Need a good case for custom loop watercool

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brianx96

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Hi everyone, Im looking to watercool my rig here soon and I need a case that wont kill my wallet but be big enough to fit all the necessary components to water cool my gpu, cpu, Im thinking about a 250mm reservoir. and 1/2 to 3/4in tubing, but im actually not sure on what size I need to have. I need this case to fit a ATX MB and hopefully under $200. Preferably $160.

Thanks :)
 
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Ok, but the out of 1 device is also the in of the next, so it's the same tube. So each additional device adds 1. A video card, motherboard, and Ram would add 3 tubes for a total of 6. 10 is quite a bit.

If you want to do solid acrylic tubing make sure you do it right. Get a mandrel bender kit and also the tool for measuring bends. You can get 90' and swivel connectors so you only need straight pieces of acrylic. The larger the reservoir the bigger your cooling capacity. So go big. With the Fractal S a 360mm rad can be put up front. I'd try it out with that, then add another 360mm on top if desired. You can actually go 420 on top but that means 140mm fans as opposed to 120mm which makes the radiator wider on top. That...
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brianx96

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im sorry and I forgot to add, what type of pump should I get? I don't know to much about water cooling. So everything that is going to be in the loop Is the rad that is going up at the top. still don't know what size because im trying to pick a case. im going to have a 240mm rad in front. So I'm guessing I need 10 tubes in total for this?
 
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gondo

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The standard is the Liang DDC, or many other brands that are just rebadged Liang DDC pumps. The D5 is another great Liang pump that is popular. The DDC seems to be more popular now. Look into both and read up on the differences...it's a toss up.

You can buy a tower reservoir with the DDC pump attached. It's an easy install. I'd consider a single 360mm+ radiator. You go over 500mm actually. It'll handle a CPU and video cards no problem. No need for dual radiators. Fans can go on either side of the radiator without any performance difference and push pull isn't necessary.

A good case is the Fractal Define S. Same as the R5 but without the drive cages so it's cheaper, yet the exact same quality. It has room for 2 drives on the back side. Most people use a single SSD and storage drive anyways. It has no 5 1/4" cage for cd-roms though, but many people now get an external drive and plug it in once a year to install windows and motherboard drivers. Having all the cages removed makes tons of space for the watercooling.

At $80 it's an amazing watercooling deal of a case. Why pay $150 for a case to remove the cages and throw them aside to make room for the watercooling. Fractal did that for you and only charges $80 for a $140 case. It's nice and wide open inside, with a nice large window.

If you want a really super nice case, the large Corsair Obsidian cases are nice. Also Corsair makes a reverse case with the window on the right so you see the video card heatsink facing up instead of down. It's cool. Also the R5 version of the Fractal S if you need the CD-ROM drive bay.

Also consider just getting a complete watercooling kit in a box. EKWB has one. It'll have all the components you need. You should only need 3 tubes:

1 - Rad to Reservoir
2 - Reservoir to waterblock
3 - waterblock to radiator

I don't know where you get 10 tubes. Unless you have a seperate pump, a seperate reservoir or 5 1/4" reservoir bay, and a video card block, motherboard, and memory cooling.

I like the integrated DDC/tower reservoir pumps. You can also get an integrated D5 pump in a 5 1/4" bay reservoir.

Check out EKWB for all the components.
 
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brianx96

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Ok thank you, and I don't know if I did that right but I go 10 tubes because im watercooling everything. Doesn't each piece of hardware in a computer that you're cooling need an inlet and outlet tube? I planned on using hard tube or glass, instead of like the silicone tubing. I probably sound ridiculous, sorry im pretty new at this.
 
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gondo

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Ok, but the out of 1 device is also the in of the next, so it's the same tube. So each additional device adds 1. A video card, motherboard, and Ram would add 3 tubes for a total of 6. 10 is quite a bit.

If you want to do solid acrylic tubing make sure you do it right. Get a mandrel bender kit and also the tool for measuring bends. You can get 90' and swivel connectors so you only need straight pieces of acrylic. The larger the reservoir the bigger your cooling capacity. So go big. With the Fractal S a 360mm rad can be put up front. I'd try it out with that, then add another 360mm on top if desired. You can actually go 420 on top but that means 140mm fans as opposed to 120mm which makes the radiator wider on top. That limits your thickness possibilities because it'll hit your motherboard. 120mm clears the board.

You can go big and get bigger cases. The Corsair 900D is in the $400 Range. And it's rad capacity isn't any better than the Define S. You need to remove cages, etc.. then have like 4 5 1/4" cages sitting there unused. Who installs 5 CD-Roms? Lian Li make the PC-08. A beautiful cube case. Cube cases are double wide so you can hide stuff in the back. Lian Li is the best quality and uses tempered glass windows that won't scratch. Again a $400 Case and probably better than the Corsair. The Define S has no drawbacks and is only $80. My opinion would be to get an SSD, a single storage drive if you don't go External, and an external CD-ROM for the odd installs. Then build up your nice piping inside with nothing in the way.

Also if you're going this far you'll want custom cables for your power supply. Pick up some tools and wire and sleeving and start doing custom sleeved cables. Look up heatshrinkless sleeved cable methods using paracord 550. Paracord allows you to do custom length nice looking cables for perfect routing, and it's very flexible. Doing solid acrylic tubing without custom sleeved cables is a waste in my opinion.

I saw one build where a guy put a shutoff valve and piece of tubing facing down as a drain. And another I think. He could open one valve as a drain, then put an air compressor to the other to blow the loop clean. That allows you to drain the system for disassembly and working on your computer.

Also keep in mind there are stories of cracked tubing. If you're going to move the computer around a lot it's not recommended. The PVC tubing is preferred for durability. If I was going all out I'd go acrylic tubes, and sleeved cables.





 
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gondo

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Just wanted to add. Some of those factory water blocks that come on video cards arn't the best performers. EVGA hydro is one that comes to mind and it uses a swiftech block. And you also pay a $100 premium or so for the video cards.

I would prefer to buy a regular video card like an Asus which is reliable, and add an EKWB water block. EKWB actually makes water blocks for all the Asus strix video cards. See which water blocks your going to get so you can get matching video cards.
 
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