Sometime last year, I asked myself.. What new project/ hobby should I tackle next? I do want to venture into 3D modeling, 4K video and music editing as a new hobby. Oh and be able to fulfill my gaming needs.. Hmmm, do I buy a PC or build one my way? I've never built a PC but I have always wanted to. AND if I do build one, it has to be clean and unique. So I began buying individual items every other week back in July 2017 and I am glad I did. Many of the items have jumped up in price compared to now. Once cyber monday and the christmas came and past, I finally gathered everything I needed to start the build.

The first thing I did was to install the mobo and radiator into the Phanteks case to see what kind of space I am working with. It also gave me some time to think of the color scheme. I spent a whole day visualizing potential layouts. One thing I really wanted to do is to have a row of pass-throughs on display somewhere.

Also, to have the GPU mounted vertically. I had to do some cutting and drilling to accommodate the GPU bracket. Main reason is that I wanted to have the water block on display rather than barely seeing it if mounted horizontally. You can find the vertical GPU bracket I used here @ https://mnpctech.com/vertical-gpu-video-card-installation-mount/ . After playing around with a few ideas, I decided on what you see today.

I made some panels out of plexiglass to cover up the sheet metal give it a nice clean look. Once all panels were made and fitted, I dismantled the whole case by drilling out all of the rivets for the new paint job. I had it powder coated gloss white from a local paint shop. I also had the EK fittings (for the front half of the PC) powder coated a gloss charcoal grey. While that was happening, I ordered my custom sleeved cables from MOD-ONE. I wanted to attempt it on my own but with all the work that is still ahead of me, I decided maybe next time. I also wish I could have routed them better on the backside. I focused on prepping and painting the other items. The plexiglass panels were painted a gloss white, while the radiator, reservoir caps, CPU and GPU block trim pieces metallic silver. I also had to make a piece for the 1080 FTW name plate and have it mounted to the bottom of the GPU block.

When I got my case and fittings back, it was a slow process of reassembling and installing all components without scratching or damaging anything. Bending PETG tubing was a first for me, as much of this experience was. I did screw this up the first couple of tries on a practice piece but I finally got the hang of it. After that, it was time to fill it up with distilled water to check for leaks and I was relived to see no leaks after a couple hours of running the pump. I flushed out the system and filled it with a fresh mix of EK concentrate. The blue ended up a bit darker than I wanted. Oh well. I will probably stay with a clear fluid next time.

Overall, I am very happy with the way it turned out for my first build. No problems to report as of yet. It is quick and runs quiet. Does everything I need it to. If you read this far, wow thank you! Feel free to comment. I do not know if posting benchmark numbers are a must but if people are interested, I can do that sometime. I am reading up on BIOS and the tweaks I could try. For now, just learning how to use Blender and editing. I will get into some gaming as soon as I can find a good deal on a curved monitor and some speakers. Cheers

TLDR: A lot of work went into this and I think it looks awesome. Will be used for 3d modeling, video and music editing along with gaming.