I have been building gaming pcs for friends for a long time. This request from a friend turns into my best build ever.

I've built in a Cougar Conquer case once before, and three times with the Cougar Conquer Essence. I would say I like the Cougar Conquer Essence more, since its preassembled and has a smaller size(MATX).

Intel i9 9900k and Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti are the best you can get for a gaming machine. This PC is ready for Anthem at max graphic settings. Aorus Z390 motherboards really stand out from the rest for their CPU power phase and cooling design.

I was worried about the Corsair RGB rams couldn't sync with the motherboard, but I was wrong. The software Fusion 2 from gigabyte just nails everything. BTW, I'm not sure about Asus Sync.

These RGB fans are AMAZING! I bought 2 packs (3 fans each) of this darkFlash Aurora fans on Amazon. They were on sale for only $29 per pack. The controller comes with it rocks. It has a remote controller, able to sync with Motherboard and even has two more LED strip(5V RGB) header. So I was able to connect the led strip in my GPU block and water panel to the controller, and all LED beside the CPU block (12V), MB and RAM, could be remotely controlled.

For the custom water loop and fittings. Those are from Bykski, a brand from China I believe. The quality is great, every fitting has 5 O-rings in it! I purchased these fittings and tubes in NOV 2018 when there was a huge sale on Aliexpress. The GPU block is from Bykski as well. It has a little thermal screen which is nice. I've recently built a system with Thermaltake 2080 Ti water block, and the quality and packaging look almost identical to this Bykski block. The 360mm radiator on top is from Bykski too. Nice matte finish, solid quality. I should have gone with Bykski CPU block as well, but I happen to have a Phanteks block in hand.

One Brand I want to flame here, that is PRIMOCHILL. I purchased their 240mm radiator on Amazon, and it was awful. Rusty fins, uneven paint... It just so disappointing compared to the radiator from Bykski, and it costs much more... AND, I purchased the water panel + pump from Primochill website, the water panel itself is from Bykski aswell. I was trying to order from Amazon, but it's out of stock. It cost about $150 on Amazon and Primochill sells them for $259+tax omg. The PWM pump is from Primochill and its loud AF, don't even have a choice to select the pump. I have to manually set the pump at lower than 50% load for bearable noise level. My first time using Primochill's products is awful, and it will be the last time. I would recommend Bykski products, they seem manufactured at the same place as Thermaltake. Just Aliexpress shipping takes too long (2-3 weeks), I wish Bykski sells directly on Amazon.

i9 9900k is such a hot chip, thermal performance is not as good as I expected. I used Arctic MX-4 paste for both CPU and GPU cooling. Didn't risk to delid the chip. I managed to get a stable CPU overclock at 5.2 GHz at 1.375 V with max temp over 80 C.

Check out this build on pcpartpicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/qN4qqs

BTW, thanks a lot for my roommate to let me use his camera XD.