My goal was to build a compact, powerful rig for VR, esports, AAA gaming, music production, and graphic design which would look great on my desk, being portable enough to easily transport to friends' houses for LAN parties and VR gaming nights.

I already owned the Asus ROG Strix GTX 1080, which is a very long graphics card, so it was a squeeze to fit the 240mm AIO. I installed two slim Noctua fans behind the radiator support for a 2x push and 1x pull fan setup. Cable management was a top priority to ensure that enough air reaches the Noctua fans through the restrictive side-intake vent. The 2nd NZXT fan was installed as a rear exhaust since the case didn't come with one. So far the temps have been shockingly low given the airflow restrictions of this case.

future upgrade plans are: Two intake fans at the bottom, if necessary. Larger HDD accelerated with Intel Optane. And more NVME SSD drives (this tiny motherboard can fit FOUR).

If I hadn't already bought the GTX 1080 last year, I would've used either an RTX 2070 or 2080. but I don't see any reason to upgrade from the GTX 1080 until at least the next generation.

My only complaint is that I was forced to mount the NZXT water block upside-down because the inlet/outlet pipes obstructed the DIMM slots. Fortunately, I can turn off the NZXT logo illumination but I wish NZXT would implement a method of re-orienting the logo.