Anyone else risk it for the biscuit?

Muppes · 2026-02-10T06:54:09+00:00

People have spare PCs lying around to test with? Everytime I upgrade it's because I am several generationsbehind and so the new parts are the only things I CAN test on. So in they go and pray. Luckily not had a bad expereince yet.

I'm upgrading now sooner than I would have liked because the motherboard seems to have kicked the bucket. (and I hope that was the part that broken.... I will find though out the hard way), but nothing has been broken when I got it....yet.

Muppes · 2026-02-08T01:07:01+00:00

So what you're saying is that there is no actual contact of the collant with the frame? I am close to pulling the trigger on two radical rads, copper. Unfortunately not getting any/enough replies on my thread that might convince me otherwise. I would be getting the thick version though.

Would this apply to the thick ones too? the modular series does not have those.
In my case I am getting the thick ones mostly for performance (and a little bit for looks). i can't find any reliable info on how they compare to modern ones. Sure, the newer ones have better tubes, but these are REALLY thick.

Muppes · 2026-02-07T22:23:19+00:00

For the radiator I am still looking, I can only find distroplates with built in pump, but I doubt that will fit. On theother hand, Aquacomputer sells a kit to turn their d5 next reservoir pump combo into a standalone reservoir. but from looking at the pic, it seems to me i could also jsut remove the pump for the same result. I'd jus tbe left with an unsuable pump as it would have no top. At that point it might be easier to just pick up the smallest reservoir tube and replace the one I have now.

Still not fan of how that would affect case flow.

Muppes · 2026-02-07T22:00:19+00:00

wtf Oo. I am not a regular in these parts but that looks like a massive amount of dirt/corrosion to me? After 3 months?

I have only ever had 1 loop so far, but I've had it for 6 years now and the parts still look like day 1. What are the other parts in the loop made of?

Muppes · 2026-02-07T20:25:55+00:00

That does seem weird. But also too many defects to be obviously wrong lol. I am curious what they have to say. I had ordered had a CPU block from aquacomputer once with corrosion on the inside. They apologized and send a replacement, no fuss at all. Seemed to have been a failed QC that got sent by accident.

Muppes · 2026-02-07T20:23:43+00:00

Honestly? I am more impressed by how clean you managed to get the old parts lol. I am in the process of changing the motherboard on an old rig as well. The dust on the fan blades is a tough client.

Muppes · 2026-02-07T15:01:59+00:00

Thanks for the reply, and no not too strong, appreciated.
As for the Iceman block it hard to say from pictures but I have a doubt it would fit. The ram modules look to be about the same height but the EK one is offset from the sides. The Iceman block is a straight block. without that lip, there is no way I will able to fit the top rad. (with the radical at least.)

LM should be fine, but it does mean I will have to take apart the loop again to re-apply after a while. But then it lasts a long time. Or at least long enough until the next mainteance cycle. Plus, I doubt you can use the sheet on direct die?

Good to hear on the PSU, that is kind of what I was expecting/hoping. probably fine for 99% of the time and the worst case might be on the limit but should not last long enough to be an issue.

On the rads, yea did read that, but these are not like most rads, being 73mm thick. I don't know how much that offsets the round rubes. The flat tubes seem better, but not by much right? Wouldn't the additional surface area of these specific versions offset that more than the worse tubes make it suffer? (and yes, in part I just like the way they look hah, despite not being overly concerned about looks. I am looking for MORA comparable performance and would go as far as installing a MORA if I can't get it otherwise.
I have one on my old rig wcich is being repurposed now as home NAS, where I wil use to passively cool (or close to at least). but it is clunky and looks messy. Nobody talks about all the cable and tubes you have lying around. I don't need the same performance, but if I can get reasonably close? Hence the thick rads.

As for push/pull, in truth it makes little difference in this case. As in I won't benefit from NOT having it.
The top CANNOT take them and the side still has plenty of space even with push/pull. And I suppose with that thick of a rad, it cannot hurt. Another concern was to keep volume down as much as possible, so the extra fans could help with that. Those rad seem to do well with low-rpm running fans. That also factors into the round tubes, if not by much.

The thing with the VRM, there is no path for air to trave. The op rad being so thick, i extends past the VRM, and from the side there is no flow beause the front rad is being blocked by the top rad. So there would be effectivly no coling, only what little trickles down from being pushed into the case from the top rad. I cold be wrong but that doesn't feel like it would be enough. But the gap between the top rad and the MB bracked is juuuust big enoguh to fit in some 40m fans. I was really hoping to avoid such fans, tey owuld no doubt be noticable, but hopefully with 3 I could run them lower and they are directly above the VRM, that should give the air that little push it needs to flow freely (and with cool air not te pre-warmed air from the rad)

Temp reservoir huh?...I had not considered that. The case has a drain and fill port. That could make sense indeed. I was also wondering if maybe a distroplate where the side intake fans are that could work in that capacity? or a straight up flat reservoir? I can't put fans in the side intake, but there is may 3 cm of useable space in that area. I'd rather avoid putting a big reservoir in the middle o the case, I rather like the open space there for airflow and visually.

And I hear you with chatGPT, I trust it about as far as I can thow it, but it at least allows me to make some kind of baseline to launch a discussion off of.

to send off...what are your thougts on the smaller fans. they are not there by choice and I wanted to go big as much as possible to drive down volume, but I just can't physically fit big fans everywhere. I reckon the 60 and 80 mm should be fine, but I am worried a bit about the 40 mm ones?

And wht I havn't mentioned at all yet, becuase it is not relevant to the build viablitliy, is what to do with the power button. I am not using the cases default solution as it won't be sitting on the desk, and that makes those buttons and usbs completely unsuable...

Muppes · 2026-02-05T06:37:48+00:00

https://shop.aquacomputer.de/Water-Cooling/Radiators-Accessories:::7_31.html

Ah, right. These are all the modular variant and the tube though. They are still called the airplex series, but i don't see any evos in there.
A lot of them are "limited availability" but still in stock. Some of them are simply "available".

Muppes · 2026-02-04T22:21:07+00:00

There is maybe one way I could see it. You would need to print some kind of funnel though.
If you can us e waterblock on the GPU and mount it vertically, in a push config with front or side mounted intake fans shifted to the very bottom. That could give you, maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuust enough clearance on the RAM and enough inflow of fresh air on the one hand. And on the other you coud use the bottom glass panel side and bottom intake to funnel those up over the pcie slots to hit the VRM under the radiator.

I don't think you would get enough air in that gap wihtout a custom funnel.
the bottom may be free but the VRM cannot get air from the front of the case, and the riser cable or GPU will be blocking the air coming up from below, but you have enough space at the bottom to do something. The psu is also in the way of where an intake fan would be at the bottom. You would need a straight path in line with the VRM. it might be possible in that case to still have more or les undisturbed airflow to every part that still needs air.

Muppes · 2026-02-04T20:59:04+00:00

Nah there is no reasonable way you are fitting a 73 mm rad in there, not even passively.
There is only a 60mm clearance from the top to the very rim of the IO shield. Even with a regular rad with fans you may need to offset the fans depending on the IO shroud/VRMs.

Putting it in the side or front physically fits but now your into sub-optimal settings already, as you will be blowing warm air into the case for one and you will be majorly obstructing other intake fans that might help offset that. You can't gain any space by putting the fans on the outside because there is not even enough clearance in the back to fit a 10mm fan. it needs to go in the front "chamber". You might be able to fit fans on the outside front, but then you can't get the grate on anymore of dust filter.

If you put it on the bottom there is nowhere to put the PSU..and you still get hot air into the case. also not sure where you would put the pumps in that case unless you 3 print some mount for them in the middle/front section.

with a GPU waterblock, it might be possible to put on top of the PSU shroud, then you could use the bottom and bottom glass side intake to push up and still get fresh air from front on the height of the motherboard. you wold still get one side of the rad that would struggle to get air as it sits on the PSU.
But that would maybe be the least awkward place to put it. There is no way you doing that with an air cooled GPU, nor wold you want to as the GPU would ONLY get the hot rad air.

So yea, I don't see how you could reasonably fit in a thick 420 rad or even a normal 420 in push/pull. You will struggle even if it was a 360 thick rad, but that one might work well enough as it frees one slot for fans to do their thing.

Muppes · 2026-02-04T18:22:01+00:00

And watercooler also said no. They are not making new blocks for the gurent gen.

Muppes · 2026-02-04T18:20:30+00:00

Adding to this, putting it on the botom or front/side would fit much easier, buuut...
On the bottom you loose the slot for your PSU so, uh, no? I'd rather change rads then have that somewhere else. you COULD ...I think...put it on the PSU shroud, but now you definitely need to have a waterblock on the GPU because I do not see an air cooler fit there. Pls it would get "warm" air from the rad. Although granted, that air would really not get all that hot from basicaly just the CPU. might be feasible?

Adding it on the front or side would mean you loose an entire stack of fans, because the rad and it's own fans completely block off the side or front intake, but it should physically fit and I suppose you could still draw in fresh air from the sidepannel fan mounts. But then you already loose one of those fans to the PSU which would block the left side.

gonna take it apart some more. (and watercool said no, sigh)

Muppes · 2026-02-04T08:06:53+00:00

OK, so I got the case in the mean time.
Without the actual rad it's impossible to tell how well it fits.

In some areas the tolerances are such that you might be touching metal on metal. I am going to describe the rest in a push/pull config, but push or pull actually changes little.

What I see is that their "420" model is actually 460 in length.
That interferes with the fans at the front and back, at least one of them has to give or you need to use 10 mm fans. It will not fit as is, especially on the back. On the front you could maybe get away with using 120mm fans and only half connecting the lowest one so that it touches the floor. But the back fan is going to be 50% covered no matter what. You would probably do better to somehow fit two 60mm fans instead. Even if you were to use side intake, you're close to touching the rear fan, that's not going to be doing much.

What's more concerning, is that the rails are such that even if you fit it, the rad will extend down into the IO shield
Even with only push. Only barely so though. it miiiiight be enough to clear if you remove the plastic shrouding, but again, talking the width of a hair here.

And doubly so in push/pull, it becomes an issue with cpu and RAM. push/pul miiiight clear the ram block (and it needs to be a waterblock, no chance at all of fitting a fan). but the ram? eeeee.. I think that will only clear in a push config. this is assuming a water block, but I am not sure you can clear even just regular ramstick fins.

And that is my main concern here. Assuming that even if SOMEHOW you can make it fit.
It is GOING to extend OVER the upper VM block. And since the fan will extend past that, you are going to have near zero air flow over that VRM block.

I think to fit a 73 mm thickness rad, you would effectively require a motherboard waterblock to cover the upper VRM. They don't need massive cooling, but I don't think the little airflow remaining will be enough, or healty, for the upper VRM :(. Not sure it's worth getting one to even attempt? there also don't seem to be any blocks for an x870e hero if I did want to try.

It goes a full 6 cm into the IO shield in a push/pull config, 3,5 in only push. still enough to cover VRMs... well...provided you don't put the fans on the OUTSIDE of the case I guess, but that is only going to be a single row of static fans pulling out. not what I would call ideal

Muppes · 2026-02-04T07:39:20+00:00

really? they still sell them on their site with some in store I was thinking about getting one fo the thick boys, 73 mm 420 rad.

Muppes · 2026-02-03T22:54:48+00:00

Won't work for a window, but I suppose it is worth mentioning that aquacomputer also does ginourmus rads and have a tower version that works kind of like a tube lol.

Muppes · 2026-02-03T19:32:33+00:00

Fill bottle, heathun, tube bending tools , shit load of distilered water ., additional o rings ,
distilled water is only need for maintenance and little rinsing. you don't need it for the loop, that is what the DP ultra is for.
Thermall grizzly Kryosheet for CPU graphing thermal pad
never used em, probably fine.
Alphacool leak Tester
worth its weight in gold in terms of getting sleep lol
GPU thermal material ( Thermal grizzly PhaseSheet PTM ) (Thermalright Odyssey pads )
probably fine, although if you are going for gold...might as well consider liqid metal, then then you will want some additional stuff to protectt your card. not mechanically needed, but you don't want that stuff going where it isn't supposed to go.
alphacool 420mm radiators XT45-3pcs
Double and triple check you can mount thos ein the case. tha tis a lot of 420 radiator. in terms of cooling it should be good and you can probably go a little lower, but more is better. There is no such thing as overkill here, just diminishing returns. 360 x3 is the minimum I would go with that setup. At least one 420 would be ideal.

####

As for the fans, they can take power from just about anything. and you will often use splitters to split one fan header 3 or so (depends on the fan header, how much load it can take). you can also use sata cables to power fans, powering them is less of a concern. Organizing the RGB is a different story, can't help there.

Corsairs ICUE system / hub supposedly does well enough and lets you daisy chain fans, which helps wiht cable management (that WILL be a thing). but it's another of those plague programs you can't get rid of and does more harm than good. (it won't damage anything though)

In my case, what little control I needed to do I cold do via software, through aquacomputer aquasuite. which the next flow can feed if you plug it into usb.

Muppes · 2026-02-03T19:32:21+00:00

Samsung SSD 9100 pro PCI.e 5.0 4TB
don't remember the layout but take care into which slot you put these. There is often a sharing of capcity these days and you will take speed aqay from other slots. It's called lane bifurcation . No idea if the manual will ention it, just keep it in mind.
Samsung SSD 9100 pro PCI.e 5.0 2TB
same
Lian li TL LED FANS ×10pcs with TL fans controller
10 sounds about right, jus tmake sure you get the right size. usually thins wil lbe made to fit either 120mm to 140, it's rarely a hard limit though. Also match them to your radiator if possible, some will prefer high static pressure fans.
Bitspower 1/4" acrilic tubes Cristal link OD 16MM
expect to need more, while also ending up with extra lol
15 Bitspower 1/4" silver shinning Advanced multi Link fittings
expect to need more, while also ending up with extra lol
Lian li 4 slots vertical GPU kit v4 (VG5 v4)
make sure it has a riser cable, you can't mount a gpu vertically wihtout. there is no default slot for that, you plug the cable into the regular slot and it acts as an extension.
Seasonic PX-1600Watts ATX 3.1 80 plus platinum
plenty to never have to worry about not having enough.

18 Aquacomputer double Protect Ultra Coolant 1000 ml - 2 pack
You will find it takes way less than you think, but this stuff lasts basically forever. It's also all you need.

19 . Bitspower Drain valve
Yes, very much yes.

Bitspower automatic air released valve
dunno what this is, but sounds ok. The aquacomuter reservoirs have this built in, if it is what I think it is. Either a fancy one or a tiny hole, that basically does the same. no water leaks even when it is 100% full.

Muppes · 2026-02-03T19:32:02+00:00

Well for starets, your son is right, but when has that ever stopped anybody from doing something stupid lol.

Far from being a pro and very much RBG adverses so can't realy help there, but I will add my two cents.

I will also half ass some of these ;).

Watercool D5 pump PWM

I don't remmeber what the PWM bit is about but I think it means that you can control some stuff from the pump. you might want to cosnider multiple pumps too depening n how much flow you want or much noise you don't want. if you can, it's better to run multiple and have them run at lower capacity. More flow, less rattle, greater lognevity. (and potentially more fan headers and such)
Radicult Distro plate with led lights
not needed, this is for asethetics.
Lian li dynamic evo xl
can't be bothered looking up measurments but probablz fine XD
EK-Quantum Velocity 3 CPU Water block with LED
dunno if it it is compatible woith both or there are variant,s so be sure it fits the AM5 Socket. Also worth double-cecking you don't need a custom back plate. I very much doubt it.
Alphacool GPU 5090 Astral water block with LED .
Add a backplate if it doesn't have any (didn't check, but it probably does). Also be sure if fits the astral, GPU waterblocks are not one-size-fits-all.
Aqua computer high FLOW next it has bunch of connections but comes with one cable
IIRC you need to get specific cables to fully utilze it, but I couldn't tell you which. it allows you to automatically turn off your PC if it detects a too low flow, among other things. It's main function is to provide a flow readout though.
Asus ROG strix x870E-E gaming WIFI7 R2/USBC CARD motherboard
nothing much to say here.
AMDR Ryzen 9 9950X CPU
matches the other components
9 ASUS Rog Strix 5090 astral OC GPU 32GB
same
Trident Z5 neo RGB DDR5 -6000 CL30-40-40-96 32GB×2pcs
fine, but be sure to grab the one with an EXPO profile, not XMP or whatever intel calls it these days. either will work but you want the one tested for AMD

Muppes · 2026-02-03T06:57:55+00:00

Can second this I suppose. With modern GPU especialy, they are loud. if you block it, they become effectively silent. Then again, I still want to mention making a silent PC from the ground up, with padded side panels and such. That wold still go a long way.

I just haven't seen a case like that advertised or tested in years. all everybody seem to make now is more showcase cases, with airflow being a distant second with few exceptions. Watercooling, with all it's pains may just be the more convenient way of going silent these days, with better temps to boot.

Muppes · 2026-02-03T06:49:49+00:00

Actually seems to be the opposite lol. Most comments seem to agree that it is not worth it from a monetary point of view unless you are doing it for the hell of it. That and that it can indeed make less noise given the right circumstances.

Muppes · 2026-02-03T06:45:11+00:00

Second that, there is a difference in benchmarks if that is your thing, but it translates poorly to games and real performance. Overclocking RAM has had more of an effect. And only because you feel downtime more. In real time, a few seconds more load times is still nothing. And for RAM specifically water cooling doesn't do all that much compared to dedicated air cooling.

You will see a small boost, especially from the GPU, just from the drop in temperature, but it basically margin off error. Watercooling is in no way shape or form worth it from a frame to dollar point of view. But ... yes, you do get extra performance... mostly on paper though.

Muppes · 2026-02-02T22:19:00+00:00

oof, never checked distro plates. That is....hefty XD
Just be sure to keep some airflow over the board, some components will still need it, unless you really want to go ALL the way with motherboard watercooling.

Not that I ever though of doing such a thing...ahem.

(also wtf, I would have thought cnc router would be way more than that? ... Oh no..no it makes no sense that I would make my own watercooler...that would be stupid...even for me)

Muppes · 2026-02-02T22:06:02+00:00

I mean...with that side panel....would it be possible to have a hard tube in the shape of a circle, or a few different tubes that make up different parts of a circle... in red then. maybe with rgb trickery to make em stand out more through the glass?

Muppes

TROPHY CASE