Parts selection assistance (Case + Radiator size) - Project Drogon

[Nutcase86]

Hi All,

Never had a custom loop water cooled setup before. Going for a hard tubed CPU + GPU setup, and looking for input/opinions on cases and rads.

PC stats (Current pccasegear.com cart (Im in australia))

Intel Core i5 6600K
MSI Z170A-Gaming M7 Motherboard
MSI GTX 980Ti Gaming 6G
G.Skill Ripjaws 4 F4-2666C15Q-16GRR 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 Red
Corsair HX1000i 80 Plus Platinum 1000W Power Supply
Cablemod red/black cable kit
WD BLack 4TB HDD
OCZ 80gB SSD
Crucial 250GB SSD

The dillemma im having at the moment is i really like these 2 cases:

NZXT Noctis 450 Mid Tower Gaming Case Black - https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31807

The problem i have with the Noctis 450 is because of the window and to some extent the HDD cage, i would probably have to go with a drivebay res+pump.
I dont know if this makes sense, but being my first water cooled build i kind of want to show off as much of the actual water cooling components as i can. With this case i can really only imagine the water blocks and few tubes would be visible and definitely no res. on the plus side theres a LOT of room for rads. I could just go with an AIO loop like the corsair H100i, its got RGB led on the cpu block i guess. wont look anywhere near as good though

NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case Black/Red - https://www.pccasegear.com/products/30344

This is more what im after. Plenty of space to present everything nice and tidy, and window room to show it all off. Problem is it only supports 1 double 120 res in front and 1 120 in the back. I doubt 2 120's in front would be sufficient to cool a 6600K and a 980Ti (i could be wrong?)

Any suggestions??

 

[Conumdrum]

Bigger case. You 'should have 120x4. Meaning a 120x3 and a 120x1 or some mix 'n match. We do have a watercooling subforum and tons of stickies and etc.

Bay reses are nice but can be a real PITA.

 

[EarthDog]

A couple of things...

1. Welcome!
2. If you are planning on cooling the CPU and GPU, you will want 4x120mm for best results (quiet operation and better-than-air temperatures)
3. As far as cases go, look at the Corsair Air 540.

 

[Nutcase86]

Thanks for the replies and welcomes guys , i need it to be a tower, so the thick cube type cases are out. the front of the Noctis 450 has room for 3x120, and the top of the case also has room for 3x120, so i could put 2x120 in the front and 2x120 on the top, that would be fine.

If i was to do that, id like to put a horizontal res (might be a headache to fill/bleed), on top of the psu shroud, only reason i havent put the order through is because im paranoid that its not going to fit between the psu shroud and the 980TI. for e.g

This is someone elses pc, same mobo same case.
https://cdn.pcpartpicker.com/static...ee5.553abce0c2d3762d4223fd5260bcb589.1600.jpg

I estimate about 10 cms between the video card and the psu shroud,

This might fit in there ok:
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/31240

But id rather this res+pump combo to save space, since most of my front drive bays are going to be unusable due to the 2x120 rad in front:
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33665

 

[Conumdrum]

That res/pump would be fine.