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Recomendations for nice water cooling cases, Pictures Welcome

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hitbyaprkedcar7

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Location
Barnegat, NJ
Hey everybody :)

Well... After months of working on my computer, twiddling around, changing hardware, modding my case, i found out that its nearly impossible to fit all of my crap into the case i currently have. Sad thing is, its a giant OCZ server case. Its just set up and layed out horribly for a water cooling setup (not to mention, when i started it i was a n00b :), but have greatly advanved my knowledge since)

I have been looking around for some nice cases to get myself for christmas. I found one that i absoutly am in love with, even if it is on the expensive side (280$) But it looks absoutly perfect for a WC rig :)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811
11-112-120-05.JPG 112120



Heres what i came up with.



In order from Pump>CPU>GPU>GPU>Res>Rad>Pump

Pump is a D5, Rad is a BIP120.3, CPU is a TDX, GPU's are Maze4's, res is going to be a double bay acrylic res

Will be cooling a 4800X2, 2 7900GTX's

Please post ideas, suggestions, etc :)

Nothing to flashy like those crappy APEVIA cases that are all over ebay and what not. I like something simple, classy and sharp looking, preferabbly black, that will be accented by a few blue LED's :)
 
You'll never get a radiator to fit well in the front of that case.

Do a search for some of my old posts--I've had water cooled systems in both a V2100 and V2000 in the last couple of years. And, after those experiences I really wouldn't recommend either case for water cooling--it can be done, but it's a real pain in the a** to do it.

If you're willing to spend $280, take a look at the Mountain Mods Cube cases; they don't cost that much more. Or, if you really like the Lian Li cases, they too are now making a cube case, the PC-343B--it's expensive, but..... If you don't like cube cases, then any of the Lian Li "classic" cases (PC-70, PC-71, PC-75, PC-7077, etc.) or even the new G70 would work well.
 
Heres what I did with the lian li case
Radiators, shrouds and most of the fans installed today.




Rear pannel cutting. Not sure what the finished look will be. It's the rear of the case so It's not really going to be seen by anyone. I may have a custom grille cut for it or just use modders mesh that looks like the front of the Lian-Li case. For now this will work




Link to the project
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=470373
 
Last edited:
^^^ Oh wow, theres that much room in the bottom? I think ill do something similar to that. Not sure about bottom mounting it though... I might mount it to the side like you did. It would be real neat to mount it underneath the window, but id have to somehow create a hinge for the panel.

Im thinking about a cube, found a few nice lian-li cubes. Ill check out the mountain ones. Thanks for the recomendations MVC :)
 
hitbyaprkedcar7 said:
^^^ Oh wow, theres that much room in the bottom?. I might mount it to the side like you did. It would be real neat to mount it underneath the window, but id have to somehow create a hinge for the panel.


I did not put hinges on the annel. I just left the tubing a little longer so I can pull the pannel off and do what I need to. since I installed it i have'nt had to pull the pannel off the case.

mountain mods are awesome cases. I looked at them but there bulikness kept me from getting one.
 
I love the old Chieftec full cases for WCing.

HPIM1114.jpg
 
catkicker said:
I did not put hinges on the annel. I just left the tubing a little longer so I can pull the pannel off and do what I need to. since I installed it i have'nt had to pull the pannel off the case.

mountain mods are awesome cases. I looked at them but there bulikness kept me from getting one.


Thats what im thinking, and use some of those quick release screws so i could pop the rad off of my case quickly if need be. I was looking at the mid tower version of this case, (which is almost 50$ cheaper), but there is no way i can get a 120.3 rad in that case, along with enough 5.25bays for my HDD's and Res.

Edit: Remove, thats one beasty case. lol
 
Well, since we're doing picture fest :beer: here's one of the better pics of my last build in a V2000. You can't really tell from the pic, but there's a vortex in the reservoir--it was really cool lookin' back-lit in the dark, but I can't find a pic of it or I'd post that too.
 

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Oh wow, that has to be one of, if not the, nicest build iv seen. Im impressed. I cant really tell from the angle of the shot, but is there the same amount of room in the bottom in the v2000 as in the one i listed?

The one i listed looks a tad bit shorter..

Edit: Oh WOW! I didnt even see the giagntic rad on top!! :drool::drool: wheredya get that?!
 
The radiator is just a Thermochill PA-120.3 with dual shrouds and 6 Sanyo-Denkis in a push/pull configuration. I had a BIX 3 in the top-inside of my V2100 and lost most of my PCI slots so when I moved that system to the v2000 I went serious overkill on an external radiator setup :) I needed to keep at least one of the hard drive cages, so I couldn't bottom mount the radiator.

Edit: The one you listed at the beginning of this thread is a V2000--one of the new "Plus" models, but still a V2000. The internal dimensions are identical.
 
Ohhh i see that now. I thought it was 3 3.25bays on the bottom, not 6 like yours. My bad :)

I love this case, and it will work perfectly for a WC setup. Now i just need to figure where i want to mount the rad. I think im going to take the wheels off the bottom, so its going to be resting on the bottom. That takes a bottom mounted rad out of the question. I love the look of top mounted rads that are built into the top of the case, but this case doesnt have enough clearance and it would require way to much cutting into a 270$ case. The most logical place would be against the inside wall and cut 3 fan holes into the case, but i would like to see the rad. I could install a bottom window, but i probably wont

Now what i could do... Since i have all that space in the bottom that i only need to fit a rad in, build a custom shroud that would go from the back panel to the front panel, have 6 fans in a push/pull, and have the rad in the middle.

|....__....|
|---[ ]---|
|---[ ]---|
|---[_]---|
|...........|

Something like that, the middle box thing being my rad, and the ---'s being a shroud, and the |'s being the side panels

Edit: that looks terrible... but i think you get what i mean :)
 
But think about that...

When you want to remove the case door, are you really going to want to have to unscrew 24 screws for each fan?

Attaching it to one side is doable, just make a mockup beforehand and try it out.

7
 
hitbyaprkedcar7 said:
Ohhh i see that now. I thought it was 3 3.25bays on the bottom, not 6 like yours. My bad :)

I love this case, and it will work perfectly for a WC setup. Now i just need to figure where i want to mount the rad. I think im going to take the wheels off the bottom, so its going to be resting on the bottom. That takes a bottom mounted rad out of the question. I love the look of top mounted rads that are built into the top of the case, but this case doesnt have enough clearance and it would require way to much cutting into a 270$ case. The most logical place would be against the inside wall and cut 3 fan holes into the case, but i would like to see the rad. I could install a bottom window, but i probably wont

Now what i could do... Since i have all that space in the bottom that i only need to fit a rad in, build a custom shroud that would go from the back panel to the front panel, have 6 fans in a push/pull, and have the rad in the middle.

|....__....|
|---[ ]---|
|---[ ]---|
|---[_]---|
|...........|

Something like that, the middle box thing being my rad, and the ---'s being a shroud, and the |'s being the side panels

Edit: that looks terrible... but i think you get what i mean :)
The V1200 has 3-high drive cages in the bottom.

If you're going to do a bottom mount after removing the wheels, you'd be better off mounting it to the "back" side panel while leaving some extra hose so you can partially remove the panel when needed. The thing is, you need to have something like radiator > fans > outside of case (fans > radiator > outside of case works as well) so that you're drawing outside air through the radiator--something like what Catkicker did with the dual radiator in his pics. Your diagram doesn't show anything forcing the cool air THROUGH the radiator. It looks more like circulating air around the radiator--maybe I'm misreading the diagram.
 
MVC said:
The V1200 has 3-high drive cages in the bottom.

If you're going to do a bottom mount after removing the wheels, you'd be better off mounting it to the "back" side panel while leaving some extra hose so you can partially remove the panel when needed. The thing is, you need to have something like radiator > fans > outside of case (fans > radiator > outside of case works as well) so that you're drawing outside air through the radiator--something like what Catkicker did with the dual radiator in his pics. Your diagram doesn't show anything forcing the cool air THROUGH the radiator. It looks more like circulating air around the radiator--maybe I'm misreading the diagram.


Im going to buy the lian-li 5.25-3.5 bay converter thing. It takes up 3 5.25bays and gives you 4 3.5bays. Its more convenient for wiring as its closer to the sata plugs, and it gives me the entire bottom space to work with if i remove the 12 3.5 bays that are in there (basically exactly what catkicker did)

I will then have 3 fan holes on the left side panel, 3 fan holes on the right side panel. I will mount my radiator on its side, vertically, in between the two panels. I will mount 3 fans on each panel, and create a sort of ducted shroud pulling air in from one panel, and out the other. Ill draw it in paint real quick. Go ahead, laugh at my terrible paint skills :)



Basicaly, im pulling air in from outside of the case, and expelling it out the other side of the case, so the air never stays inside of the case.

Then, i can use those quick pull screws on the left panel, so i can quickly take off the case of my computer
 
My last build using a metal case, after much researching, I settled on a Globalwin YCC61F1 case from http://www.computernerd.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29 (only $99). I hate beige, so I took mine and painted it black inside with metallic blue outside. This case was very good and easy for watercooling due to its layout. I also liked the fact that everything in the case can be taken apart with screws which made it very easy to customize. I also bought it for the fact that it is the width and depth of a full tower, but the height of a mid tower. It comes with both metal and clear side panels with a chrome removable MB tray and back panel.

My case is collecting dust at the moment as I migrated into my own custom wood case, but I would at least take a look at it and read some reviews.

side2.jpg


front1.jpg
 
Impressive! I had a look at that case before, the inside layout is very nice, but im not sure i like the case in general. Is that pentosin?
 
are there any others like the TJ07 which you just put the rad at the bottom and dont need to cut?

too expensive for me
 
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