My i5 4670K has been starting to show it's age and I've had the itch to do a new build for some time. I've also never built a watercooled system before and wanted to give that a try. With RAM and storage prices dropping and the new lineup of Intel CPUs hitting late last year, I decided to make the plunge. I keep my PC in the living room for home theater / gaming use on the big screen, so I wanted to keep things classy while still showing off the components. The only items carried over from the old build are a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB and an EVGA GTX 1070 FTW.

I decided on a Meshify C for the foundation due to the big tempered glass window and the unique front panel that wasn't a boring slab or super aggressive. My plan was to have a 240 radiator up top and a 360 on the front while still keeping the PSU shroud cover on for a clean look, but have the top of the pump/reservoir still visible. I've also always dug the look of a vertical GPU, and most waterblocks look lame from the side so I grabbed a Cooler Master Vertical GPU bracket and trimmed off most of that ugly tray jutting out from the bottom. I also made some cuts in the PSU shroud cover for a passthrough hole for my loop and a cutout for the reservoir. After some filing, a quick couple coats of paint, and rubber trim, the modified case was ready for the components.

This was my first time bending tubing and the YouTube tech community was a huge help. After a lot of tries, I was happy with most of the bends, but the one between the CPU and the reservoir still looks a bit off. That run will be replaced whenever I get around to upgrading the GPU and integrating that into the loop. As it stands, 600mm of radiator is overkill for just the 9900K, but temperatures are fantastic at idle and when gaming. Here's hoping Nvidia's disappointing last quarter encourages an RTX price drop so I can upgrade to 4K goodness.

I was also really pleased with how the lighting turned out. Pictures don't do it justice, but the effects that the Corsair LL fans and Vengeance Pro RGB memory are capable of are fantastic. I uploaded a video of the lighting in action that hopefully gives a better idea of the effect.