MicroATX case for water cooling

[Voodoo Rufus]

I just had an idea come to mind. Does anyone know of a small microtower for MATX or ATX cases that can have the top or bottom front of the case punched for a 120mm fan and radiator for an H2O system? Preferably with the power supply mounted above the CPU. It would be nice because then you have massive cooling power in a unobtrusive and quiet case.

[ColdMiser]

Our watercooling paths cross again. I have been looking for exactly what you describe as well. Here is one (http://enlightcorp.com/pc_cases/7305.shtml) I have found that I like. It is an Enlight so quality is good. Has good reviews, too.

I think we may have a simliar project in mind. I want a crazy small, powerful, watercooled machine. I honestly don't even know why. I'm just hooked.

[Voodoo Rufus]

That link just made my day. There's plenty of room for a 120mm radiator up front.

Let's see, Blackice Extreme, dual 120L1As push/pull, 430W PSU, Nforce mobo, punch the rear above the mobo for another quiet fan. my mind is going nuts now. That's my next case!!!!.

I just need to find a uATX overclockers Athlon board.

Thanks a lot. PM me if you get any more crazy ideas.

[ColdMiser]

Yeah, when I saw that case for the first time I flipped too. I couldn't believe how much room there was under the HD cage for a rad and fans. And yes, that case is begging for another exhaust fan below the PSU. I'm sure you'll be happy to oblige! :D
As far as the Mobo, I'm a little partial to ASUS boards, but let me know what you turn up.

I have been using the BI Extreme for a few weeks now and I am am very pleased with it. Even though I get some flak for dropping a c-note on a a rad, it is worth it IMO. The thing was designed to be a PC rad, so the size is perfect and the predrilled holes for a 120 fan are priceless. I have not done any bench testing to check how the rad effects flowrate, etc., but my eyeballs and fingers say that there is no signif drop in performance. I have yet to go above 35 C cpu, even when Folding.

As far as other crazy ideas of mine, I want to see how powerful I could make one of these (http://www.hwextreme.com/reviews/barebones/sv24/)

[lennytiger]

in a microatx??? cool love to see some pics if you do it! ;)

[Voodoo Rufus]

Yeah, I'd go with the BI Extreme because of the drilled holes, the nice design and the monstrous heat capacity. I don't care if it costs more. It's a nice rad.

The SV24 would be quite a challenge to water cool. Maybe an Aquacoil rad where the 60mm intake is? Top blowhole maybe? I'd rather take a Tualatin or Cyrix C3 900 and passively cool it in that thing.

[ColdMiser]

First off, congrats on the 4th star.

No, I was not planning on watercooling that little SV24. I did notice how darned contiguous those 2 side panels looked. Perhaps one or both sides are candidates for super low profile fans. I wonder how thin 92 and 120mm fans come. Perhaps a single thin, quiet 92mm on the roof would be enough.

I would have to get a clear concept of where the drives sit in relation to the proc to assess airflow, and see just how much headroom there is over the proc.

Another project is to see how powerful I could build up one of these types of cases. (http://enlightcorp.com/pc_cases/7800.shtml)

Watercooling that Enlight mATX would be fun. Your tubes would only be like 4 inches ling b/w components in the loop :p

[Voodoo Rufus]

Thank you.

Making the SV24 a cooling powerhouse with some low speed 92mm's and some filters would make it run quite nicely. Add in a Seagate ATAIV and run down the fan voltage and you've got a silent PC.

NLX cases have potential, but not many mobos are out and AGP slots are hard to find also I think. The form factor is very space efficient, and has a good amount of expansion capability. How about an Nforce NLX someday? Water cooling would be more of a challenge it that case.

A good MATX mobo would be the Asus A7V-266M. It has DDR support, a KT266A chipset. 1x bus speed adjustments, and LAN. That could be quite a powerhouse. I see another cool project in the works. Enough room for a decent GPU cooling heatsink (blorb or an old PIII heatsink w/o fan from Radioshack), and an Audigy. No room for Raid, but not neccessary.

[Voodoo Rufus]

The Asus P4B266M and P4S333M would also be a good MATX board, if you're into P IVs. I'm not, but it would still be a good board with speed. They're DDR also.

[Voodoo Rufus]

Just thought of a cooling system for the Enlight case. You have a dual fan inverted Blackice Extreme setup in the front blowing in, with an Eheim 1250 with the inlet pointing towards the rad. The pump outlet should be lined up with the proc somewhat and with some stout tubing could do a 90 degree turn. Say a Danger Den waterblock or Swiftech MCW 462. 1/2" connections, and have one connector on the water block a 90 degree connector so that it lines up with the radiator. The block inlet should be vertical to go to the pump with one turn. Maybe a small PVC res or a Swiftech three valve fill system on the pump inlet and all is well. What do you think Coldmiser?

[ColdMiser]

I"ll reply to your posts one at a time:

A good MATX mobo would be the Asus A7V-266M.

I like. And I looked more at NLX. I think it is more trouble than it is worth right now. I think I'll tackle a mATX or FlexATX project first.

Asus P4B266M and P4S333M would also be a good MATX board, if you're into P IVs

I cringed when I saw the PIV part, cuz I fly AMD, but with the ultimate goal of small and powerful, the cooler props of the Intel may be worth considering.

Just thought of a cooling system for the Enlight case...

After reading over it I think I get the picture. If I am right, it's not too far off from what I have now. (http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56872)
The problem I ran into was pump placement. It competes for space with the PCI cards in my Enlight 7237. I have since come up with ways to get more room, but have not implemented them. First off, I could maybe use 25mm depth fans instead of 38mm. That buys you 13 or 26 mm, depending on if you put the front fan inside or outside of the case metal.

Another option might be to stand the pump vertically. Big maybe here. I wound up thinking 3 dimensionally in my 7237 and putting the pump in at a 45 deg angle as you can see in the pic. I drilled holes in the case floor to secure the footplate to. I drilled them just a hair too far to the back, so right now the pump needs a foam pad b/w itself and the sound card.

If it comes down to mm, take off the grill from the pump and trim the length of intake barb.

I went without a res, so I used a T-split just after the block to act as a filler/bubble trap, which is at the highest part of the loop.

Keep the brain juices flowing! I check in often.

[Voodoo Rufus]

I like AMD better anyway.

Yeah, I see the problem. The pump may be in the way. My Eheim didn't come with the front filter/grill, so that was what I was thinking. The nonremovable mobo tray could pose a problem for cards, but with my setup right now me reservoir is in the way of the PCI cards so I have to wiggle the cards in carefully. I believe it could be done, straight shot and not like your angled pump. Maybe with the radiator full inverted with both connectors pointed towards the bottom of the case.

[Voodoo Rufus]

Could that Enlight MicroATX take a full size ATX Power supply? An Athlon would need more power. I'd prefer a 400W or higher and they don't make them that small in the PS/3 size.

[ColdMiser]

Hey Voodoo-
Since you are a fan of a nice case like I am, I thought you'd like this. (http://www.xoxide.com/)

[Voodoo Rufus]

I saw some interesting cases on there, but nothing that really strikes me as worth modding. I say stick with the Enlight. I believe Jim Hanson of coolcases.com had a MicroATX that he crammed a 120mm fan into for LAN gaming. That might be worth looking into.

[ColdMiser]

I came across some more possible mATX cases here. (http://www.aopen.com/products/housing/) At least one of them has side panels. That enlight has a blasted 3-sided cover.

[res0r9lm]

power supplies are too small aren't they? I have a k2 in a matx with 145w power supply(dead). to the best of my knowledge atx psu won't fit in micro or flex . wonder if it's possible to take the guts out of matx psu and put in atx? couldn't find matx psu any higher than 150w

[Voodoo Rufus]

They don't have back panel photos so fitting a full ATX PSU in there is iffy. The Enlight I still think is the best quality and the best case for mATX cooling. We know we can fit a real power supply in there.

Don't want no stinking mATX PSUs.

[res0r9lm]

maybe by modding the case. they should start coming with atx.
150w isn't enough for even a modest system

[res0r9lm]

found one with 300w psu

http://directron.com/fk611.html

[ColdMiser]

I found that one too. Judging by the pic and the list of optional PSU upgrades, I would say that it's an ATX psu. Agree?

[ColdMiser]

and its a Fong Kai, so I guess qual is pretty good

[Voodoo Rufus]

Hey, I like the looks of that one. Nice back panel, ATX power, nice front opening.

It looks ripe for modding and H2O.

[res0r9lm]

here it is
http://directron.com/en1125bta.html

[Voodoo Rufus]

Your picture isn't showing.

[Voodoo Rufus]

Never mind. It was a link.

[res0r9lm]

still trying to figure how get picture to work

[res0r9lm]

I have the same brand case it is pretty good also have same psu

[res0r9lm]

abit has there nforce board out it's mATX

[Voodoo Rufus]

Pretty nice board. Knowing Abit they'll have a truckload of overclocking features on it.

[ColdMiser]

Wow. This Abit NV7m (http://www.abit-usa.com/eng/product/mb/nv7m.htm) is a good lookin board. Voodoo, I notice your enthusiasm for the Nforce boards. I assume you are not going to use a video card on this machine. Are you going to install any cards?

I bet you could horn a 120 into the back of that Fong Kai.

[Voodoo Rufus]

That looks more like a 80mm mount, but the front looks good.

Nforce boards are nice. The onboard audio/networking/video is very competent, but if it was my main machine, I'd pop my Kyro II in it.

I prefer KT266A, SiS 735/745 boards, but for a MATX, Nforce makes sense.

I probably won't be building this thing anytime soon. College student budget, you know.

I just love coming up with cooling ideas.

[Voodoo Rufus]

Bingo. Found the coolcases.com MATX case that they are selling modded with a 120mm front, an Enermax or whatever PSU, and maybe a 90mm rear punch:

http://www.liteonenclosure.com/products/atx850/st030.htm
http://www.coolcases.com/catalog/p14.html

Check it out. It may be pretty good. Good price, nice manufacturer.

[ColdMiser]

I've been in email correspondance with Jim from coolcases.com at your suggestion. He said he's picking this project up again, and sometime soon he's going to try and have a new mATX package up on his site. I'm psyched about this project now. I think it would be cool to have a monster machine in a little box. Now only if the case were aluminum..........

[Voodoo Rufus]

Sounds good. What we both seem to want is a powerful cooling system in as small a space as possible without compromising horsepower, while making the computer quiet/silent. I'd really like a computer in which I cannot hear it if I put my ear to it.

Lian-li has a PC-30 case that is ATX with a side mounted power supply, but doesn't have room for a 120 I think.

[ColdMiser]

LOL. I don't know if it's going to get that good. Maybe this (http://www.cappuccinopc.com/default.asp) is what you want. I'd get one if they weren't so expensive. They even sell a kit to attach one to the back of an LCD monitor, since you can get a DVD drive in it. That would be even smaller than the new iMac.

Forgot to mention before. I invited Jim to come check out this thread.

[Voodoo Rufus]

Yeah, they are very expensive. I'd rather build a machine than buy one.