Case Design for Liquid Cooling

[Brodholm]

"The dimensions of the case are: depth - 680mm, width - 230mm, height - 620mm"

I'm building my own custom chassis although mine will have these dimensions: depth 620mm, width ~230mm, height 650mm. These may change some cm here or there. I'm building a prototype in cardboard because I ain't that good with sketchup :\

Anyway the prototype is almost done and it is freaking HUGE. My current chassis (p182) looks like a miniature model of a chassis if I compare them! I'm seriously considering scaling it down or changing design to a cube. Although cubes are ugly as hell when compared to a tower... yeek (IMO ofc)

I'm going with a similar design as you but with the top compartment dedicated for hdds, psu, fancontrollers etc. And that compartment will be isolated from the others and only have a 120mm fan blowing air through. And then a vertical 360rad up the front and another 360rad in the lower compartment. And dual loops.

Do you have thoughts of scaling it down?

[Mick64]

No! I'm actually making it a little longer to 700mm!!!! Frickin huge! I know......

[Brodholm]

No! I'm actually making it a little longer to 700mm!!!! Frickin huge! I know......

Shize

Bigger omg. what do you need all that space for?

Anyway I considered to put a radiator in top as your design but I don't like it. I don't know why maybe ill go with that design. But doesn't the top rad fill the res because it has a higher location. And it must be a pita to fill that rad after a drain or am i missing something?

Because putting one of the rads in top would solve quite much for me. I'm going for a clean front :S And I still haven't decided where to put the cd/dvd...

[Zehnsucht]

I still haven't decided where to put the cd/dvd...

Slim-DVD at the side looks always great and takes minimal area.
Comparision:

Typical product:
http://www.dustinhome.se/pd_5010127306.aspx

[Mick64]

Shize

Bigger omg. what do you need all that space for?

Anyway I considered to put a radiator in top as your design but I don't like it. I don't know why maybe ill go with that design. But doesn't the top rad fill the res because it has a higher location. And it must be a pita to fill that rad after a drain or am i missing something?

Because putting one of the rads in top would solve quite much for me. I'm going for a clean front :S And I still haven't decided where to put the cd/dvd...

Not much room if using a long PSU! Need a little more space in the area between a long PSU and the bottom rad...

The res doesn't need to be above the rad. You fill the res, turn on the pump until the res is empty, then refill the res until the loop is full. No problem!

[Brodholm]

Slim-DVD at the side looks always great and takes minimal area.
Comparision:

Typical product:
http://www.dustinhome.se/pd_5010127306.aspx

Yeah I know, I want to put one in top so you slide it in from above but the chassis is a bit to high for that. 650mm + dvd (120mm) thats 770 mm and that is bigger than most desktops (and mine). I think the recommended hight on a desktop is 700mm. You should also consider that mick. If you are making your chassis 700.

Not much room if using a long PSU! Need a little more space in the area between a long PSU and the bottom rad...

The res doesn't need to be above the rad. You fill the res, turn on the pump until the res is empty, then refill the res until the loop is full. No problem!

ok, thanks for the clarification. But cant you align the psu side by side with the radiator? it would only block some air and it shouldn't hurt the temps. This would give you tons of space for the cables.

[Sadasius]

Not much room if using a long PSU! Need a little more space in the area between a long PSU and the bottom rad...

The res doesn't need to be above the rad. You fill the res, turn on the pump until the res is empty, then refill the res until the loop is full. No problem!

There is a PSU extension bracket that would have made a long PSU fit with a 360 rad without any problems without having to extend the case at PPCS.

[Brodholm]

There is a PSU extension bracket that would have made a long PSU fit with a 360 rad without any problems without having to extend the case at PPCS.

Yeah but flipping it over and have it all inside looks better imo. And you save some more space. Because these chassis isn't something you take with you and lan :P

[Mick64]

Haven't had time to do any rendering yet, but here's a few pix from SketchUp which show the latest design changes. It is now possible to reverse the motherboard tray and flip the side panels. Both rad brackets have been shortened so that you can fit an optional HDD rack in the bottom and an optional 5.25" drive rack in the top. I've also added much of the details as to how the case would be constructed....

[exemay]

lol please stop teasing me! this case looks so ing amazing, i cant wait to see it being produced...i love the way the mobo tray comes out!

very nice work!!!!!!!!

[autobot]

.....aaaaaaaaand now this is the best case idea ever!

Silverstone...buy this idea and produce it NOW!
Silverstone TJ-1337 FTW edition!

[Sadasius]

Nice....Can't wait to work on this one next!

[MrToad]

Man, it's getting better by the day.

I've run out of suggestions and/or criticism.

Now I just want one sitting next to me, waiting to be filled

[Waterlogged]

Mick, your really tempting me with this case...and that's saying something coming from a mATX case die hard.

[ML Infamous]

If this is produced, I would buy one immediately, and would likely own two.

The renders look better than any case I've seen.

[wanderer256]

In my humble opinion, there should not be dedicated 3.5" HDD rack in the central part of the case. Instead, it is better to have additional 5.25" bays, where 3.5" drives can be mounted in removable cage (like Coolermaster did in their original Stacker design). This approach has the following advantages:
1) It is more flexible - you can use available space for whatever you need - 5.25", 3.5", 2.5" devices, reservoirs, or even install additional radiator in front of the case;
2) Front intake fan will work more effectively without having to blow through drive cage walls spanning across the case right before it (instead, we get some sort of the duct formed by 5.25 bay walls); Having a lot of spare 5.25 bays allows to install not 1, but 2 intake fans, which will more than compensate decrease of fan size;
3) It is more future proof - we are going to use 2.5" SSDs soon , which are silent and cold, so they can be stuck just to any side of the case and dedicated 3.5 bays will be totally wasted;
4) Integral side walls of 5.25 bay area will make entire case more rigid;

[Jah]

Just have one request, could you pretty please bend the laws of physic and make it bigger on the inside then on the outside

That is one freaking big tower, but anything able to fit that amount of radiators internally is going to be huge. And if available I would definitely consider one of those when buying a new case.

[geo]

In my humble opinion, there should not be dedicated 3.5" HDD rack in the central part of the case. Instead, it is better to have additional 5.25" bays, where 3.5" drives can be mounted in removable cage (like Coolermaster did in their original Stacker design). This approach has the following advantages:
1) It is more flexible - you can use available space for whatever you need - 5.25", 3.5", 2.5" devices, reservoirs, or even install additional radiator in front of the case;

+1
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[Brodholm]

WHat size does ssd use? do they fasten them in 3,5 slots?

[generics_user]

WHat size does ssd use? do they fasten them in 3,5 slots?

SSDs are either 1.8" or 2.5", and there is NO performance difference between both sizes (intel + samsung drives)

5.25" is more future proof and makes it much easier to decouple storage drives (rubber bands) and you can fit 4 2.5" SSDs into one 5.25" bay

but i want to ask for one change: make it shorter again

this case is so huge already (you can fit 2 dual 240s and 2 480 rads without any Mods in the short version), its market would be much smaller if you make it that long

[Jamesrt2004]

SSDs are either 1.8" or 2.5", and there is NO performance difference between both sizes (intel + samsung drives)

5.25" is more future proof and makes it much easier to decouple storage drives (rubber bands) and you can fit 4 2.5" SSDs into one 5.25" bay

but i want to ask for one change: make it shorter again

this case is so huge already (you can fit 2 dual 240s and 2 480 rads without any Mods in the short version), its market would be much smaller if you make it that long

although the case is big already I cant see how 2cm is going to affect the design that much more =/

[Mick64]

In my humble opinion, there should not be dedicated 3.5" HDD rack in the central part of the case. Instead, it is better to have additional 5.25" bays, where 3.5" drives can be mounted in removable cage (like Coolermaster did in their original Stacker design). This approach has the following advantages:
1) It is more flexible - you can use available space for whatever you need - 5.25", 3.5", 2.5" devices, reservoirs, or even install additional radiator in front of the case;
2) Front intake fan will work more effectively without having to blow through drive cage walls spanning across the case right before it (instead, we get some sort of the duct formed by 5.25 bay walls); Having a lot of spare 5.25 bays allows to install not 1, but 2 intake fans, which will more than compensate decrease of fan size;
3) It is more future proof - we are going to use 2.5" SSDs soon , which are silent and cold, so they can be stuck just to any side of the case and dedicated 3.5 bays will be totally wasted;
4) Integral side walls of 5.25 bay area will make entire case more rigid;

IMO, 3x 5.25" drive bays would be enough, but I have provided the option of another two at the expense of reducing the 120.4 to a 120.3. The HDD drive rack would be removable anyway, so that you can have the drives in any orientation. I may even provide an optional alternative rack designed to hold SSD's, I'm just not quite sure of the dimensions at the moment. I'm pretty sure air flow would be more than adequate and you could always fit a 160.1 rad in front of that 200mm fan if you really wanted to???

[wanderer256]

IMO, 3x 5.25" drive bays would be enough, but I have provided the option of another two at the expense of reducing the 120.4 to a 120.3.

I, personally, use 6 5.25" bays in my TJ07: 2 rheobuses, 1 optical drive and 3 3.5" HDDs suspended in this. As it was mentioned before, 5.25" bays are very good for decoupling of HDDs using suspension. And I'd gladly use another two bays for reservoirs for my 2 loops.

[geo]

IMO, 3x 5.25" drive bays would be enough, but I have provided the option of another two at the expense of reducing the 120.4 to a 120.3.

yes. but all 5.25 drive bys would provide flexibility of moving drives around. if someone wishes to remove three of them? even get the antec 900 effect of 2 fans in the front

[b@llz0r]

the only thing i dont like is the psu fan hole... itll pull hot air from the graphics cards... wouldnt it make sense to pull cool air from under the case by flipping it?