 Have you been itching for a computer desk upgrade, but can't fit one in your studio apartment? Well, first things first, uh, you should get that itch checked out, buddy. Then, when it turns out that it was just some, uh, you know, jock itch or whatever, second, you should watch this video about the Vector Desk Mini. It's a small, sexy desk PC case, and we're gonna show you guys how to cram a full, custom water cooling setup in it. 🎵 The Master Keys Pro keyboard lineup from Cooler Master is available in three sizes each, in white or RGB flavors. Check them out at the link below. When we first laid hands on the desk panels, honestly, they felt disappointingly flimsy compared to the premium expectations we had. But, then we found out the price, and given the $500 price tag, this can be fairly easily forgiven. Instructions needed some work even after considering the price, though. The early version that we got was clear enough for us to finish the build, but for novice computer builders, some more attention to the screw threading and the positioning of the motherboard mounts, and small details like labels for the screws and documentation for the included storage mounting could smooth out the process once the Vector Desk Mini actually reaches the market. With the desk assembled, it's time to cram a computer inside of it. Now, this puppy is designed for air cooling or AIO liquid cooling, but, come on, we weren't just gonna put your dad's Dell in here and call it a day. So we took aim at the more accessible end of the enthusiast market, putting together the best multi-core gaming and content creation machine we could for a little over two grand without water cooling parts. These days, no budget high-end build, it's kind of a new category here, is complete without an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, and their 1800X 8-core 16-thread monster is the beating heart of ours on an Asus Crosshair 6 Hero motherboard that gives us solid overclocking and support for key technologies like SLI for multiple graphics cards, M.2 storage for lightning fast NVMe SSDs, and, of course, system-wide RGB lighting. To keep that heart pumping at all times, we added a pump, and lots of other water cooling stuff as well, courtesy of our friends at EK and AlphaCool. Custom loop water cooling, as we mentioned before, isn't officially supported by the VectorDesk Mini, but we couldn't resist another opportunity to use EK's see-through Supremacy EVO CPU block and full-cover GPU block, and, thanks to the unique fitting configuration on this AlphaCool XT45, there seemed to be enough space to do a really clean, tidy setup in here, and we wanted our desk to be as quiet as possible, since it's like a foot and a half from your face when you're using it, without compromising on cooling. Next, we chose 32 gigs of Corsair's Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory. Its low profile prevents it from interfering with the tubing that we'll need to install later. After removing these bizarre PCI covers, we were able to mash in the sexy EK water block-equipped GTX 1080 that we had kitted out earlier. Now, the 1080 Ti might be the king of the hill right now, but the 1080 fits a little bit better into the budget that we're targeting. We chose Corsair's RM1000X power supply, because, while we did know that this was overkill for this project, we wanted to make sure that the fan would never spin, even while gaming, ruining the silence of the build. Up until this point, basically everything had gone according to the, air quotes, plan. But of course, this is Linus Tech Tips. There wasn't really a plan, was there? And Jake, presumably because he was busy daydreaming about whatever it is the youngins daydream about these days, eventually realized that the GPU and radiator weren't going to work in their original positions. So out came the Dremel, and off came the PCIe screw cover. Then, the GPU was put back into the lower PCIe slot, the 8x lane won't affect the performance, as we demonstrated in this video here, and the radiator was replaced. Our Samsung 850 EVO SSD was chosen for its clean, understated looks, and great price to performance ratio, and we mounted it using the included hardware. Lining the reservoir and pump up with the SSD on the drive mounting bracket, actually worked out, merely perfectly, TM. One issue with this approach, was that the mounting didn't quite line up with the CPU, causing the tube going from the CPU to the pump, to not be quite, you know, parallel. And we could have easily fixed this by drilling new holes, and moving the pump over a little bit, but Jake had a hot date in his imagination, and didn't feel like redoing it, so... hashtag deal with it, I guess. Power cabling was taken care of by CableMod, who supplied us with custom length of their sexy carbon custom cables, that perfectly fit the black and gray aesthetic of our build, and for tubing, we went with Primochill's PrimoFlex Soft Tubing, for its clarity, and just general awesomeness. We installed almost $150 worth of EK fittings at this point, in an effort to make sure that our runs were as straight as possible. It's not quite hard line precision, but we still think it looks pretty darn good, and it's quite a bit less work to execute in the first place, and to drain for maintenance in the future, if such a thing should end up being necessary. Bringing us to the scariest part of any water-cooled build, filling it up and leak testing. So, paper towels in hand, we carefully filled it, watching for any leaks, but fortunately, miraculously, it was all assembled correctly, save for the fill port, which probably had something to do with Jake cross-threading it. We threw in some EK Vardar fans to handle airflow, while going perfectly with our monochromatic color scheme. At which point, we were definitely ready to disguise the ugly I.O. cables that were showing with some sleeving, that was actually meant for a 24-pin power connector, and some electrical tape, because who needs correctly sized heat shrink? Anyway, is that really what they did? Then, for the cherry on top, we set up a CableMod magnetic RGBW strip that we used to make looking through the glass super nice on your eyeballs. Speaking of nice for your eyeballs, we chose an LG ultra-wide monitor, which actually came in four inches wider than the desk itself, and then we also used a Corsair 10-keyless keyboard, since space is clearly at a premium, and to complement it, a G403 mouse. That is, as long as you don't mind covering up your creation with a mouse pad. An MX Anywhere Mark II would be a great choice if you want something that tracks directly on the glass, instead of needing that layer in between yourself and your PC's beauty. With all this set up now, we think, and we're very objective about these sort of things, that it looks pretty darn good, and it should be noted that with all the hardware installed, the overall rigidity of the desk improved to the point where its lightweight construction was no longer a concern. But, bottom line, the Vector Desk Mini's greatest strength also ends up being its greatest weakness, its size. This desk is going to fit basically anywhere, but at the same time, it doesn't offer quite enough room for low-sensitivity gaming, even with a 10-keyless keyboard, and a typical desk pad ends up drooping flaccidly over the sides. And forget about using a keyboard with a number pad. With that said, the finished product looks and feels awesome, the price is super reasonable, considering what you'd pay for just a normal computer case with a tempered glass side panel, and then just a normal desk to put it on, and if you're super strapped for space, this might just be the coolest damn PC desk on the block. But, if you want something that's a little bit more functional, well, you might want to wait a little bit, because this won't be the last desk PC we are checking out. Ting is the mobile carrier that provides more than just service for your cellular phone. They provide someone to talk to if you are lonely and sad. That's right, my friends, when you call customer service at Ting, you will speak to a person, not a robot, with no automated phone tree, and they don't even charge extra for that privilege. You pay only for what you use, with the average Ting bill being only 23 bucks a month per device. If you're stuck in a contract and you switch to Ting, they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee, up to 75 bucks, and they have new, lowered mobile data rates. Data is now just $10 per gig, beyond the first gigabyte. So head over to linus.ting.com to try out the savings calculator, and see if you'll save, and when you use our link, you'll also get 25 bucks in service credit, or towards a new device. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do, but if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description. Also down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, that one, and our community forum, which you should totally join.