View Full Version : water cooled case design critics
I've decided to design new case to accommodate my new hardware with more powerful watercooling. The result is kind of big though. The goal is:
1: To make the system very modular (so that any part can be removed quickly without the need to emtpy the cooling water if possible.
2: Powerfull enough to cool up to 1kw (future maybe)
3: Big enough so that i can open the case and unplug some cable within 3 minutes
4: Big enough to accommodate the PC with up to 12 HDD in silant boxes and some other stuff.
5: Make it quite.
6: Make it nice.
7: Make it as small as possible to keep the price and weight in reasonable values. I might be forced to relocate the system once a while.
The main dimmensions are 700mm (h) 530mm (d) 470mm (w). As I said its huge.
As you can see the cold air is sucked in from below the case and ventilated up. The PC compartment is partially sealed from water. There will be two loops for cooling with expansions outside to make refilling easier. All the blocks will be connected using quick connectors so that a graphics cards can be removed with its block without leaking water. (its the 18 holes ritght next to motherboard, not all of them will be used though)
I will answer your every question to explain my goals.
The proiblem is that it could be smaller and lighter but I want to keep the frame so that i can remove top, front cover and have a good look inside.
The other problem is that four thermochilli 120.3 radiators with up to 22 fans is probably an overkill.
Next it would be better to suct the air from outside right before the radiators so taht the air is not heated inside before going to radiators.
The last image represents the colloo I would like to use but the gray color is supposed to be black.
I would be realy grateful for any hints or suggestions.
If you want quiet, avoid direct sound path to the exterior.
If you get air from under the case, prepare for a good amount of dust: your PC will be just a vacuum cleaner..
If you can, avoid having top mounted rads. They're quite harder to fill and bleed with heavy / big cases.
Try not to hard mount the pumps to the case chassis, or vibrations will spread and make a lot of noise.
I already have a case with in-take fans at the bottom and it works fine with dust filters of course. After one year of running there is very little of dust inside. Its good to have more in-take fans to keep higher inside presure. The pumps are actualy Laing DDC 12V Ultra + Alphacool TOP which has sunpension on its sides but yes there can by done more about than.
Can you explain little more about the top rads problem? I understand it harder to fill such loop but giving the abount of rads I can hardly see aby other way to place all those things.
You could try to place them on a side rather than on the top ? Since you're going custom all the way, no reason to go for compromises..
Also you want to have some kind of noise shield in front of the fan intakes and exhausts. Retail cases with doors do that well. Just make it so the intake surface area is not affected (use large side vents for example).
And why are the reservoirs external ? Cant you just add more length and have everything internal ?
IT would be a bit harder to mount those rads no side and it would also block the way to ather components but it worth giving a try. That way maybe even all four rads could be internal. Its already bigger than by drawers so i would rather keep the side there plus maybe toime lightening.
About the reservoirs it seem to me its easier to fill which is necessary from time to time. Also cables will stop me from aligning the case with wall so why not to use this plase a bit more.
To make it a silent system I also plan to use some foam almost everywhere.
The question is whether four p120.3 arent too much for the system with 0.8 - 1kw? Currently I can do just fine with one 120.3 for about 300-400w.
armeniandave
03-13-2010, 11:53 PM
I had three MCR320's on the top of my MM extended Ascension and had no problem bleeding it. The key is to make sure you have the res higher than the pump so you can feed it while filling.
I've made a little update. There are some acrylic parts and some dimensions are changed. The expantion is not done yet.
I am thinking to create a smaller version with rads in the bottom separated from the computer section.
Soulwind
04-05-2010, 06:55 AM
or you could just get a mountain mods ascension and have nearly what you want anyway.
"Nearly" is not "precisely" ;) and nothing like the satisfaction of a custom job...
sewi, the new acrylic part is behind the pumps right ? (hard to see without colour coding)
All the pink parts are akrylic plus right hdd frame which is not done yet and top fan grill.
If I fail to create this one (find someone to do the welding and bending) I will most likely buy one ascension but they look kind like a toys all the screws are visible. Its nearly what i want except the look.
I am currently working on version 3 which will intruduce a complete separation of wc part (the carbon like thing is a noise dampening material of some kind) intake will be on sides instead of bottom of the whole case.
Give yourself some room for fan shrouds. They are cheap and help a lot ^^ You could add 25mm thickness over rads for the shrouds.
Serpentarius
04-05-2010, 05:37 PM
it's better to focus a part of the casing for a shroud/duct/wind tunnel ... for maximum air flow
wind tunnels are a luxury of air flows ... if you can make a mini wind tunnel (>200 CFM), where you can dump a few delta fans it'll would fantastic ...
but their piercing, shrieking sound is a drawback (and that fan noise itself) ... depending on the design, you could minimize the howling air flow by heavily sound damp it ..
since you have the space luxury ... there's a lot of high-end construction materials to sound damp even toughest dbA
qmat, what type of fan shrouds do you have in mind? I've seen many types most of them only very basic frame.
squishee
04-06-2010, 06:47 AM
it's better to focus a part of the casing for a shroud/duct/wind tunnel ... for maximum air flow
wind tunnels are a luxury of air flows ... if you can make a mini wind tunnel (>200 CFM), where you can dump a few delta fans it'll would fantastic ...
but their piercing, shrieking sound is a drawback (and that fan noise itself) ... depending on the design, you could minimize the howling air flow by heavily sound damp it ..
since you have the space luxury ... there's a lot of high-end construction materials to sound damp even toughest dbA
Speaking of airflow . A neat little trick is to get some dry ice in a bowl with a few drops of water..turn on the fans and move the bowl around and you can watch the flow as the fog is drawn in and out...
qmat, what type of fan shrouds do you have in mind? I've seen many types most of them only very basic frame.
Whatever you can come up with. Ideally that would be integrated in your design: so the fans would sit at least 20mm above (or below) the radiator surface. Many of use use "recycled" fan frames for this purpose... But since you are going custom all the way, why not make a case-integrated shroud ? Also think of adding 1mm between your fans and case surface for rubber seals (decoupling).
Sideroxylon
04-06-2010, 08:29 AM
I've always wanted to design and create my own case. But it would be way more work than I'm willing to put in.
Pretty cool concept you have there but I agree with some of the others that you should consider moving your rads to the bottom rather than the top. Seems like it would be pretty easy to just swap your idea for the top mounted rads to the bottom of the case instead. Whenever I put together a loop I always try to make sure that air has the easiest possible way to escape the loop. After figuring this out after my first couple builds it has made life so much easier when first firing up the loop.
I'm also a fan of a completely internal build. If you're going to go to all the trouble of designing and building something like that, and especially considering the size, you should be able to have everything internal without too many problems.
To each his own though. Keep chipping away at it until you get that perfect design just for you. Keep us updated and good luck. :up:
With rads in the bottom I would have to equip the fans with dust filters and it just wont be easy to replace in comparison with top rads where is no need to have filters at all. Otherwise I agree it would be good to have the rads in the bottom.
Also As I understand fan shrouds don't make much different with pull low speed fans. but I will consider and probably use them.
I will incorporate some sort of decoupling between the fans and top cover.
Last, wind tunnels are good idea but there is simply no space for 9 separate tunnels and the space requirements would be huge. Giving that the wc part will be completely separated tunnel would be useless. It can only take the air from sides and exhaust it from the top. or the other way round.
Hannibal Lecter
04-06-2010, 12:43 PM
With rads in the bottom I would have to equip the fans with dust filters and it just wont be easy to replace in comparison with top rads where is no need to have filters at all. Otherwise I agree it would be good to have the rads in the bottom.
Also As I understand fan shrouds don't make much different with pull low speed fans. but I will consider and probably use them.
I will incorporate some sort of decoupling between the fans and top cover.
Last, wind tunnels are good idea but there is simply no space for 9 separate tunnels and the space requirements would be huge. Giving that the wc part will be completely separated tunnel would be useless. It can only take the air from sides and exhaust it from the top. or the other way round.
I can only speak for my build, but after testing both solutions, i have had better temps with shrouds on the pull side at low speeds (below 1000 rpm). It's not huge but it's been consistently better. I am using 32mm thick shrouds (made of 48v (!) Delta fans frames). In any case, shrouds make a big difference both in terms of noise and temps.
As far as the position of the rads, you won't have any problem with them on top, they won't be more difficult to bleed at all.
So I updated the radiators surounding to include some of your ideas.
There is an acrylic shroud to which all the fans are attached but the shroud is not directly attached to any other part. Instead its attached to another shroud bellow the rads. Using some foam to create additional 25mm between fan and rad.
A - from here the fan cables will go. I want to make some special cables for it
B - fam
C - foam between fan and radiator. you can see some detail on the last picture
D - acrylic frame and shroud. Only the frame with radiators is directly attached. Hope if will be strong enough to support the weight
E - shroud
Also the top fan frame/shroud is moved 2mm down and an acustic material is used to fill that space.
Looks very good !
For structural stresses on your middle acrylic plate (D), just beware of eventual vibrations, but if everything is decoupled you'll be fine. Make sure you rubber mount everything.
That cooling module will be awesome ;)
Looks very good !
For structural stresses on your middle acrylic plate (D), just beware of eventual vibrations, but if everything is decoupled you'll be fine. Make sure you rubber mount everything.
That cooling module will be awesome ;)
As all the fans are decoupled I am not scared of vibrations but structural strength of the 8mm acrylic plate is another thing. Have you got any experiences with acrylic to tell if it will be strength enough? I intent to run some strength analysis but I ma not very familiar with those things.
I've got an update and few quetions as well. Lets start. HDDs are now completely watercooled not that air is not enough but i wanted to break the direct path from HDDs outside the case. Second fan shrouds are nor 34mm thick and CDs are moved to the right and there can be up to 10 CD/DVDs now. The space may also be used for fan controllers and water pumps with reservoir (some XSPC). Also you can see the HDD frame is now 15mm thick to look better.
Now the question. Is XSPC DDC reservoir a good idea? There is a lot of cracked acrylic around these days so maybe EK multires would be safer and also easier to manipulate but bigger and in total more expensive.