@rjbarker - Can you show me the layout of your loop in the 900D?  I am using a 900D and I have two Black Ice GTX 480s mounted, one at the bottom and the other at the top.  This combo is okay but not great since I cannot feed the top radiator with fresh, outside air, otherwise I'd be exhausting into the case so I'm kind of doing this whole "suck cool air at the bottom through the first radiator, dump into the case, suck case air through the top and dump out of the case" while also trying to push as much cool air into the case as possible.  I wanted to go for 3x 480s but so far I have been unable to make this happen as my reservoir is a dual-bay front-mounted Alphacool.  I am contemplating another 240 upfront instead.

dejanh
@rjbarker - Can you show me the layout of your loop in the 900D?  I am using a 900D and I have two Black Ice GTX 480s mounted, one at the bottom and the other at the top.  This combo is okay but not great since I cannot feed the top radiator with fresh, outside air, otherwise I'd be exhausting into the case so I'm kind of doing this whole "suck cool air at the bottom through the first radiator, dump into the case, suck case air through the top and dump out of the case" while also trying to push as much cool air into the case as possible.  I wanted to go for 3x 480s but so far I have been unable to make this happen as my reservoir is a dual-bay front-mounted Alphacool.  I am contemplating another 240 upfront instead.

I have all my Radiators set up as intakes (480 at the top, 360 and 240 down below), drawing fresh air thru the rads and expelling into the case.
I also have the 3*120mm fans at the front of the case as intakes as well with only a single 140mm exhaust top rear.
 
I dont believe in using Radiators in an exhaust configuration, as utilizing the "warm case air" over the rads is counter-intuitive as to how a radiator works.
There is no build up of heat in the case as the 140mm exhaust any residual heat out the rear top and the 900D has a ton of vents (its not airtight at all) throughout.
 
I have been running the 900D in this config since I bought it in 2014 and thru a lot of trial n error this proved to be the most effective ;)
btw you would have enough room in the 900D for a 480 top ...480 n 240 below or remove the HDD Rack and open up even more room.
Me build isnt about cotton candy rainbow unicorns (like most RGB builds), its about OC'ing and crazy cool temps without chillers and seeing just how far I can push the HW ;) Although I do have some lighting.
 
This is what my case looks like with some minimal lighting:
 

 
Just got the Apex / 12900K / Velocity 2 and Vector blocks installed and now leak testing. The 900D is still a great case for a big loop that's geared towards maximum cooling (not cotton candy eating unicorns standing underneath rainbows).
 

 

 
 
 

Awesome, thanks for the feedback!  I'm going to reconfigure my top-mounted 480 to pull in air from the outside instead of from the case itself.  I set it up like this years ago and never bothered since with prior hardware I never felt that the system was strained in any way.  Now I am feeling that I can do a better job with the cooling, so I will probably configure it the same as yours, all radiators sucking ambient air in and just expel the air from the case using the rear mounted 140mm fan.  I end up with less room in the case because all my radiators are configured in push-pull since the BI GTXs are very thick and have a fairly dense fin pattern.  Again, appreciate the feedback!

dejanh
Awesome, thanks for the feedback!  I'm going to reconfigure my top-mounted 480 to pull in air from the outside instead of from the case itself.  I set it up like this years ago and never bothered since with prior hardware I never felt that the system was strained in any way.  Now I am feeling that I can do a better job with the cooling, so I will probably configure it the same as yours, all radiators sucking ambient air in and just expel the air from the case using the rear mounted 140mm fan.  I end up with less room in the case because all my radiators are configured in push-pull since the BI GTXs are very thick and have a fairly dense fin pattern.  Again, appreciate the feedback!

Yep no problem...you can see in the pic that my top rad is a 480 RX XSPC...think its around 50-55mm, but low density (low FPI). Originally I had this entire Rad set up in push / pull, but have since gotten rid of the lower mounted fans as far too much extra work for very minuscule gains (if any).
Yes your radiators should always be set up to have the coolest / freshest air flowing thru them.....thermodynamics 101, as they are simply a heat exchanger.
With all my Rads fans and 3 front fans its 12 120mm fans in total moving fresh air into the case and the 1 140mm expelling......so positive pressure, however there are so many vents throughout the case its hardly air tight.
Also, you notice all your rad mounts are equipped w dust filters, may as well use em as intended ;)

Thought I would post my first discovery with 3080 Ti FTW3 HC setup. The card is limited to 400W (104 of the available 113% power slider) since my EVGA 850 GA psu seems to be maxed out. Can achieve 99.2% stability at +1200/+150 according to 3DMark, but any demand spikes in Forza Horizon 5 tank the fps (unlocked drops from 125 to 105 and vsyncd drops from 60 to 50). The 10700k is pulling 250W during LinPack stress test, so the 9 fans and D5 pump are pulling more power than expected I guess. Ordered an EVGA 1000W P2 while it's on sale.

rjbarker

dejanh
Awesome, thanks for the feedback!  I'm going to reconfigure my top-mounted 480 to pull in air from the outside instead of from the case itself.  I set it up like this years ago and never bothered since with prior hardware I never felt that the system was strained in any way.  Now I am feeling that I can do a better job with the cooling, so I will probably configure it the same as yours, all radiators sucking ambient air in and just expel the air from the case using the rear mounted 140mm fan.  I end up with less room in the case because all my radiators are configured in push-pull since the BI GTXs are very thick and have a fairly dense fin pattern.  Again, appreciate the feedback!

Yep no problem...you can see in the pic that my top rad is a 480 RX XSPC...think its around 50-55mm, but low density (low FPI). Originally I had this entire Rad set up in push / pull, but have since gotten rid of the lower mounted fans as far too much extra work for very minuscule gains (if any).
Yes your radiators should always be set up to have the coolest / freshest air flowing thru them.....thermodynamics 101, as they are simply a heat exchanger.
With all my Rads fans and 3 front fans its 12 120mm fans in total moving fresh air into the case and the 1 140mm expelling......so positive pressure, however there are so many vents throughout the case its hardly air tight.
Also, you notice all your rad mounts are equipped w dust filters, may as well use em as intended ;)

Yeah, I think I was worried at the start about dumping too much warm air inside the case, and then never really gave it a second thought.  This has got me planning on how to make the switch.  It shouldn't be too hard.  I make ample use of quick disconnects to make the loop more serviceable and components interchangeable so I think I can just unplug, flip the fans, and then plug back in.  It should help shave off another 2C at load I suspect.

Finally got moved into the case..24 hr leak test / bleeding air.
 
Temps are good.....
Still no OC at all on the 12900K...Memory OC's to 6000 / c36 - GPU +165 / +1125
 

 

 

 

 
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/25695276
 

 
https://www.3dmark.com/pr/1402256
 

 
I'll call this build a rap....only thing left now is to start playing around w OC'ing the 12900K......

Nice system!  I'm more impressed by that CPU score than the GPU to be honest.  I find it hard to believe that there can be such an astounding difference between your chip and my Threadripper 2950x.  Is the chip truly 3x better than mine?  Seems unbelievable to have such a difference but here we are I guess. 

First time I have exceeded 22K GPU in TS
CPU Score not too bad either...this was all P-cores 5.2 Ghz / all E-Cores 4 Ghz
 
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/25697121

Some personal bests on the stock bios,
 
PR: 15396
 
https://www.3dmark.com/pr/1405258
 
TS (without reBar): GFX 22703
 
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/25740865
 
TS (with reBar and tanked CPU score): 22930
 
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/25740662