Hi all,

For a little background, I'm a computational physicist, and am running some very computationally intensive bespoke code. Largely we're in the realms of requiring 64gb of physical memory (page file is death), which takes upwards of a week to run utilising both CPU and GPU at capacity. I have a machine in my office which can run these computationally expensive simulations well enough, which I built with a closed loop CPU watercooling solution and an air cooled Nvidia Tesla. I'm now, however, looking to replace my home machine with something similarly capable of running these intensive simulations. I'm also planning to game on it (though clearly not at the same time), in part because there's no fun building a system like this then not playing with it. I'm a reasonably competent PC builder, having built pretty much all of my systems for the last 15 years or so, but have never previously gone beyond closed loop watercooling systems.

There's a high budget for this system; I won't say money's no object, but I'm not averse to paying a premium for performance. So far I'm planning:

• Asus X99-Deluxe

• Intel i7 5960X

• 2 x Corsair Vengeance DDR4 32GB kit

• 1 or 2 Nvidia GTX 980 - haven't yet decided how much of a pain in the arse making our CUDA code SLI-compatible will be. Planning to investigate both configurations for now.

• 2 x Samsung 2.5 Inch 250GB SSD - RAID 0 for a little extensibility, in case we ultimately exceed 64gb and swap space becomes necessary.

• A few large magnetic drives, which aren't hugely relevant here, largely storage/symbolic link points.

(Note: I'm only linking to Amazon, will shop around for better prices when buying).

Now, I'd very much like to use a bespoke watercooling solution to support a fairly substantial overclock, and have been reading and watching youtube videos for a while, but there's a certain amount of conflicting advice, so I thought I'd ask for a few tips here.

1. I was wondering whether anyone has any suggestions for a case. I've always been a fan of the NZXT Phantom (indeed having two of them for different systems), but the space behind the motherboard seems a little lacking for tubing, and I do like builds looking neat to the point of obsession. Maybe I'm overestimating the space required. Either way, I'd ideally like something less than around 75cm tall, just to fit in the gap under my desk I planned for it originally, but this isn't a deal breaker by any means.

2. I know this is a painfully broad question, but I've read and watched so many conflicting things I can't form a cogent opinion on an optimal pump, reservoir or compression fittings for this hardware, given the performance requirements. I like the look of a bay reservoir, and have read some good things about several Alphacool products, but am by no means attached to that idea if there's an objective reason to look elsewhere; maybe there's a good kit to use I've overlooked. I'm fine with waterblocks/radiators, but I've heard so many conflicting pieces of advice on these three things in particular that if anyone has any anecdotal or reasoned suggestions I'd very much appreciate hearing them.

3. Of course, I'll be watercooling either 1 or 2 GTX 980s. Would people recommend any particular 980 for this purpose? Of course, aftermarket fans are pointless, so I'll no doubt be looking for something without them. I've also found companies which ship card with waterblocks at seemingly no real extra install cost, but I'm fine with applying a waterblock myself.

I'm aware I'm asking for a fairly massive amount of information, especially in question 2, which probably skims a little close to breaking the third subreddit rule - I've done masses of research (not that it's obvious here), but find so many people so aggressively pushing their approach or opinion that it's hard to find anything objective or reasoned. As it is quite an ask, I'll happily give reddit gold to those who take the time to sincerely provide a reasoned answer.