Creating a Case (Air Flow and Water Cooling)
 

Hello, this is my first post here at the procooling.com forums. I'm pretty new to modding but have done quite a bit of reading and research. I'm planning on building a new case out of acrylic to house my new water cooled setup. I would like to create a case a little reminiscient of the Shuttle.

For the radiator of my system, I went to a scrap yard a picked up a couple heater cores. The one I used in my design was the larger one, about 12" by 5". I have one that's a little smaller, and didn't know if I would be gaining much by using the larger radiator. If I used the smaller radiator I think I could design a much more compact case. I thought I would cool this with two Panaflo L1A 120mm fans. These fans of course would pull air through the radiator and into the case, and a fan in the back would pull air out the back.

However, I'm wondering if by attempting to put a watercooled system in such a cramped case is reducing a lot of the cooling potential? With the heated air coming off the radiator and blowing over the motherboard, am I increasing temps by a significant amount? As follows are sketchs of the case I'm considering making.
http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/2...enfront7nj.jpg
http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/6...ohidden4tz.jpg
http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/8...nocdrom2co.jpg
http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/7...nocdtop4xk.jpg


Components for my sketches were graciously provided by the following people from theThe Sketchup Component Collection: ATX PSU by Pjotr; ATX Mobo by CandyKing; Standard GPU by metku; 5.2'' Optical Drive by - Unknown -; Standard HDD by Pjotr; Standard 120mm Fan by CandyKing; Hex Mesh by ouija; Eheim 1048 by JungleGorilla; D-TEK White Water Poly-top by BagUd; Black Ice I & II by Brubacker; Aquatube by kaZuo;

Anyway, your insight on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Well you're rulling out using the PCI slots which you might regret later. Consider mount the PSU horizontally where the pump is and using a smaller pump like a DDC or CSP-Mag.

If you are building from scratch I'd like to try a compartmentalized setup if it was me. So the radiator would have a straight-through airpath and doesnt blow over any other components. Would make the case bigger. Don't have any proof whether or not it would be worth it. Never made a case before =) thought about it though. Just always imagined something along the lines of the apple G5 case.

Very pretty sketches.

Since you have the freedom of putting things where you want, I would consider mounting the PSU such that it's intake faces the side of the case, with a blowhole. Hot case air will make a PSU fan ramp up loudly. Giving it fresh air avoids that.

How about using laptop size HDD and optical drives?

I'm assuming you're planning on 3/8" ID hose in a case that size....that makes the DDC a better choice.

BIP cores are thinner than most heatercores, and can get by with quieter fans.

Do you really need a reservoir or will a T-line do?

I'd avoid a dual outlet block like the whitewater in a case that size....plumbing would be a pain, but I assume you just used it for your sketch.