Hi I'm interested in getting a Xigmatek elysium so I can make my first custom loop, and was wondering if you could give me some advice.
If I were to put a 480 push/pull in the front would I be able to put a 360 push/pull in the roof ? (60mm rads with 25mm fans)
where could I put my hard drives, 1x 3.5 1x 2.5 ?
I'm new to all this watercooling stuff, well custom loops anyway.
Thanks for any and all info
Do you really need a 480 and a 360 in push/pull? What components do you intend to run on your loop?
The reason I originally got the Elysium was because I needed a shitload of 5.25" bays for mounting my Aquadrives X4's, bay res and fan controller. I know water cooling HDD's is absolutely unnecessary, but I have my reasons for using these things, however that's wildly off-topic so I'll refrain from writing an essay on that one here

.
Back then there were no cases which had anywhere near that amount of 5.25"'s at that price point. There were one or two Lian Li's (PC-80 I think), but they were and still are much more expensive (and the Aluminium in those cases is rather thin, so they're pretty flimsy and rather unsuited for mounting something like an Aquadrive, let alone several).
Having had the Ely for a good while now I can tell you this: I only recommend it if you really need a ton of 5.25" bays. The core chassis is sturdy enough to not buckle under the enormous weight I put in it, but all the stuff TTL mentioned in his review is still there (aside from the grommet for the second CPU cutout, which is now mounted). The one thing that has really annoyed me are the flimsy side panels which are an absolute pain to mount back on.
But the decision is of course yours. So, regarding your radiator question: I have a 60mm thick 360 with one side of fans in the roof. Mounting another set of fans for
push/pull would not be possible for me because it would overlap with my motherboard (an Asus P8P67, which has the 8 pin right at the top of the PCB ) for about 10 mm.
From my roof radiator to the beginning of the 5.25" bays it's about
60 mm (with the roof radiator's outlets on the opposite side).
The 5.25" bays themselves are about
140 mm deep, and depending on how your radiator in the bays is mounted it will stick out of the front into the bezel for maybe another 20 mm or so (this might vary depending on your mount).
So any push/pull in the front will not overlap with a 360 in the roof as far as I can tell.
However, a 480 in the bays might actually not fit without some modding. The bays themselves are about
520 mm in height, and you have about 20 mm padding on the top and on the bottom. So if you mount the radiator so that the fans line up with the 5.25" bays, your end tanks might not fit.
Regarding HDD's: If you really got a 480 to fit into the front, the HDD's would require some improvization/modding. I'd suggest either the back of the M/B tray or the case bottom. But a 3.5" on the M/B tray might be tricky, and on the case bottom you might have your pump (and your PSU). You'd have to try this out for yourself, see where they fit best and then design some sort of custom mount.
The Switch 810 really is a good (better) alternative to the Elysium I think, and it's a few bucks cheaper as well (at least where I live). The Coolermaster Storm Strooper and Stryker are others that come to mind (see Orca for what you can do with those), and they cost around 25% less than an Elysium here.
Seeing that this would be your first custom loop you might have overestimated your radiator needs (that's not an insult, just an assumption, which might be wrong

).
If you can cut down your radiator needs, there are a ton of case options a whole lot better than an Elysium that also cost less.