What Features would make your ideal watercooling case?

+1 to SFF

For me, the case that's closest to perfect for what I build is the Cubitek Mini Tank but, it does have a couple areas I think could have been done just a little better. I could have done without the sides of the case shaped like they are, as the case is now, it's wasted potential real estate and I would have preferred a removable MoBo tray. It has room for 2 1x140mm rads without modding which is impressive for a mini ITX case but if you go that route, you lose the 120mm fan at the back (I went with 140 and a 120 rads and added a 120 fan to the back). What I would like to see is something more along the lines of a LL PC-Q08 externally with all the features of the Mini Tank internally. Size wise, I'd like to see the same height as the Mini Tank with just a little more depth (just enough to fit a m-ATX without being cramped) and about 15-20mm wider to fit a 2x140 rad sideways up front and up top over the MoBo and still have room for a 120 rad over the CPU on the back inside back of the case. OH, and get rid of tool less, that is that worst thing case makers have ever done, it's for lazy idiots that don't know how to turn a screwdriver. :down:

Sff for me as well. I'm not going any bigger than mATX in the future, and my main PC at the moment while I work on my i7 is a mITX build on a Lian-Li spider bench, all liquid cooled but GPU. It's playing everything I want to play right now, though for Skyrim I'm upgrading. I swear if it weren't for storage issues I would have replaced its board with mITX as well.

Something understated, with a long rad running the length of the bottom (like a shoe box format) and two optical bays tops. Give me extra HDD room instead-in fact, I think I ought to design something in SU to this effect. I swear, you're gonna make me build a case again...

Quad rad + dual rad at very least.
Or triple + triple.
Sleek looks.

I see a lot of people saying they'd go SFF but for me, SFF fails with the number of drive cages available. My perfect WC case should be something like this:

- 2-3 3x120mm rads
- cpu cutout in the tray and associated space for CPU block/tubing
- room for 2x 5in external trays (say, WC control + optical drive)
- room for at least 1-2 ssd and 5-6 hdd.
- room for 2 video cards and associated WC gear
- PSU air circuit completely closed from the rest of the machine
- Air filters that don't impact noise quality too much
- No tools required to assemble
- Rubber mount points for everything that shakes
- no useless ultra bright LEDs
- no useless chunks of metal in the way of the airflow
- looks elegant
- wheels?

looks like there's going to need to end up being two designs. one SFF and one "more amazing than a TJ07".

I'm with Waterlogged on this one. +1 for SSF case like the Mini-Tank, but with a different design ;).

My thoughts :
- not too pricy < 300 $
- not too big to have place for the legs under the desk.
- not too long, the case nose has to be under the desk
- space for 2x480 with direct intake from the outside.
- the rads not in the front to have space for optical, fan controller, bay res, ...
- simple air flow, heat rise : rads in the bottoms and big fans in the top.
- Space for many hdd and ssd, 6/8 hdd minimum (4 watercooled).
- easy access to all components, cables, tubes.
- good looks
- a window for the motherboard area.
- easy cable mangment, places to hide the cables

My idea and still working :
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post4901003

Speaking for myself as a user, and as a manufacturer of liquid cooling equipment, the best "extreme cooling" (other than mountain mods of course) case I have ever used (implying that its design should be be looked at) is the Cosmos S because:

- I can hang a dual radiator (MCR 220 Drive including pump and reservoir) without any but one tiny modification onto the hard drive cage, using its existing 120mm fan holes to fasten the rad, and simply pulling the HD cage couple of inches away from the front of the case, which provides ample space to install everything, and then all is left is to drill one hole on each of the side cage panels to install screws and lock the cage in place.
- I can hang a triple radiator (MCR 320 Drive including pump and reservoir) on the upper panel without any modifications at all.

I only speak from a Liquid Cooling standpoint, so I will leave other features to the comments of other users. Feel free to contact me at gabe@swiftech.com if you need any further input :-)

The CM ATCS 840 can do that as well, and you dont even need to move the HDD bays around or anything.

I never understood this fascination with lots of hard disks. I stick an SSD + 2 TB HD in and have a NAS on the home network

Then again I have given up on ATX boards, m-ATX is fine for me.

For me the new Fractal Design Arc mini looks very close to perfect although needs decoupling for an optical drive, about 5mm extra height to allow a thick rad uptop without interfering with ram and may need a slight re-design on front to allow for a radiator there (maybe for the 200x200 Phobya)

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Originally Posted by justin150

I never understood this fascination with lots of hard disks.

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Me either, but lots of people do it for a raid 0 configuration.

The perfect watercooling cases already have been/are being designed
http://www.overclock.net/case-labs/

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Originally Posted by SkItZo

The perfect watercooling cases already have been/are being designed
http://www.overclock.net/case-labs/

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Er, no, these are way too large for 99% of people...
TJ07 is a lot closer to being an ideal case than these.

I think we all can agree that there will be as many "perfect case designs" as there are people posting here...


but more we would like to know what "watercooling specific" features you would like to see.

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Originally Posted by gabe

Speaking for myself as a user, and as a manufacturer of liquid cooling equipment, the best "extreme cooling" (other than mountain mods of course) case I have ever used (implying that its design should be be looked at) is the Cosmos S because:

- I can hang a dual radiator (MCR 220 Drive including pump and reservoir) without any but one tiny modification onto the hard drive cage, using its existing 120mm fan holes to fasten the rad, and simply pulling the HD cage couple of inches away from the front of the case, which provides ample space to install everything, and then all is left is to drill one hole on each of the side cage panels to install screws and lock the cage in place.
- I can hang a triple radiator (MCR 320 Drive including pump and reservoir) on the upper panel without any modifications at all.

I only speak from a Liquid Cooling standpoint, so I will leave other features to the comments of other users. Feel free to contact me at gabe@swiftech.com if you need any further input :-)

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Thank you for the reply, I really appreciate your feedback :)

This is exactly the type of info were looking for.

Kill the plastic. It takes us forever to get it out of the cases so we can actually start working on them.

Water cooling specific:
1. Mount points (and proper space..) for push-pull fans across 240/360 (maybe plus a couple mm of thickness for a spacer)
2. Easily serviceable and effective filtering system (that doesn't look cheap)
3. Integrated/vibration insulated pump mounts in the case for both types of popular pumps

Generally:
A. Smaller cases (mATX)
B. 2x 5.25" ODD bays max. (ideally zero... but maybe used for a bay-reservoir or touchscreen fan controller
C. If equipped (I would prefer zero..), have Easily Removable 5.25" ODD bay/3.5" HDD mounts (ALL OF THEM removable)

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Originally Posted by Kayin

Kill the plastic. It takes us forever to get it out of the cases so we can actually start working on them.

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Already working on stuff like this so no worries I hope to get something that will meet middle ground for many of you guys going.

honestly im sure you can understand that many cases in order to hit a specific price point and still be able to produce them have to include plastic and "all metal" or mostly metal cases cost a premium for a reason.

Pitty my memory is too vague and so are lacking search term formulating skills, but IIRC there was recently another similar thread about potential vendor/manufacturer asking what LC users wish to see in potential case for LC. Someone may dig that up and link here, to add ideas posted in it.

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Originally Posted by mav2000

1. Inverted ATX
2. Place for 2 X 360mm rads
3. removable mobo tray for easy cleaning and changing of parts.

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That'd pretty much do it for me. If they could both be in a compartment at the bottom of the case along with the PSU and pump(s), that would be even better. As far as looks go, I couldn't care less as long as it doesn't stray from black and silver and provides provisions for 2x120mm fans up front, 2x 120mm fans on top, and 1-2x120mm fans in the rear of the mobo/periph compartment.

--Matt

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Originally Posted by Tt Enthusiasts

Already working on stuff like this so no worries I hope to get something that will meet middle ground for many of you guys going.

honestly im sure you can understand that many cases in order to hit a specific price point and still be able to produce them have to include plastic and "all metal" or mostly metal cases cost a premium for a reason.

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Doesn't take long to strip down a Lian Li case...even if you do plastic, make sure the panels clip on and off the chassis easily...that would be wonderful.

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Originally Posted by BeepBeep2

Doesn't take long to strip down a Lian Li case...even if you do plastic, make sure the panels clip on and off the chassis easily...that would be wonderful.

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Thats one of the things im working on getting better is panels that will remove and reinstall with little to no fuss :up:

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Originally Posted by antiacid

I see a lot of people saying they'd go SFF but for me, SFF fails with the number of drive cages available. My perfect WC case should be something like this:

- 2-3 3x120mm rads
- cpu cutout in the tray and associated space for CPU block/tubing
- room for 2x 5in external trays (say, WC control + optical drive)
- room for at least 1-2 ssd and 5-6 hdd.
- room for 2 video cards and associated WC gear
- PSU air circuit completely closed from the rest of the machine
- Air filters that don't impact noise quality too much
- No tools required to assemble
- Rubber mount points for everything that shakes
- no useless ultra bright LEDs
- no useless chunks of metal in the way of the airflow
- looks elegant
- wheels?

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Sooo basically......everything that TT seems to NOT be able to do with a case.

[bias] CM 690 II Advanced ;) [/bias]

-PB

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Originally Posted by autobot

Sooo basically......everything that TT seems to NOT be able to do with a case.

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Thats why im here to find out what we can do to make our cases better thanks for reinforcing the feedback ;)