but somehow 5 of the fittings had significant chipping which must have mainly come from handling them. Oils from hands can be quite harsh to finishes, but the quality of these 'premium' hardline fittings was simply not up to my expectations. I placed the blemished fittings around the case in locations that would be less noticeable, but I wonder if this is the norm for Monsoon free center colored fittings or if this set of fittings skipped a step during manufacturing...
Once the tube ends were cured to the tubes, I installed them and realized just how clean this particular build ended up. I managed to keep the water cooling loop toned down and simple, while still color coordinating it with the rest of the build. The water cooling loop still dominates the center of the case, but the Y created between the pump and the water blocks has symmetries and looks like the rather elegant configuration I was aiming for. This was my first time doing a custom water cooling at all, so a clean result was far from guaranteed.
At this point I tried to pressure test the loop, but made a horrible rookie mistake in my eagerness to complete the system. I forgot to attach any thing to the bottom of the GPU water block... When my pressure test was inconclusive and I decided to proceed with the 'paper towel' method, a fair bit of water doused the SSD just below the GPU after turning on the pump for a quick second. I was using an external power brick to run the pump, so thankfully the power supply, which was also under the GPU, was not powered or plugged in. I quickly cleaned it up and found no water hit any crucial components. The water used is PrimoChill and is not conductive, but I will still be letting it dry out just in case.

I continued filling the loop by filling the res and then running the pump for a second until there was enough water in the loop to keep the pump on. I was watching the bubbles flow through the loop and noticed a bit of water leaking from below one of the GPU's rotary fittings. Second rooky mistake, I didn't tighten the rotary fitting down to the block enough and I could clearly see space below the o-ring... Another reason to wait for the system to dry out, even though it looks like the water didn't touch any part of the GPU. I tightened the rotary fitting down, cleaned up the drops of water, and continued cycling the water.
I ran the system like this for a little over an hour with no more signs of leaks anywhere. It looks like it may be a day or two before I try to boot again, but I am willing to be a little patient for this project. Overall, I am very happy with how this computer looks and would go so far as to say it might pass as a professional build. I'll post a summary when/if the computer is up and running.