Installation and Setup
Tower 500 Chassis Preparation
We prepared the Tower 500 chassis by installing the Riing Quad and SWAFans, power supply, the ToughLiquid RC Ultra’s 240mm radiator, and 2 Thermaltake controllers for the fans. Let me tell you … the cabling was a HORROR show! As with any PC builds, the cable management can be a bit of a nightmare, but we’ve tidied it as much as we could, and we’re pretty pleased with our efforts.
Motherboard Installation
The motherboard fitted nicely inside the Tower 500 chassis. The CPU installation was simple, but mounting the CPU waterblock and memory waterblock was quite tight. Watch the video – Time stamp 10:50
PSU Installation
No issues here … but the cables! OMG … there SO many cables! I need a real lesson is cable management lol 😀
AIO Installation
The Intel Core i9-12900KF is cooled by Thermaltake’s ToughLiquid Floe RC Ultra 240 AIO, which comes with both a CPU waterblock and a memory waterblock. Some bending of the AIO’s tubing was required to fit everything in! Having said that, it did an excellent job of cooling the CPU at full load with temperatures reaching a high of only 93 degrees Celsius. Watch the video – Time stamp 16:33
EZDIY-FAB Multi-angle vertical GPU mount / PCIe 4.0 Riser Cable Installation
Using the EZDIY-FAB Multi-Angle Vertical GPU Mount, we installed the mighty impressive GeForce RTX 3090 from EVGA. It fitted perfectly and really helps to show of the graphics card in all its glory. The PCIE 4.0 riser cable was a bit of a nightmare to fit, as we had to bend (and even double bend) the flat ribbon cable
After playing around with the various configurations for placing the graphics card, we decided to leave out the EZDIY-FAB Multi-Angle Vertical GPU Mount. The PCIE riser cable and bulkiness of the GPU mount was a bit too unsightly. In the end, we just installed the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card as per usual in to the Tower 500 chassis.
Custom Side Panel (with ARGB)
We replaced the original right side panel with a custom-made ARGB panel showing our lovely Tifa Lockhart (from Final Fantasy). It just looks fantastic! We also added a unique remote control switch which I love, and that was installed on the PCIE x1 slot of the motherboard.
Quick Page Reference
- Introduction Project
- The CPU, Motherboard and Graphics Card
- The DDR5 RAM and SSD
- The Cooling Fans and Power Supply
- The AIO cooler, Tower 500 Chassis and LCD Panel Kit
- Installation, Setup and Custom Side Panel
- The Tech Specs and Load Temps
- The Final and Finished Build (with Photos + Video)
