Looks great! I am not a fan of the "red everywhere" theme (especially the constant red & black builds), but you managed to pull it off pretty well.
Also, I think that for a first mod, you did something that many "modders" with much more "experience" fail to ever manage: combine your aesthetic vision with not only not compromising cooling system performance but actually improving it! The fan in the 5.25" bays feeding the HSF in particular should provide a noticeable benefit, so long as the fans on the CPU HSF are relatively similar in specs (RPM first and foremost, but also "subjective" CFM/pressure) as otherwise it can cause some noise and possibly performance issues. I'm sure that's accounted for, though!
If I may offer a few suggestions?
SLEEVING:
Next time, if you are going to do the sleeving yourself, do it with paracord. It can be done heatshrink-less, comes in an unbelievable amount of colors (and patterns) ranging from base tones to pastels to neon to matte/flat tones; there's seriously zero chance you can't find some that you like! I use Paracord for sleeving now, having used everything from TechFlex to Clean-Cut PET to Bitspower Super-Tight Weave to MDPC-X, and for individually-sleeving a PSU or even just extensions/fan cables/etc, Paracord is pure win. Also, the matte color as a result of it being an actual fabric material tends to look much better than the plastic based sleeving from other manufacturers, which is often shiny. Oh, and it provides PERFECT coverage of the wires underneath!
I make my own custom cables, and I use 16-22AWG wire with either black or white insulation (mostly), and even with "Pure White" Paracord over the black 16AWG wire, it's impossible to see through the paracord! Another option, if you must use TechFlex, is to first wrap the wire with electrical tape (white tape for light colors, black tape for dark) as it creates a common "base color" through the sleeve and makes it far less visible.
I do still use Clean-Cut/Tight-Weave PET for some things (like when multiple wires need to be bundled together in one sleeve, Speaker Wiring although I often use TechFlex EMI/RFI-resistant Flexo-Conductive, Nylon Multifilament, or Flexo-Shield woven nickel-plated copper sleeve for speaker wire, and a few other things), MDPC-X for pretty much everything that Paracord can't do (SATA Data, USB Internal, USB External, Keyboard/Mouse wires, Dual-Link DVI-D/HDMI/DisplayPort cables, USB3.0 1-to-2 Cables, Headphone wires, and sometimes the custom PSU Power Cord's I make with the IEC connectors replacing the boring normal ones; however I also use Clean-Cut PET for PSU external Power Cables sometimes), and some unique stuff such as 100% Carbon-Fiber Woven Sleeve, Kevlar/Aramid ultra-tough sleeving (used this on a customer's laptop's power "brick" cables and portable USB device cables), actual woven metal cable (SS, Copper-Zinc Alloy, Nickel-Plated Copper, Chromed Steel, and Aluminum), Insultherm and other heat-resistant wraps (when I rebuilt my 328Ci's M52TuB28 2.8L I6 and went from a high-strung naturally-aspirated engine to a fully-built Lysholm Twin-Screw Supercharged and Intercooled high-boost engine, I went ahead and individually-sleeved my entire wiring harness heatshrink-less and for exposed wiring I used two sleeves, first a layer of Dura-Flex Pro (80mil wall thickness) for protection from piercing and on top of that a layer of either Insultherm, Insultherm Ultraflexx Pro, Thermashield Tube, or Volcano Wrap for 1200-1800F heat-protection. I did the same with coolant hoses which were already replaced with Samco Sport 6-ply Silicone hoses, except I used stuff that prevented 99.8% of radiant heat from being absorbed but allowed the coolant heat to radiate out.
I really recommend making your own cables, as it's inexpensive ($0.05-0.10/ft for 18AWG electrical wire, go for about 100-150ft each of white and black; connectors are $0.50-1.25/ea, pins are available for around a dollar per 5-25 pins, sleeve is available for ~$15-40 per 100ft and Lutro0 now has his own specially-made sleeve that's IMHO better than MDPC-X), and it allows you to make wires that are perfect for exactly what you need and have zero extraneous connectors or wires to hide/tuck-away when all is done, not to mention that you can make them the exact lengths needed. Also, you know how the SATA in-line cables are such a PITA to hook up, because the distance between them is like 10x greater than the distance between HDD cages? Well, with the punch-down type SATA power connectors, you can have all your drives hooked up while having absolutely PERFECT lines from the wires with ZERO bunching/bending/bulging (which also means no pressure on the connector; "regular" PSU-supplied SATA power adapters cause stress on the connection point).
Oh, you'll also need:
- Pin Removal Tools $25-40 total (MDPC-X or Lutro0, nothing else is worth anything!)
- Crimper $50-90 (MDPC-X is THE BEST crimper I've ever used, even better than the $650 MOLEX-branded ones; the one Lutro0 sells is extremely close in quality, and is the second best bet; however, DO NOT EVER buy the ones from FrozenCPU/PPC's/etc that cost $15-40, as they are JUNK!)
WATER COOLING
I would look at cases like the Switch 810 or the like, which support 140mm-based radiators natively and have enough room for at least ~40-45mm thick radiators with push-pull fans. This is because a 420 rad actually has 35.6% more surface area than a 360 rad, and ~1.39% more than a 480 rad! Even bigger, however, is the USABLE surface area; this is the area of the fins that is "swept" by the blades of the fan, so it's essentially the diameter of the "circle" between the fan hub and the fan frame multiplied by the number of fans. A 420 radiator is at an advantage already by having ~28-41% more swept area, but when you take into consideration the fact that a 420 is not only bigger than a 480, it has 1/3 fewer fans thereby greatly reducing the number of dead spots in comparison to the 480, you get a radiator that doesn't have just 1.1xx% more usable surface area, but more along the lines of 22.84-29.9% more!
Also, when looking at fans, the ONLY IMPORTANT SPECS are "RPM" and "mmH2O/mmHg" (aka Fan Speed and Static Pressure), with CFM (airflow volume) a distant third.
Having fans with high static pressure is important for every area of the case, and they're not just for coolers/rads as many people believe.
I have finally figured out a near-perfect way to find out what fan speed is necessary for what radiator (ALWAYS buy fans based on the radiator, or radiators based on the fans you have/are buying, because if you try to mount some Kingwin 800rpm/52CFM/0.23mmH2O 120x25mm fans on a HWLabs Black Ice GTX it will result in HORRIBLE temps, regardless of push pull; likewise, a Swiftech MCR320-QP slim low-FPI radiator isn't going to benefit nearly as much as the GTX from the use of 6x Delta 120x38 252CFM/61mmH2O fans in push pull).
Essentially, it's: take the FPI of the radiator and multiply by 95, and also by 105. The numbers you get, that's the RPM range that you will want to look at for a given radiator for the best performance-noise ratio.
Also, the MCP35X is by far the best pump, notably better than the D5 12v, and it has PWM control not to mention it's like 1/4 the size of the D5 while producing more head pressure and more ACTUAL flow in a loop despite the D5 being advertised as a high flow pump. The MCP35X (or the MCP35X2 if you want redundancy and crazy power, as in 62ft of pressure head!) have one of the best P-Q graphs I've seen, dealing with pressure loss better than any pump outside the Iwaki RD3x monsters. I can say this because I've used a quartet of flow-meters (2x Koolance + 2x Aquacomputer) and 8x Temp Sensors (4x Koolance + 4x Aquacomputer) and tested the same loop using: 1x MCP35X, 1x MCP35X2 (2x MCP35X with the Swiftech Dual-Pump Top), 1x D5 12v, 2x D5 12v (with Bitspower and EK dual-D5 setups), and 1x D5 24v (with Koolance 24v controller). The MCP35X(2) setup(s) provided the best actual flow, beating the D5 "Strong" (24V) by 13GPM (12.9GPM according to the avg of both AC, and 13.1GPM according to avg of both Koolance), and also the best temperature with a delta-T of 0.952C Idle (all 8 sensors read within 0.02% of each other) and 3.881C with both the 3930K 4.87Ghz and 670FTW 1.236v-modded 1426c/7516mem running 100% load via Prime95 x12 and Furmark x4 (all 8 sensors within 0.06C of another). The D5 12V/24V achieved 0.991C / 1.101C idle and 4.002C / 4.411C fully-loaded. Measured heat added by the pumps was 32.1W for the 12V D5 and 72.8W for the 24V!!! That's like having an extra CPU @ stock speeds to cool!
Anyway, sorry for the long post, I just love seeing "new" modders as your enthusiasm makes me enthusiastic
I hope that I have give at least one good bit of advice in there somewhere, and again congratulations on your work!!!!
