Fortress FT02 & Raven RV02 Liquid Cooled Club

[mingbogo]

Can we have a gallery for the FT02 and RV02 liquid cooled setup?
Following is my first attempt of liquid cooling with a single 140mm SR1 radiator on the FT02. I am in the process of revamping the setup with a bigger radiator so let’s see how it will turn out later. Cheers!

[Pliskin45]

I really like the fortress, such a sweet case.

[tommrussell]

that's a very nice and tidy rig you have there, hope it works as good as it looks. Thinking about changing to the white tubing in my black ufo case

[century child]

Here's mine...

[schoolslave]

Here's my Raven 02, enjoy

[Church]

I wonder if it's possible to move FT02's hotswap disk enclosure into 5.25 bay enclosure with access from front, and put some bigger rad down there with leaving original 180mm fans in place? Probably some one-piece door should be made for good looks & easy access and turning disk enclosure 90deg for it to fit width wise ..

[mingbogo]

Wow awesome rigs! Man those sleeved cables are looking fantastic in the FT02 and RV02, which make mine look like crap. Nonetheless, I got some sleeves on order from Germany so rest assured I will be sleeving mine soon. Thanks for your participation of this post. Keep them coming!

[mingbogo]

I wonder if it's possible to move FT02's hotswap disk enclosure into 5.25 bay enclosure with access from front, and put some bigger rad down there with leaving original 180mm fans in place? Probably some one-piece door should be made for good looks & easy access and turning disk enclosure 90deg for it to fit width wise ..

The HD cage of the FT02 is part of the support structure for the 5.25 bay cage, which is pinned (with rivets) together to the frame structure so it may require some extensive modding to relocate it. With some modding skills, I guess that anything is possible. However, it is possible to fit a Swift-tech 480rad with 120mm fans under the HD cage by removing all the three 180mm fan filter housings. Those 180mm fans are 1.25" thick and each sits on a filter housing, which is about 1" thick, along with a .25" thick grill, they take up quite a bit of vertical space. Even by removing everything down to the metal floor, it still needs some modding to fit 4 120mm fans down there because the floor is not flat, as it has a couple of "bumps" in the middle of the floor. With a dremel tool, it should not be a problem remove them. With that said, it should not be a problem fitting a 2.5" thick triple rad (XSPC, TC, etc.) on top of the 180mm fans if you do not have a video card longer than the GXT 465/470. Nonetheless, this is only a mid-tower case so vertical space is limited to work with.

[mingbogo]

that's a very nice and tidy rig you have there, hope it works as good as it looks. Thinking about changing to the white tubing in my black ufo case

Thanks! Yeah those white tubing look great! I am not sure if I keep them though for my next rebuild, as I like to see the liquid, especially if there are bubbles floating. This setup seems to be working just fine with a single 140mm rad cooling just the CPU. With the AMD 955 chip at stock speed, it has been idling at around 33C, which I think is quite good. I think this is a perfect WC setup for a beginner and for those who have a budget to work with.

[dctokyo]

nice pictures and great case

[Church]

mingbongo: Removing rivets is very easy. Reinforcing frame might be much harder though, if rigidity depends much on that hotswap disk enclosure being in it's place. I know 180mm fans can be removed, but i stated aswell - i want to leave them in place. And still have possibility of putting full size/full thickness big rad (and even maybe another layer of fans on top of it). Especially as it is about the only sensible place where internal rads should be mounted knowing airflow direction. Pitty though that problem with longer GPUs still will be there even after hdd enclosure mod.

[cstkl1]

nicest i ever seen was by this guy with ft02

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1355425

[PatRaceTin]

90degree make very different

[mingbogo]

churchy: Yeah I know what you were trying to get to for removing the HD cage. Like I said before this is a mid-tower case so it does not have a lot of vertical room to work with. The distance between the feet of the case to the top I/O panel is only 17.75" so as you can see it is not very tall at all compared to a full tower case at 24". I was hoping Silverstone would improve upon the FT02/RV02 to give us a more rad friendly case but it does not seem like they are going to that direction with prototypes of FT03 and RV03 shown in recent trade shows. Oh well, maybe TJ11 will be one to have for those of us FT02/RV02 fans.

I got to thinking after reading your original post that it would be interesting to remove the HD cage and fit a full size 2.5" thick rad down there to fill the whole lenght of the case. This is not only possible but it should not be that difficult to mod. The HD cage is a U-shape structure and by cutting the U-shape in half (the bottom part) without affecting the strenght of the 5.25 bay above, it should open up the vertical space to about 5", which is just about level with the bottom edge of the ATX motherboard. This should be enough to fit a full size thickness rad with 1" thick fans down there, assuming you mount everything to the metal floor. Of course, the lenght of the video card is still limited to a GTX 465/470 or equivalent. The internal lenght or depth of the case from front to back is about 23.875" and with this dimension it is possible to fit a 560 rad down there. Man how nice is that for a mid-tower case! Who said the FT02/RV02 is not VC friendly?

Here is picture of my FT02 stripped to the bare bone:

[Church]

cstkl1: nice build. It looks like he has 3x140 on bottom? I wonder if 4x140 can fit (HWLabs BI SR1 560 is 605mm long, case is FT02 is 616mm, so maybe does fit). 560 rad should be rather adequate for cooling in gaming i7+two fermi imho. Pitty he got rid of hotswap enclosure alltogether. I still think that bottom unused three 5.25 bays might be good place for it and single piece door on front would look better then three separate bezels ..
EDIT
mingbogo: can you measure maximum inside length from front till back of case? (+plusing few millimeters from sound dumpening material, which most probably can be got rid of if needed to)
Hmm, also height of 3*5.25 slots, 4*5.25 slots and width & depth of hotswap disk enclosure. (I'm thinking about possibilities to put it turned vertically but most probably taking more then 3*5.25 slots (there are slim dvd drives though to help) + worse disk cooling as there is no easy way from air going from bottom to top, or horizontally, with maybe leaving only four disks because of limited width)

[somethingclever]

cstkl1: nice build. It looks like he has 3x140 on bottom? I wonder if 4x140 can fit (HWLabs BI SR1 560 is 605mm long, case is FT02 is 616mm, so maybe does fit). 560 rad should be rather adequate for cooling in gaming i7+two fermi imho. Pitty he got rid of hotswap enclosure alltogether. I still think that bottom unused three 5.25 bays might be good place for it and single piece door on front would look better then three separate bezels ..
EDIT
mingbogo: can you measure maximum inside length from front till back of case? (+plusing few millimeters from sound dumpening material, which most probably can be got rid of if needed to)
Hmm, also height of 3*5.25 slots, 4*5.25 slots and width & depth of hotswap disk enclosure. (I'm thinking about possibilities to put it turned vertically but most probably taking more then 3*5.25 slots (there are slim dvd drives though to help) + worse disk cooling as there is no easy way from air going from bottom to top, or horizontally, with maybe leaving only four disks because of limited width)

602mm front to back inside length in a RV02 (same I think?), HWlabs shows 605mm for GTX/SR1 560 rads.

I'm gonna try it anyway

[mingbogo]

churchy:

I re-measured again tonight the inside distance from metal to metal of my FT02; it is about 23.75-23.875 and this dimension includes the foam, which is about .25" thick. It should be a very close fit with a SR-1 560 if it does drop in. If it does not fit, then you can always grind some material off the back panel at the bottom, as the FT02 has a 3/16 thick aluminum panel plus another .05" of steel liner inside. Better yet, make a rect cut out just enough to clear the 560 and then cover it on the outside with a mesh panel.

[Cookiesowns]

Here's my Raven 02, enjoy

Is it just me, or do you have a 4x120 Rad at the bottom there. I really like this case compared to the Obsidian 800D. Mind sharing what you modded?

[Church]

Better yet, make a rect cut out just enough to clear the 560 and then cover it on the outside with a mesh panel.

If it almost fits (just 1-2mm not enough) there then imho better to try to fit it with minimal bending instead of cutting. Cutting + mesh might spoil airflow, as RV02/FT02 are distinctly positive air pressure cases, so part of airflow will probably skip through that cut instead of going all the way up.

Pitty that one flow will still be left unmodable in any way. If you want original 180mm fans + rad = forget about 5970. From another point of view, it's not that much of an issue, as it's the only one that long, and going two fermi route it might matter less.

[HanMies]

nicest i ever seen was by this guy with ft02

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1355425

Really nice in terms of build quality, but as the author states, disappointing temps. A slim 140.3 for three GPUs and CPU is just not enough, in my build it was not enough for GPU+CPU+MB. Obviously depends on what temps/noise you are looking for, though.

Someone asked about removing the HDD cage. I did that, and since I only had one HDD, mounted that in a 5.25 bay (with old shoelaces, obviously). I don't think it in any way affected the rigidity of the 5.25 bays, and allowed me to put in a similar slim 140.3 as in the other forum. I think you get more surface area with a 140.3 than a 120.4. For me the really limiting factor was my HD5870 with power connectors at the end and the fact that I kept the original dust filter assembly.

Now that there is a club, I regret dismantling that build!

[Church]

Slim 140.3 especially not enough because slim rads almost all of them are high finned FPI ones, so they work well only with very fast and loud fans, and cool bad with quiet fans. Though rad area is not adequate aswell for three GPUs an CPU. 4x140 might be better and for one GPU less and in gaming only, not in crunching/folding, which loads to the max both GPUs/CPU.

Hmm, I also wonder if it's not worth to use something to close sides of 180mm fans to force all air to go through rad instead of part skipping it and going arround because of 180mm fans being wider then 140mm fan rad shrouds.. Needs to be tested of course, with or without closed sides ..

[knet370]

[knet370]

[schoolslave]

Is it just me, or do you have a 4x120 Rad at the bottom there. I really like this case compared to the Obsidian 800D. Mind sharing what you modded?

Yep, I have a GTX480 radiator in the bottom.
I removed the one side of the bay cage, took out the whole bottom fan assembly, drilled two holes and used the two radiator brackets that came with the case. That way, the radiator is above those "bumps" on the bottom of the case.

[mav2000]

Did you remove the filters as well...thats going to cause some massive dust build up on the rad....

And Knet thats an awesome build...