What do you think of my "water cooling" case design?

[Mick64]

Hi all in the Computer Cases section. I normally hang out in the Liquid Cooling section, but I've been working on a case specifically for water cooling and thought I'd see what you guys thought of it.....



If I get a favourable reaction, I may post some more renders showing other views of this case. I may even look into getting it made....

[NameTaken45]

i like it. the only thing i would do differently is turn the HDD cage to the right or left. so all the HDD's can take the brunt of the flow from the fan on the front.

[Stoner133]

It shouldn't matter which direction the hard drives face as long as the air is moving across them. The design looks good, looks like a Lian Li drive case. One thing I would change is the amount of slots in the back of the case, would increase it to 10 so the case could use a motherboard with multipule dual slot video cards. But design is one thing, build it then it would be more impressive.

[NameTaken45]

extra cooling is extra cooling, with the fan blowing directly onto the drives instead of a wall on the side would create extra cooling. i would turn the cage anyway.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

perpendicular mounting is good for clean wires, stick with it

my only change in design would be to go with an EATX tray factor but its you case so build it for your needs

I've never gotten a straight answer on this: Do you think you could post a quick and very brief link on how to render the solidworks model and what program you've used? I have some new designs for my next prject that desperately need some quality renders so I can put them on display

[Chris_redfield]

I like it.

In fact I saw the pic in your avatar in another post and thought to myself 'thats a pretty sweet case.'

[Mabyboi]

absolutly love it, when do they go on sale? XD

[tool_462]

How much?

Any mock ups of side panels?

[Mabyboi]

price? shipping? side pannels? we need to know sir!, so long as u can fit 2 graphics cards in there then uve made the perfect case my friend!

[lkiller123]

you should make the rad at the top 4x120 instead of 3x120

[clokker]

It's a beautiful rendering but to a certain extent I think you've taken the easy way out.
Namely, it's huge.

By definition, a watercooled, custom case would be considered "high end", so why not design for high end components...specifically-
-drop the provision for HDDs and slot some SSDs into the unused space around a rad.
-why multiple optical drives?
-why multiple large radiators?

So basically, shrink that bad boy down to the bone- big is industrial, small is elegant and forward thinking.

[Mick64]

It shouldn't matter which direction the hard drives face as long as the air is moving across them. The design looks good, looks like a Lian Li drive case. One thing I would change is the amount of slots in the back of the case, would increase it to 10 so the case could use a motherboard with multipule dual slot video cards. But design is one thing, build it then it would be more impressive.

extra cooling is extra cooling, with the fan blowing directly onto the drives instead of a wall on the side would create extra cooling. i would turn the cage anyway.

I'm glad you like it. The hard drive cage would be detachable anyway, so you could mount it which ever way you prefer. There would probably be plenty of air flow with either orientation.

perpendicular mounting is good for clean wires, stick with it

my only change in design would be to go with an EATX tray factor but its you case so build it for your needs

I've never gotten a straight answer on this: Do you think you could post a quick and very brief link on how to render the solidworks model and what program you've used? I have some new designs for my next prject that desperately need some quality renders so I can put them on display

I use Google SketchUp and Kerkythea for my designs and rendering. I would ask again in the waterblock render gallery in the liquid cooling section.

I like it.

In fact I saw the pic in your avatar in another post and thought to myself 'thats a pretty sweet case.'

Thanks Chris!

How much?

Any mock ups of side panels?

price? shipping? side pannels? we need to know sir!, so long as u can fit 2 graphics cards in there then uve made the perfect case my friend!

I'm happy that you guys would like to buy it, but I've know idea how much it would cost. Probably similar to a Lian Li. I'm working on the side panels, will post some more renders when I'm happy with them.

you should make the rad at the top 4x120 instead of 3x120

It's probably the angle that the case is positioned, but the top mounts are for a 120.4 rad. The case is also wide enough to take 38mm fans - 38mm shrouds - 60mm rad - 38mm shrouds - 38mm fans in a push-pull configuration.

[Mick64]

It's a beautiful rendering but to a certain extent I think you've taken the easy way out.
Namely, it's huge.

By definition, a watercooled, custom case would be considered "high end", so why not design for high end components...specifically-
-drop the provision for HDDs and slot some SSDs into the unused space around a rad.
-why multiple optical drives?
-why multiple large radiators?

So basically, shrink that bad boy down to the bone- big is industrial, small is elegant and forward thinking.

I'm thinking Xtreme cooling with two loops, one for CPU and one for GPU but in a case that isn't a cube.

[tipo76]

It's Coooool ~!

[CyberDruid]

It's about time there was a case specifically for LCing. Looks do-able.

[Mabyboi]

if u can keep the price down on that sucker, then it would be amazing, people would be buying it left right and center, but a high price would drive away some of the buyers. i say 200-250$ and ill buy 4 XD

[Serpentarius]

very neat .. it would be better if there's dual intake fans

and the power switch is either on top or bottom ... in the mid seems inappropriate

[Mick64]

very neat .. it would be better if there's dual intake fans

and the power switch is either on top or bottom ... in the mid seems inappropriate

Don't know about dual intake fans, not much space and not sure it would be necessary with a water cooled system? I think you may be right about the switches, etc. though. I'm still in two minds about this. I did have them at the top in my original design. Maybe I'll see what they look like at the bottom...

[Eddie3dfx]

I love the radiator tabs. I think this is what is sorely missing from the watercooling market. Couldn't of pictured it better myself.
It should be patented and sold.

[Linux_Box]

Pretty creative design. Definitely lots of thought about the layout from someone who does WC. I don't see a problem with a bigger case for WC since WC parts multiply like rabbits as the components being cooled increase in performance.

How much air intake do you have? It seems to have a ton of exhaust but little intake. My custom design(s) normally have 1 or 2 more exhaust fans than intake (currently planned rig is going to have 4 intake and 5 exhaust + PSU fan). Just a thought.

[Xenogias]

This looks great but:

only 3 3-1/4" drives...why not increase the drive cage to 4, and put another one right next to it for 8 possible drives.

would the side panels be vented on both sides?

[IFMU]

Overall not too shabby. Looks pretty clean.

One suggestion, why not try the power/reset buttons, on the side. Placed like where most place the USB/Firewire/Audio jacks? Keep the front clean.

I'd also agree with whats posted above, keep the 5.25" drive bays down to a minimum, unless of course you'll have a built in res, which could be pretty slick too. Nice plexi/glass(like) res built in.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

IMO the drive bays are at a minimum as it is, the way I see it is Crystalfontz, dvd-drive and for some users a second dvd drive is needed


On a side note I find not having an internal DVD in PermaFrost is working out great, I got a nice drive that is black and it fits on top of the case facing to the left right behind the end top hood of the p-80. works perfect and looks like its supposed to be there

[Mick64]

I love the radiator tabs. I think this is what is sorely missing from the watercooling market. Couldn't of pictured it better myself.
It should be patented and sold.

Thanks Eddie. There are some great cases on the market that can be used for water cooling, but all need to be moded in one way or another. It would be great if there was a case, such as this, or a selection of cases that were specificaly designed for the water cooling market...

Pretty creative design. Definitely lots of thought about the layout from someone who does WC. I don't see a problem with a bigger case for WC since WC parts multiply like rabbits as the components being cooled increase in performance.

How much air intake do you have? It seems to have a ton of exhaust but little intake. My custom design(s) normally have 1 or 2 more exhaust fans than intake (currently planned rig is going to have 4 intake and 5 exhaust + PSU fan). Just a thought.

Thanks Linux. As I said before, this is a case for water cooled components. I believe that the single intake fan to cool the HD's and a single exhaust + the PSU to vent any hot air from the case would be sufficient.

This looks great but:

only 3 3-1/4" drives...why not increase the drive cage to 4, and put another one right next to it for 8 possible drives.

would the side panels be vented on both sides?

Thanks Xenogias. These days drives are getting Xtremely large, so there is little need for large numbers of drive bays.

You must remember that this case is designed for water cooling. The area next to the drive bays is reserved for the Pumps and reservoirs.

Yes the panels will be vented on both sides, top and bottom for cooling a 120.4 rad and a 120.3 rad.

Overall not too shabby. Looks pretty clean.

One suggestion, why not try the power/reset buttons, on the side. Placed like where most place the USB/Firewire/Audio jacks? Keep the front clean.

I'd also agree with whats posted above, keep the 5.25" drive bays down to a minimum, unless of course you'll have a built in res, which could be pretty slick too. Nice plexi/glass(like) res built in.

Thanks IFMU. I like your suggestion! I think this is something I will try.

As you can get multi-drives, there's little need for large numbers of drive bays. But as you say, a drive bay res might be nice, or a fan contoller perhaps?

[Mick64]

if u can keep the price down on that sucker, then it would be amazing, people would be buying it left right and center, but a high price would drive away some of the buyers. i say 200-250$ and ill buy 4 XD

I think price would depend heavily on materials. Aluminium is going to be much more expensive than steel. Would you prefer a high priced aluminium case or a lower priced steel one?