Took the cheap liquid cooler gamble and lost, then won weirdly

I couldn't decide between a cheap air tower and a used liquid cooler for my old 1080 Ti, so I went with the liquid one off Facebook Marketplace for $60 less. Turns out the pump was dead and the previous owner just zip-tied it in place, so I spent 4 hours tearing it apart. I ended up using a spare CPU fan and a zip-tie mount I cobbled from a coat hanger, and it actually runs cooler than before, like 61C under load. The absurd part is my buddy walked in at midnight and asked if I was cooking ramen because of the thermal paste smell. Still, I'm kinda proud it works, even if it looks like a robot spider. Anyone else nursed a dead water cooler back to life with garbage parts, or am I the only one who should've just paid for the tower?