A quick update on my water cooling progress.
I have now abandoned the idea of hardline due to the need to be able to get access to the CPU and other components for swapping or upgrading or simply remounting etc. I did not factor this in to my plans when I started this journey, but during the months I have been putting things together I have come to the conclusion that flexible tubing is a must right now for practical reasons. Originally I was planning on wall mounting my case and then forgetting it, allowing me to use the PC and work or enjoy some games. Instead the building bug has hit me hard and I find myself constantly tweaking and changing things, and hard tubing sucks a lot of the fun out of this due to the additional time it takes to move anything in the loop vs soft tubing.
As well as switching entirely to soft tubing I have abandoned my plan for a compact self contained build.
Working in the Lian Li Pc-o7 I was buying all sorts of specific parts to make a decent loop fit while making the bare minimum of modifications to the case. In fact my target number of mods was zero. So when I was forced to drill several holes in the case it broke must have broken down some imaginary barrier I had created in mind and opened the flood gates of modding possibility.
Madness ensued.
I drilled larger holes and mount points for aesthetic reasons and swapped out the compromise kit I had originally bought for 'better' parts that fit with the newly modified case.
Then several parts arrived and they wouldn't fit without some drastic modding which I obviously felt was a step too far so I put that on hold while I approached the problem from another perspective.
'What if i mounted a rad next to the case, I bet that would look awesome on the wall all lit up together...'
That's when I bought a Mo-Ra3 and the various tubing and fittings that I needed to add the external rad to the loop, and I have been trying to figure out how to power and control the fans I have yet to buy ever since.
By now I had a redonculous amount of cooling kit, most untouched, that I couldn't fit in my case and my plans for a clean self contained wall mounted build with subtle lighting and hard tubing were a pipe dream
In a moment of frustration with the space I was working with I ordered a new case and abandoned the dream of a wall mounted build. But all was not lost, my Evolv X arrived and all of a sudden I had a brand new blank canvas and a flood of new ideas came with it.
I've changed everything that I bought for the Lian Li build (which I never finished) and most of the parts intended for the pc-o7 still stare at me reproachfully from the corner of the room, where they sit unused and unloved as a reminder of the money I've wasted.
Skipping forward to where I am now, missing several mind farts and tenuous logical leaps that made purchasing decisions make perfect sense, I now have a Phanteks Evolv X with 3 interal rads and 5 external 1080 radiators (well I already had one so the rest just made sense...) as well as an entire spare set of parts with which i can build another complete loop (with bits to spare). This is instead of the single black square i was planning to mount on the wall. And I have spent considerably more time building planning, stripping, flushing and cleaning and then rebuilding my PC than I have actually using it.
Which takes me back to my original post. I've loved and at times loathed water cooling, but I am so glad I chose to get into it. It has been a massive time and money sink but it has made me realise that it is okay to make mistakes, make a mess and set aside time for myself to really get lost in something and be happy. Even when I really wasn't, the frustration I felt was a driving force rather than a limiting one and that was borne of my own joy and desire to continue doing something that genuinely made me happy.
I'm still not finished, I have to get the external radiators fitted and I am thinking about adding fans to them despite buying them to make the build as quiet as possible.
You know, just in case I need them.
I've also had several hardware issues which are slowing things down, and having just the one PC means if I absolutely have to use it and the loop is in bits, then I need to strip it quickly and pop a noctua on the cpu to allow me to get things done.
But I am happy. I'm glad I went with water cooling and come what may I can look back on this, whether success or failure, and say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey.