Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Codes
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • Community guidelines
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
Subscribe now
Popular
  • Essential Hardware
  • Top 100
  • Battlefield 6
  • Arc Raiders
  • Quizzes
Don't miss these
Two PC cases on a yellow background with the PC Gamer recommends badge in the upper right corner.
PC Cases The best PC cases in 2025: These are the chassis I'd use for my next gaming build
A terrible gaming PC built into a plastic jug
Gaming PCs This €130 gaming PC in a plastic jug churns out a whole 15 fps in Fortnite and might be the best/worst DIY build I've ever seen
A "mechanical laptop" built around a Framework design, with rotary encoders sunk into the top
Gaming Laptops I now know what my life has been missing and it's a set of rotary encoders sunk straight into the top of a mechanical-keebed Framework laptop, for some reason
A photo of a custom cold plate for an Nvidia H100, designed and manufactured by Alloy Enterprises, after modelling the optimal fluid flow by nTop
Cooling Highly intricate water blocks like this one may become the norm as server CPU power consumption soars, and could even trickle down into gaming PCs
A Corsair Air 5400 PC case
PC Cases The many-chambered PC cases at Gamescom really showed up my old banger of a chassis
Hollow Knight Silksong Widow boss fight
Action Hollow Knight: Silksong player melts its hardest bosses with an endless fountain of tools: 'I think I unlocked easy mode'
A custom DIY walnut wooden ITX PC case by MXC Builds
PC Cases If anything were to convince me to try out carpentry it would be this gorgeous DIY mini walnut PC case housing an Asus ProArt RTX 5080
A robotic trader in a leather trenchcoat stands behind a stall.
Sim If you're a House Flipper or PowerWash sicko you've gotta check out The Lift, a game about being a space-repairman in a spooky faux-Soviet research base
The Hive
PC Cases This utterly mesmerising beehive PC desk build took six months of painstaking labour and hypnotically simulates the bittersweet rise and fall of bee colonies in real time
A statue of two conductors in the first-class carriage.
Survival & Crafting Enginefall asks 'What if Snowpiercer was Rust and DayZ' in a game with great vision and so-so execution
A player house in Dune Awakening with a flat roof, foor same-sized walls, and a single door.
Survival & Crafting I'm sick of the survival crafting 'Cube' and calling the gamer HOA on all of you
Hyte Thicc Q80 Trio cooler at Computex 2024.
Cooling Hyte says all Thicc Q80 Trio users should 'remove the cooler from their system immediately' and get a refund after internal fault found
An image of a glowing ball of fire in the sky over an automated sci-fi base in videogame StarRupture.
Survival & Crafting The next survival game from the developers of Green Hell plops you on an alien planet with atmospheric firestorms and a horde of giant spiders
helldivers 2 dust devils warbond
Third Person Shooter 'PLEASE DON'T NERF COYOTE': The new Helldivers 2 warbond has a fire-breathing rifle so good that players are begging Arrowhead to leave it alone
Midair neon jetpack combat between a robot and an android lady
FPS If you saw Ruiner and thought it would be cool in first-person, its developer is back with, you guessed it, an FPS
  1. Hardware
  2. PC Cases

Build of the week: HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station

Features
By James Davenport published 19 October 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 1 of 15
Page 1 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 2 of 15
Page 2 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 3 of 15
Page 3 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 4 of 15
Page 4 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 5 of 15
Page 5 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 6 of 15
Page 6 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 7 of 15
Page 7 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 8 of 15
Page 8 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 9 of 15
Page 9 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 10 of 15
Page 10 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 11 of 15
Page 11 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 12 of 15
Page 12 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 13 of 15
Page 13 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 14 of 15
Page 14 of 15

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web's most dedicated PC building communities.

Hans Peder Sahl, a modder from Denmark, set out to build a simple workstation, but the engineer in him couldn’t be stifled. What should have been a simple day or two project stretched into weeks, and the build evolved into something much more complex. The HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station takes an inherently pretty enthusiast chassis and through load of drafting, drilling, and cabling turns it into a build so compact and pretty that I get a bit woozy looking at the thing.

Beyond the intricate cabling, I’m most impressed with the custom watercooling setup. The translucent chambers on the back of the chassis are actually part of the flow. Liquid gets chugged out of the reservoir and through the top. It’s a mesmerizing component of the build, externalizing and giving proper due to an already impressive series of liquid cooling fittings.

To see more photos of the process, check out Hans’ build log. He’s an excellent photographer to boot, fully realized in the erotically charged video he made of the liquid fill process. Watch it after checking out the components.

HEX Gear R40 Engineering Station components:

Chassis: HEX Gear R40
CPU: Intel 5960x
GPU: 2 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980TI
Motherboard: GIGABYTE X99M-Gaming 5
RAM: 32 gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666Mhz
PSU: Corsair HX850i
SSD: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
HDD: Western Digital red 6TB
Fan controller: Aqua Computer Aquaero 5
Watercooling: EK Water Blocks, radiators, fans and pump - Custom made reservoir, case parts, sli bridge, and cable combs - Bitspower fittings

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Page 15 of 15
Page 15 of 15
James Davenport
James Davenport
Social Links Navigation

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles. 

Read more
A terrible gaming PC built into a plastic jug
This €130 gaming PC in a plastic jug churns out a whole 15 fps in Fortnite and might be the best/worst DIY build I've ever seen
 
 
A "mechanical laptop" built around a Framework design, with rotary encoders sunk into the top
I now know what my life has been missing and it's a set of rotary encoders sunk straight into the top of a mechanical-keebed Framework laptop, for some reason
 
 
A photo of a custom cold plate for an Nvidia H100, designed and manufactured by Alloy Enterprises, after modelling the optimal fluid flow by nTop
Highly intricate water blocks like this one may become the norm as server CPU power consumption soars, and could even trickle down into gaming PCs
 
 
A Corsair Air 5400 PC case
The many-chambered PC cases at Gamescom really showed up my old banger of a chassis
 
 
Hollow Knight Silksong Widow boss fight
Hollow Knight: Silksong player melts its hardest bosses with an endless fountain of tools: 'I think I unlocked easy mode'
 
 
A custom DIY walnut wooden ITX PC case by MXC Builds
If anything were to convince me to try out carpentry it would be this gorgeous DIY mini walnut PC case housing an Asus ProArt RTX 5080
 
 
Latest in PC Cases
The Hive
This utterly mesmerising beehive PC desk build took six months of painstaking labour and hypnotically simulates the bittersweet rise and fall of bee colonies in real time
 
 
A custom DIY walnut wooden ITX PC case by MXC Builds
If anything were to convince me to try out carpentry it would be this gorgeous DIY mini walnut PC case housing an Asus ProArt RTX 5080
 
 
Three PC cases on a pink background with the PC Gamer logo in the top right.
I'm surrounded by PC cases I've reviewed and these are the best PC case deals I'd go for this Prime Day
 
 
The Hyte X50 PC case on a desk ready to be built into for testing and review.
Hyte X50 PC case review
 
 
The Havn BF 360 PC case in both black and white with panels removed.
Havn BF 360 PC case review
 
 
Corsair Frame 4500X ATX PC case throughout a PC build for testing.
Corsair Frame 4500X review
 
 
Latest in Features
A healer looks mournfully towards the camera, hand outstretched, as she topples into the bowels of the Tam-Tara Deepcroft in Final Fantasy 14.
PC Gamer's Top 100 didn't have a single MMO in it this year—here are my 3 theories as to why we did that
 
 
Battlefield 6 Season 1 skins: A side on view of a Recon soldier crouched next to a tree firing a sniper.
Battlefield 6's first batch of soldier skins is more tactical than tacti-cool, but if you thought that one green skin was a step too far, I don't know what to tell you
 
 
Once Upon a Katamari screens
Once Upon a Katamari has reignited my love for a series that hasn't released a mainline game in 14 years, and now it's the only game I want to play
 
 
Battlefield 6 Eastwood: Key art for the Season 1 Eastwood map showing a large group of soldiers fighting down the hill of a golf course, with one in a bush, one prone, and four fighting around a golf cart.
Battlefield 6's new Eastwood map is the large, instantly iconic warzone I've been waiting for, but wait for it I shall
 
 
FOV 90 Battlefield 6 maps
Call of Duty could learn a thing or two from Battlefield 6's smallest map
 
 
A screenshot from Island of Hearts showing three of the protagonists
FMV dating sims are booming in Asia, inspired in part by 'micro-dramas' popular on TikTok: 'It's not actually real life, but it feels like real life'
 
 
  1. Two of the best Hall effect keyboards on a blue background with the PC Gamer recommends logo in the top right.
    1
    Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming
  2. 2
    Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
  3. 3
    Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards
  4. 4
    Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer
  5. 5
    Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
  1. A Secretlab Magnus Evo desk complete with dual monitor arm displaying the PC Gamer Top 100.
    1
    Secretlab Magnus Evo review
  2. 2
    Scuf Valor Pro wireless controller review
  3. 3
    MSI Z890 Ace motherboard review
  4. 4
    MSI Z890 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard review
  5. 5
    8BitDo Retro R8 gaming mouse review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...