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Large Water-Cooling Case

W

whitek

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 18, 2012
Messages
73
Hey H][F, I've been lurking on here for years and I've been able to find what I'm looking for here most of the time but this one is killin me. I've spent far too long looking for cases so maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

budget: 400

running:
evga z77 ftw
-3770k -> watercooling [haven't picked yet]
I'd like the case to be something designed for extreme water-cooling

quadro 6000 workstation, [these are huge, and I'm planning on getting another]

-No preference on material
-Would like a door on side panel, no preference on window
-No tool-less components. These things always get brittle on snap on me
-Need some hot-swap slots
-Would like a dedicated HID for temps, but I think I can get that aftermarket in one of the CD drives

any suggestions? I'm thinking I need a huge case for my GFX and some top tier radiators.
 
Check out the Caselabs M8. It starts at $399, so you'll probably end up going a little over budget, but it's a phenomenal case, especially when considering water cooling options.

Lian Li may make some larger cases, but you will likely end up modding the case for water cooling support.

The NZXT Switch 810 fits a 360 and a 240 rad without any modding - I've seen lots of good builds in this case, and it'll save you a lot of money at $175.

The Xigmatek Elysium or Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra are huge cases designed for server boards, but have some stock water cooling capabilities and loads of space to be creative with.

CoolerMaster Cosmos II has lots of stock options and is very well built. ~$350
 
Other honorable mentions:

Silverstone TJ11 - big, fits a 480 rad in the bottom (some have done 2). Although, being aluminum (and Silverstone), it is quite pricey at around $500

Corsair 800D (or 700D is a little smaller) - seems to be a popular case. Not very good for air cooling, but large enough for a good water cooling setup. Quality build.
 
thanks - I've come across some of these - just so many cases out there !
I'll pick from one of these.
 
If you can swing it, CaseLabs makes the very best there is. Just go in with an understanding that you might need to purchase extras like bay options, windows, front IO ports, etc. And it doesn't come with any fans or dust filters.

If I could afford it, I'd be all over the STH-10. The M8 is excellent too, if you're into the cube shape. It's also the cheapest.

Good luck!
 
Case Labs or MountainMods are about as extreme as you can go in terms of room to stuff things internally.
 
I've actually been leaning towards Mountain Mods the most lately.. MOBO CPU and GFX in today..
 
jamsomito said:
Corsair 800D (or 700D is a little smaller) - seems to be a popular case. Not very good for air cooling, but large enough for a good water cooling setup. Quality build.
Click to expand...

How do you mean it is smaller? They are both 24x24x9, biggest difference is the 800d has a hot swap bay in the front and 700d does not.
 
Check out the mountain mods U2 UFO. Should be able to get everything you need for right around your budget.
 
I'm with some of these guys on the Caselabs. No one does it better for the price and quality. They continually blow my mind.
 
lord_tris said:
How do you mean it is smaller? They are both 24x24x9, biggest difference is the 800d has a hot swap bay in the front and 700d does not.
Click to expand...

Yeah I just looked it up again... for some reason I thought it was an inch smaller in 1 or 2 dimensions, but I guess not. Thanks for the correction!
 
well I went and ordered a switch 810 gun metal. It arrived with broken parts and turned out to be exactly what I didn't want. No doubt it is well designed, but when push comes to shove, it's a dinky plastic POS. I constantly feel like I'm going to break the parts when handling, even with my nerd hands. I'm returning it and ordering a Caselabs m8 or m10, which puts me over budget. 400 was actually WITH watercooling, which was entirely unrealistic, so I'm going to run it on my noctua until I can save for a proper WC system.
 
Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the Switch. I can see where somebody would not like parts of it - the click-release mechanisms seem delicate, and the case is hard to move when you consider grabbing the wrong part of it.

However, I don't think it's dinky by any means. I was actually very impressed with the build quality of mine - the plastic would be under the "high quality" category... at least as far as plastics can go. But I guess this is fairly subjective.

Hope you like your CaseLabs case. I've heard nothing but good things. I'm pretty sure you won't be calling that one dinky. ;)

Also, I loled a little bit when you said you wanted a case AND water cooling for $400. Some people spend more than that on just the W/C system, especially if you're going for the "extreme" system you mentioned you wanted your case to be set up for. Anyways, I agree with your approach - get the good case now and save up for the quality W/C loop in the future.

Let us know how you like your CaseLabs?

EDIT: I'm curious - which parts were broken when it arrived?
 
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yea - I didn't know anything about WC when I posted, completely clueless. I think I came up with that after seeing the XSPC - raga kit for $200- I found tinytomlogan's youtube channel immensely helpful for figuring out WC. I've actually returned all my parts save the GFX card, (one 6000) after watching his videos. My WC loops will probably run me 500 thinking about it now. I need two loops I believe. one for dual socket cpus, and one for gfx and ram. These damn cards sit at 70 C IDLE. I can't even imagine what its going to do when I hit it with a billion polygons.

The part that was broken was the vents on top. The pieces that snap were gone -
 
Not sure if it has been mentioned, however you may want to check out LD's V-8/10 Pc cases. They have enough room all your water-cooling loops(2*480mm + 360 i believe) and them some! I think it is around 500$ so it may be out of your budget :(
 
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