What Features would make your ideal watercooling case?

[Tt Enthusiasts]

Hello Guys,

We would like to know what features would you like to see in a watercooling case?

Please keep in mind that im sure this could go all out and end up being so expensive knowone would buy it....

were looking for your feedback so what practical options would you like to see in a watercooled case?

• sleek straight panels or rough edgy look like chaser MI-I
• triple rad in top
• internal dual rad on rear
• integrated reservoir
• pre-installed high end radiators
• extra width to give more room behind the motherboard tray

you let us know what you would like to see.

[PiLsY]

I'll take this on . Ill admit to having a special love for my Spedo but I've had to mod the crap out of it to get there .

Looks wise youll get a million different opinions. I prefer the sleek look, and youll probably find as cases get more expensive your target audience probably would too. You dont see many "gamer" cases here .

Rad wise I picked the spedo because it took the rad at the top (with minimal modding) and the dual at the back. More options are always better, and limiting rad support to only 240mm's limits appeal to those with loops that need to get rid of a lot of heat (sli for example).

I wouldnt suggest preinstalling anything - thats half the fun tbh! Theres no reason you couldnt offer a case with and without preinstalled cooling of course.

Width behind mobo tray is always welcome. The Spedo has this nailed without a doubt. The one change i would make there though is mounting the 120mm cpu socket fan on the side panel instead of the mobo tray. You can then have a cutout on the mb tray so you can take the cpu cooler/block off without having to pull the motherboard. That is pretty much essential on any wc designed case and the one major flaw with the Spedo.



I'd quite like to see inverted atx make its way into your range. If you could design a mobo tray so it could run either way and the side panels so you can flip them thatd be a pretty neat and unique feature.

Keep the psu at the bottom to give us space at the top for rads.

Pre-installed lit acrylic midplate? I dont think thatd be a very expensive mass produced addition and if you can get it right in terms of soft light glow (and interchangeable LEDs) then youd have a big plus point there.

No bare metal - essential.

Stop putting loads of plastic crap in the cases . We dont need tool storage drawers and advanced air chambers. We need room for rads and a basic case structure to build in. The more complex the internal design the harder it is to get an efficient loop in it.

No plastic panels on high end cases. And for god sake stop putting fans in side window panels - it ruins the look of the panel.

If possible all aluminium to save weight. A watercooled rig weighs a damn ton and steel cases are just backbreaking to build in .


And finally thanks for giving us the oppurtunity to have a say .

[Tt Enthusiasts]

And finally thanks for giving us the oppurtunity to have a say .

No worries like ive said before.... If we dont know what you guys want..... then why bother building it right? I mean some of your ideas are a lil on the extreme side for a feasibly priced case, but even if one of your suggestions makes it in this could get our case line going in a very good direction.

Thanks for the feedback

[defect9]

practical? I'd do radiator case and computer case separate with a set of high-flow quick-disconnects between. enclose the dual pumps and reservoir in the rad case (well sound dampened) with a relay between to turn on the pumps when you turn on the computer. yes, dual pumps for redundancy (assuming DDCs), or an MCP655.

this way you could sell the radbox to people with ANY case, AND sell both as a package deal.

howver, i realize many people love the look of the "all in one case" design, and admittedly I do too, but for myself it isn't as practical as two smaller cases, considering most of the time I only have 2-4 harddrives, and with SSDs being so small, the room they take up isn't as much. I'd be more likely to connect an external box of HDs through a raid card than try to stuff them all in the same case as the computer.

Keep in mind, I'm strange.

oh, and no matter what, extra width behind the motherboard tray for wires and tubing. hell, put the powersupply (and maybe harddrives) behind the mobo tray to hide them (PSU on it's side, of course), and then ALL the wires are properly hidden, and can be fed up through the tray only where needed, eliminating visual clutter.

I think I just described a benchtable enclosed in a box.

[Tt Enthusiasts]

oh, and no matter what, extra width behind the motherboard tray for wires and tubing. hell, put the powersupply (and maybe harddrives) behind the mobo tray to hide them (PSU on it's side, of course), and then ALL the wires are properly hidden, and can be fed up through the tray only where needed, eliminating visual clutter.

I think I just described a benchtable enclosed in a box.

I think you did too

honestly taht would be basically a double width case at that point.

[subtec]

Personally, as far as looks go, I'm into a clean, minimalist exterior, while still looking like something that's 'designed,' if you know what I mean. It's not easy to pull off. I can't think of any aftermarket cases that really do it well. Fractal Design maybe comes closest. Lian Lis are a bit "industrial." Not bad, and I know a lot of people like them, but they don't manage to be really lustworthy IMO.

I've touched on this before in a post here, with some of examples of what I'd like to see. I've also done a little work myself in trying to design something I'd perhaps want to own, in the form of my entry to a certain case competition from earlier this year. You can see renders of my entry, and some other random ideas I had earlier in the design. Sorry for the shameless self promotion, but nothing came of it (I withdrew from the competition for various reasons) and I still like the design, so maybe it'll inspire your guys or give them some ideas or something.


edit: oh BTW, this is a little offtopic, but I'd like to see a SFF case, about the size of the element Q, except with two expansion slots and slightly taller (but not as tall as the Silverstone SG05/SG06... say 145mm or so, just enough so PCIe power plugs on a graphics card will fit), with a similar minimalist kind of style I described.

[warriorpoet]

1. Design the case so that the radiators are in logical intake locations (bottom of case, front panel of case). See Silverstone Fortress for bottom location, several Lian-Lis for front locations. Bonus points for 4x120mm mount-ability without modification.

2. Design simple, logical air paths to cool components that need it most (GPU, chipset, CPU).

3. Solid panels up top, sides, front as much as possible (see ATCS 840 for a perfect example at the front) to reduce noise leakage and minimize direct paths to the user.

4. Provide effective and simple HDD decoupling (bonus points if you figure out how to do optical drives). Antec currently does this better than anyone.

5. Provide the option to softmount case fans. Again, see Lian-Li.

6. Provide case fans that are accurately rated in both CFM and DBa. There is no such thing as a 12 Db, 60 CFM 120mm case fan.

7. CPU tray cutout.

8. Adequate and logical cable hidey-holes and tray grommets. Corsair does this better than anyone.

9. Make it look like something Ikea would design, only in Aluminium.

It is not difficult to design a thermally superior case. It is also not difficult to design an acoustically superior case. The difficulty comes in marrying the two. If you design a case with 3x ~1000 RPM 120mm in the floor and 1x ~1000 RPM 140mm at the rear with the PSU up top (above the CPU), you'll go a long way toward getting both.

Oh yeah...

10. 4x 5.25" external bays is nearly too many. Do something more creative with your internals; removing a few of those expansion bays can open up a lot of possibilities inside. Maybe 2x removable HDD cages with optional mount locations for those of us who want to go nuts with a 4x 120 in the floor and a 2x 120 at the front.

[OC Maximus]

Whats up Tt? Nice to see you here buddy.

[Stewie007]

9. Make it look like something Ikea would design, only in Aluminium.

Just make sure it doesn't fall apart like Ikea designs...... ^_^

I would like to see more sliding motherboard trays. My future Rig will be chilled, so no radiators, but installation will be easier that way. Less fuss, and less care necessary. Mistake-proof design!

For me, I'll be plumbing chilled loop with 5/8"OD Copper piping split five ways into ~1/4" tubing and will be insulating it all. Having the tray on the table top would enable me to do the job without tearing out a single hair follicle.

It would help if the thing weren't 2 feet tall. I've got barely 23" of space to deal with here, so being stopped by excess aesthetics is kind of a drag.

Oh, oh a side note...... Maybe you can make a bench table with a vertical motherboard tray so it doesn't have to be 14 inches wide.... I'd love to see a 9.5" depth bench tower with a vertical motherboard.... ^_^ Kind of like the Lian Li T60 with the ability to host motherboards with quad fire layouts..... ^_^

[zeropluszero]

I'm for the "radbox" idea.

something long squat and rectangular, maybe something that resembles just the bottom bay of a TJ07. able to take two 480mm radiators side by side, with space for a pair of D5's or DDC's, plus a reservoir, with a set of tubing out ports. maybe design it so that it can stand tall as well as sit at the bottom of tower cases horizontally.
perhaps wide enough to allow some sort of intake on the top, so that it can draw air into the center of the two paralell radiators, that then vent the warmed air out each side.

perhaps you could also add in space for a very small PSU, something like 200w max, with outputs for 3pin fans, and 4pin molex connectors for pumps/controllers only.

[DarthBeavis]

I like big ( o Y o ) on a case

[matari]

I loved (and owned) the Tt Armor II case. I switched to a Corsair 800 D because I was not able to fit 55 mm rad + fans in the case. Also, I had issues with routing my PSU cables behind the motherboard tray. They were to thick. Have you ever knocked off the spring release for the doors? Lol fun to put back on.

I would like to see a case that can fit 120.4 rad at bare minimum. I would like to be able to fit dual bay reservoirs without having to slice and dice the case. A bottom mounted PSU is a must.

Why don't you provide some sketches, then we can tell you what we like or dislike. Otherwise we might all describe a "bench inside a case."

[lowfat]

3x120mm radiator + 2x120mm radiator + the ability to keep 8+ HDD's + zero (one at the most) 5.25" bays.

[Utnorris]

A horizontal MB tray would be nice instead of the usual vertical MB case like almost every case out there.
Space for a triple up top, a dual up front if you remove the HD cage or on the bottom, sort of like what the CM690II does. This way people have options.
A fillport on top would be nice, make it delrin and not aluminum.
Places to route wires like the Corsair 800D.
Behind the MB tray should have 3/4" for cables to go without making the side panel bulge.
Figure out a way for the 5 1/4" bays to secure drives and stuff without the metal supports so a res can be put in without cutting them out.
If you really want to get fancy, put pass through PSU connectors on the MB tray so that the PSU can connect to them and then extensions would go to the various places.
SATA backplane.
Integrated fan plugs/multipliers where the rads will be.
Integrated temp monitor display on the front top that excepts standard temp probes like BP and Koolance.
Fan controller that can handle at least six fans for the rads.
Make the doors swing open instead of just popping off.
If you do a window, make it so that it only shows the MB area.
Graphics card support like the 690II.
Quick release PCI slots hold downs like Lian Li does in their cases.
Don't make it outrageously priced like the 800D and other cases.
Removable filters.
If you do a triple at the top, it would be nice if the rad could be mounted to a removable mount that could then be lowered into the top for easy mounting of the rad.
Looks wise, more curves and less corners.

That's all I have right now.

[defect9]

dammit, I'm not even done with my current computer build and I want to build another. you guys and all your great ideas suck.

[emoners]

A horizontal MB tray would be nice instead of the usual vertical MB case like almost every case out there.
Space for a triple up top, a dual up front if you remove the HD cage or on the bottom, sort of like what the CM690II does. This way people have options.
A fillport on top would be nice, make it delrin and not aluminum.
Places to route wires like the Corsair 800D.
Behind the MB tray should have 3/4" for cables to go without making the side panel bulge.
Figure out a way for the 5 1/4" bays to secure drives and stuff without the metal supports so a res can be put in without cutting them out.
If you really want to get fancy, put pass through PSU connectors on the MB tray so that the PSU can connect to them and then extensions would go to the various places.
SATA backplane.
Integrated fan plugs/multipliers where the rads will be.
Integrated temp monitor display on the front top that excepts standard temp probes like BP and Koolance.
Fan controller that can handle at least six fans for the rads.
Make the doors swing open instead of just popping off.
If you do a window, make it so that it only shows the MB area.
Graphics card support like the 690II.
Quick release PCI slots hold downs like Lian Li does in their cases.
Don't make it outrageously priced like the 800D and other cases.
Removable filters.
If you do a triple at the top, it would be nice if the rad could be mounted to a removable mount that could then be lowered into the top for easy mounting of the rad.
Looks wise, more curves and less corners.

That's all I have right now.

X2 on ALL of these.

maybe more SFF cases that can accommodate watercooling without too much modding.
basically better quality & simple looks (quality & simplicity like most Lian-Li cases & Silverstone's TJ07) but not going over board with the prices.

[eth0s]

Well trying to make it cheap is the first mistake. By definition, a water cooling case is going to be a premium case, and IMO will be marketed to that segment of the market that can probably afford to spend at least $200 for a case. (They might grouse about it, but most of the guys on this forum spend double that on their cases, if not quadruple.) However, if TT could build a really good water cooling case for $200-$300, you guys would probably hit the "sweet spot" in the market. (Or at least you would be right in the middle of the game, along with Corsair, Silverstone and Lian Li.) However it cannot look cheesy, like something a 13 year-old boy would buy like that Chase Mk-1. A steel box with some plastic goo-gaws stuck on top is not really what the water cooling enthusiast is looking for.

Now as for features, I think being able to mount a 360mm rad on top with double row of fans is the very least that would be required. But you better have room for at least another 240mm rad in the bottom or front (or bigger). Also nobody really wants a rad hanging off the back, that is a desperate measure of last resort, when there is no way to fit the rad inside the case. Also plan to fit a huge PSU in there somewhere, as the water cooling enthusiast is going to need at least a 1000watt psu, but more likely 1200w or 1500w. Also keep the outside looking clean and classy. As for materials, I would say you really need to make it 100% aluminum, or at least aluminum panels on a steel frame. And please don't junk it up with a lot of goofy doodads, instead, just keep it nice and simple. I would take the advice of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, who said the trick to making something look nice is not knowing how much stuff to add on top of it, but knowing what stuff to take away. [Otherwise, I agree with the other suggestions given above, about grommet holes and mobo trays. Except nobody said "removable mobo tray", so I'm saying it now, 'cuz they make life a lot easier.]

[Church]

Ideal watercooling case? In short - just two bits:
1) It should first and foremost be able to house internally big rads w/o modding (and no, just tripple rad won't cut it in todays world of overclocked i7 && SLI 580 )
2) It should look good and have window to be able to show off LC components (as lately LC became about bling as well, not just performance).

Regarding to (1.) imho still best LC case layout there is and will be is that of TJ07. 4x120 rad in bottom on side and another flat placed rad on top. = (*) still reasonable case dimensions; (*) one rad doesn't feed preheated air to another.
As a bit lower alternative - flat 4x120 rad on top, flat 4x120 radon case floor, PSU relocated to front/below 5.25 bays & hard disks. Both rads get air from outside, to get a bit more even out air pressure, extra fans blowing out on case back/front(and maybe sides).
- ability without modding mount two 4x120 rads (but please, with no stacking one side by side with another, as lot of effectiveness is lost) should be enough for even most extreme hardware configurations, and should fit 99% LC-ers needs.

As to (2.) imho Corsair 800D/Silverstone Fortress FT02 & TJ07/Lian-Li cases have hit the nail with going conservative clean lines/looks with little of plastic crap. That looks premium [tm].

[Alexandr0s]

I like big ( o Y o ) on a case

You mean tubing holes so you can have an external radiator?

[aerial]

For me ideal water cooling case would be very similar to TJ07. What is good and already exist:

- optional inverted atx
- removable motherboard tray
- compartment style section for radiator + perfect fit for 480 rad + 240/360, more than enough for high end sli, all hidden
- possible window on top

What should be fixed/updated

- black interior out of box for black version
- different position of window, slightly smaller (not show 5,25 bays)
- available windowed side panel for inverted atx version
- cable management holes out of box (these few crucial ones everyone mods)
- clean window on top, preferably glass not plexi, same goes for side panel
- different finish of main part of the case (entire front panel) - burshed aluminium all the way, that is exact match to cd bezels
- high quality aluminium power button, not plastic
- stock radiator mounts (that place radiator precisely at the center of rad compartment, just like murdermod hammond boxes)
- clean solid backplate, without any vent holes
- clean solid midplate, with just two fitting holes to route tubing, ready for real fittings (not rubber grommets like in most of cases)
- could have one extra expansion slot for larger motherboards and more video cards

With these minor changes this case would be close to perfect. It is important for the case, to be able to present water cooling rig as well as possible, at least im my opinion. Top panel window makes huge difference here, and this is the reason why I dislike cases with radiator on top. Motherboard is clutched somewhere between radiator (top) and powersupply (bottom), usually it leads to awkward window shape, or window that shows too much. As for the radiator surface, 480+240 is more than enough, unless we are going crazy for more than two gpus and multiple cpu, then we probably want one of these gigantic (but ugly) cases. Average user will never need more space for radiators, so that area is competely covered by Tj07. And again, no need for vertical motherboard orientation style (tj11), for a couple of reasons. First - we don't need that extra cooling cause it is wc, there will be no single fan in motherboard compartment. Second - window on top isn't possible - same problem as radiator on top. There is no point to improve certain things if they are already very good.

[mav2000]

1. Inverted ATX
2. Place for 2 X 360mm rads
3. removable mobo tray for easy cleaning and changing of parts.

[DarthBeavis]

I loved (and owned) the Tt Armor II case.

LOL - did a build in that case -hated it. From the front it looks like a robot vagina with those folding lip things that serve no purpose in life

[PatRaceTin]

i would prefer large case that easy wiring and tubing

[Kaldor]

For me ideal water cooling case would be very similar to TJ07.
/snip

aerial hit it on the head. A slightly wider TJ07 that can handle XL-EATX mobos that has some minor tweaks.

[Tt Enthusiasts]

I like big ( o Y o ) on a case

This could be tough to implement, but you seem to have no problem adding them