Lagavulin: V

Lagavulin is my main PC: games, VR on a PSVR2, movies and everything in between. This is its second form, and the V is for Vision. It moved out of the Phanteks Evolv X it started in and into Lian Li's O11 Vision, and onto AM5 with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, an X870E AORUS MASTER and 48 GB of DDR5-8000. The RTX 3090, the Optimus blocks and both 360 radiators came along from the original build.

The case

Lian Li sent the Vision over, and I'm a huge fan. I've never been one for dual-chamber cases, but this one won me over. The power supply and the cabling live in their own chamber behind the motherboard, so the side you look at is just the loop. Thank you, Lian Li!

The loop

I usually run hardline, but this time I wanted something different and went with ZMT soft tubing. The matte black suits the case and gives the lighting a lot of contrast.

The new pump and reservoir, an Aqua Computer ULTITUBE D5 150 PRO with a LEAKSHIELD, make looking after the loop much easier.

Getting two 360 radiators to play nicely, with a run from the bottom one up to the vertical one beside the motherboard, was the hardest part. What helped:

90° rotary fittings are your friend.
Even if the rest of the loop is hardline, make this run soft tubing. You won't see it unless you really look for it.
Use a quick-disconnect fitting. It makes slotting in the bottom radiator much easier, and you can cut the tube to the length you actually want.

The rear 120/240 mount was the other fight: both the EK and Hardware Labs 240s I had on hand were too wide. A Dremel, some painter's tape and calm hands trimmed the removable motherboard tray beside the rear I/O, and now the Nemesis 240 fits.

Fans and lighting

There are eleven SL-Infinity fans. The six reverse-blade ones sit on the bottom and vertical radiators, two exhaust at the back, and three more in the rear chamber make the vertical radiator push-pull. That last part is overkill, but I had them on hand. An Aqua Computer QUADRO drives them all from the coolant temperature, so they rarely pass 1000 RPM. It keeps its settings on the device, so there's no jet engine at boot either.

The lighting runs on SignalRGB. The white PSU cables and the OLED screens on the D5 NEXT and the LeakShield are the only other accents.