LIQUID-COOLED CONCLUSIONS

UNSURPRISINGLY, when it comes to liquid-cooling PCs, the more experience you have, the easier they become to build. However, even after spending three days together, and the system was finally primed, our photographer and system-builder turned to each other with a look of confusion: It’s never this easy. Usually, if it can go wrong, it does. Yet we hit our deadline, nothing leaked, no tubes had to be replaced or reseated, and it all worked.

The system looks incredible, but as with all builds, it’s not without its flaws. So, what would we change, what would we do differently if we had more time, and what will we do going forward?

TUBING TWEAKS

The biggest issue from an aesthetic perspective is some of the tubing runs, most notably the one that connects the bottom of the distribution plate to the second GPU. It’s a tight 90-degree bend, for sure, but we’re not satisfied with the downward angle. There are two ways we could fix this. We could add an 8mm extension spacer between the two 90-degree fittings to lower the height of the bottom-connecting 90-degree fitting, and therefore reduce the angle of tube, or we could lower the distribution plate by a fraction of an inch (which is relatively easy, as it’s only mounted via four Allen screws in the back).

That last solution may seem extreme, especially