Aurora R10, exterior GPU radiator

You can also get cheap radiator stands/brackets. I have one on order myself, just to add a bit of stability to the radiator (although now that I have it all filled with water, it is very stable anyway):

XSPC Universal Radstand (the one I ordered) or similar. If you prefer to have the radiator stand, you could buy one of these or a similar model, for USD 10-20, and then not have to worry about it so much.

My GPU is the 3080. It does not have any memory on the back, so I didn't bother with the active backplate, but the waterblock still came with a very thick metal backplate that was a huge improvement over the original one. It has been installed for a month or so now. I did one strip-down when I reorganised my loop to external, but temperatues are stupidly low!

Thank you very much thats all very helpful. I'll try and update what my build ends up as when it arrives and I get it all together.

I've just looked up that slot cover and went to buy it but the shipping is $80USD! Any clue if anyone in the US makes these?

@smit4095 A couple of us on these boards have done similar things. One used went with an Alphacool Eiswand (which is a stand alone external radiator, pump, res unit). I went with a 1080 radiator, with 9 fans, that I run the tubes into the case.

My approach is closest to yours, I think. I recently moved my pump/res external (the internal project was a whole other discussion), and my setup is basically as follows:

External radiator, with 9 Arctic P12 PST PWM fans installed. These fans come with daisy-chain PWM cables, which means you only have a single fan cable to deal with at the end. I actually have an external fan controller (it is integrated into my D5 Next pump), but if you need to power the fans internally, then run a fan cable extender inside the case (use a PCI slot), and a Y-splitter to share it with the front fan, in the front fan motherboard header. You want the front fan to plug into the 4 pin part of the Y splitter, to avoid startup errors, and then your rad fans will follow the front fan. I preferred to have control over them, which is why I went for a D5 Next.

For power, my pump is SATA, but same would be true for molex or what-ever: just run a cable inside through the same pCI slot you used for the fan cable.

As for running your tubes inside: I went with a cut-out on the foot of the case, and then up through the base using through-ports, but that is only because I had previously modified that area. The easier approach, and the one the user with the external cooling tower used, was the PCI through adapter (link to an example below):

https://www.aquatuning.co.uk/cases-hardware/slot-covers/7438/alphacool-hf-38-slot-cover-panama 

That is painful! I am in the UK, and they ship here for abotu 15 pounds (20 USD) given the proximity and the fact they maintain a UK storefront (albeit still shipped from Germany).

Performance PCs and various other US based sites are your best bet. The Alphacool one is NOT the only option. There is also a dirt cheap Bitspower one (which really requires pass-through fittings as well, but they are about USD 5 each), and phobya used to make one but I think they are defunct now. Koolance offer one that may be easier to find.

It looks like you have 2 options on US Amazon, but I cannot see stock as I am in the UK:

https://www.amazon.com/Aquacomputer-Slot-Cover-2X-Ports/dp/B01LXA647X/ref=psdc_3015422011_t1_B0052KN0KU

https://www.amazon.com/Koolance-BKT-PCI-G-Computer-L-Bracket-Threads/dp/B0052KN0KU

Or buy 2 pass-through fittings, and spend some time creating a solution.

Thats perfect, thank you! Luckily those are more reasonable in price haha

Here is a better photo. I am about to move to a new home office, so it is all temporarily on a floor, but a bracket is arriving to mount the res/pump this week and then it will all be neatly laid out on my desk.

And I like the radstands, I wasn't certain just yet what I was going to use for mounting but those look rather helpful. I'm hoping to kinda just tuck it all behind the case and have it rigidly mounted backside on the r10 without much drilling.

Were you able to move you graphics card to the lower slot and still have the bios boot normal? I'm about to convert over to activate backplate and I'm thinking the psu won't slide over the backplate mod if its in the upper default pci location..