Watercooling case design I wish I could make.

With Mick as my inspiration, I decided to model a case I would like to see somehow built. Not ever going to happen with my finances today. Anyone is free to turn this idea into reality if they would like.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/293/frontcornerw.jpg

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/3...orneropenw.jpg

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5...eropentopw.jpg

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/9...ontcornerw.jpg

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/7...orneropenw.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7...ackcornerw.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/147...ackcornerw.jpg

Dimensions would be approximately 10" wide x 26" deep x 24" tall. So yeah, big. But fits 2x quad 120 rads up top with 25mm push/pull fans exhausting out the side vents. Top quads are fed by 6x 92mm fans in the roof. Bottom fits 2x triple 120 rads with 25mm push/pull fans exhausting out the side vents. Bottom triples are fed by 4x 92mm fans in the base. Other fans are a 200mm HDD front fan and 140mm PSU intake fan in the floor and 140mm rear exhaust fan. My vision was for the tall reservoir to have the caps hidden out of view in the top and lower section. Pump would be hidden in the top and bottom section and tubes would be routed as most route cables today. They would route behind mobo and just pop through to connect. Not sure if thats even possible though.

What do you think? :shrug:

Edit, just realized that I cant space the PSU up. So no intake fan for PSU, it will just sit on bottom mesh. This will give room for the GPU hoses to route into the mid plate. PSU is a 1500w silverstone dimension.

-Add esata/usb/audio ports on skewed front top panel, add big fan blowing in from back of case for top rad compartment, and better replace small 92mm with slim big fans. Shouldn't increase case height by much. Or add inch to case height and use normal ones :)
+easily removable dust filters on all incoming air holes/fan places ..
-As for bottom compartment .. hmm .. how about turning 90deg PSU, so that it gets air from back of case, blows out in floor direction, and extend triple rads to quads or 140mm triples.
-Variant #2 for case - relocate top panel to the side of case, and make that part straigt. And put 140mm fan quads there :)
-If case owner decides to use only one compartment for rads, - he can put several hard disk enclosures there ..
-case legs should be optionally replaceable to wheels
Otherwise very good main idea. "If push-pull rad-fan sandwitch is that wide/extend width of rad compartments"

Yeah, all the details are not on the front panel. It would have all the typical connections. Filters would of course be used as well. I thought about having 120mm intake fans, but that would make the case very wide. No point to having the intake fans overlap the rad space. Or I could remove the inner fans on the rads and just use 140mm intakes to feed the rads, and just let the outer fans suck air through the rads.

Cant really stand a 1500w psu on end. It would be quite tall. Basically adding another 3" of height probably. I think 4 rads should be enough for a single CPU, chipset, and 3x 5970. Triple for CPU, triple for chipset and any other cooling. Then the quads would run parallel feeds to each GPU. If thats possible. Would probably make a lot of tubing mess though. Could turn them into 140 rads but I could not find a 560 for the life of me online.

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Originally Posted by Power5

.. Or I could remove the inner fans on the rads and just use 140mm intakes to feed the rads, and just let the outer fans suck air through the rads.

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If top and bottom rad compartments are way more wide then yer average case for push-pull rads, why not put from front and back some big (180/220mm) fans with partial shrouding (well, in bottom part only from front, as from back there is PSU. but there can be open mesh/or airfilter hole from bottom of case for incoming air aswell, even without fans. Hmm .. but then maybe same for top compartment? No extra fans blowing in, but just dustfilter/grills from top/front/backside?

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Cant really stand a 1500w psu on end. It would be quite tall. Basically adding another 3" of height probably. I think 4 rads should be enough for a single CPU, chipset, and 3x 5970. Triple for CPU, triple for chipset and any other cooling. Then the quads would run parallel feeds to each GPU. If thats possible. Would probably make a lot of tubing mess though. Could turn them into 140 rads but I could not find a 560 for the life of me online.

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psu on end with some extra trickery - few cm partial sticking out of case (IIRC there was such lian-li case part for long PSUs). It won't be seen much being below case/narrower then case rad part/between case legs anyway. And some extra cm to compartment size would be needed if placement of 140mm rads is considered :).
- Hmm .. but that is for case when longest dimension of PSU is vertical. But what if it's placed with fan from back, and blowing out to one side of case (rather wide one at that)?

When i googled for Black Ice GTX/SR1 140mm rads, i seen all of them @ http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/...:::27_282.html, single,dual,triples,quads ..

Anyway .. even without thinking adding MOAR RADS, case is good :), just like Mike's.

imho interesting extreme project can be made in a bit other direction aswell - HTPCish case with one MO-RA2 on top and one below with width/depth similar to these rads, and height just enough to put PSU/dvd/low hard disk enclosures/LC stuff above motherboard ..
DDC3.25 head pressure should be more then enough to fight flow resistance of these 9x120mm beasts :)
Of course there would be no nice window for showing off insides .. but it should give most rad surface for smallest possible volume. Tubing/fitting of components might be rather tricky though. Bigger the challenge :)
Hmm .. or even replacing two mora-s with 4 x dual or tripple 140mm rads .. depending on motherboard size/form factor/area, width&depth of case ..

Can't believe that black ice didnt come up when I googled 560mm rad. 140mm sized rads would add 1.5" of total height, but other dimensions should stay the same. I like that HTPC idea. For a HTPC I think you would be good with just 2x triple rads. I may whip up one of those ideas. Also, if you just have the 2 rads under the mobo, you could have top window to see everything.

No no. For HTPC you could get buy without LC at all. What i meant - "HTPC-like" sized case with full powerful O/C cpu and SLI/Crossfire setup with adequate cooling capacity but within way smaller package then full towers of most builds.

its a good start, keep working at it.

Gonna make a mockup out of corrugated as I am in the folding box industry. CAD cut pieces are easy to design and cut. Think a single triple is enough to cool CPU and mobo? May try turning the PSU on its side to allow for a quad on bottom also. so would have 3x quads and a triple rad.

Single triple rad should have no problem handling that.

Revised. The idea now was a quad for each GPU. Thinking this could handle 3x 5970 now.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4134/newfrontw.jpg

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6710/newbackw.jpg

It is large though.

22" monitor and HP mini tower matx case in photo.

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/543/actualbackw.jpg

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/429/actualfrontw.jpg

I could lose the 92mm intake fans. I was just unsure if the rads would be able to pull enough air without help. Right now there is 47 fans. 15x 92mm, 1x 140mm, 1x 200mm, 30x 120mm. Maybe too many :) Need a fan sponsor for sure.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6...wfrontredw.jpg

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/809/newbackredw.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/341...ckopenredw.jpg

Good work Power5 :)

That thing is beautiful! How much would it cost to build such a monster?

nice case

Glad people actually like it. Need to find out how to go about getting sponsorship and maybe I can turn it into reality. No more top bottom horizontal intake fans. Still kept intake fans on the ends, 1 in front of bottom, and 1 in back for top and bottom. Also, removed the push fans on the rads. This frees up a bunch of room in the upper and lower compartments for pumps. This brings the fan count down to just 20fans. Not bad considering it should be capable of cooling 3x 5970. Gonna work on a frame design now. Maybe I can create this out of angle aluminum, and then just use sheet aluminum for the panels. Assuming I can use my CNC contacts, I am still guessing this project would cost a bunch. I have no idea how to scratch build a case so that will cause some issues.

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5...isedfrontw.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/2987/revisedbackw.jpg

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5344/revisedopenw.jpg

Nice work...

that top section that is cut at an angle,
it just begging for a hot swap hard drive bays.
the knob fan controllers should disappear and go with a autonomous system like mcubed fan controller.

You need to make it fit the newest EVGA dual-proc board.

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Originally Posted by MadHacker

that top section that is cut at an angle,
it just begging for a hot swap hard drive bays.
the knob fan controllers should disappear and go with a autonomous system like mcubed fan controller.

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After I had the angle, first thing I thought was a hot swap bay as well. :up:

Not sure what that autonomous system you are talking about is.

This can easily fit a e-atx, but not the xl-atx 10 slot boards.

I'd replace pull fans to push for more effectiveness. I beleave pull config with fans on outside was left for visual purpose? Well, sight of rad surface might be looker aswell :)

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Originally Posted by churchy

I'd replace pull fans to push for more effectiveness. I beleave pull config with fans on outside was left for visual purpose? Well, sight of rad surface might be looker aswell :)

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Push fans make it a lot harder to clean the rad. You have to actually take them off. Pull fans can be cleaned by blowing out the dust that builds up on the rad fins.

Fantastic design!!!

Aluminum angle is a good start in making a frame. Remember you have to figure out how the side panels mount and come off. How are the rads going to mount as well as all the internal components. It's good you pulled the top 92mm fans out, some people might have Fesser rads that are 2.5 times as thick as other rads. My rads with 25mm fans are 4 inches thick.

Getting a cheap metal bender for $40 will help. If you can find someone with a CNC plazma cutter you can have all the shapes cut you need. I spent the last 6 months using acrylic and aluminum angle to work together and it's a headache, but I got it to work. Only no nice bends like you have in your case. Check out my builds in the EVGA forums when you get the chance...under Gone Cruising.

Good luck on your build....again ,extremely nice design!!!

Looks nice but i would kill 2 buttons in the fan controller. Looks too overcrowded like that.

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/7743/framew.jpg

Thanks GC. I was thinking of having magnets hold the left and right panel on, and coutner sunk bolts for the front, back, top, bottom panels. Or maybe permanently attach the top and bottom panels. Rads would use aluminum angle bolted to mid plates to hold them in place. I was thinking of using one of those removeable mobo trays, but not sure how to attach that to the case when slid in.

Fan controller was just a quick representation. Those are 1" Dia. knobs, so a bit oversized.

Subscribed, I'd love to see someone talented build this case.

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Originally Posted by Oj101

Subscribed, I'd love to see someone talented build this case.

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Heh, that would not be me, but I am going to attempt it. At least the frame is something I can build. Going to be fun going completely off of specs off the internet as I don't have any of the items needed to build around.

Who knows how to get sponsored? I would love a few rads to get started with.

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Originally Posted by Power5

Who knows how to get sponsored? I would love a few rads to get started with.

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If you build it they will come.

Nice creation there Power5, I like the way it looks :) It sure is sexy.

Good luck with finding a sponsor.

Poor attempt at a lighted rendering. Not an expert at 3dsMax by any means. Added a hot swap to the front. Probably swap the placement of that and the DVD since this will be on the ground and not desk level. Though, not sure which would be better suited up top. Only about 200mm difference in height though.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/8220/lighted.jpg

wow, nice,

This is what im currently using for my removable mobo trays on some of the cases:

http://www.brunnerent.com/Tools/Port...=6&strMetaTag=

I can't find this "F" channel anywhere else though. It would be a lot cheaper if it weren't already anodized. I did find aluminum angle is dirt cheap at Lowes.

I've posted my cases at the EVGA forums if you want to get some ideas..maybe I should post a thread here??? I think I will to get some feedback.
It took me about six months to configure the aluminum angle cutting, drill holes..etc... many many sketch up drawings tossed out...LOL!!!

Yeah, checked out evga site, but only saw like 4 photos.

How exactly do you use that "F" channel? Like a runner that the tray slides in?

Nice looking case Power5.....keep up the good work!