Sometimes Water Cooling SUCKS... (Riptide Update)

[@buffaloxp]

“Shit.” Sums up most of my life.

[@billybobbob3003]

Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black...mitx system isnt watercooled so who csres if the main system isnt.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! funtion over looks is always better.

[@BennieBrunink]

Mope much ? ..

[@canadian_overlanders]

Just do a “push” on the top radiator instead of a “push/pull”, should be enough...

[@kevinlindholm931]

Yes pls do that or just pull but just change that dont do both push pull up top and your problem is solved

[@ICDragonfly]

If you want to go the full nine to make everything flush and basically closable the get these items.... 1)Jigsaw or Sawzall w/ wood blade (if case is aluminium) otherwise metal or combo 2)Drill & drill bits 3)Four long threaded rods w/ corresponding nuts and washers you'll need 8-16 of each (local hardware store should suffice) 4)Extra mesh & or metal w/ rivet gun/rivets for a full finished enclosure. 5)Anything else you can think of that might make your job easier and I will or better... Think Cable ties, digital caliper, measuring tape, ect... Step 6)Disassemble everything & I'm market off the top of your case off motherboard leaving your push poles rad mount intact. 7)Spec out space for bigger rad pumps along with the length and width long threaded rods (they will need to be able to hold the weight of the chopped top and rad w/ water. They also will need to be long enough to stick out the top and bottom of the case after the hight extension) which will give you the corresponding nuts size & relative size for extra case addition 8)Decide whether or not you want to keep an open top case or create mesh/metal to in close everything. 9)Use drill to make four holes in the bottom corners of the (or where they have to be in order create structural rigidity) of the bottom panel of the case and corresponding holes in the top of the case panel for the long threaded rods. 10) Suspended the "rad roof" by putting the long threaded rods threw the bottom of the case first and secure them w/ corresponding washers and nuts. The nuts need to go two on the bottom of the panel and two on the top of the panel (one retainer & one locker which you could sub w/ self locking cap-nuts for a cleaner look & less potential to snag and unscrew) 11) Mirror the process for the top panel. 12)Finish enclosing the space felt from the hight addition unless you decide to leave open air. 13)Sit back and admire your handiwork 14) consider a shout out 👍😆

[@munkysthrowpoop]

That’s what I was thinking just pull a fan or two out where the reservoir goes

[@tommyfw]

Posted my comment before reading your much more succinct post. :-) Completely agree.

[@dugg117]

Pull. Not push. Push leaves a dead zone in the middle of the fan and makes maintenance harder. With a pull you can just vacuum the inlet side of the rad rather than having to take the fans off to clean the dust.

[@gabrielromig5470]

Congratulations, Paul...one of the biggest cases on the market and you've managed to run out of room LOL Good luck!

[@MrArrakis9]

11:30 get a hole saw the same size or slightly bigger than the circumference of the pump... drill hole into bracket... fixed'

[@GBLecci]

I was about to say the same :), we thought about the same hehe

[@RayJohnExclamationMark]

Bracket sits flat on the hdd (?) cage (15:31)

[@iconoclast485]

the bracket does sit flush on the cage that is under it but you have to take into account the thickness of the bracket itself. If he only needs 1/8 of an inch it might work because with a hole bored out of the bracket it would give him roughly 1/8 of an inch more room or so that's my guess by eyeballing it.

[@handmadecomputers5072]

Hole saw sounds the best idea, drop through the bottoms if the bracket.

[@jaydub8576]

Yeah, hole saw down into the psu shroud.

[@popeizzy2012]

I felt bad about the dust in mine until today

[@paulshardware]

I had to prove that the dust filter was doing something...

[@AliShuktu]

I have installed HEPA filters on my case. No more dust. Period. P.s.: mind airflow though.))

[@rtangxps9]

@@AliShuktu Where do you get case sized hepa filters?

[@AliShuktu]

@@rtangxps9 I've made them. But you can buy at car shop and cut to your size. It's not of a 'case size' size. No. It's only the size of a fan. Glue it In front of fan grill. All unused openings are taped with transparent celotape. Done.

[@camerons.8322]

My brain: I'd love to mess with water cooling sometime. Also my brain: Fool, who are you kidding? You don't have the patience for that! My wallet: Or the cash. My Hyper 212 Evo: Am I a joke to you?

[@chadmckean9026]

My NH-D14: Yes

[@patrickcarrillo714]

Get the EK A360G kit everything you need

[@dadjokes8963]

my soon to be be quiet dark rock pro 4, " hmmm thought i heard something but I cant see anything"

[@richy581]

I feel it's just so much work for like minimal returns like back in the day yeah water-cooling was seriously amazing but today you can get air coolers that are very close if not better for much cheaper and no maintenance

[@RockyColaFizz]

Yup agreed. Its not worth it.

[@austinjohnson6049]

Yea I agree. It's honestly pointless and just a hobby but nothing more.

[@iHasCaek]

@@austinjohnson6049 thats the whole point. the hobby.

[@CatCubed]

It looks cool but that's about it, no real advantage over air cooling for a normal user

[@richy581]

@@FilmFlam-8008 I agree I'm using noctua heatsinks right now

[@adampoole1972]

A two part video, yeah we've heard that before

[@IanTheCat]

This will be in 4 parts. I'm calling it 😂

[@Raivo_K]

And will take the whole year. At the beginning of 2021 the cycle will start again.

[@jemster38]

I love watching videos like this because it makes me feel smug about my air-cooled system which I haven't done maintenance on for over a year with no heat or mechanical problems.

[@mryellow6918]

You say no heat problems but you can't run a 9900k at 5.2ghz and a 2080ti at 2.2ghz at 45c while your pc bearly makes a sound.

[@wispiwispi1889]

Just remove the fan that the reservoirs will interfere with.

[@bartacus3521]

This deserves three thumbs up, easiest solution by far. Sexier option IMHO would be HeatKiller reservoirs. Get a pair of 150ml tubes, and they'd probably fit very nicely in there.

[@hobnobrev]

I was going to suggest that too, as a temp fix... Lol

[@dudeguyman77]

put a spacer below the alpha cool bracket that holds the pumps and it raises the mounting point but it wont raise the pump any higher

[@RedNeck_Zeus]

When you computer is so large you require a furniture cart in order to move it

[@davidbrennan5]

I remember when 1 terabyte hard drives were the size of a coffee table, now you can get a micro sd card with that much storage.

[@bobfill5809]

Can’t relate

[@bwwilson1765]

Yeah, I wonder how much it weighs. 50+ lbs with all the coolant in it? Plus it's just huge. Carrying it would be really cumbersome and awkward, I bet.

[@CantankerousDave]

@@davidbrennan5 I had a pair of full-height 9GB SCSI drives in an editing rig back in the 90s. You never forget the sound of those things spinning up. (My very first HDD was a whopping 50MB in my first Amiga.)

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

at least it isn't BlueGene/L. lol.

[@gremfive4246]

Wouldnt be easiest to make the top radiator instead of a push pull set up to a push only setup like you have on the front radiators? and then you would have added clearance.

[@thesaltking7355]

10/10 on that opening. And the doggos

[@bryandepaepe5984]

The custom loop I built has been running 24/7 for 3 years with no problems but temps have gone up by a couple degrees, probably needing new thermal paste. I chose to use various suppliers that were the highest recommended in their respective fields and used a premix coolant. I washed all parts, inside and out, with a little dish soap then never touched parts bare handed afterwards and assembling or covering, to protect from dust, immediately. I did have an advantage of years of work in related fields that involved water, o-rings, pumps and electronics but not specifically home computer water cooling, that helped me with the knowledge of the details required.

[@techytube7764]

One of the best openings ever

[@Joh_Lam]

They actually did not discontinue the VPP755. But did revise it two times and by now it is called VPP755 V.3. I have two of those running and so long having no trouble. I mainly chose them because they are said to be quieter and less power consuming and I was just hoping that they solved all the issues with this third version of it.

[@juuzousuzuya654]

Paul I think you’re gonna get buff if you keep working on riptide hahaha

[@paulshardware]

I got it back to the computer room all by myself! 💪

[@GullibleGuttridge]

You could say hes going to get ripped 😂

[@guyincognito566]

Should re-name it Deadlift.

[@juuzousuzuya654]

Shaun Guttridge this!

[@juuzousuzuya654]

John Hutchins I’m going to start deadlifting my own pc now, thanks for the idea XD

[@DaPoets]

For Riptide, I'm not sure what that cage is underneath the pumps but have you thought of drilling maybe a 3 inch diameter hole underneath both D5 pumps so that they can sink into that just a couple of millimeters?

[@AnIdiotwithaSubaru]

Paul, you should give the Aquacomputer aquastream XT a chance. They use much stronger pumps and they are a much more intelligent pump

[@JayWalker22816]

Are there any double helix that would fit that are shorter or adjustable? Or a case that is more on the tall side?

[@Im1CrazyCow]

Hey Paul I have 4 ideas real fast, #1 just Take out the Back fan if that's the one the fitting hit for clearance #2 Change the fitting on the RES its very high there are ones a lot shorter that will give you at-least 1/2 and inch clearance up there. #3 the easy one get shorter res tubes and helix & yes i know it it would suck them being shorter but it would work. #4 move your mounting bracket out at the bottom and inch and Angle the Helix's back at the top it will give you all the clearance you need and actually be something few do which is not straight up/down or flat mounting!! #5 move the pumps in-front of the Rad on the right. #6 do the same I said in #4 But lean Both Helix Res tops to the Right it might look really cool..i can think of a lot more but in 10 mins i can fit that easy......best is to get shorter fitting come on thumb turn in screw connections WOW what happen to NEW EGG MAN?!?! Cow}:-o)

[@mirror71]

Didn't realize we had nearly twin builds. I'm running a 60mm thick alphacool rad up top as well. You can buy yourself an extra 25mm of vertical clearance if you mount the top fans on top of the rad mount and use the longer 36mm (IIRC) screws to go fan->rad mount->rad.

[@poymu4929]

0:33 that was totally JayZtwocents intro

[@bonziisuncool]

bout to say the same thing lol

[@Marc-Andre_G]

I agree

[@KSPilo]

R.I.P.tide...(Rest In Pieces)

[@alfonsputzeys9228]

Smaller double Helix? Cut a clearance hole in the BASE?

[@SpurnOfHumanity]

*Paul: "The end of 2019 was a blur to me"* *Me: "I'll drink to that!"*

[@darryldee467]

True and it's February already.

[@wrastler_j1943]

love that whole caravan at the beginning!

[@OverdriveTech]

My first build was a fully watercooled hardline gaming rig in the Evolv X. Assembling it was not that difficult. Hoping that maintenance will be easy too.

[@robusmc1713]

haha The dogs following you in the beginning Priceless , I will stick with my all in one that's a lot of maintenance !!!!!!! but also a lot of a PC

[@Nightowl_IT]

Get the exact same pump as the one that fits. If I recall correctly it was the VPP755 instead of the 655 or get a hole drill with the right diameter and a good sharpie. AND you can leave the res pump combo dangling in the case and add longer runs of hose while you are waiting for the part to arrive.

[@derrickgott007]

Hiro is doing a great impression of an Ikea Lamp

[@paulshardware]

I like to think of him as a pretty blue flower 🌼 lol

[@Arashmickey]

@@paulshardware 0:30 Love how he checks the front door. "Maybe we're going for a walk?"

[@CantankerousDave]

Coming soon, the Hjëërø.

[@bullettube9863]

There are fungicides you can buy at any garden center or store that sells gardening stuff. One or two table spoons should keep the algae from growing. Just read the directions and if in doubt ask a sales person because some of the fungicides I've used were milky in color so you can tell where you were applying it. Someone once told me to put anti-bacterial soap in their system but I'm not sure that will work against algae like a true anti-fungicide will.

[@MrMoxes]

1:12 I told my wife about the Sephora box and she said that "they pack stuff pretty damn well". I didn't know they were getting into watercooling LoL

[@sonofstifler1791]

Paul, you've got two sets of fans on your top radiator. For the time being take off the bottom set and all should fit. There are fans at the front, the top and at the back as I can see at the moment so airflow should be fine. You can test the thermals to make sure all is well.

[@CantankerousDave]

Seeing the case on that movers' dolly is the first time I ever really understood how big it is. Holy crap.

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

high-power, quiet, small ... pick 2. lol.

[@CyFr]

Cut some big holes in the mounting plate for the extra height of the water pumps.

[@boorogaming3039]

I LOVE PAUL'S HARWAREEEEEE

[@paulshardware]

🙏💖

[@ankdhi]

No homo tho

[@JulianUccetta]

I have the same case and just finished my very first hard line build in it, I have two EK D5 pumps mounted on the HDD cage cover with a slightly thinner 420 push/pull rad up top, even with the thinner rad I had to use smaller reservoirs. I too wanted to go with the double helix ones simply because they looked cool, but I ended up going with some small EK ones instead. Also, if you wanted you could change the top rad to just push or pull, and throw a 240 in the rear in a push config to try and make up for the tiny bit of lost cooling power. I managed to fit a 240 on the back with push/pull up top

[@ragnarocking]

You have to borrow the _Cone of Shame_ from your dog and wear it for part 2.

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Paul, I forgot how big the radiators in your system were. And good to see you maintain your loops. Thank you for sharing this experience.

[@Xzor]

I had an AIO leak... Never again. Air cooled from now on for me. Water looks great though.

[@Thrashman138]

Every AIO I have ever used either leaked or had a pump break down. Air cooling for life.

[@thebestweston8307]

I'm curious to see how long the "leak proof" aios hold up after a year or so. Air cooling with the right beefy cooler is just as efficient for most consumer systems anyways..

[@michael_graper]

My cousin had his aio leak all over his 1080ti, somehow the card was fine but he has since switched to a massive aircooler

[@Thrashman138]

@@thebestweston8307 A lot of air coolers outperform a lot of AIOs for less money.

[@Im_Interested]

@@thebestweston8307 I've been running a Fractal C24 since 2017. No issues to report. My PC almost never turns off either.

[@RhysLewisNZ]

Paul... Why not remove the bottom fan that sits directly above the pumps ,, and make a new bracket??

[@bsanyal1978]

Never seen Paul's entourage in one shot. This was my first!!👍😃

[@OmeGigaSavior]

Glad you included that epilogue of it running w/ a backup smaller reservoir. Perhaps, you could also remove the top fans and just have the radiators in a push setup, instead of push/pull, giving you some more clearance for your original double helix reservoirs.

[@AsianPersuation24x7]

I’m pretty lazy so I’m definitely sticking with air cooled lol 😂

[@ReaperCrewJRRC]

Maybe the bracket that holds the pumps the flat part underneath just cut/drill or dremel a hole big enough for the pump partition to slide down the space that you need and then you would not need to change much else. Just an idea, not sure if it is possible with the slide out quick release mechanism that you have as I can not see the angle on it.

[@Thrashman138]

I would argue most times water cooling sucks. In most cases water cooling is far more expensive, time consuming, risky and far less reliable compared to air cooling.

[@elvisg7]

Go with a Noctua air build Paul. Embrace that tan & brown life, join the brown side. Or you could just go with the new Chromax versions if brown is not your cup of tea.

[@itsmillertime5523]

Ur my favorite KZbinr

[@paulshardware]

Thank you!! Cheers 😁🍻

[@itsmillertime5523]

🍺

[@Stephenson05]

I wish you the best of luck Paul! My water cooling loop has evolved several times over the years and it’s most recent iteration has the reservoir/pump combo as tight as it can fit, 1.5mm from the GPU block to the res 📏 🍀

[@mini-_]

air cooling squad represent!

[@bwwilson1765]

Yes! I'm here with my house fan pointed at the side of my case with the side off! Like a 1500 mm fan or something. Oh yeah baby!

[@bwwilson1765]

@Mykel Hardin If by dumb you mean: Damn, U Mighty Bright, I agree, thank you! I'm being cheap is all. Or lazy. Or both. Whatever.

[@mini-_]

Sorry I like my PC to work and maintenance to be easy :( Nothing against (custom) watercooling, but as someone that sees my PC more as workhorse - and less of a hobby project - I can't see an advantage in watercooling.

[@mini-_]

@Mykel Hardin ok.

[@PhillipRPeck]

How much do you really need those thick radiators with the push/pull setup? Could you just go with a slimmer rad up top?

[@zeus3freedom]

This is the dark side of liquid cooling...

[@dakkonfury]

I’d see if I could put a hole in the mounting bracket so that the reservoir/pump combo is allowed to sit below the floor of that bracket while putting all the support on the screws in the sides. You could then (if you want) fabricate a plate that you could braze into place underneath if you’re dead set on having something underneath it. Luckily you’re using soft tubing so that the minor reposition of the fittings in the case wouldn’t really matter.

[@CaveyMoth]

Holy crap, DNA reservoirs! I haven't seen one of those since 2011!

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

Everything old is new again...

[@CaveyMoth]

@@blahorgaslisk7763 Just like how side intake fans are going to become popular on PC cases again.

[@dktha]

The amount of maintenance depends entirely on the loop and case. For something like one radiator, res + pump combo, CPU block in a bigger case, the maintenance and disassembly is really simple. Use Quick Disconnects where possible. I've swapped CPU+motherboard+RAM+GPU many times without draining the loop at all. Yearly water change with a quick disconnect in the lowest part of the loop. Also it looks like there is some serious issue with dust in the video.

[@Bunjamin27]

Thank you for reminding many of us why we don't water cool..

[@mryellow6918]

I have a 360 loop for my 2080. Litterly the easiest thing to look after. 2.2ghz on the core and silent. Just rinse with distilled water every 3 months.

[@iimamALI]

Its so much fun to flushing every 6-12 months ,and im live in IRAQ 54 celsius so its important for me

[@Windiguana]

Hole saw through the bottom of the pump mounting bracket? The height of the d5 would be the same because the bottom of the pump would be sunk below the base of the bracket. I think that would have solved your problem and let you get the system up and running with minimal effort. I'm not familiar with this case and don't know if there is any room below the bracket to accommodate the extra bit of pump height, but that's the best solution I could fathom.

[@virtueofsunlight1342]

Remember kids: AIOs are your friends

[@davidlambert8531]

I totally feel for you man, but the drama is nail biting when it comes to your story of the RipTide computer work. I really enjoy seeing you work through all of this, but totally understand the frustrations you're feeling. Keep up the amazing work!

[@tommyfw]

Just a thought--go with push-pull intake on the front (where you seem to have the space) and go to strictly exhaust at the top buying yourself the required space to adjust the baseplate for the D5 pumps.

[@brandonf11798]

This is the PC that really got me into wanting to build my own rig. It's such a dope build, I really wanted to build something like this but cannot afford the $10k price tag so I'm settling for a $2.5k budget build and it is probably overkill for what I need but hey, it will last longer than 5 years. Thanks Paul for inspiring me! All your videos are supper helpful. Keep it up!

[@kwedog2373]

How bad do you want the double helix? You can cut a shallow hole in that drive cage that the custom mount sits on to accommodate for the extra height of the new pump. Like I said, how bad do you want the double helix reservoirs?

[@doom7684]

Paul, you are NOT an idiot, you are a beautiful person. You are one of the few guys that builds these super water cooled systems and actually uses it and that takes balls my dude. However, you have killed my interest in ever attempting water cooling myself. Keep up the good work. the intro had me rolling. The lick guard...

[@SciPunk215]

Poor Hiro gets the lampshade treatment. Best wishes to him !! As for water-cooling, there's a reason why you don't see it in professional data centers. Kudos to Paul for not hiding this from his audience. I appreciate the honesty.

[@TheRg191]

This is what I dread when even considering water cooling I’ve used AIO’s before but those vs the really high end air coolers from Noctua and Be Quiet there’s a negligible difference in cooling performance and custom loops are ruled out because of the sheer quantity of maintenance and down time if something fails. My main rig is essential for work and down time would cost me money and if I drag my feet for too long on a project it could potentially lose me clients too. I always enjoy watching people build custom loops and sometimes I think “maybe one day” but thanks Paul for reminding me why I shouldn’t!

[@SheriffOfRockRidge]

Koolance makes some nice low-profile right angle fittings (I'm using two in my build). I don't know how much extra clearance they would give you versus the Alphacool fittings you have on top of the reservoirs, but they are quite a bit shorter, so that could be worth checking out. Hope it all comes back together soon!

[@ExploreModding]

Sit the pumps on the side without any pump brackets, with maybe some dampening foam between them and the case bracket, that should make enough clearance to mount the reservoirs above. You have soft tubing anyway, so you have a lot of options

[@dovahheimiik2580]

Hmmm.... What about drilling out the bracket beneath the pump with a hole saw to create the needed clearance? It looks like they mount above the drive cage though, would that also cause interference? If so, maybe remove the drives and drill it out too? At that point, you'd have the max possible clearance without removing the drives entirely.

[@frankgomez_technology503]

Not sure if someone has already offered this idea. but if you have the room in the drive cage that the the pumps sit on maybe you can drill out the bottom and have the larger pump sit inside of it that way it still is held by the bracket and keep all the tolerances for you pump and res.

[@KGDAVE1]

Like others have said, you could lose the fans directly above the res/pumps if they won't fit. You could also try and swap out the res tubes for shorter ones, even if it means losing your helix... things. Or mod the hard drive cage to allow lower mounting of the res mounting plates that you made.

[@mbakley7877]

Is there a way to use a thinner rad up top or maybe lower profile fans to give yourself more clearance on top and then use that rad and fans on another build? or maybe make a hole on the bottom part of the case so that that lower part of the pump can sit down more? or give up the push/pull config and just use the 3 fans on the inside to bring the rad up higher just my suggestions. Also is there a way to take the top fans on the top rad and bring them up above the bracket and mount the rad to the bracket that way? with fans being up top of the bracket would give you a little more clearance.

[@Sir_Defyable]

Hole saw into the bottom of the bracket where the D5 sits into. Give you that centimeter back and maintain same vertical clearances

[@davidcortes7235]

Paul if you wanted to go air just switch to the Phanteks Luxe 2 case and run a dual system in that case. It's not as big as the 1000D and isn't bad when you run air cooled. Just a thought

[@Noswolf]

we use ultrasonic cleaner for liquid cooling parts.... helps alot with getting stuff pretty again

[@pfcstuck]

If you have access to a CNC or a mill (like LTT) you can simply elongate the two existing mounting holes so they are oval instead of round. Then put the screws back in with some lock-washers and they should stay in place just fine. I would not recommend trying to elongate the holes with hand-tools though. If you don't have clearance on top you can remove the last "push" fan of the push/pull setup.

[@rickshaw9219]

Simplest solution is to buy/install thinner fans for the top radiator. You might lose some airflow but it would allow you enough space to use the double helix.

[@troyn14]

are all the drive bays populated? if not or if you can spare to take out the top one ,grab a dremmel and mount the bracket inside of it with some spacers to give you the perfect amount of space needed to still fit the massive rad up top if you have enough space you could even mount it in a way that you cant see the pumps at all and have the res come out of the drive cage

[@VolcanoPenguin]

I still haven't completed my huge custom waterloop build and I ordered the parts at the end of last summer/beginning of fall. Got all the wiring done, just need to cut/bend tubes and shove them into every hole I see. Screw with confidence, as Bitwit would always say.

[@pkinneavy]

cut holes in the base plate of the custom bracket for the taller pumps to go down into, use the older holes and the added height will be under the bracket

[@37Kilo2]

I recently took apart the custom loop on my Threadripper rig. I'm so tired of water-cooling issues, failures, and maintenance. While water cooling was a fun experience, air cooling is plenty good enough for me.

[@kevgwang]

Paul I've used all 3 versions of the VPP755 pump. Rev 1 notorious for impeller clip popping off and grinding. Ver 2 had an issue where sometimes it wouldn't power on a few restarts normally corrected it and it was good for a while. Ver 3 so far still running in my pc now has been bullet proof. And these pumps are by far the best iteration of a D5 available imho. Super quiet even at full speed where standard D5 variants hum like crazy.

[@phillipramz8882]

Should use the Mayems Blitz Kit to make sure your Rads and system is cleaned good. Also, why not just use 1 set of fans for top radiator, and add a lot more clearance?

[@jakebaker9583]

Would you have room, if you used a hole saw to drill out the bottom of the bracket wide enough to slide the pump down into it?

[@wiideathmodtv]

Paul you can screw the res and pumps on the back of the case lower by the hdd drive Cage and everything should fit with both rads in

[@Jousten16]

After seeing the rather recent videos of Linus and Jay both having some trouble with watercooled builds I have to seriously reconsider if it's worth it going with full watercooling. For someone with only one system who also works fulltime, having to spend so much time on maintenance and such high risk of defects (pump failures and other stuff) is just not practical imo.

[@J3M4L]

hi paul sorry about the bad luck mabee you could hole saw out the bottom part of the bracket to make room for the pump to go lower

[@rbruch98]

The shot of you guys wheeling out the computer on the cart with dogs in tow is pure gold

[@randomviewer9708]

i love that the ad at the beginning was for an air cooler. i might consider aio my next build but def not a custom loop.

[@bt4brady384]

drill or dremell new holes under the pumps to let them slide lower and keep your exact same vertical dimensions up top by expanding down that centimeter or so. completely dependent on what lives beneath that pump bracket.

[@steve_ns]

Put the pumps along the side of the drive bay, then run tubes up from there to the double helixes? Can't really tell if the gap is wide enough though.

[@DJchestr]

Couple big holes for the pumps to go through on your mounting plate?

[@rbroccoli_]

Suggestion: To make more room for your tanks can you mount then at an angle? Bring the bottom forward toward the side panel and lean the top back toward the motherboard?

[@InderjeetSingh-im3eh]

Depends how how much metalworking you want to do. You could cut a hole in the bottom of the bracket so the pump combo drops onto the pegs like the other one does. Looks like the case in that area would need the same treatment.

[@AndreasRavnestad]

I played around with different fluids for quite a while before finally settling on premixed engine coolant (ethylene glycol). It is completely maintenance free. Haven't touched the loop for a year now and everything is still crystal clear. Distilled water (with or without biocide) won't cut it in the long run no matter what. Just get premixed ethylene glycol coolant -- fill and forget.

[@Emily1963eh]

Paul, Is there any real need to have such a thick rad at the top? if you swap it for a thinner one, it would give you the space you need.

[@gillscramble]

Run the top radiator with 5 instead of 6 fans. Removing the one fan above the reservoirs should get the required clearance. You may even be able to just remove the blades and motor from the fan, and keep the empty case of the fan in place (to preserve the look).

[@Zaryn10]

It's not failing when you learn something from change. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with Paul!