FULL TOWER HARDLINE COOLING

WHAT WE’VE NEVER REALLY DONE in MaximumPC is show you how exactly we go about the build process for the Dream Machine. And this year’s was tougher than ever. After a few debates in the office, our resident Linux guru and political activist, Alex, specced up a water-cooled system for this year’s Dream Machine, before handing it over to our hardline pro and handy reviews editor (aka me) to build in under two days. And thus began the challenge. The In Win 909 is a beautiful case, perfect for water cooling, and ideal for people interested in modding. However, for the less experienced, it houses a potential minefield of problems— especially if you don’t have the tools on hand to go about your modding business.

The first thing we needed was a plan of attack. We decided a twin loop was going to be important this year. It’s not every day you get the opportunity to build something quite like the Dream Machine, so running two separate loops, one for the GPU and one for the CPU, seemed like the best choice. It’s imperative that you keep an open mind when planning a build like this. Buy more fittings than you think you need, get hold of twice as much tubing, and be prepared to make some crucial decisions about how you’re going to cool your loop as you go.