Upgrade from my i5-6600K system and my first custom loop build. An O11D-XL distro-plate build isn't very unique I realize, but I like the clean look.

• i9-12900K
  
• 32GB DDR5 5600MHz C36 Dominator Platinum
  
• Asus Maximus Z690 Apex
  
• EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming
  

I was going to get a Z690 Hero at first, but they were hard to find at the time after a batch of recalls so I upgraded to the Apex (which I realize is overkill).

I have a 500GB Samsung 980 and 1TB Seagate FireCuda 530. The DIMM.2 slot from Asus Apex MB seems a bit gimmicky at first, but I can run both drives at max speeds (3K and 7K MB/s respectively) and still have access to swap them out later if necessary without draining the loop - since my GPU blocks all the M.2 slots on the motherboard. That being said it does have a couple annoying red RGB lights that cannot be disabled. I tried to cover them with thermal pads but it only dimmed the light (not eliminated it).

I use a Corsair Commander Core XT to run fans off water temperature sensor (pump runs at a fixed RPM from a MB header though). I used adapters to plug in the other RGB into the Corsair RGB channels to manage everything from one place. In hind-sight I would have liked to try out the Lian-Li uni-fans since they have a smaller cable management footprint.

Offset the default voltage curve by -0.06V to drop temperatures and open up headroom for OC to 5.2/4.0GHz all-cores (5.5 boost on 3 cores).