BTX Case?

[Retro295]

Is there a case with the motherboard on the left side for under 100 dollars? Bigger the better. A window would be nice but I can do that myself.

 

[undertheradar]

Lian Li PC A05... not large on the outside, but very well done inside.

The PC-767 is discontinued and so there are several places you can pick it up for about $160 now. Its more than you want to spend, but thats what you get for inverted ATX + Lian Li quality.

 

[Retro295]

I was thinking about the A05, but it would be hard getting a WC setup in there.

I found an interesting case here:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=4280

 

[undertheradar]

If you look in the A05 thread, you will see people with water cooling in it. FWIW, I will most likely be doing the same with mine (although I will be using a massive external passive radiator, not something inside the case that attracts dust and noise), so all I need space for is the pump and res really. FWIW, the A05 is plenty roomy inside. Its a very smart design for a compact. Just enough of what you need, and none of the extra bulk that makes no sense. You should be able to get a decent water cooling setup in there, perhaps with the exception of the radiator (depends on how large), but IMO, the best water cooling setups place the radiator on the outside anyways (as well as the res, or at least in a bay or something ON the outside instead of IN the case somewhere).

The Aerocool is okay. IMO, alot of wasted space. Its why I no longer like my PC-V2000: all the partitions. The bottom 8" of the case holds a PSU and thats it. Those HDD bays are useless to me. I would rather remove them and have open space, but then I wish the front bays would be 'stacker style' top to bottom... then the PC-V2000 would be my ultimate case. FWIW, the PC-767 is pretty much just that, only is needs a blowhole or something up top/side to vent the GPUs... a PSU fan alone isnt enough IMO. Although all those front mesh bays would make for a great place for 2x 120mm fans. Thats why I listed it here for you though, it has enough room in the front for a 3x120mm radiator, and still one bay left for your DVD. I dont know if you want more devices than this, but Im sure a small baybus or something could still be squeezed in (keep in mind there is a dial already built into the case that can handle 3x120 fans already). Also, with the PC-V2000, I have 2x120mm blowholes up top, but because the mobo is so close to the top, you cant mount a radiator up there unless its ON the top, outside. The 767 puts the PSU there, lowering the mobo, IMO, a better option. Due to its open/stacker design inside, I think the 767 is more flexible.

What sort of WC setup do you have/are you thinking of? I suppose thats an important detail to clarify up front. IMO, to make water cooling worth it, you are looking at one of two things: more cooling for overclocking, or less noise from fans. I wanted both, but more silence than anything, so I made an array of starfinned pipe attached to the wall ... its a 6' tall, 6 pipe version of the innovatek passive radiators in the end. No fans, no noise, just loads of liquid. The cool thing is that most of the system is external (I tend to mount the pump outside as well using a PCI relay card, and the res can be anywhere I want), so to me, that is better than cramming a half-assed system inside a case, as large as the case may be. No fans, but lets just put it this way... I can overclock like mad and the room temp still has more of an effect on the core temp than the overclocking... there is just too much liquid and too large of a radiator on the system for a CPU, GPU, etc to do anything.