You can directly download Optifine as a mod, and is the only mod that I know even has an installer, so yeah that changed
MrStetson
Or just add a Vanilla instance with Forge and and throw Optifine in mods
I wouldn't go with watercooling as the pump can be even more noisy (had 2 AIOs, both pumps were louder than any fans) so I would go with a good heatsink, like Noctua NH-D15 or be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4. 64GB ram is a lot, unless you need it specifically for something I would go with 32GB and also for 2k€ PC I would downgrade CPU to R5 7600X and put the saved money to better GPU. (Slightly better GPU with slightly worse CPU = better fps on most titles than vice versa)
And what comes to monitors it's just preference on what quality and features you want. If you play a lot of "cinematic" titles I would go for better image quality over refresh rate, and have some form of variable refresh rate so you don't need to sacrfice too much game graphical quality for smooth fps. And if you have never had monitor with high refresh rate don't go too high at first because there is no coming back.
Otherwise seems like a decent build
I hope your sleep time doesn't include railing it
It's been a while since i used any other DE but i remember Windows being slow couple years ago on high-end pc, and i remember a de where super did nothing, think it was Xfce. Nice if most major DEs have this feature
I love the clean look of GNOME and the way I open apps - press super and start typing it's name and enter. So simple, so fast. Also the overview is so good compared to taskbar for switching apps and for me. I only use Blur My Shell extension for even better cleaner look. The simplest, fastest de i've tried that works for my monkey brain
Sora shaders work fairly well with distant horizons. It doesn't look as good as no shaders but still amazing
I used the SteamTinkerLaunch for installing MO2, works nicely but couldn't get nmm links to work
Maps is good but most of the time the algorythmically placed addresses are off. Then I moved to OpenStreetMap (Organic Maps on Android) and everything is exactly where it should be. But it relies on people adding all the things to it and some places are missing a lot of stuff, but it's also easy to just add it yourself
It's super relaxing
I still dualboot Win10 for VR. Even tho my HTC Vive works ok on Linux it works better on windows. This would be the cheapest most hazzle free option for you too
LineageOS 20 for me does that and works normally if my phone port isnt acting up, i don't need to enable developer options for file transfers like op does.