[USA] John& Ellie

TT Ellen · November 18, 2025

LiquidHaus · February 20

Hello, everyone!

First of all, we have to give a massive thank you to Thermaltake for the opportunity to participate in the 2026 Thermaltake CaseMOD Invitational!

We can't wait to get started. We just received most of our parts last week, though we're still missing a few things that we hope to get in soon.

Thanks for being here and let's enjoy the journey!

LiquidHaus · February 28

Getting started with these awesome components!

Gotta say, this is a wicked stack of hardware. Stoked to be part of this comp when ASRock, Palit, Intel, and Seagate are also sponsoring.

Next week is when we break ground on the direction of our build, still working out what we'll be doing but winging it is kinda just what we...do!

LiquidHaus · March 20

Sorry for the delays! We've been busy deciding and working toward the direction we wanted to go with on this case - as it's so large on it's own, we didn't feel right about adding any exterior dimensions to the build. Choosing to play to our current strengths, we went with ditching the glass completely on the case and doing additive case mods with 3D printing, designing facades that mimic the look and feel of the exterior lines of the case itself, whilst also creating a clean appearance throughout the interior confines of the case.

This direction will hide a lot of the individual components, but should result in a modern looking and cohesive build once finished. It's been tricky 3D printing prototype pieces that work seamlessly with the case without any 3D file of the case itself, but we're going forward regardless!

LiquidHaus · March 20

We went to Palit's website and checked out their Maker page and downloaded the 3D files for their RTX 5070. Since we're doing lots of 3D printing for this build, it only made sense that we included the GPU in the mix with custom 3D printed designs. For now, we added our logo in the shroud design and provides a super clean appearance. Obviously, all these 3D printed pieces will be painted to match the color of the case.

LiquidHaus · March 20

It was time to start thinking about the loop design! That meant finally installing the CPU and mounting the waterblock. We opted for a 'goofy' mount, rotating the block 90 degrees from what it should normally be, due to the tubing layout we have planned.

Super excited to utilize Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K here! Temps should be super cool with the dual 420mm radiators.

LiquidHaus · March 20

This is the build as it currently stands while we do TONS of 3D printing. We definitely wish we had more 3D printers than we already have, since a lot of these prints take many hours, reducing the amount of time we will have toward the end. It becomes more and more clear why so many people have tons of different 3D printers at a certain point lol

LiquidHaus · April 10

Slow progress but we're getting there! Haven't had time to post some updates here but we've been cranking away behind the scenes on the build.

We finalized our design on our vision but as it's come together piece by piece, we decided on a different vibe for the build as a whole.

If you can tell by now, we're ditching the glass entirely and moving to an open air style build with this case. However as we finished the mockup/test fits, the vibe has become entirely brutalist. With the purple, it's for sure giving pop brutalist vibes. Though cool, we've always found inspiration from brutalist archeticture. By chance we had used gray 3D print filament for our mockups and the gray provided us with a ton of motivation to move away from the original indigo case color that we were going to paint everything..

Sooo we decided that instead of color matching the original indigo color, we're going with a concrete texture/color across the entire case and 3D prints, except the interior frame of the case, as we thought the black frame would add a solid contrast against the gray of the concrete color.

The direction of this build has been to do additive modding more than subtractive modding. We've found additive modding to be a lot of fun and sometimes more challenging than subtractive modding. In our minds, additive modding is altering the entire vibe of a PC build or case without cutting it up - forever altering the case and forcing the case to only exist for one build. We wanted to go into this competition without feeling the need to modify every single piece for the sake of a competition. We wanted to make a clean build that we would enjoy ourselves.

We're really excited for the build to finally come together, now all that's left is to start prepping everything for paint and re-assembly!

LiquidHaus · April 10

After pivoting to a concrete color and texture, we experimented quite a bit on how to achieve the look and feel of concrete even though we're dealing with painting plastic and metal.

We found a pretty nice 4 step painting process and we're really happy with the result, check it out!

LiquidHaus · April 11

One of the trickiest parts for the build was mounting the Pacific PR32-D5 Plus, as it's not very ergonomic in the way it can be mounted or placed around the case. Since we want to make the build relatively simplistic and more clean, we decided to hide the reservoir in the basement of the case. That being said, we got pretty lucky as it barely fit dimension wise within the basement - which made it even more difficult for sorting out how to get it locked into the exact placement we wanted, which is just behind the detachable grills that you can pop on and off from the case. That way, you'd be able to see the illuminated reservoir and moving fluid through the grille once the build is complete.

It took some custom 3D design work which allowed us to position it into perfect position, but we soon discovered how much sag there was when mounted horizontally - which necessitated a secondary anchor mount at the top of the reservoir. All that it required was three holes to be drilled and tapped, with the top plate using the TT fitting itself as the anchor to maintain a perfectly leveled reservoir! Another aspect that made this entire idea work was that the case itself has dedicated fan mounts on the basement cover that are already threaded, which become the perfect anchor for our custom bracket. Since the radiator mounting plate is a secondary plate that mounts over the threaded fan plate, we were able to utilize the dedicated fan mount for the custom reservoir bracket without getting in the way of the radiator placement at all. Worked out nicely!

Up next is to sleeve the pump wiring!

LiquidHaus · April 15

It's been a crazy week of sanding and painting, but we're moving full steam ahead!

Getting every piece of the case except the frame to the concrete color and texture that we want has been tricky, especially since it's been impossible to paint everything at once. Therefore we've resorted to prepping and painting in batches, starting with the interior custom panels we 3D designed.

Up next we're painting the GPU shroud we designed with Palit's Maker site, along with some of the exterior panels and case feet.

LiquidHaus · April 15

Along with all of the custom pieces we've designed for the case, we figured it'd be fun to incorporate the brutalist ideology across some other aspects of the build, including a custom cover for the SW1 Plus Block.

We do actually quite enjoy the original aesthetic of the block out of the box, and though we were excited to use the block for this build, it just made more sense to carry the theme onto the block, though we certainly think the cover design enhances the block's aesthetics for this build.

Adding the concrete texture to this piece really helps push the brutalist vision, plus we think the corners of the cover tie into the faceted aspects of the original case design.

LiquidHaus · April 15

We didn't want the case to sit on the bare frame for very long, so we took care of the case feet and applied our concrete process to them as well, along with some of the exterior panels.

We redesigned the GPU shroud since it was a bit over the top to include our logo twice in the same build - one logo is enough lol. We basically deepened the fan inlets on the shroud so that the GPU fans sat recessed to match the radiator fans and how they'll sit recessed once the radiator shrouds are in place. Consistency across the build is something we're aiming for so every little bit helps for that goal.

The height distance between the radiators and each passthrough fitting on the motherboard panel is equal so that the tubing can be mirrored as much as possible - we're going for a clean and simplistic watercooling loop design.

Since one of the main rules for this competition is that there is NO outsourcing - you must do everything on the build yourself, we decided to buy some EZ-DIY cable extensions and 180 degree adapter for the GPU power cable. Getting custom cables made was an option as others seem to have done, but we appreciated the challenge with this rule and decided against it.

LiquidHaus · April 15

We couldn't be happier with our vertical GPU placement, and the fitment was just right. We found a 600mm 5.0 riser cable that worked out perfectly for length here, and that 180 degree power adapter from EZ-DIY came in insanely clutch. We dremeled the case's radiator bracket to allow clearance for the adapter, and then cut a bit more of the case frame to allow the riser cable to plug in directly into the GPU without issue.

Next up was routing the tubing going from the Pacific PR32-D5 Plus to the passthroughs fittings. We got the green light from Thermaltake that we could use certain fittings if they didn't offer them directly, so that allowed us to complete this side of things without worry.

It's been a stressful past few weeks as we've now been working on multiple project builds alongside this one, so it's time to stop messing around to assemble this build fully.

We do have a few ideas on last minute additions, but it'll come down to the wire as even though the competition wraps up on the 20th, we're leaving town on the 16th, and we won't be back until the 20th. So we have to finish everything up in the next 24 hours.

CRUNCH TIME ENGAGE.

LiquidHaus · April 19

The top and bottom radiator covers are fully complete and mounted in, nice and snug.

Funnily enough, we discovered that we wouldn't be able to utilized the original reservoir fill port once the front panels are installed, and the radiator covers further lock in everything. We resolved that issue by relocating the fillport to 3D printed passthrough that mounts right underneath the GPU, allow for proper filling even when everything is fully assembled, since filling the system is obviously the last step.

There are a few more touches to add before we feel confident with the build, but so far we're really liking the vibe and we can't wait to see this finished!

LiquidHaus · April 19

A big aspect about relocating the GPU, is that you also have to deal with the output of the GPU so you can still plug in a monitor and have it still fully functional.

We resolved this by utilizing an HDMI KeyStone Jack and a custom 3D printed mounting bracket. All it required was a 3ft HDMI cable, and some dremel work so that the HDMI port could be relocated to the rear of the case for easy use.

We also felt like there was something theme related that was missing when it came to the motherboard, even though we created a CPU cover block to match the vibe of the build. We came up with a hybrid cover for the motherboard that helps blend in the motherboard a bit more to the overall build, without sacrificing any identity of the motherboard itself.

This Z890 Riptide from ASRock is a super cool board, and we didn't want to take anything away from it so we felt this was a good compromise.

All that's left now is tubing, filling, and this build will be COMPLETE!

Stay tuned for the final build pics!

LiquidHaus · April 20

Here is the final build reveal!

This is Project Brutalist. Named for the architecture style we have been inspired by for years, we finally found a chance to push for that same aesthetic with this build.

Raw concrete texture covers the entirety of the build, with some of the best hardware elements exposed whilst still blended in with its surroundings.

Functionalism is another huge aspect of Brutalist architecture, so we felt it necessary to still keep the build as fully functional as possible - not straying from the confines of the original TT View 600 TG. It was very tempting to create a fully open air chassis design that incorporated elements of the original case, since that has become a specialty of ours. However, we felt it a necessary challenge to keep as true to the original case as possible, all the while creating a completely different vibe with it once the build was complete.

We certainly felt like we accomplished that goal and we are very proud of this build!

Everyone's builds turned out amazing and we feel so fortunate to participate in this super fun competition. Congratulations to all, and best of luck to everyone during the final voting phase!