Custom Case for Water Cooling

[Alexandr0s]

A suggestion for the harddrive bays: Currently I don't see how the hdd rack gets mounted securely. It almost looks as if it's lose in the bay, able to easily move back and forth. You could consider adding some sort of resting position like the one I've drawn out below to prevent the rack from moving.

[iddqd]

by the way, you should probably re-think how you want the side panels to attach to the case. unscrewing 20 screws just to take off one of the side panels is a ridiculous amount of work.

[Brodholm]

Sorry that I haven't had time to reply. My computer crashed during the night . One of the HDDs died. And ofc it was the disk with my OS on. And I also lost about 5 hours of work on the chassis. I have ordered a new hdd, it should be here in 2 days.

I have read all the replies and there is some good ideas and suggestions on improvement.

And I will try and reply to them all when I get my new hdd.

[NaeKuh]

There will always be a demand for large water cooling cases. .

holy crap!

Can it support a 62 inch LED TV on top?



I think i figured out how i want to setup my gaming station.

As an owner of a Mountain Mods Ascension... build it as big as you need it!

Id run out of room in it.
And you know it too.

I need the floor footprint, not wide open spaces.

As funny as it may sound, a case is just like a house.
In a house, they dont count high ceilings, they count the floor space u walk on.
Same with the computer cases.

If i dont have room to set down on the floor, i can care less how tall the case is, because without some creative way to hang it, or mount it on the wall, which then leaves the middle ALL OPEN, u dont get as much floor room as you would with a regular MM + Pedistool.

Because the Pedistool offers you a second level.
And a regular MM will never have the same floor room as a hori. Because the board is sprawled out in the middle of the case, where u wouldnt be able to mount anything anyways.

[JoeBar]

As an owner of a Mountain Mods Ascension... build it as big as you need it!

Wise words!



@ NaeKuh.

U can get extended Ascension and add a pedestral if u like...

[Brodholm]

Ok, Im back

Got new hdds now so I should be fine.

Many have stated their opinion on the logo, I'm trying to come up with a good one. As i said, the Asus logo was just to see how it looked. I have been thinking of the XS logo. I what do you guys think?

If you have a cool idea for a logo be sure to let me know

He's sort-of right. The biggest downfall is that it's basically a TJ07 on steroids; you can (I presume) mount two more 4x120mm rads in the top section. Which is a big plus, except... what TJ07 can mount is already more than enough for almost any build, short of maybe some crazy quad video card builds. It's also even bigger than a TJ07, which is already a pretty common complaint for the TJ07 itself.

If I were you (which I'm not) and making a custom case and was borrowing from a Silverstone design, I would actually probably base it off an FT02 rather than a TJ07. There's not a whole lot you can improve about a TJ07; that's the thing. You can make it bigger and give it a reversible motherboard tray and a few other features, but you're losing out in terms of price point and size. In the end it will be very unclear whether TJ07 or your case are more attractive.

FT02 on the other hand, is a neat layout (like the TJ07), but (unlike the TJ07) it's poorly executed; you could improve a whole lot on it and come out a clear winner. The areas for improvement are many. First of all, the case is actually almost entirely made out of steel, and rather thick steel at that. While it is a very sturdy case, it is also ridiculously heavy. Probably one of the heaviest cases I've ever had the dubious pleasure of working with. Simply making the same thing out of aluminum would already be a huge step forward. Also? The bottom can mount 3x180mm fans. This is sort-of-cool, but ultimately not that useful. You could instead design it to mount two 4x120mm radiators side by side, much in the same way that the 3x180mm fans are mounted in the silverstone case. Industrious case modders could probably even sandwich up to four 4x120mm rads. Another thing that annoys me about FT02 is it only has one handle. Sure, the handle is nice, but without a second one, it's still rather difficult to carry. I guess nobody told silverstone that most people have 2 hands. Plus, throw in all the bells-and-whistles features that you've got going here (anti-vibration EVERYTHING, reversible mobo tray, etc) and you've got a very nice case. As an added bonus, it will eliminate the possibility of that other guy you used to work with later suing you for using his work (since the 2 cases will now be completely dissimilar, he won't have a leg to stand on). I'm not sure how much of his work you're using and I'm also not saying he'll necessarily go after you, but it's definitely possible right now.

Well, that's my 0.02.

I see your point. And I will put some thought into it. And I will have to take a closer look at the FT02 chassis.

I have several changes that I'm going to out try out and will differ the chassis quite a bit.

But you are missing one thing. I'm not going to compete with Mick in any way. I have no intend to produce this in any masses. And our chassis is quite dissimilar right now. The only thing thats very similar is the layout. I have a different design on hdd holder, rad holder, 5,25 bay, motherboard tray, side panels, and so on. And I have built everything from the scratch I haven't just ctrl c and ctrl v

Making a custom case for wc that large is a big fail. I'm sorry to say that, but it's truth.

Well, thats your opinion. Me, I don't want my main computer small. I want to be able to upgrade and stuff without much modification. I could make this a lot smaller If I like. But then it would just fit that specific setup. And thats not something I want.

There is a painfully obvious omission here.
You are making your case larger for an SR-2, and motherboards that will be like it that will probably reach market in the third quarter.
So the you are creating a system that may run quad sli, and 8 or possibly 16 cores. Wouldn't it make sense to increase the hiegh of the lower compartment just enough to place a power supply side ways? So that one can have two power supplies down there... and still keep a quad radiator on top?

The case is quite nice... I still am not crazy about the front of the case from a cosmetic standpoint. I would prefer a flat front, or mesh entirely (v-series lian-li) if you went with the flat front you would simply need to place the fan intake on the side, and the exhaust on the other. This would however compromise the cooling of components that are not watercooled.

I see your point. One PSU will not be enough to power this beast if I "decide" to go with the SR-2 and QUAD sli or something. Although, I will not have the cash to build a system like that. I have to try and find sponsors. And I have no idea where to start that .

I don't really want to go ask companies when you have nothing other than a drawing to present to them and no real reputation .

If I could find sponsors for a system like that it would be a no brainer to expand the chassis a bit further and make it more specificd for a SR-2. Although, the chassis fits perfectly with the extended ATX motherboards from EVGA and ASUS for example, and it still allows for a dual EK res side by side then. When a SR-2 is installed you have to put them on the "side" (along z-axis) so to speak. And the removable tray don't support a SR-2 motherboard, it screws in the tray and further back on the other plate.

First i had a door on the chassis. Although that complicates the design qute a bit. And as you say, cooling air have to be taken from the side. So I changed it.

There will always be a demand for large water cooling cases. .

[IMG]snip[/IMG]

First, OMFG! I thought that I was building big chassis
Thats just insane! What are the dimensions of that "thing"

I must say It looks really nice!

As an owner of a Mountain Mods Ascension... build it as big as you need it!

haha, I started out with 500*500*200mm. Right now Im at 700*700*230 something. Its just getting bigger and bigger (that's what she said)

"hmm, I might need that. And that, and that"

The FT02 is 212mm wide. Two 120mm rads side-by-side are at minimum
240mm wide, closer to 260mm, depending on the specific rads. You'd be adding two inches to the width, making for a rather fatter case.

I thought the primary purpose of the rear opening was to let the cables through. That it also serves as a handle is just a bonus. Where would you put another handle, anyway? It wouldn't look very good to have an opening at the front of the case IMO.

Since it seems we're sharing water cooling case designs, here's mine. Fits the SR-2 and up to two quad 140mm rads (or equivalent), while still smaller than an 800D. Goes to show that you don't need a huge case to fit a lot if you package it efficiently.

Nice design! I see that you are going up against Mick64

Best of luck to both of you!

Nice!

Would be cool if you could use two 480s on top and exhaust them up through the top. Maybe if it was a little deeper you could even mount fans in the ceiling and just draw air in through two side mounted quads.

Hmm, I don't really understand what you are saying. With deeper you mean higher? or?

But I think I know where you are getting at.

Can you make a simple picture to explain?

If It is what i think you mean it could be a really good idea. If so, I could make the top compartment just a little bit higher and fit two 480 rads there. Lower the bottom compartment with the psu and fit more HDDs another psu and other stuff. Or another rad taking air from the bottom of the chassis.

A suggestion for the harddrive bays: Currently I don't see how the hdd rack gets mounted securely. It almost looks as if it's lose in the bay, able to easily move back and forth. You could consider adding some sort of resting position like the one I've drawn out below to prevent the rack from moving.

I had that design first. But I changed it. If you look closely at the pictures i posted you can see that there is 2 slides that locks all the hdds in place

Like this:

by the way, you should probably re-think how you want the side panels to attach to the case. unscrewing 20 screws just to take off one of the side panels is a ridiculous amount of work.

This is something I intend to fix

I think that i will cut it down to 12 screws. But I think it will be hard to change the design. I think that a sheet that i just screw to the side is the most simple design. I don't know how i should do it otherwise. Other method's require welding to the side panels. And I don't know how they will react to that.

If you have a good idea on this. Please post one. I have been trying to figure something good out.

holy crap!

Can it support a 62 inch LED TV on top?

His chassis reminds me of XZIBIT

[iddqd]

This is something I intend to fix

I think that i will cut it down to 12 screws. But I think it will be hard to change the design. I think that a sheet that i just screw to the side is the most simple design. I don't know how i should do it otherwise. Other method's require welding to the side panels. And I don't know how they will react to that.

If you have a good idea on this. Please post one. I have been trying to figure something good out.

What Lian Li does is just make the panels slightly larger, make the appropriate cuts, and then just bend them over, like so:



Although, that may not be well-suited to your panel shape, as it is rounded in the back as well. LiLi themselves had a few similarly-rounded cases, and here's how they solved the problem:



They used thicker than normal aluminum (2mm) and drilled & tapped holes in the panel itself and then used screws to fasten the rails.

[subtec]

I think that's a stretch, because the bottom 2-3 slots of the SR-2 are blocked by the rad/fans and the airflow through the front 120x2 rad is...um, not optimal.

Yes, it's a trade off. Certainly no worse than most cases modded to accept anything close to that, though.