How Would You Design Your Case?

[ares1214]

Hows the cooling on the tempest? Almost bought it once. Same with the 690 II (if thats what you meant). And i doubt the material of the case makes a big difference, but if enthusiasts are willing to spend an extra $30 on a H70 over an H50 for maybe 3 C lower temps, then im sure whatever small difference it does make will be a nice added feature. And carbon fiber can be made to be radar absorbent, and who wouldnt pay an extra $50 for a radar absorbent case?! :lol:

 

[JohnnyChrist]

Completely modular (Side panels at least).

I must've been on 'shrooms when I thought it up, but tiles for the side panel, each like 140mm x 140mm, so that you could mount 120mm fans on them with some rigidity. You could also have vents, or windows that take up several tiles, or just solid plates.

 

[ares1214]

If there was a side fan at all, it would likely either be as big as possible, or a few 120s stragtecially placed. The bigger the fan, the wider the airflow, and its good to cover as much as possible. Ive generally seen in cases its good to have a lot of front, top and rear fans. Alternative to that, its good to have a side, bottom, and top fan. Ive done a lot of work into this, those 2 distinct ones have always done the best. Mixing them generally has created a lot of dead zones and stagnant air. Although its good to always have a front fan. Id say the best setup ive seen was actually on a custom built case. Similar to the 1200, it had 3 top and 2 rear fans. Although the rear fans were 2 120s side by side instead of on top. Then there were 3 fans at the top. The bottom was lined with 2 120mm fans, and there was 1 front one. It provided the best airflow ive seen, and yet didnt have a side fan like most cases. Thermodynamics give some explanation to this. The front 1 (might have been 2) fan (s) cooled the hdd and helped with the gpu. The top 3 could either be used as intake or exhaust, but they were exhaust. The back 2 were exhaust as well. Then the bottom 2 were intake. Cold air sinks, hot air rises, so that explains some of it. Very dusty without dust filters, but incredible cooling nonetheless.

 

[medjohnson77]

I loved the tempest case, I modded it, and put a smoked glass side panel on it... it was very nice kept stuff cool, but it didn't match what this case I built does cooling wise.

@johnnyChrist man that is something I haven't done in years, lol.

 

[ares1214]

The tempest evo is a great case. I actually wish that NZXT, instead of making the interesting phantom to say the least, re-remade the Tempest. Maybe make cable management a little better, make the case a little bigger, make the side fan a 200mm instead of the 120mm (kinda looked awkward if you ask me :lol: ) and just a few improvements. It really is a quite nice design from what ive seen. I just think it couldnt of hurt to remake it again, as im not terribly impressed with the Phatom.

 

[ares1214]

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=304&Itemid=61&limit=1&limitstart=3

Look at the few pictures in that. That is the thermaltake Speedos cable managment system. I actually think it is extremely intelligent. While i do also like corsairs approach, excessive as it may be, i think purposefully placed grommeted wholes (large one for PSU, maybe a box to hide them, 2 for HDD, 1 on the bottom, 2 for ODD, and maybe 1 large slot above the motherboard) maybe like 7 MAX, 5 or 4 is doable. But those little places to mount and hide them behind the mobo tray, is, in my opinion, a VERY good idea. It stops you from having to shove the side back on, it not fitting, or it just being an absolute mess back there. A generous space behind the motherboard is also important.

 

[langer]

I would... and do.
Here's a link to my thread here on Tom's on my latest build: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/283744-28-project-helios-concept-design-planning

 

[ares1214]

So that is a carbon fiber custom case in the making?