Heya guys. I would like to share my ideas on a new PC build aka my first open loop water cooled PC.
I've build a few dozen systems over the past 10 years for friends/family and familiars. 3 for myself with more focus on aesthetics each time, like color schemes, custom cables, clean cable management etc.
The plan for now is to start this project in the end of next the month or start April.
Would love if you maybe had some inputs on this or stories to shared about your builds or whatever.

Thankfully I have an RTX 3080ti already to use in this build.

The overall list so far:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/34KZ8r

Water cooling parts: (still need to figure how many 45*, 90*, extending etc fittings I need, the pack in the cart will take care of like 80% of what is needed)
cart: https://i.imgur.com/vqi18S7.png
this pump+sensors: https://i.imgur.com/2mgIMki.png

Case
I would really like to utilize the new Corsair 5000T. https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Mid-Tower-ATX-Cases/iCUE-5000T-RGB-Mid-Tower-ATX-PC-Case/p/CC-9011230-WW
It's only been out for a few days. It's probably criminally overpriced, but would have bought the 120LL fans, commander pro and light strips kit anyways
Also the 8.8inch screen in the cart will be integrated into the PSU shroud to show water, CPU, GPU temperatures etc and other stats like water flow rate.

Fan setup
Fan intake would be kinda weird, but most likely the most efficient possible airflow setup?
Intake: 3x QL120 front, 1x QL120 rear, 1x 92mm installed in the PCIE brackets (As GPU will be installed vertically so all the slots will be free I might as well install a fan there to get fresh airflow over the back of the GPU)
Exhaust: 3x LL120 on a 40mm thick radiator top, 3x LL120 on a 30mm thick radiator in the back.
Why the different fans you might ask? Well QL120 has an amazing design on the exhaust side as well. LL120 are slightly cheaper and overall better radiator fans.
I will make some custom magnetic fan filters for the 120mm and 92mm fans in the rear.

Water Cooling Parts
Why not more well-known brands like EKWB?
I've been reading up on water cooling parts for the last few days. It seems like EKWB has had some serious quality control issues over the the last couple of quarters.
Barrow has been praised lately it seems to be one of the better brands now days. Having lower to mid budget priced parts matching mid to high end parts in quality.
Why that D5 pump over just the barrow res+pump combo? The sensors built in. Read that Aquacomputer's has the most reliable temperature and flow rate sensor and easiest software (To add the statistics to the 8.8" display)
I will probably end up ordering a total of 10x PMMA hardtubes so I can screw up some of my first bends.

Glorious build sir.

I beg of you to put together a build video. As much as it will double your frustrations in the process, I feel this is a worthy monument to have video documented.

A few questions to spark conversation since you're in the pre-build stage:

Great choice on WD over pricier storage, but why 1TB? With triple-A games bleeding so much of your capacity, I feel 2-3TB is a better fit here. Especially since you're water cooling and it's a bit more of a hassle to add storage down the road.

Also, and this is more curiosity than recommendation, but at this price point why go 3080ti over 3090? Where I live they're very close in price and it seems you're really pushing the limits on everything else here

I was going to recommend the fractal design torrent but it looks like Corsair has the lighting control you're looking for and I also think the Torrent might be more limited with custom loops.

All in all, I love where this build is heading and hope to see updates as you go along !!

This post was edited by Resonating_glass on Feb 19 2022 12:52am

I hope it will end up being glorious.
Did consider doing a build blog, sure can add youtube video(s) for it. The plan is to enjoy the process being patient and do things as perfect I can. If I get all the correct fittings etc in the first order I will take myself 4 days for it.
The parts marked purchased in the pcpartpicker link I already own and use in my current PC which will be reused. (GPU SSD PSU)

1. WD TN850 is the fastest M.2 NVMe SSD on the market kinda tied with Samsung Pro 980 and Kingston KC3000. I usually clean up my storage once a month and only have 4-5 games installed at a time. With a 1Gbit/1Gbit connection I don't see a reason to keep many unplayed games installed.
I have a local server with 48TB storage where pictures, videos etc are stored.
I did consider adding another 1TB, but for now I can't really see a reason to right now and there should be room enough for me to install another m.2 without removing anything water cooling parts.

2. The 3080ti was purchased in september was able to get it for a "okay" price of 1280$. Today the cheapest I can find is is 1600$. So yes if I had to buy an GPU today I would most likely just buy an 3090 instead.

3. Yes actually my original plan was using Fractal Design Torrent. Absolut love the front design of it! But reading more into it the water cooling options it was pretty limited and not going to be as aesthetic pleasing. If I was just doing a air cooled/AIO CPU cooling this would have been 100% my pick,
Then I had my eyes on Phanteks evolv X doing a custom waterjet/laser cut front panel. But then a few days ago Corsair 5000T and Cooler Master Haf 700 Evo came out. And now I'm 99% sure that 5000T is the correct fit for me.

Man with a plan!

Love this, take your time and enjoy the build.

Solid price on your 3080ti, I was definitely thinking this was being built from the ground up

Definitely tag or PM me if you get a blog up

Apologies if you came here for critique or suggestions, I really don't have anything. This will be a majestic beast

Thanks man. Well you know how fun/interesting and calming building a PC can be.
It's not quite a NO compromise/unlimited budget PC. If it was I would have sold the 3080ti to buy an 3090, NVMe KC3000 4TB, 64GB 6400MHz DDR5 ram, Asus rog maximus z690 formula and water cooling parts plus accessoires from Optimus, Heatkiller and Singularity Computers.

Nah your questions was good. I had to ponder over why I actually only have 1TB for the build.
Checking my current PC for storage usage etc. But with the insanely large network mapped folder for generel storage and only 5ish games installed at a time I have 597GB free of 930GB. Hades, The Outer world, Valheim, Diablo 2 Resurrected and Call of Duty WWII.
Also if I wanna play a game like lets say Doom it takes just under 9 minutes to install the 68.69GB on the 1Gbit.

Here's a rough sketch of how I would like to do the tubes. (not my PC and I will use the black version of the case)


Still need to figure if I could possible do a 55mm thick radiator in the top without impeding on the in- and outlet of the back radiator. If it fits I'm most likely going going HardwareLabs Nemesis 360gtr + 360gts.

This post was edited by Roneye on Feb 20 2022 05:19pm

If you like RGB maybe add Lian Li strimers.

I went with an aesthetic build as well: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=91877638&f=189&v=1

Strimers look amazing, the only thing that might bother you is that it'll be the only piece in your build that can't be controlled by iCue

Thanks for the recommendation with the strimers. I'm good with the custom cables
I'm not really into rainbow puke. But like being able to change between static colors as the rest of my setup is neutral/dark.

Update:
The plan is to order everything next weekend. I hadn't really considered the water cooling parts would take a month~ to arrive.
And now D2R Ladder just got announced for 28. April. Seems like I gotta runs the system for a few weeks without the custom water cooling there.

So think I will purchase an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 as a temporary CPU cooler to use until a few weeks in the ladder.