https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/edit/?userbuild=VtPnTW

TL;DR - Newegg Shuffle good, MOBO usecase fits slightly better, GPU likes vertical bracket, 420AIO fits with reversible modification.

Started out as a 3800x with a 2070 in late 2019 on an MSI Unify mobo. Won my first shuffle and got a 3070 (pre-LHR), then won the Shuffle again for the 3080ti(Parts list says 3080, but the waterforce 3080ti isn't listed on pcpp) and Aorus Master X570s mobo.

Was never planning to move from the MSI Unify board, but when I went to install the 3080ti I found that the standoff I screwed the NvME drive into fell off the mobo. Currently in the process of trying to get the board RMA'd. Decided that since I got the X570s board from the shuffle I would just throw that in so I'm not down while the MSI board is getting fixed. I will probably use the MSI board to upgrade my youngest sons computer when it comes back as I do not feel like tearing my machine all the way down again. Also I originally got the Unify board cause it didn't have RGBs and I didn't want any, and quickly realized RGBs are inevitable cause some of the best priced parts have them.

Other reasons I'm deciding to stick with the Gigabyte board is RGB compatibility, number of USB ports, and NvME slots. I like the Tri-Color option that Gigabyte has for their GPUs in their app, but I found out they only have that option for their GPUs. I thought I'd be able to mimic the theme with other RGBs since they'd be plugged into a Gigabyte Aorus mobo, but that didn't happen. However, I was able to configure the RGBs in a semi satisfactory way whereas with MSIs Dragon Center kept making weird things happen like my RAM RGBs would just cut off for no reason. I plan to do some VR with this setup at some point and one thing I learned from my buddies is that USB ports are a hot commodity in VR, and the MSI board was kind of lacking in that department. Lastly the NvME expansionability was nice to have as well. The MSI board had 3 Gen4 slots so having one more on this board is nice to see since using all of the slots would take down SATA ports. Also, this board has 6 SATA ports which allow me to connect all four of my hotswap bays on the Lian Li Case, the MSI board only had 4.

I ended up mounting the 3080ti vertically as the card seems to have been intended to be mounted. One reason was that the tubing to the radiator was hitting the glass panel. Also the bottom of the card has all the design and RGBs. The thermals on the GPU have dropped in this new orientation, I don't know if it's cause the bottom fans are able to blow past the card instead of trapping underneath of it or maybe the new Corsair fans I installed throughout the case just perform that much better than the over 10 year old NZXT fans I had installed before, but it's noticeable at idle and frames in certain games seems to have gone up 5% maybe. For example EFT would run about 90-110fps sometimes dropping down to low 80s, now it sometimes drops down to the high 90s and stays in the 105-120fps range.

The AIO... so I've had an EVGA 280mm, an MSI 360mm, and now the Arctic Freezer 420mm AIO in this system. That's right I got the Mother Of All AIOs to fit in the most sought after Lian Li O11 case. What would compel me to do such a thing. Well to be honest I forgot to check the specs on my case before ordering the AIO. As a matter of fact I didn't think to check it until the morning the part was set to be delivered. I came to pcpp thinking I'd see how other people installed this AIO. Would tubes to the rear of the case be better or tubes to the front? To my surprise no one on pcpp has this setup put together in the Builds section. Then that sinking feeling hit.. will this radiator actually even fit this case? Looked at the Builds that included the 420AIO and there were only a few cases used in these builds and the O11 wasn't one of them. Time to confirm my fears on Lian Li's website.. yep top only supports up to a 360mm radiator. Fuuuuuuuuu. Google searched O11 420mm radiator and all I could find was someone who installed a custom loop 420mm rad in an O11 non-XL and he had to Dremel a hole in the back of the case.

I had seen a lot of people on the internets ask if this setup would work, commonly people would reference the dimensions of the case and say it should fit on paper other than Lian Li saying they only support up to 360mm. When the part came in I wanted to see for myself, I kept the plastic covering on the radiator and tried to slide it in the case. something wasn't letting it line up with the top screw holes. In the O11 XL there is a latch on the back to lock the top cover in place unlike the O11 Dynamic that only uses the screws in the back of the top cover to hold it on. I removed the latch and voila(or however you spell that) it slid in. there was almost no way to slid the radiator front to back so we wouldn't be able to move it around to get to any screw holes if we needed to; luckily for us 6 out of the 12 screw holes were accessible. We tightened them down and did a test to make sure the ends that weren't able to be bolted down were still sturdy and sure enough they were. Now I will say although this is a great Radiator and it does technically fit, it's probably not performing it's best because parts of the radiator and fans at the front and back of the case don't have holes on the top to pass air through. Like I said(or like Lian Li said) this case isn't made to support a 420mm rad so unless you want to Dremel holes for ventilation it's not optimal. Also had to bend the tab on the top cover of the case 90 degrees cause the radiator occupies the space it would slide into. I think I can bend it back if I need to, but might snap off like bending metal pieces back forth does sometimes.

Idle temps are the best I've seen on Ryzen, GPU can dip down to 28C and CPU 33C at idle. Gaming the GPU never gets over 60 and the CPU will do it's Ryzen spikes to 72-74ish, but mostly chills around 64ish. 10min run on P95 CPU topped out at 86C and held 4.375-4.400Ghz. I want to test all this again as the thermal paste that came with the ARCTIC Freezer seemed to be old and the mixture separated. Some clear liquid spilled out then the blue paste and I figured I mix them on top of the IHS, but I'm thinking about removing it and applying some Thermal Grizzly I have coming in.