What Features would make your ideal watercooling case?

[Agent11]

+1 for psu seperate with dedicated intake. Would have to be close enough for routing, and in the back preferably. I dont get this front mounted psu business.

[Royteane]

I'm going to spend for a new big case very soon. Does TT have any prototype now? Perhaps, I'll change my mind for ot.

[Vapor]

From a full-size case, I would like to be able to have balanced airflow with at least a triple and a double radiator both as air intake (or separated chambers, even). As it is now with most cases, if you use a triple and a double rad, either you have extremely unbalanced and constricted airflow from a limited exhaust setup (all air that enters must go out the PSU and a single 120mm fan, limiting air intake through the rads) or you through one of the radiators and basically negate the majority of its cooling ability. Of course, the more radiator it can hold and still maintain balance and not get oversized, the better. Maybe use the motherboard-side as part of the exhaust?

As an extension of that, I would also like to see HDDs at the 'logical' exhaust location (or far enough 'downstream' of the intake to fit a radiator + fans). HDDs don't need the coldest air possible, radiators do.

As someone else said, I'd also like room behind the motherboard for wiring. And I'd like the motherboard far enough away from the top/bottom/front/sides that there is room for a radiator and fan worth of thickness.

An easy way to mount and decouple 1-2 pumps would be nice. It would be even better if the mounts were changeable/adaptable/flexible enough to hold any of the popular pumps at a variety of angles.

Maybe even some external swappable panels/components just for aesthetics...use the same frame for both a simple professional-style case (older Lian Li/Silverstone styles) and a protruding/angular gamer-styled case (Cooler Master/NZXT styles) and maybe have it be user changeable? Seems like there are stark differences in preferences and that could tackle both sides with basically one design.

[DarthBeavis]

I thought you only use a test bench.

[Vapor]

I don't think I would ever consider a test bench for my personal computer.

In my opinion, the computer parts (PCBs, power supplies, wiring, tubing, pumps, even power/HDD lights, etc.) should never be seen and the entire computer should never be heard. Entirely possible with cases now (just don't get a window and don't connect the external lights), but tough to get the combination of low noise and full performance WC (i.e., balanced airflow) without using a cube (or really any Mountain Mods case, which I've grown to dislike almost since the day I got my own).

[Alexandr0s]

You know, there is one thing that has always bothered me about most cases. Almost every case seems to have their HDD's mounted horizontally. I don't know why that is, because I can imagine when you have like 4-8 HDD's, having them sideways like this: |||| , would work much better for the heat dissipation. Please tell me if I'm wrong about this, or if this is just some crazy quirk all case manufacturers have.

[defect9]

my Cosmos 1000 has them mounted sideways like that. Of course the airflow space between them means theres not really any space saved.

[Agent11]

The silverstone tjo6 had them like that too iirc.

[Alexandr0s]

my Cosmos 1000 has them mounted sideways like that. Of course the airflow space between them means theres not really any space saved.

I can imagine in certain cases where you have more horizontal room than vertical room mounting them sideways can be more efficient.
What I'm mainly interested in is whether it has a beneficial effect on the cooling of the HDD's.

[defect9]

I can imagine in certain cases where you have more horizontal room than vertical room mounting them sideways can be more efficient.
What I'm mainly interested in is whether it has a beneficial effect on the cooling of the HDD's.

only if you had no airflow in that part of the case before. generally it shouldn't take much air movement to overcome natural convection.

[the_dope_chaud]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but a cool idea would be to have a normal tower, and you could join two of them side-by-side with the side panel facing the other case removed to make a cube. make a few w/c features and you could use one of them for your water, and the other one for hardware. And for the more xtreme guys, you could start joining 3-4 of them. Heck, make it so you could stack the on top of each other also, and some guys would start playing lego with those cases.

[Tt Enthusiasts]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but a cool idea would be to have a normal tower, and you could join two of them side-by-side with the side panel facing the other case removed to make a cube. make a few w/c features and you could use one of them for your water, and the other one for hardware. And for the more xtreme guys, you could start joining 3-4 of them. Heck, make it so you could stack the on top of each other also, and some guys would start playing lego with those cases.

haha that would be neat... modular cases, build/stack how you need.... wait i see a big game of jenga coming from this

[Church]

Tt Enthusiasts: .. or not side by side, but "rad box(-es)" attachable/stackable on top or below basic case in middle. Same finish/color as base case. Think of something like in this worklog (finished pic), but made by vendor. .
I'm thinking something like - removable case top plane/floor with legs, bolt on with thumbscrews from inside one or several of such rad boxes, then bolt back "ceiling" plate/legs to those radboxes.
Optionally those radboxes (i'm thinking something like bottom compartment of TJ07, with mesh from both sides) might have extra 5.25 bays in front, and possibility to mount extra HDD enclosures inside. - you get cheaper/smaller & lighter (cheaper to ship) basic case; get extra $ from selling radboxes; extra $ from selling hdd enclosures and other extras. I suggest to make radboxes with rather neutral looks, for them to be usable with several different "base cases".

[phantomferrari]

you know how most cases have a front plastic cover. i would love to fit a 25mm fan behind the plastic and in front of the case. this way i could fit a larger rad in the front internal section of the case without having to get creative as to where i am going to put my hard drives

[the_dope_chaud]

A modular case system, with m-atx blocks, normal tower blocks, e-atx blocks and rad blocks/pedestals. Also, maybe a separate block for optical drives and hdd's, to keeb motherboard compartment clean.

[Tt Enthusiasts]

hey guys thank you for all of the feedback, I will be at PAX after today and likely wont have much time for accessing forums but I will be back full time Tuesday.

[lapoune]

small mATX cases for watercooling are seriously lacking, while you can get pretty much any other configuration you could want when you go up in size. Thus my wish would be a mATX case that could fit at least 2 thin (swiftech like) 220mm radiators.

Pretty much the only small option was the Qmicra, but you had to mod it to make it work, it was extremely pricey, and it's no longer available. Still the maker managed to sell out every run he made even with the incredibly high price so I would think this would be a recipe for success.

[emoners]

well after hearing all the suggestions, i HOPE that Thermaltake would REALLY take them into account.

[Church]

emoners: just remember that it's business. unless manufacturer willingly decides to release some product on which he'll loose money but which might help rise it's reputation for having "top" product, they have to pass all design decisions through filter "how much will cost to implement" and "how big planned target niche will be". One can always make "ideal case", but if resulting case will be too pricy, or if it will fit only small niche of buyers (no matter what someone might think, LC IS relatively small niche, so if case is bad fit for aircooled builds, it might slash sales .. hmm, by at least factor of 10(?), which in turn will make manufacturing and logistics even more pricey because of small volumes.

Imho modular case might be one of ways to answer problem. As in way to mount many/big rads or extra hdd enclosures for those few that need it, and no extra price/case size for those that don't.

[dreamaxx]

Pretty much the caselabs MH10

[Church]

dreamaxx: well, for one thing it's too wide to ever become ideal for me for example :P. Hate those cube-styled furniture pieces, too inefficiently/uncompactly packed cases to ever like them. I doubt it will be much to liking for those that grinned about MM cubes or proposed m-atx cases too.

[zeroibis]

What I never liked about cube cases is they are too wide vs tall. I rather have a case that is closer to 2-3 full towers stacked together where they are longer and taller than wide. For example I currently use two full tower cases together for my rig and it works great. As the bases split in half it makes moving it a lot easier as it splits in to full tower size chunks.

The best case for water cooling should use a modular case design where as the case itself can be made larger by bringing in another tower piece. Basically you sell some frames and then the inside is modular so if you wanted lets say more space for rads you could add on another frame piece and then get the internal rad mounts if you want. OR if you needed to store a ton of HDDS you could increase the size of your case to accommodate them.

[jackies]

I'd like to see taller, narrower cases too. Full tower is pretty good, but still not enough space for some of the more elaborate setups.
Now, modular approach is an interesting idea, but probably will be difficult to implement. I don't recall seeing anything like that... ever...

[Wiser]

IMO the main problem of modular cases is availability of parts/modules - I think it is hard to convince all dealers to have every possible part/module (so there should be some "ready to use" versions of cases + separate modules). For me single-width tower case with detachable radiator/pump or PSU compartment(s) @ the bottom is the best solution - don't like at all cases with top rad compartment because of higher possibility of overturning (especially if it's single-width fulltower case). Rad compartment should be detachable to allow changes in radiator size or quantity (monster-size cases are not good for everyone), basic version should support 1*360 or 1*420 rad. Not sure about PSU placement (should there be an option of placement it @ top or not - it's extra 80+mm of wasted case height - only ~50mm needed for fan(s) and some extra space above M/B, however case will be longer if you place both PSU and rad @ bottom compartment). Cases with HPTX support tend to be too large, so there should be a regular ATX/E-ATX version too. And it was already mentioned - radiator should get air directly from the outside of case and should not pump hot air inside it (otherwise there will be more dust inside the case and/or overheated parts if they are not watercooled), so bottom radiator compartment like @ TJ07 is optimal.
Planning on making one myself (with 2*480rad compartment @ the bottom - it will be too tall and too deep, but I like large cases), but currently got some problems with manufacturing (I don't do it all myself and got all kind of problems with quality while making test bench)

[vhaarr]

I really want a midi tower case that can handle:
* Top-mounted 360 60mm thick radiator + 25mm clearing for fans (only supporting low profile RAM is acceptable)
* 2x front 120/140mm spaced for 240/280mm radiator, with removable filter for easy cleaning (or fixed if it can be vacuumed)
* 3x 5.25" bays that the 360 up top won't block
* 1x or 2x 120/140mm fan at the bottom (in addition to PSU), with filter

This is perfectly doable as long as you guys just add another 120mm to the length of the case and make the HDD tray completely removable (with screws or whatever, as long as I don't have to cut it).