Sir Beregond

Thanks, will really have to read up on this stuff. On another note, PPCs still hasn't shipped my order, so makes me wonder if they needed to make that extension lol. Was hoping to get that order in by Saturday.

At least for this link, shipping is to United States. OP is in New Zealand.

Even talking retail/MSRP prices, just feels like top end PC's are becoming much more a hobby for the elite. I lucked out with prices and trades to get this card and such, but I am worried about the trend continually upward. My other worry is that even certain cards priced in thee $500-$800 range just won't have longevity due to specs like a 3070. Especially for 4k longterm.

Oof, even their gen 3 nvme drives are expensive. Yeah I agree this is a good way to go and have used Crucial SSD's since forever (whenever the M4 came out). These things are rock solid. So can totally get the 1TB Samsung for nvme and add to it. Looks like a 1TB MX500 is only $149. I also have one of these going into the new rig, and have had another one in use in another rig in the house for years now. Solid drives.

Great idea. Already have the data vac. Have had it over a decade at this stage. On another note, not sure this will be the final fan orientation or not. Was really struggling to figure out intake/exhaust layout for this case. I think at this stage, just going to have to put it together and see how it goes.

It's a SSD I swear! There are only two m.2 slots on the Dark Hero as you know. I use a lot of local storage. As for the 12-pin, I found an extension on PerformancePC's that I ordered. Will see if it works out ok. Thank you! Yeah I am really liking these fans so far. Threw 4 of them in when I still had the old rig up and was impressed with the performance per noise. Noise is always a big factor in my watercooling during 24/7 daily use outside benchmarking or something. Anyway, put in another order for some snaking rotaries for the top radiator to make those fittings easier to deal with, the 12-pin sleeved extension, and I also wanted to pick up some biocide and inhibitor while I was at it since it is a very sunlit room. I will refresh the ModMyMods coolant every 3 months. Tonight I will also look at test fitting the reservoir and figuring out if my drain port location makes sense. Sometimes have a hard time figuring out the best placement for that.

So tonight I blocked the 3080 Ti. I am so upset with myself though as I slipped with the screwdriver on one screw and managed to do this. I don't know how to fix, or if Nvidia would send me a new backplate? Sigh... Anyway got the Alphacool block installed and also managed to get the other radiator in. I may need to get some more fittings for the top radiator though. Its a tight fit.

Oof, yeah those are some rough prices. Agree with the question is $1800 - $2000 NZD for just CPU, MOBO, RAM, or is that the budget for the whole system?

This sounds like a "yo dawg" meme.

Thank you very much! Will look great once I get the white tubing going. Still gotta get the bottom rad in and figure out how I am going to mount my reservoir. I think I have a rough idea how I want the layout to go, but given the use of rigid tubing, we'll see how it goes.

Good point. We shall see! On another note, I was much more careful removing the air cooler this time and managed not to rip the 5900X out of the socket. I saw how I could hold it down while releasing the two latches and then twisting before removing. Much better experience.

No vertical mount given I have a second radiator going in the floor (HWLabs 360GTS). For now, going to just use this adapter till I figure out a solution for the 12-pin. Ugly for now, but is what it is lol. Edit: Maybe in the future if I get a bigger case I could do a vertical mount, but frankly I don't want a case bigger than this standard O11-D.

Alright got CPU waterblock and first rad (HWLabs 360GTX) into place. Still not quite sure how I am going to layout the tubing, so the orientation may be subject to change...

Ok, old system came out and new system went in with one of the m.2 drives. Wanted to make sure Windows got installed to the correct one and now will be installing the other 2 drives and start on the water cooling. Confirmed everything is working still including the 5900X I had to fix the pins on!

This. Hopefully they've righted the ship in that regard, but remains to be seen really. Intel still having their own fabs definitely puts them in a good position though if they do.

What they do on the enterprise side doesn't excuse bad practices on the consumer side, much of which requires time and money on their part to design such proprietary parts and in doing so, planned obsolescence. If their concern is business class (which I agree it is), why are they spending the time and money developing all this proprietary stuff on the consumer side you find literally any time you open up a Dell system? Doesn't make sense to me and them being a great business solution doesn't excuse crappy practices on the consumer side. So their concern is business class, cool seems to me you'd want to use standardized parts on the consumer level then so you can keep more money and time devoted to your business segment. Something doesn't jive.

So, my distilled flushes went long as I got pulled away by work. I went and completed the distilled flushes and there is nothing in the microfins now. So seems like maybe was some sort of residue that got cleaned and then flushed? I really don't know. Took the block apart too and everything looks good, as does the nickel plating.

Good call. Will do a closer inspection when I take the block apart. Blue could also be from the Blitz Part 2, it is a bit blueish. Will see.

Starting my distilled flush runs following the Blitz Part 2. Some blueish gunk ended up in the microfins (my mistake for forgetting to add the filter back to this run), so will have to open up the block and clean that out. Not really sure what the gunk is from as the tubing and pump already ran through a Blitz Part 2 cycle and is only connected with the block. Maybe the block had some sort of residue that cycled through and deposited on the fins. Who knows. Always clean your stuff folks.

Dude, I'm not gettin' a Dell!

Sounds like a very Dell thing to do.

Yeah I noticed that too with the Leap. I've always used the normal version without one and liked it at the office, but for home, definitely like the look of the Gesture.

Nice! This one is definitely on my short list when the time comes to replace my own racer chair. I got used to having the full back though, so this definitely looks like a good option.

That's a classic. Before Corsair and EK took over the watercooling shelves at my local Micro Center, could always find these stocked. I was actually looking for a cheap little res to have on hand a few weeks ago, but alas they don't seem to stock these anymore in favor of just Corsair, EK, Bitspower stuff.

Running the new block through a Blitz Part 2 run, just to make sure its all clean. Everything else of course has been cleaned already and is ready to go. Glad I got that extra gallon of distilled water. Does anyone have any suggestion for a 12-pin PCIe cable solution that is individually sleeved or maybe even paracord? Found a few things out there, but just not sure. I'm usually very wary of cable extensions and such. The sleeved cables I used on my AX750 and the new set I got for the RM1000x are both made by Corsair, so figured they were safe. But doesn't look like they offer an individually sleeved version for the 12-pin.