EVERYTHING is watercooled, which case is big enough?

[Zeal]

Hello, im building a computer for my friend a fully watercooled PC. Here are the specs

Intel core 2 quad qx6700(water cooled)
Asus p5n32-e sli(water cooled)
and 4 gigs of ram, OCZ PC2-9200 flex XLC liquid cooled ram
2x BFG geforce 8800 GTX liquid cooled
4x 150gb raptor X(water cooled useing Koolance, alphacool and 5.25 bay extension coolers)
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro Sound Card(i might water cool)

im thinking of going 1/4" tubing on everything since the graphics cards and the memory come that size from the factory and so do the HDD coolers.

Now im going to need 5.25" bays for the HDDs, so the case needs to have about minimum of 8 5.25" bays, and i need room for watercooling, built in watercooling is fine but it needs to be powerful enough to handle cooling the whole PC. There won't be any overclocking but the computer will be processing 24/7. also silence is golden, thank you.

 

[elrodvoss]

Well if you are going to water cool every inch of that system, I would suggest a "cube" case.

Sadly there are VERY few of these cases, but it will give you plenty of room to place everything and LOTS of 5.25 bay space. Nothing worse then to try and fit everything in a normal case and have hoses bending and curving everywhere and just looking ugly (even if you dont have case windows).

Here is a short list of the ones that I know of:

FrozenCPU HyperCube Blue YY Cube Case

This is a modified case from the popular Yeong Yang YY-0221 Cube Server Case. If you want all the glitter and lights then you can go with the hypercube, but if you just want a "plain" case, look for the Yeong Yang YY-0221 Cube Server Case

Yeong Yang YY-0221 Cube Server Case

Of course these cases are the same, just one is modded.


The only other case that I know that is a cube case is the one from the famed Mountain Dew Mod computer. If you never seen this computer, do a search for it and get ready to DROOL!!!!.

This case is from MountainMods.com and its their Us-UFO series (There are 5 different sets based on your layout needed). Here is the main US-UFO website directory. U2-UFO Please note that this is just the basic case, there are 4 others in there and the prices run 300-400 I believe.



With these cases they offer "split" sides, so you can stick your motherboard and cards on 1 side and the PSU, HDS, and if you want internal watercooling on the other side.


These will run you about 150-400 for a case depending on how big or flashy you want, but since your dropping a nice dime on the 100% watercooling, I dont think dropping good money for a case would be a big issue.

Plus with all the extra drive bays, it gives you extra room for any Drive Bay mods

 

[waylander]

I think the mozart would work too but wth would you spend all that money and use 1/4" tubing? Worthless.

I would suggest separate loops, put the ram, chipset and hdd water blocks at 1/4" tubing with a small pump and rad on one loop.

The second loop should be the cpu, and video cards using 1/2" tubing (suggest the Swiftech Storm and DD video block) with a 655 pump and 2 x 2 x 120mm rads.

If you try to put all of this on one loop with one pump and 1/4" tubing you might as well use air because I don't know of any pump that could handle that much tubing and 6-8 water blocks and at least 2 radiators, or you're going to end up with pathetic results.

Don't just do this because you think it's cool you noob, do it right. Put some thought and research into it because if you don't you'll f*ck it up and just blow up a $4000 computer.

 

[wun911]

MM U2 UFO

Except its still a little small for my build.



You can get them custom made to your needs....

 

[jorbor36]

why water cool if arent going to oc? air cooling would be fine

but the Thermaltake armor would be pefect for that

 

[Zeal]

see i was thinking of getting the mozart case, but im not a fan of watercooling kits because im such noob when it comes to them, this is my first water cooling project, i would really like to put everything in 1 case and make it look very nice

built in water cooling is my goal, i don't want a pump here, a radiator there, etc etc, i want it clean cut

the reason i want to go water cooling is simple, silent cooling, plus watercooling improves life of hardware and improves performance.

i was thinking was getting a normal case or mozart wand hooking this baby up http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=28_41&products_id=372&osCsid=33612c2d750fe60adf8ada5f0a970bec
but would it fit? see it was 5 pumps, 1 for each part, cpu, mb, vga, memory, HDD

my friend really cares about the appearance as well as performance. and he may overclock in the future but for now he wants a top stable PC.

 

[elrodvoss]

see i was thinking of getting the mozart case, but im not a fan of watercooling kits because im such noob when it comes to them, this is my first water cooling project, i would really like to put everything in 1 case and make it look very nice

built in water cooling is my goal, i don't want a pump here, a radiator there, etc etc, i want it clean cut

the reason i want to go water cooling is simple, silent cooling, plus watercooling improves life of hardware and improves performance.

i was thinking was getting a normal case or mozart wand hooking this baby up http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=28_41&products_id=372&osCsid=33612c2d750fe60adf8ada5f0a970bec
but would it fit? see it was 5 pumps, 1 for each part, cpu, mb, vga, memory, HDD

my friend really cares about the appearance as well as performance. and he may overclock in the future but for now he wants a top stable PC.

So your looking for an external cooling system? If you are doing to drop the money for a mozart (which I believe would be overkill), you might want to look at a phase-change cooler.

 

[Doughbuy]

You will have more tubing in your case than a Japanese tentacle monster, and it will be hell, I mean HELL to do anything inside that thing... just a quick warning that you know what you're getting into...

Waylander speaks the truth, you need 2 loops at least, but 3 is probably recommended. One for proc + northbridge, one for GPU's (those 8800GTX get freaking hot) and one for everything else (How the hell do you watercool a sound card??!?!?!?)

But 3 Laing DD5 pumps... 3 Dual-slot Radiators, and a shit-ton of tygon tubing... hmmm... wondering if it's possible to share a resevoir... otherwise... omg, I don't want to imagine this... I'll tell you now, if you can make this work, you're a lot better computer builder than 99.9% of the population... especially if you can get this in a normal consumer case...

 

[waylander]

Actually there are double bay reservoirs with 3 intakes / 3 outtakes. I personally don't like bay reservoirs but they work.

 

[Doughbuy]

That would be a fairly ridiculous reservoir... not to mention it'd take up a lot of room, but he'd have to in order to cut down on tubing and space... sigh...

I like tiny reservoirs where you can tape to the side of your case =)

 

[chuckshissle]

Go for the HyperCube! That should fit all your need.

 

[Guest]

Wouldn't be a case thread without me recommending the SilverStone Tj-07.

I would get a good case with good ventilation and cool the CPU and the videocard, perhaps the northbridge but even that.

Cooling the HD and such is really a waste IMO, if you get a good case with good HD airflow, it'll do the trick!

 

[waylander]

Here is a picture of my internal water cooling. You can see the pump at the bottom right just below the the cylindrical reservoir, my radiator with 4 120mm fans is to the right in the drive bay area. I'm using the components as listed in my sig.

 

[APieceOfCheese]

Not the CM Stacker 830

It's big but there's no place to put everything.

 

[chunkymonster]

Take a visit over to servercase.com and view their selection. You will certainly find a case large enough for your water cooling needs.

Specifically, on the left hand side menu choose "Advance Server Cases" and look at models; YY0221, CK1200C, and GHS-2000.

Please keep in mind that these are server cases, a real man's computer case, not your pretty boy light-em up sexy with cold cathode tube and LED fan cases you get off those popular nancy boy retails sites. :lol: :lol: :roll: 8O

Good luck!

 

[NeonDeon]

Water cooling??? ARE YOU NUTS MAN? WHY would you want to deal with that mess?! Yeah it sounds col, but it's a major pain in the azz! And think about having to change to coolant\water... And every time your friend wants to upgrade, they will need to take all that $h$$ apart. And if there is even a little drip.............ZZZZZAAAPPPPOOOO..... Door stop!

Now that I have scared you... go with the Thermaltake Armor!

 

[waylander]

Take a visit over to servercase.com and view their selection. You will certainly find a case large enough for your water cooling needs.

Specifically, on the left hand side menu choose "Advance Server Cases" and look at models; YY0221, CK1200C, and GHS-2000.

Please keep in mind that these are server cases, a real man's computer case, not your pretty boy light-em up sexy with cold cathode tube and LED fan cases you get off those popular nancy boy retails sites. :lol: :lol: :roll: 8O

Good luck!

Maybe because they are for business server uses? Way too ugly to keep in my house. I really don't think that he needs any thing with hot swapable drive bays, waste of money and space.

 

[Doughbuy]

Hot swappable water-cooled drives...

MMMMM... Yummy

 

[chunkymonster]

uhmm...you can get a server case without hot swappable drive bays...my old Yeong Yang Cube Case (model YY00221 @ servercase.com) didn't have hot swappable bays, neither did my dual chamber tower case...but that was before I put my hardware into a Silverstone TJ07, which is a nice case as well but not big enough, in my opinion, to house the equipment the OP mentioned...and that was the point of recommending a server style case, to give the OP some options for his project...right?!

 

[niz]

Your friend sounds like a moron with too much money because he's asking you to do a build when you clearly have no clue.

Half the stuff you plan to watercool just doesn't need it. WC your ram? why? The fact that you chose 1/4" tubing and Raptor X's over the ones without the window shows you're just a bling kiddie who hasn't done any research either.

Also why do y'all think you need a massive cases for this? I have a system with a water-cooled 6800 extreme and 2 water-cooled 8800 GTX's and it all fits happily in an antec p2b case (average mid-tower size). Radiators (but not fans) are external of course.

The big problem you're gonna face is the size/number of the radiators you're gonna need to disspiate all the heat that you've picked up from the 2 GTXs and water cooling all the redundant stuff that you don't need to. Also, you'll need multiple water circuits because if you put all that stuff in one water line it won't work for sh1t especially as you've decided to go with tiny 1/4" tubing for some lame reason. I'm already waiting for your next post asking everyone why you keep burning out pumps and why your system runs too hot...

 

[Zeal]

ur mean man damn man chill... alright please dont call me a bling kiddie... this computer is going in a closet not the show room floor i just wanted a practical water cooling solution for the entire computer... AIR COOLING OF ANY SORT IS NOT AN OPTION... compranda? it will be in a hot closet dont ask me why thats how small the room is... now if i have to have multiple water cooling kits then thats fine... i never said i wouldn't do it... in fact heres what i was thinking... tell me what you think i was gonna put it up in the water cooling section but nvm i guess... here goes nothing(im already ready for the bashing)

ok heres the case:
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=28_43&products_id=275

plus 2 water cooling kits:
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=28_41&products_id=380
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2398/ex-wat-90/CoolIT_Systems_Freezone_Universal_CPU_Cooler_-_Preassembled_Internal_TEC_Water_Cooling_Kit.html?tl=g30

i might change the CPU water block on that baby well see, maybe a storm g5

Things im water cooling:
BFG geforce 8800 GTX x 2
maybe 2 150gb wd raptors or 4 74gb ws raptors i dont know but each one will be water cooled
4 gbs/sticks of OCZ PC2-9200 flex xlc liquid cooled ram
Chipset 680i(im looking at maybe dangerden)

The geforces come water cooled already
the hard drives as i said before ARE THE MOST VITAL PART OF THIS BUILD and will be liquid cooled using a sandwich design of both
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_45&products_id=231
http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_45&products_id=176

i might get something else instead of the koolance HD-40-L06 like the alpha cool HDD water block, we'll see
http://www.alphacool.de/product_info.php/products_id/542/cPath/5_18_22/hard-disk-water-coolers/hdd-alphacool-hdd3-cu-plexi-cooler-3,5-.html

i really wanted to use the 5.25" HDD liquid cooler too but i guess you cant have everything good bye 5.25" liquid cooler, IF ANYONE CAN FIND A NEW SOLUTION THAT'LL INCORPERATE THE 5.25" HDD COOLER PLUS THE OTHER 2 HDD COOLERS I'LL GO TO CHURCH AND PRAY FOR YOUR WELL BEING, here the cooler
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1941/ex-blc-128/Asetek_WaterChill_Hard_Drive_Cooler_5_14_bay_03-L-9030.html?tl=g30c203
now the ram comes liquid cooling ready, with amazing heatsink, and only in 1/4 inch tubing, also the HD comes in 1/4 tubing so i figured why not get the chipset in 1/4 inch and just run one loop through all 3

my plan is to have the bigger CASE water cooling kit cool the GTXs and have the external water cooling cool the chipset, ram, and HDD, i might get the cooler master aquagate
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2405/ex-wat-97/Cooler_Master_Aquagate_Internal_External_Liquid_Cooling_System_for_AMD_K7socket_462_K8_socket_754_939_940_and_Intel_P4.html?tl=g30c83
cause the ram plus HDD plus chipset might be too much or i might use the aquagate and cool the ram or HDD but i dont think it has that good of a pump for all that tubing

now has you can see i've done my research as i told you before im not a fan of radiator here... pump there... i was nice clean finish and i think i can ifnally get it, what you think?

 

[Doughbuy]

... Water-cooling's effectiveness also depend on ambient temps, if it's in a hot closet, then the radiators won't be able to effectively cool the water and you'd still have a hot system...

Food for thought

 

[Zeal]

yeah thats true but in the future when my friend moves out, soon, he'll get his own room and might want to OC or just extend the life of his computer by means of effective cooling, all he told me was, i need a totally water cooled system, and i agreed to build it for him(his giving me his old computer, worth like 1g now)

 

[aielman]

If you want to have plenty of room and not have to dick around too much with modding the case, I'd also recommend a cube. I'd go with either then Lian Li PC-343b or one of the Mountain Mods cubes, either the Duality or the Opti-1203. They all will have plenty of room, and they will allow you to install, with no modifications, multiple radiators to cover seperate loops for the devices you want to cool. The also have places for you to install multiple PSUs to cover all the power hungry hardware you'll be putting in.

peace,
Aielman

 

[Rhinofart]

You don't need a big ass fancy case to handle a watercooling setup, and have it still look decent. I have a Swiftech Apex Ultra Dual 120 Rad setup all installed into my Standard Lian-Li case. Anyone tell me how to upload pics to the forums here and I'll post them this afternoon. Pics were taken yesterday. Anyway for comparison here is my setup:
Lian-Li PC60 Case
Antec Phantom 500 PSU
AMD Opteron 175 @ 2642
ATI AIW x800 Pro Oc'ed by 100 on core and 250 on ram
Mushkin Redline Ram (2 x 1Gig DDR500)
Asus A8V Delux ( I know for a fact this Mobo is what is holding back my OC)
AuzenTech HDA X-PLOSION 7.1 DTS Connect Dolby Digital Live Sound Card PCI 32BIT Optical Output
Western Digital WD1200 Hard Drive
Western Digital WD1600 Hard Drive
LG GSA-4120B DVD drive
Matrix Orbital MX2 LCD Display Panel.

I run Prime95 (1 instance per Core) all the time. I am 100% stable, and the only time my computer is cycled is some times I have to goto 32 Bit windows to do some stuff, or Windows updates. I have been Prime stable at these speeds since Feb of 06, and the highest temp I have ever gotten to is 48C. Bear in mind that the room my computer is in stays about 30 C all the time because of the computers that are running in it all the time. So 18 degrees above ambient isn't too bad considering the OC on all the components.

So long story short, if you have even a little bit of skill with a dremel and are not chicken to do anything then you can make any case capable of handling a good watercooling setup.