What case for dual loop 140mm rads? (Black ICE GT Xtreme 280
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:18 pm
Hi folks,
After a couple of years on a laptop I'm thinking of going back to a watercooled desktop PC. I've seen a lot has changed since, components are even hotter and more power hungry than before.
I'm looking at a i5/i7 CPU and 5850/5870 GPU and my preference is for quiet computing. That's what I like about the laptop.
I figure a low-speed 140mm fan solution is the way to go, don't need to overclock the components too much, just as far as I can keep things quiet.
Which brings me to the main question - what case should I get to hold a dual loop water cooling system?
I'm planning on getting a mATX board, and would prefer to keep things neat. I was looking at SFF cases but I don't think there's anything suitable on the market really. Mountain Mods H2go would have been my choice but I've heard of their bad build quality and atrocious customer support, so I definitely don't want to go through the horrors of that.
I'll mod whatever I have to, but I'd prefer a reasonably well built case with anti-vibe mounts for the drives etc. Also it needs to have at least 3 5.25" slots, I need two for a double bay res with two pumps and then one slot for a DVDRW or bluray. I can live with just one optical drive, that's no biggie. Dual bay res with pump mounts seems like the most elegant solution.
At the moment I'm thinking of getting the Lian-Li PC-B25F, but I'm not sure if there's enough clearance on the top for a rad, and if the fan mounts would align with a radiator. Also I'd like to remove the bottom part of the hard drive cage for the second rad. I only need room for two hard drives.
Any help or suggestions would be more than welcome
After a couple of years on a laptop I'm thinking of going back to a watercooled desktop PC. I've seen a lot has changed since, components are even hotter and more power hungry than before.
I'm looking at a i5/i7 CPU and 5850/5870 GPU and my preference is for quiet computing. That's what I like about the laptop.
I figure a low-speed 140mm fan solution is the way to go, don't need to overclock the components too much, just as far as I can keep things quiet.
Which brings me to the main question - what case should I get to hold a dual loop water cooling system?
I'm planning on getting a mATX board, and would prefer to keep things neat. I was looking at SFF cases but I don't think there's anything suitable on the market really. Mountain Mods H2go would have been my choice but I've heard of their bad build quality and atrocious customer support, so I definitely don't want to go through the horrors of that.
I'll mod whatever I have to, but I'd prefer a reasonably well built case with anti-vibe mounts for the drives etc. Also it needs to have at least 3 5.25" slots, I need two for a double bay res with two pumps and then one slot for a DVDRW or bluray. I can live with just one optical drive, that's no biggie. Dual bay res with pump mounts seems like the most elegant solution.
At the moment I'm thinking of getting the Lian-Li PC-B25F, but I'm not sure if there's enough clearance on the top for a rad, and if the fan mounts would align with a radiator. Also I'd like to remove the bottom part of the hard drive cage for the second rad. I only need room for two hard drives.
Any help or suggestions would be more than welcome