"Face down" motherboard mounting so leaks don't cause damage?

[Grimace]

So I'm looking to build a water cooled rig, but I want to protect the components from a possible leak, and it dawned on me that it might be possible to mount the motherboard facing down (hanging, but with a retention beam for GPU/add in cards).

If there is a leak anywhere, it would probably drip down instead of onto the motherboard. I made a diagram below to show what I mean.

Power supply unit and drives would be mounted above the hanging motherboard plate possibly with an area in between for cable management.. Radiators, pumps, and reservoirs would be mounted below the motherboard. A single fill tube could be extended to the top of the case on the right side to ensure air bubbles stay in the fill tube.

Does any manufacturer (or has someone) made something like this (like a wide tower) ??

I'm debating flipping a ThermatakeCoreX9 upside down with a second one underneath, or making something custom.

(View facing the front of the case)

  __________ __________
| |        | | 5.25   |  |
| |   PSU  | | bays x2|  |
-------------------------|
 cable management area   |
-------------------------|
| ---motherboard----  ^^^|
|     |g|    |CPU|    |r||
|     |p|             |a||
|     |u|             |d||
| ==========          |i||
| retention           |a||
|                     |t||
|                     |o||
|                     |r||
|                        |

 

[Nenu]

As you pointed out, its easy to achieve by laying a case on its side or turning a desktop case upside down.
Nothing special is required, not even a second case (confused why you think this is needed).

The only caution is being sure PCI-E cards are properly clipped in place.

 

[Jason_CL]

There's a much simpler way to do this. Use air pressure to test out your loop before you ever put a drop of fluid in it. You want to pump it to about 10-12PSI and then give it a bit to see if any of that pressure drops. If it does, you have a leak, if it doesn't, well, you're good to go!