Wow. I learned a lot this weekend trying to get this loop up and running. It's going to be delayed until later this week. Waiting on more parts.
-Plan A. Top mount the rad & fans. Rule:Measure first. There is 80mm between the top of my case and the top of the motherboard. My rad is 54mm thick + 25mm for fans. 79mm. Should fit right? Nope. I would make this rule measure first and don't cut it so close.
-Plan B. Mount the rad and fans on the front intake. More than enough space. The only problem is now my video card doesn't fit back in in slots 1 or 2. Luck shined on me that it fits into slot 3, but.....it won't fit with the USB 3.0 front panel header cable in the mother board. I've got a 90 degree adapter on the way to solve this.
Other considerations. Fittings. I probably should have just gone with compression. I was thinking barbs + clamps because it's cheaper. Not that money is an issue. I was going to use black spring clamps like you see on your car's fuel or radiator hoses. Well 19mm to match the OD of the tubing is a terrible idea because getting maximum extension is a PITarse. Even more so trying to adjust positioning in the case. I would get 20mm so that my clamp force midpoint is the OD of my tubing. Literally everyone sells 19mm. I don't think they've ever used it. So I've got some aluminum clamps with hex keys coming. Price of barbs + spring clamps + aluminum hex clamps is basically the same as compression.
Anyways, nothing I can't handle. The pump and res are in the back of the case. The tubing will come through the cut outs. Overall this is going to turn out sweet. Couple cables to tidy up. The overall look will be very clean.
https://imgur.com/ZHDz1pj