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Legolas, a water cooled Mini-ITX build by Shaqalac

Shaqalac
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Legolas, a water cooled and wall mounted Mini-ITX build

Picture coming up

 

Introduction:

It's been almost a year since I sold my desktop as I was going on a exchange in the states. Now that I'm back my Macbook Pro is not sufficient for my study needs nor my gaming needs. For many years I've wanted to make a water cooled system but it was always hard to justify the price and the case I was using at the time. Now with the PC-O5S I think there's no alternative to water cooling, even if the performance gains are negligible. To make it easier to justify the price of water cooling to myself, I've tried to get some of the components second hand. Now I haven't done that with every component, I want the case to be in perfect condition so that is ordered brand new. However, there is quite a lot to save looking at second hand storage, video cards and monitors, which is exactly what I did. My second hand items though, look like they just came out of their original packaging.

You may wonder why I've a Noctua CPU cooler. I choose to get this as I'm not completely sure about what water cooling I'm going to get. So to be able to use my new computer while doing research I opted for this Noctua cooler, which later will be transferred to my beloved NAS.

Every since I made my NAS in the Lian-Li PC-Q25B I've pretty much been obsessed with their cases, the brushed aluminium and the tempered glass. It's a pain to work with, to keep it perfect, but when you're done it's so rewarding.

The name Legolas is of course from Lord of the Rings but it fits my intentions for this Mini-ITX build pretty good as well. I want to build a good looking build that is still capable of handling pretty much whatever you throws at it. From the very beginning I'm completely aware of potential bottlenecks in terms of temperaturs as the case will only fit a fairly slim radiator in the top. However, with power requirements of computer components constantly decreasing, I'm sure if it can handle my components now, today, I'm pretty confident it will be able to handle the components of tomorrow.

Also, I forgot to mention the best part. The case is wall mountable, which I'm obviously going to utilise.

 

Parts list:

Peripherals:

Future purchases:

  • PSU cables: Short cable to keep it nice and clean.
    • Premade: CableMod. Yet to decide on the colour scheme.
    • Custom
  • Water cooling: This case is screaming for water cooling.
    • AIO rad/res/pump unit + custom
    • Full custom loop
  • RGB lightning strip
  • Fan splitter: Not complete sure what solution to go for yet. I will have a maximum of 3 fans in the case. I'm sure when building the system I will gain experience about what solution would be preferable.

 

Pictures:

All upcoming pictures will be added to this album.

 

Updates:

I will keep this post updated so you don't have to look around for it.

 

I can't wait to get started but for now I have to wait until all the parts have arrived.

 

Feedback and suggestions is more than welcome, especially in terms of the water cooling as it is where I'm more unsure and I lack some experience.

 

Cheers Shaqalac.

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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