Non-case case mod

[SmokyTyrz]

Hey folks

I'm planning my next build. And I'd love to do something unique with the internals. I wanted to run it by you folks first to get your thoughts, is this doable/safe/advised, etc.

I'd like my next build to be fairly "free standing", ie. out of the case, and exposed. I plan to liquid cool everything...both video cars, the cpu, the memory, and the bridges. Such a free-air design would be easy to work on and would also be a "discussion piece" in my game room. Arranged correctly I think it would be quite cool to have a free standing mobo, cpu, vid, mem, etc, with cooling tubes running to- and fro-. Anyway, that's the gist of what I want to do.

Is this adviseable? Are there other components that depend on the "moving air' within a case? What about mobo cooling? I'm sure there is something to cool mobos, though I've never seen or used it. I suppose if mobo heat is the limiting factor than I could simply mount a couple fans to blow up from beneath, or across from the side.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Would this thing fry itself? Would the dust accumulation need to be a daily concern? Seems like components get nothing but stagnant air and dust pushed all over them inside of a case... if the whole rig is liquid cooled then could it work in free-air conditions? Maybe even work better?

I'd plan to keep the hd's and the psu inside the case. And then (somehow) extend or get extensions for all the connections (prob easier said than done...I am worried that finding SATA, mobo power, etc extensions cables may be difficult, but I haven't yet begun to look).

Anyway, thoughts/feedback much appreciated.

Thx!

 

[SkuToV]

I've seen stuff like this done before. If you really want to go to the extreme then mount the whole thing inside a fish tank and fill it with mineral oil, stick a bubble rock in there and refer to the capacitors on the board as fish.

But yeah, what you want to do is perfectly do-able, you just wanna make sure people know not to stick their fingers onto the processor or to un-plug the radiator from the rest of the loop.

There's no point in having a case just to mount the hard drives and psu in. you could possibly make a pedestal thing with the mobo and cards mounted on top then everything else inside the pedestal.

**warning** crappy paint sketch incoming **warning**

Sometihng like the attached picture. then you could call it a benching station to really impress your mates...

 

[SmokyTyrz]

A benching station. lol

I'll refer to it as my "lab".

In the back of my mind driving the design is that case the guy had in the movie Pi... if I could only have it suspended in mid-air like that.

I like your idea of having everything mounting in a custom rack, so to speak. I need to find a source for that good-looking ultra-clear 1/4" thick fiberglass stuff. Could get interesting looking with that as the "cabinet".

Know of any case-modding specialty shops that just carry cool stuff that would cater to this design? Or am I looking at one-offing everything here?

Thx for the feedback. It is motivating to know it would all work fine free-air. I can feel myself becoming obsessed with this idea, rather than it being a fleeting interest giving way to my need to upgrade the gear. I think I may focus on this first, and build something really freaking cool to house the next monster.

 

[radium]

I would recommend looking into passive cooling. There exist all kinds of passive coolers ranging from northbridge, cpu, ram etc. You will probably need some airflow on the motherboard, no matter how open it is.

If I were building this thing I would be worried about stuff getting thrown at my computer parts, or my parakeet ****ting on my motherboard (primarily the latter).

Mineral oil, although very cool, and quite cheap has very poor heat conductivity and is a tough to cool down.

 

[SmokyTyrz]

Ya I won't be doing any submersion. I've really enjoyed the success of liquid cooling my video cards. So now I'd like to expand it to the rest of the system in my next build. It is so reliable, effective, and worry-free...(knock on wood).... I can't imagine going back to a primarily passive system.

Plus the tubes will look cool.

 

[SkuToV]

Mineral oil, although very cool, and quite cheap has very poor heat conductivity and is a tough to cool down.

Well, if you have a good pump you can litera;lly just pump the oil through a radiator. Example here

Plus the tubes will look cool.

Add in some UV reactive dye and you have an excuse to put a blacklight in your room. THAT would look cool...

 

[SmokyTyrz]

Ya, I have the blacklight planned. I wouldn't have it on while gaming (the diffuse light would be annoying while using the projector). But it'll be there for "showing off". Since I'll prob have too radiators (the one I have know, for video, and the second dedicated to the cpu/memory) I'll have two coolant colors as well. Just for the heck of it.

Considering acrylics...not for any electrical contacting components, but for trim/shelfing of the setup. Is it too much of a static risk to have even near the components? Is there something else I could use? I want "transparency" to be the motif.

 

[EmAn]

You could custom design one of these

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Tech_Station

and then use clear plexi or acrylic for the base I know there is one guy here on the forums that just hung his pc from the ceiling and used fishing line to hold it up...

 

[SmokyTyrz]

That top-deck station is pretty much what I'm looking for. And ya, throw in some acrylic, and maybe a set of drive-bays and it'd be perfect.