[Worklog] Ideas for putting my Zen2 daily driver rig into this this Cosmos S I have lying around (with WC)

[sixstringedthing]

Hi all,
I've been wanting to get stuck into a new custom PC build and get back into custom watercooling for a while, because I'm a silly person who has silly ideas sometimes. I have a bunch of WC gear from back in the day that's just sitting around, and I have this Coolermaster Cosmos S with all the bits in pretty good condition.

I'm thinking an old school custom WC build., because right now my daily driver Zen2 rig is just hanging out on a homebuilt "test tray".
I apologise for the absolutely shit-awful photos in this OP. It's very late and I'm fairly drunk, but I reckon I'll still like this idea tomorrow.
I'll post some better pics/specs/what we've got to work with here over the weekend.



There's lots of ways to fit rads and pumps and etc. into these cases and they've had just about everything done to them in terms of custom mods by this point in history... How would you make a Cosmos S build interesting in 2024?

 

[Deathmonkey]

I'm thinking an old school custom WC build., because right now my daily driver Zen2 rig is just hanging out on a homebuilt "test tray".

There's lots of ways to fit rads and pumps and etc. into these cases and they've had just about everything done to them in terms of custom mods by this point in history... How would you make a Cosmos S build interesting in 2024?

How old school are we talking? Because the Cosmos S has grommets for tubing to exit the case. Certainly interesting in 2024, though practicality is another matter.

 

[sixstringedthing]

Not old-school enough for external moarrad feat. quick-disconnects.
I'd like to mount the Black Ice 360 and Phobya 280 rads internally. My current idea is to put the 280 behind the bays and the 360 up top.
But I'm also thinking about positive/negative pressure and the best way to configure rad/fan placement to minimise the amount of dust that gets inside.

I'm also fully aware that doing a custom WC build in an old case for a rig which is running perfectly fine with an AIO and stock GPU cooler probably has a few downsides in practicality terms. But hey, could be an interesting project, and I've been wanting to do something with this case for years.

 

[steelghost]

Once you build a custom loop, assuming you use soft tubing, it's pretty straightforward to swap new hardware in, especially if you made it easy to drain.

So building something for your current system isn't "wasted effort" if you intend to keep water cooling future builds. The only caveat is that it makes GPU upgrades that bit more expensive since you need to factor in the cost of a suitable block.