UPDATE

Ok. Well, I got to work on the build over the past few days albeit quite slowly. I have encountered a few challenges along the way and I haven't even really got started yet.

Some of the main components:



I'm not going to post pictures of every angle showing every little detail of the case or motherboard or other components because there are many reviews with pictures of the components available on the internets and also in other worklogs here. But, I will show a few shots of the stuff I'm using.

Some of the cooling components:



A package from Germany:



And my cool custom artwork I was so anxiously awaiting:



The sleeving looking good. Obviously there's more; I ordered one of the Christmas specials, along with the tools, and this extra pieces of black and red sleeve.



And now for some shots of the components:

EVGA X58 E760 Classified 3-Way SLI:





Swiftech Apogee GTZ:



EK Waterblocks X58 Classified full mobo block:



EK GTX 285 GPU block:




Hardware Labs GTX 360:



XSPC Dual BayRes with two Swiftech MCP355 pumps and BitsPower fittings installed:




Some BP compression fittings:



The Enermax Appolish 120 fan:



This fan is really really cool, and certainly looks great. The LEDs are amazing. I told you in the first post I'm a sucker for bling. Although, I'm not sure how it will work in a liquid cooling setup. At full speed, it moves quite a bit of air but it's also pretty loud and I'm sure it will be even louder pushing that air through the radiator. In addition, it uses a built in thermistor to determine the running speed based on the temperature. This is easy to bypass; simply cut off the thermistor, solder the two leads together, heat shrink and presto bango: full speed! Still, I'm wondering how it will work when hooked to a fan controller...I'm thinking dropping the voltage to the fan will also drop the voltage to the LEDs.

PrimoFlex UV Red 1/2" by 3/4" tubing:



Ok. Now getting into the real work. I knew I would have to mod the bottom of the case in order to fit the second radiator down there. I preferred a side mount rather than flat mount, so I went with noeru's approach and planned on cutting a vent in the side panel and installing the radiator vertically. I figured this would allow more flexibility in the future. The only problem was the GTX 240 didn't want to fit down there. It's just a bit too wide. Even my old Swiftech 240 didn't want to fit down there. Looks like I was going to have to cut the bottom of the case anyway. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about taking a jigsaw to a brand new, 280 dollar case.

First, you have to remove the lower hard drive cage by removing the 6 rivets that hold in the panels. Mr_Armegeddon has detailed that in his fine worklog here.



I decided to cut a small opening to allow part of the radiator to sit "below" the floor of the case. I will have to come up with some better way of securing it, although it seems like it will stay put with the fans attached. We will see how vibration affects it...







In order to prevent damage to the radiator, and dampen vibration I took some black vinyl tubing


cut it lengthwise with an Xacto knife, and wrapped it around the newly cut opening.


I had ordered a Bitspower 240 Rad Guard, and went to work cutting the opening in the side panel to provide airflow to the lower radiator.



Always remember to wear your personal protective equipment when working with power tools.



Rad Guard installed:



I decided to install a BitsPower 360 Rad Guard up top for two reasons. First, I didn't really like the way the top panel of the case looked and second, since I installed the BP 240 guard on the side, I wanted some consistency in the look.





With the major case mods out of the way, I started looking into my cooling loops. First thing I did was flush the radiators with some warm water from the sink.



I then hooked everything up and gave it a nice rinse with a very dilute vinegar / distilled water solution. I then drained the system and flushed with distilled water. I again drained, and then set up a preliminary "table-top" distilled water leak test.



I'm glad I did. I found a few failed 45 degree rotary fittings, and one 45 degree dual rotary fitting all to be leaking. In addition, the fittings on my Apogee GTZ were leaking badly, which I had never had an issue with before. Fortunately, I remembered reading in another worklog here (maybe Petrucci's) that the stock GTZ o rings were significantly thicker than the ones on the BP compression fittings. During one of the drains, I changed out the the o rings and the GTZ stopped leaking.

After the rinse/leak test, I tore down the loops and decided to mount the fans to the rads and test fit them in the case.

Looks pretty sexy if you ask me...



Some early looks at the glow of the LEDs...




And a shot of the rads/fans in the case:



So, I'm currently waiting for replacement fittings before I can continue with the cooling loops. In addition, I'm also having another issue: I'm having trouble getting screws in the correct length so they mount the fans snugly against the rads but don't penetrate so far that they will damage the fins of the radiator. I'm going to venture out to the local mom & pop hardware stores since the big boys (Lowes and Home Depot) absolutely suck when it comes to real, actual hardware. If I still can't find what I need, I'll have to look online. IF that fails, then I guess it's time to cut the screws to length.

I guess while I'm waiting for that, I'll fire up all my components and make sure everything works as is. If everything is good, I'll start installing the blocks on the mobo and GPUs and sleeving the power supply.

Until next time....