Preferred Case for Watercooling

[StangMan04]

I am looking to replace my HAF 932 case with one that is better for watercooling. I like my HAF 932 but the 5.25 optical drive bays force me to use a bay reservoir and would hide it from view. Now I do have a optical drive but may ditch it in favor of a cleaner look.

Looking at potentially a Corsair 750D.

Parts going in the case are:
1150 ATX motherboard (haven't chosen which yet)
i5 4690k
R9 280 3GB video card (not going SLI)
128GB SDD
200GB HDD (may switch to SDD if needed)


FYI this is my first time dealing with watercooling and my friend is giving me tips.

 

[NatePo717]

What types of cases do you like? Cubes? Large cases? Small cases? Clean looking cases?

What sorts of colors are you thinking for either the liquid or tubing?

Is your goal for it to be quiet or lowest temps you can get?

What sort of budget are you looking at for the case?

Just general questions to get us started.

 

[dma0991]

LD PC-V8. :twisted:

 

[StangMan04]

What types of cases do you like? Cubes? Large cases? Small cases? Clean looking cases?

What sorts of colors are you thinking for either the liquid or tubing?

Is your goal for it to be quiet or lowest temps you can get?

What sort of budget are you looking at for the case?

Just general questions to get us started.

What types of cases do you like? Cubes? Large cases? Small cases? Clean looking cases?
Prefer large cases to make management easier. I want something that I can see the watercooling components in and a windowed door of course. Prefer a black case.

I have never used a cubed case.

What sorts of colors are you thinking for either the liquid or tubing?
Looking to use clear tubing and color the liquid will be determined by the motherboard and other component colors so it matches or at least goes well with it. I want green liquid preferably but may have to use red or blue. But the only motherboards I have been recommended are ASRock Z97X Killer and the ASUS Z97-A boards.

Is your goal for it to be quiet or lowest temps you can get?
I am willing to sacrifice some quietness for lowest temps. So I assume I will want 2 radiators? That is what I am guessing is behind your question.

What sort of budget are you looking at for the case?
Would like to be around ~$150. But that can change depending on how good of a case it is.

 

[NatePo717]

I'm going to suggest the Air 540. It is a cube case but it is just about everything you are looking for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139022

http://www.overclock.net/t/1404897/official-corsair-carbide-air-540-240-owners-club-gallery for pictures of what people have done with it.

Nice big window to showcase main components. Hide cables, drives, power supply in the back compartment. Plenty of space for two/three 240mm radiators which will be more than enough to cool that cpu and a single graphics card. I'd opt for a Micro ATX motherboard if you can find one you like. Put the reservoir mounted under the motherboard. Easy to work in.

For a more traditional type of tower case I'd go for something like the 750D. Lots of space in that one too. Take a look around for what people have done with it.

 

[Subyman]

The NZXT H440 is a nice water cooling case too. It allows a 360mm radiator to be mounted in either the front or the top (not both at the same time.) You can use a 360mm rad with a 240mm rad, which would be plenty of cooling.

The Air 540 is nice too, but you have to like cube cases. I don't care for their looks.

 

[StangMan04]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[StangMan04]

I'm going to suggest the Air 540. It is a cube case but it is just about everything you are looking for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139022

http://www.overclock.net/t/1404897/official-corsair-carbide-air-540-240-owners-club-gallery for pictures of what people have done with it.

Nice big window to showcase main components. Hide cables, drives, power supply in the back compartment. Plenty of space for two/three 240mm radiators which will be more than enough to cool that cpu and a single graphics card. I'd opt for a Micro ATX motherboard if you can find one you like. Put the reservoir mounted under the motherboard. Easy to work in.

For a more traditional type of tower case I'd go for something like the 750D. Lots of space in that one too. Take a look around for what people have done with it.

Curious what is the reasoning on the Micro ATX vs the regular ATX?

 

[aigomorla]

NZXT H630 allows 2x360 rad mounts.. as its bigger then the H440.

The H440 will do well with 1 rad, however you lose all your drive cages except the floor mounted ones.

NZXT's also are steel cases... they are not light... also the potential to rust over time due to humidy is high. Remember watercooling PE tubing is naturally pourous... it will evap water though tubing over time, which can lead to rust nightmares on steel parts.

 

[NatePo717]

Curious what is the reasoning on the Micro ATX vs the regular ATX?

Do you plan on using all the expansion features of an ATX? The Micro is shorter leaving more room in the bottom of the case for cooling components or whatever you like. If you plan on using all those expansion slots then by all means go for the ATX sized motherboard. Just in my experience, all those slots end up going unused. Personally, I use a mini-itx. I found Crossfire/SLI to not be worth it after having used it for a number of years. Too many incompatibilities, particularly with DX9 and windowed fullscreen. Would experience driver crashes with both Nvidia and AMD using it now and then. I game at 1440p and the 290 plays them all well enough for me in maxed or mostly maxed settings. The only thing I wish is for mini-itx to support higher than 16GB of memory. I'd use 2 16GB sticks if I could for running VMs.

Have a Black CaseLabs Mercury S3 case
i7-3770K @ 4.4
Asrock Z77E-ITX
16GB DDR3 2166 GSKILL Trident X
R9-290
M500 960GB ssd

All fully water cooled using bent acrylic tubing.

 

[StangMan04]

NZXT H630 allows 2x360 rad mounts.. as its bigger then the H440.

The H440 will do well with 1 rad, however you lose all your drive cages except the floor mounted ones.

NZXT's also are steel cases... they are not light... also the potential to rust over time due to humidy is high. Remember watercooling PE tubing is naturally pourous... it will evap water though tubing over time, which can lead to rust nightmares on steel parts.

Thanks, I never thought about that.

 

[StangMan04]

Do you plan on using all the expansion features of an ATX? The Micro is shorter leaving more room in the bottom of the case for cooling components or whatever you like. If you plan on using all those expansion slots then by all means go for the ATX sized motherboard. Just in my experience, all those slots end up going unused. Personally, I use a mini-itx. I found Crossfire/SLI to not be worth it after having used it for a number of years. Too many incompatibilities, particularly with DX9 and windowed fullscreen. Would experience driver crashes with both Nvidia and AMD using it now and then. I game at 1440p and the 290 plays them all well enough for me in maxed or mostly maxed settings. The only thing I wish is for mini-itx to support higher than 16GB of memory. I'd use 2 16GB sticks if I could for running VMs.

Have a Black CaseLabs Mercury S3 case
i7-3770K @ 4.4
Asrock Z77E-ITX
16GB DDR3 2166 GSKILL Trident X
R9-290
M500 960GB ssd

All fully water cooled using bent acrylic tubing.

Ah okay, I wasn't sure the reasoning, but yeah I doubt I will go with SLI or anything to utilize the extra slots. Thanks for clearing that up.

Guess I will start looking for some Micro ATX boards, aren't they normally cheaper than ATX boards as well?

 

[NatePo717]

Ah okay, I wasn't sure the reasoning, but yeah I doubt I will go with SLI or anything to utilize the extra slots. Thanks for clearing that up.

Guess I will start looking for some Micro ATX boards, aren't they normally cheaper than ATX boards as well?

Some are, some aren't. You won't see much difference in performance between them and their larger ATX counterparts. Asrock, Asus, and Gigabyte are the boards I have experience with. All have been pretty darn good. Have experience with Zotac and Portwell too through work. Zotac is.... ok.

Had experience with DFI too back in the good ole Athlon 64 days. Opteron 175 ftw.

 

[StangMan04]

Some are, some aren't. You won't see much difference in performance between them and their larger ATX counterparts. Asrock, Asus, and Gigabyte are the boards I have experience with. All have been pretty darn good. Have experience with Zotac and Portwell too through work. Zotac is.... ok.

Had experience with DFI too back in the good ole Athlon 64 days. Opteron 175 ftw.

Yeah I have used ASUS,Gigabyte and a EVGA boards so far. All have been good to me. People say Asrock is good as well. I would like to find one with green in it so I can use green liquid but it seems most I find are red/gold/blue. I may have to switch liquid colors depends on which I end up either.

 

[NatePo717]

Yeah I have used ASUS,Gigabyte and a EVGA boards so far. All have been good to me. People say Asrock is good as well. I would like to find one with green in it so I can use green liquid but it seems most I find are red/gold/blue. I may have to switch liquid colors depends on which I end up either.

Only green themed motherboard that comes to mind is the Z87 Gigabyte G1.Sniper. The new one is only ATX and red now...

 

[StangMan04]

Only green themed motherboard that comes to mind is the Z87 Gigabyte G1.Sniper. The new one is only ATX and red now...

Yeah I hear if I want to overclock go with a Z97 board so I will have to pick something from that selection.

 

[MonKENy]

Im going to thread jack here but I have basically the same questions

I dont care about the type of case really, Dont plan on showing off any of the guts. I want quiet mostly.

I am hoping to be running an i7-5820K and GTX780 3GB along with 2x8Gb DDR3

I also have no idea how to buy parts for liquid cooling, I want to cool the CPU and GPU both in run. What do you think the cost would be and where do I start?

 

[StangMan04]

Im going to thread jack here but I have basically the same questions

I dont care about the type of case really, Dont plan on showing off any of the guts. I want quiet mostly.

I am hoping to be running an i7-5820K and GTX780 3GB along with 2x8Gb DDR3

I also have no idea how to buy parts for liquid cooling, I want to cool the CPU and GPU both in run. What do you think the cost would be and where do I start?

No problem, answers for your questions may help me as well.

Also, if anyone reads this, my friend says he has his RAM watercooled as well. I was looking at the Team Xtreme 2400 16GB kit, but the heatsinks are huge. Do you just take those off when you watercool? I would assume you would.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Im going to thread jack here but I have basically the same questions

I dont care about the type of case really, Dont plan on showing off any of the guts. I want quiet mostly.

I am hoping to be running an i7-5820K and GTX780 3GB along with 2x8Gb DDR3

I also have no idea how to buy parts for liquid cooling, I want to cool the CPU and GPU both in run. What do you think the cost would be and where do I start?

I didn't know that any vendors were producing X99 motherboards that used DDR3. Am I missing something? It would be good to know if such motherboards actually exist . . .

 

[NatePo717]

No problem, answers for your questions may help me as well.

Also, if anyone reads this, my friend says he has his RAM watercooled as well. I was looking at the Team Xtreme 2400 16GB kit, but the heatsinks are huge. Do you just take those off when you watercool? I would assume you would.

I wouldn't even bother water cooling your ram. Unless you're taking them to absolute extremes of overclocking... ddr3 just doesn't get hot enough to justify water cooling it.

 

[StangMan04]

I wouldn't even bother water cooling your ram. Unless you're taking them to absolute extremes of overclocking... ddr3 just doesn't get hot enough to justify water cooling it.

Thanks

 

[Subyman]

A typical CPU + GPU setup can get away with a single 360mm rad pretty easily. 2x240mm rads are good too. I'd stick to either Alphacool rads (45mm thickness are great) or XSPC. There are others, but those are pretty solid with the Alphacool being the best for the money. On a budget, the XSPC EX360/240 are great for the price.

Costs typically break down like this:
Pump: Laing DDC ~$80
CPU Block: Raystorm or Supremacy $65
GPU Block: EKWB's run about $90-120 per GPU
Rads: Cheap: EX360 ~$55, Alphacool's +20%
Tubing: Tygon's fine $15 for several feet
Fittings: Barbs ~$3 each, compression fittings are ~$8 each
Reservoir: ~$45
Biocide: $10
Fans: $50
Misc: $20-30

The good part is that the initial investment of the CPU block, rad, pump, res, and fittings are move with new builds. The CPU blocks typically support a decade worth of CPU upgrades. Full cover GPU blocks are GPU specific though. All that is just throwing some stuff out there. Its good to do a lot of research before such as fan controllers, high/low speed fans, comps vs barbs, fluid types, and so forth.

 

[Z15CAM]

I use the Fractal Design MIDI ARC2 Tower.

She handles 2 X's 280x60x140 Rads Top and Front With 8 X's 140 Fans in Push Pull on top or bottom plus a 140 Fan in the Back and a fan in the bottom without fouling the Top 5.25" Bay for an optic drive.

Minor Mod cutting a notch in the Top Bay but you still have room for the optic drive. I mount a Koolance RP 401x's2 in the 2nd 5.25" Bay with 2 X's MP400 Pumps in series for redundancy cooling X-Fire XSPC RAZOR AMD R9 290X's through a Coolgate 280x60x140 Rad mounted up front with 4 Noctua Fans in Push Pull and use the Fractal Fan Controller. The Cpu uses a Corsair H110 mounted on top and Off-Set to clear the MB (thus the Notch in the Top 5.25" Bay- easy mode)

I do not juse the middle HDD Rack and off-set the lower rack to clear the front Rad - There is enough room to mount a 1250W PSU - I use a 1050W'.

If you want a Mid Tower Case - This is about compact as it gets and can be had from 60 to 90 dollars.

Sorry for the bad Pic but it's the only cam I had at the time.

Them 2 pig tales you see off the GPU's are for PMW but usleless as the R9 290X's will not handle 2 180 Noctua Fans - Hence the Fractul Fan controller is handy.

System idles at 32C and never exceeds 67C under full Load at 5.2Ghz and 290X's at 1200x1500Mhz's.

Barely hear it at idle and every day use and would say acceptable for noise OC''d and under full load.

Heavy Box though.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I use the Fractal Design MIDI ARC2 Tower.

She handles 2 X's 280x60x140 Rads Top and Front With 8 X's 140 Fans in Push Pull on top or bottom plus a 140 Fan in the Back and a fan in the bottom without fouling the Top 5.25" Bay for an optic drive.

Minor Mod cutting a notch in the Top Bay but you still have room for the optic drive. I mount a Koolance RP 401x's2 in the 2nd 5.25" Bay with 2 X's :MB400 Pumps in series for redundancy cooling X-Fire XSPC RAZOR AMD R9 290X's through a Coolgate 280x60x140 Rad mounted up front with 4 Noctua Fans in Push Pull and use the Fractal Fan Controller. The Cpu uses a Corsair H110 mounted on top and Off-Set to clear the MB (thus the Notch in the Top 5.25" Bay- easy mode)

I do not juse the middle HDD Rack and off-set the lower rack to clear the front Rad - There is enough room to mount a 1250W PSU - I use a 1050W'.

If you want a Mid Tower Case - This is about compact as it gets and can be had from 60 to 90 dollars.

Sorry for the bad Pic but it's the only cam I had at the time.

Them 2 pig tales you see off the GPU's are for PMW but usleless as the R9 290X's will not handle 2 180 Noctua Fans - Hence the Fractul Fan controller is handy.

System idles at 32C and never exceeds 67C under full Load at 5.2Ghz and 290X's at 1200x1500Mhz's.

Barely hear it at idle and every day use and would say acceptable for noise OC''d and under full load.

Heavy Box though.

Now I'm revisiting your pictures of that system again, noting your mods. It all worked out nicely for you! Gives me some ideas for next year's "project." I'm more encouraged now, for the possibility I could use one of my HAF 922's for watercooling with similar sheet-metal work . . .

 

[Z15CAM]

Really the Fractal Design MIDI ARC2 Case can handle 2x280x60x140mm Rads and 9x's 140mm Noctua Fans plus what ever you want in the bottom if you extent the legs.


I running 3 Pumps but thinking about using 2 in 2 Loops - One for the CPU and the other through the X-Fire 290X's - Both through 280x60x140 Coolgate rads in push/pull.

I'm thinking the Corsair H110 will fail.

The Koolance RP 401x's 2 is a great product.

You might think I'm dyslectic an 1/2 blind - Which I'm am.

You can actually run a 280x60x140 rad on top with single fans but you will loose the top 5.25 bay.

Excuse my references to product ID as I' can't remember all labels without taking the time - But if your an enthusiast, you will get my drift.

You can mount a 360X60X120 or a 420x60x140mm rad in push/pull on top but you will loose that 5.25" Optic Bay.