380T, MCR220-XP, SP120 - no go! (pics)

[ZeroOne]

Just thought I'd share some pics of the 380T for anyone thinking about this case and watercooling.

I have to admit... I REALLY expected this to work out of the box, considering the size of the 380T for being just a mini-ITX case. Sidestepped reviews, and went by the specs on the Corsair website stating: "rear 120mm, side 240mm." It looked like a no-brainer that a radiator was designed for this space along the side. I had no idea they meant, with no fans. Or at least, with nonstandard fans that are slimmer than 25mm.

Was pretty blown away that one of the more common, the Swiftec MCR220, didn't fit at all with a motherboard I also considered to be common, the P8Z77-I Deluxe.

Quite a few motherboards past and present use a riser card along the far edge of the board. This really should have been considered, in my opinion, since both were out long before this case ever existed.

The part that really makes this rough, is the fact that it's the slightest oversight in width. Going to make new rails most likely, along the side to cut down on the 2-4mm of wasted space to make this work.

As the current design stands, the motherboard comes right to the edge of the tray, almost perfectly flush.







Radiator and fans mounted in push (holes redrilled to put end tanks up front to get barbs away from motherboard):







Top view down, note the radiator's frame touching the riser card:





Couldn't hook one of the latches with the radiator touching the motherboard:





End tank of radiator, up front now, after rails redrilled:







End result, this time fans inside. This is all the clearance missing in the design of the case.

[k0ST]

Have you tried repositioning rad brackets so they "pull-out' radiator (as opposed to pushing it inside as you currently have)? If you rotate brackets that way, can you install side panel?

[ZeroOne]

Have you tried re-positioning rad brackets so they "pull-out' radiator (as opposed to pushing it inside as you currently have)? If you rotate brackets that way, can you install side panel?

Not sure if you can tell from the pics, but the back-side of those rails has a rounded lip for strength that be a pain to deal with. Thought about maybe making new rails from flat aluminum, cutting to length and painting.

The other option is to use a dremel and cut the frame off of the bottom edge of the radiator. Just the 1/4" or so of depth along the one edge, removing 2 fan screw holes towards the center. This would make the first interference the copper tubes as opposed to the frame itself, buying some space. It seems like it will be just enough. The rails really can't stick off the side much more than the stock kind. The plastic of the side panel has like 2mm before it hits anything. Barely any room to work with there.

The radiator cutting won't work with the P8Z77-I because the USB header is too close to the edge of the board (can't cut the radiator end tank) but the Maximus VI and VII Impact have free space at that corner accommodating the end tank.