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Cheap Case Suitable for Water Cooling?

T

Tudz

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
7,434
G'day all,

I'm new to watercooling, this will be my first system (or rather set of systems) to have watercooling.

What do you guys recommend for cheap cases to start off with water cooling? I'm thinking something that can easily mount a MCR220 radiator, which also has space for a pump and a reservoir inside to keep everything neat and tidy. Would the best thing be something that has 2x120mm fan slots in the top to mount the radiator?

I'll be building a few of these machines for a number crunching cluster, so I dont want to have to mod the cases, it'd be nice for them to just bolt straight together.

I'm thinking Coolermaster 690 or 690 II, Fractal Design R2B, NZXT Hades, Xigmatek Utgard, Lian-Li PC-K60 or something similar. All of those cases can be had for $100-150 Australian, the most expensive being the Fractal at $149. Some sites/forums says some of them might need to be modded to fit a top mounted radiator, which I'd like to avoid.

Anyone got any experience with those cases? What do you suggest as a good "starter" case for water cooling in the same (or lower) price range as those cases that doesn't require any modding?
 
NZXT Gamma or M59, you could do a rear or top mount setup easy and it has holes for the tubes (but they are small)
 
ThisIsTheNewSound said:
Have you thought about a Coolermaster HAF 932? You shouldn't have any trouble fitting that rad inside, has a built in fillport, and the case has excellent overall airflow as well. I'm not sure what the conversion rate is but I got mine for around 110$ USD on sale and it can be had for around 130$ on most sites.

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2810
Click to expand...

Its a bit more expensive out here, the shop I was planning on buying from sells it for $199, but could get it for $179 from another place. It does look nice though, and 3 fan slots at the top means the option for the MCR320 instead. Hmm. Need to think about it, just a little bit too expensive I think (will be getting 4 systems, so $30 over budget ends up $120 overall, though I'm not actually the one paying for it!).

EricFX1984 said:
NZXT Gamma or M59, you could do a rear or top mount setup easy and it has holes for the tubes (but they are small)
Click to expand...

Wow how did I miss those cases! They're really dirt cheap. Again they're not being sold by the shop I want to buy from, but another shop sells them for $59 and $89 respectively. Would you mount the radiator externally on the top and having it either intake or exhausting air through it? These are really tempting.

Thanks for the ideas! Any other options you can suggest?
 
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