[Johnny5]

So I'm getting tired of opening up my cases when I want to swap components and I was considering the idea of buying a tech station but I run into several problems with that option. First this rig I plan on keeping as a liquid cooling setup and I have 2x 360 rads and 1x 240 rad that I was thinking maybe making an external rack to house them and using quick disconnects to the tech station, but obviously leaving things setup like that 24/7 puts the hardware at risk. I'm moving this stuff from a Corsair 800d and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on a chassis that will give me alot of freedom to work with but will still be relatively protective? I have a cat as well so having the mobo unshielded in the top creates another problem, I had been considering the danger den acrylic box setup since you can add a top and I was curious if anyone had any opinions on that? Lastly if I do decide on the external rack for the radiators and the tech station, I was thinking I'd move the pump and resevoir all to that housing and use an old PSU for it, but that creates the problem of having to remember to turn on the radiator housing before I start the computer and I was curious if anyone had a suggestion of a way to either wire them to one another; if there was a controller someone was aware of that would be easy to setup so one PSU signals the other? My goal here is functional rather than appearances. So to sum up if anyone has any suggestions to get the convenience of a tech station and the protection of a tower, for a LC setup, best of both worlds, it would be most appreciated.

The stations I had been looking at as well were the MicroCool Banchetto 101 Modular Chassis (but the price is painful) or Dimastech Easy Dual Bench/Test Table and just building some kind of weak top to offer some protection.

Thanks

[Adak]

With your water cooling, and the access you want, you need to go big in the case - whatever the design.

Frozen CPU sells the cable to use two psu's, together. View Atlas Folder Part 2 on YouTube for a view of it. (Atlas uses two psu's for each mobo/gpu set up). Here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F3XE1-d_rw

In tower cases, I'd suggest: HAF 932, Xigmatek Elysium & Rosewill Blackhawk (last two are the same basic case), and CubiTek's HPTX Tank (more expensive, but all aluminum). I have the latter, and there are pics of it in my Tanker thread, in the folding team forum.

Commonly, you have a top front drive cage in these cases, and a lower removable drive cage, below it. (non-removable one's can still be removed, that's what saws and such are for). Use the upper cage for the system drives, and remove the lower section - now you have a very large area to put your w/c equipt. in.

The bench/test cases looked a bit small, but maybe it's just the lack of a reference size in the pics. A vented top should be OK, as long as your cat doesn't pee into it. I agree that an open top of any kind, would be a disaster. I like their wide and low stance however. A cat jumping up on it, would never tip them over.

In the folding team forum, there is a thread on 4p cases and case modding. There is a semi-custom case builder in there, with a bare bench case picture, who might be able to work up something just for you - lots of options. Prices seemed good too. Handle was "Spotswood", iirc. Take a look.