Best MidTower watercooling case?

What's the best mid-tower case for watercooling? I'd like to get a Mid-Tower and a 120.2mm rad in there somehow.

is it possible to take a LianLi V1000, rip out the front HD tray, and mount a 120.2mm in the front floor? Either that or the thin blackice dual-120mm...

If possible Id love to hook up a CPU and GPU to the loop.

I appreciate your help!!

I'd expect with mid-towers, you'll have to mount the rad up top, or behind the case (via a Radbox). I mounted my rad on the case's top.

Looking at a V1000, it looks possible, but also looks like an extremely tight fit.


btw, Welcome to the Forums!

I'm using the Antec P180B with a 240 BIPGT radiator mounted internally on the top, I had to mod the case a little by cutting the 2nd 120mm hole, however, this takes away the use of the the top two 5 1/2'' bays. This project is still a work in progress but I like how it is coming out!

What I'd like to do is get one of the slim dual 120 or triple 120 blackice rads and mount it in the top. However, I'd put the fans on the outside of the case - which would ofcourse require modding.

But, I don't want to leave the fans bare and exposed. Is there any casing or anything I can find for them?

I'd LOVE to find a shell shaped like this (http://www.koolance.com/images/pc4-1025bk_p1.jpg) to put around the fans. Does anyone know anything remotely close? Or anyone who can custome make one? Anything... I'm begging you! I really don't want to go to a full tower (LianLi PC-V2000) - they're toooooo freeking big.

Antioch said:

What I'd like to do is get one of the slim dual 120 or triple 120 blackice rads and mount it in the top. However, I'd put the fans on the outside of the case - which would ofcourse require modding.

But, I don't want to leave the fans bare and exposed. Is there any casing or anything I can find for them?

I'd LOVE to find a shell shaped like this (http://www.koolance.com/images/pc4-1025bk_p1.jpg) to put around the fans. Does anyone know anything remotely close? Or anyone who can custome make one? Anything... I'm begging you! I really don't want to go to a full tower (LianLi PC-V2000) - they're toooooo freeking big.

Click to expand...

A shroud like that wouldn't be hard to build. Just would take a little time and measurement. Get a piece of recangular sheet metal. Measure out 120mmx240mm centered, and then draw out circles inside the 120mmx240mm rectangle. Cut it out with whatever you want (I'd use a dremel, though tin snips work well). All that's left is bending and sealing.

http://overclockers.com/tips1022/

There's an example for a 1x120mm.

Well, it doesn't have to be that prism/pyramid shape, it can be rectangular. But I'd rather but a factory made one because they are a lot better, a LOT. Perfect bends, invisible seals, great paint jobs.

Any suggestions? I really don't know squat about shrouds...

I'm sure you could go around to a metal-worker in your area. Tell them what you want and they could do it for you. It probably wouldn't be too expensive either.

How about the aerocool mastige. It looks like it would be pretty easy to mount a 120.2 in the front. http://www.aerocool.us/p-case/masstige/masstige.htm

its doable on the v1000 with either the front or back 120mm mount. With that said, just get a rad box and mount it in the back (outside) 120mm mount. I can show you pictures if you wish

Yes diecca112, show me please. Our setups looks very similar...

(still no suggestions on a factory made shroud? I dont know any metal workers...)

This might intrest you: Antec P180 dule rad preinstalled

It actually comes out to be a good deal. Only about $30 of the cost is labor, and they do NICE work. That's what my new rig is built in. If you want a tripple 120mm radiator, it will also fit in the top with just a little moding, or you can ask them to set it up for that. It also only taked out your verry top drive bas, becuse you can still fit a fan controler in the second one down and your CD drives in the rest.

To make a top for the case (or useless "shrod") for fans should'nt be considered dificult, nor impractical. Use cardwood and paint it! And if does'nt looks good enough, you can allways use epoxy (or even newspaper+disoluted white glue) to give it an atractive shape.

4give my english+spell

Antioch said:

Yes diecca112, show me please. Our setups looks very similar...

(still no suggestions on a factory made shroud? I dont know any metal workers...)

Click to expand...

If I get some time in the coming days, I'll post some pics. I have a couple that'll post below for you


there you can see the radbox mount

there you can see the rad mounted.

This thread interests me too, I'm in the exact same situation.
Hope you don't mind if I ask a few questions about V1000 water cooling here? If you feel I'm jacking your thread I'll get my own but I think my questions are on topic.

How big of a cooling performance loss would be gotten from using dual 120mm radiators (one on front intake, on on back outtake) instead of a single 2x120mm radiator?
And how big of a benefit would moving up to a 3x120mm radiator give (if not using really dangerous voltages)?

If we cut holes in the front/back of the top of the case, how much stuff would be blocked (PCI slots, 5.25" bays, etc.), both with the fans internal or external?

Sike, go for it. I guess it's better to have everything all in one thread, haha.

The only real reason I'm going to the triple rad is because I want to get the ultra thin BlackIce, and I figure that I'll take a loss in performance with a thin dual 120mm (due to its thickness, or lack there of) compared to a regular dual 120mm.

What I plan on doing is sticking the ultra thin 120x3 in the top of the case, cut out a hole, and stick the fans on the outside (it should look similar to the picture I posted). Doing so will only block access to the bottom (I guess I should say top) PCI slot. Not to big of a deal as I plan on using 0 PCI slots, just my PCIe slot. The reason for the blockage is the barbs/tubes running through there. If you went totally external (ie put the rad outside as well) things would work, or even putting it halfway out and flipping the rad 180-degrees so the barbs are on the 5.25" bay side. As for blocking the bays, I don't think the rad should block the bay unless the barbs are over there.

Not 100% sure about all that as I don't have the precise measurements for everything, but that's a pretty good estimate based off of the internal shots of the pre-modded Koolance V1000.

I actually drew a sketch layout today in class. But I suppose I have to rework it because I just found out about a dual liang DDC alphacool top that sticks em together in series. Interesting, very interesting. As it was I was planning on sticking 2 small pumps in somehow - because I want to have that longer rad, a CPU, GPU and chipset block. I figure I'll need the boost in flow from dual pumps.

By the way, what is the most SILENT pump and least vibration producing pump (hopefully theyre the same).

sir_pyro, that's actually a pretty nice case! Pretty nice in deed... but LianLi is just so sexually appealing! Lol. But seriously, they're both nice...

On that P180 do you really think it is possible to extend the radiator to where that rear exhause fan is and not cover up the motherboard? I ask because I can't look, and you own one so you could easily get a ruler or something and see where the extension of the rad would go.

Also, do you think it is possible to disassemble the case (the top panel atleast) and rotate it 180 degrees so that you can use the already cut 120mm ran-hole, extend it to fit the dual 120mm rad, and have a nice black space left? Instead of having 2 rad fans plus a 3rd normal case fan on top, you'd have simply 2 rad fan holes, then nothing... I hope you understand what I mean.

And last but not least -- Can you please post me some good pics of your rig! I'd love to see how it all works in there.

If I can get those questions answered I just might, might think about moving from LianLi to that Antec.

... but poor sexy Lianli... =( lol

or maybe not, read that the case is heavy!

Thanks antioch! I'm looking forward to these pictures.

Antioch said:

On that P180 do you really think it is possible to extend the radiator to where that rear exhause fan is and not cover up the motherboard? I ask because I can't look, and you own one so you could easily get a ruler or something and see where the extension of the rad would go.

Also, do you think it is possible to disassemble the case (the top panel atleast) and rotate it 180 degrees so that you can use the already cut 120mm ran-hole, extend it to fit the dual 120mm rad, and have a nice black space left? Instead of having 2 rad fans plus a 3rd normal case fan on top, you'd have simply 2 rad fan holes, then nothing... I hope you understand what I mean.

Click to expand...

I have an antec P180b case with a 240 Black ice pro gt radiator and 2 scythe s-flex fans in an internal setup just like that at performance pc's. If you were to use the rear top fan to mount it the radiator would hang down too low (depending on the mobo layout). Also it would be trickey because the rear fan grill on top is beveled, giving it a different height then the rest of the top of the case, and would make modding a pita.. To give you a perspective on how low the fan/rad combo hangs if you were to look from the front of the case the rad/fan entirely covers the first 5.25'' bay and just a hair into the 2nd, eliminating the top two bays.

And for your 2nd question, the case can't come apart like you explained.. it is riveted together. I used a metal cutting blade in a jigsaw and cut the Inner diameter of a RADGRILLZ that I purchased from performance pcs relatively easy, and that matches up exactly with the radiator and fan holes making it easy to mount.

Can you post pictures?

Im interested in seeing the wiring. I heard that it gets jumbled up very easily...

Its a work in progress, I honestly don't have anything but whats listed in my sig installed in the case along with the water cooling setup, but I'll try to take some pics sometime soon. People say the wires get messy because there is no mobo tray and the powersupply is on the bottom.. meaning you have to wire from the bottom all the way up to your cd rom drives. That why I went with the enermax liberty due to it's modular cable design. You can also hide wires by drilling through the back panel where the mobo is mounted and tape them to the back side.