Custom Case Plan

carolkarine · May 30, 2013

Hello! To begin with, this is completely and totally in the planning stage. I don't expect I will even be able to start construction on this monstrosity for quite some time, to the extent that there's no point looking into any kind of part selection yet. However, I'm creating this thread so I can get insight into my plans from people who have more experience with this than me, and so that you guys can point out things I missed :D

anyways, to start: originally I was starting with the idea of a quad-SLI/CF GPU rack, where all the GPUs are tilted so that air cooling will still work fine.

So anyways, after working this out (this design would need PCIe extensions like a bitcoin mining rig) I realized that I would be unable to find ANY crossfire or SLI bridges that were longer than 120mm. I was assuming that I would need along the lines of 150mm. The only way I could work on this would be to limit the GPUs to either 2 slots, or 1 slot waterblocks (with replacement backplate) both of which I didn't want to do.

Next I decided I wanted to create a very small footprint case that would act similarly to the FT03 from silverstone. So we're looking at a meter tall and 35x35 footprint. an E-ATX mobo can fit with the necessary cable routing in a very interesting way. here, I'll show you.

so this'll be the closed case... well, without any I/O ports or fan grills modeled yet, but this is the basic idea.

so here's how the mobo tray will be mounted: namely, as you can see, it's mounted at an angle, allowing for more cable management options.

as you can see, I've already added in a routing hole for the 24pin. This is big enough for an E-ATX board. (sorry, I forgot to unselect the object)

next is an unorthodox GPU mounting setup. the idea here is that above the motherboard there will be mounting hardware for two GPUs, on PCIe x16 riser cables (hopefully 23-24 cm long. I might have to double these up to get the necessary length)

anyways, this is how the GPU's will be mounted. there will be acrylic windows showing them off. they'll likely be watercooled, although TBH I might leave the air cooler on them just for looks.

as you can see, they'll be a bit far away from the motherboard. The PCB will be facing inwards, meaning that the PCIe extensions may need to be a bit longer than I can find.... (the longest I can find is 19cm) So I may need to put two together... not that I have any idea how that would affect performance. thoughts?

I/O from both the motherboard and the cards will be routed similarly to how it is in the FT03 - where there is a cable management area inside the case before it comes outside.

now that I think about this, cable management might be easier if I actually turn the mobo tray sideways, so the mobo I/O is facing up (in line with the GPUs) and so that the PCIe extensions won't be twisting.

here's a photo of how that would work:

I like that better. But now I want to be able to see my CPU waterblock. So I reconsider the card's placement. (remember that there will be an acrylic window on each of the side panels that aren't being shown that's about 25cm tall by 30cm wide (2.5 cm bezel next to the edges.)

better. now let's see what it'll look like with acrylic windows.

mmm, nice. This makes the PCIe extensions easier, and I can use any size flexible crossfire bridge (the crossfire bridge connectors will be in the center, and the PCIe connections will be on the outside. I might have to readjust the spacing (it's 3cm right now) for power cables.

so, let's look at how I/O will work with this setup.

so, as you can see I'm planning to have all the cables come out the top and then out a hole in the back. Very similar to the FT03.

I'm also looking into various aesthetics. maybe some red acrylic hexagons behind the black aluminum?

after thinking about it, cutting detailed acrylic should be easier than aluminum. although it might be easier to mount detailed aluminum on acrylic? thoughts?

anyways, after that I had to redo the modeling on the sidepanels because I thought that the cords would be cramped at the top if I only gave them 3cm of clearance (now there's 6) took a few minutes cause my 3ds max is still quite rusty.

I have decided that the bottom will be 10cm off the ground, because I do have some extra space down there, and because I hated it when my computer got carpet clogged. I don't like carpet either, but when you don't own your house it's sometimes unavoidable. (WOOD FLOORS FTW!) There will be space and mounts for two extra long PSUs, however they will be limited to 120mm fan grills I can get from mountainmods.com.

so now I'm starting to wonder about my HDD cages and optical drives. I think I'm going to do a stealth optical drive (slot-loading) I'll probably put that dead center underneath the CPU window.

hard drives will probably be mounted along the back wall. I can just use rubber washers to deal with the vibration.

next update will be my watercooling loop plans... I've got a lot of space left. I think I might try a wind-tunnel rad setup.

not to this extreme, but maybe a bunch of 240's where the pull on one rad is the push on another? how well would that work, do you guys think?

BgG286 · May 30, 2013

If you're going to be using PCI-E extenders, make sure you get the highest quality you can. I remember reading somewhere that someone used a short PCI-E extender, but they cheaped out a little bit, and went from 2.0 bandwidth to 1.0 bandwidth. I'm assuming this increases drastically as you increase the length of the extension.

carolkarine · May 30, 2013

If you're going to be using PCI-E extenders, make sure you get the highest quality you can. I remember reading somewhere that someone used a short PCI-E extender, but they cheaped out a little bit, and went from 2.0 bandwidth to 1.0 bandwidth. I'm assuming this increases drastically as you increase the length of the extension.

thanks for letting me know that!

as it stands, the entire point of the setup is to different. I think that the extensions are at least one way to do that.

but I will look into high-quality extensions.

MzCatieB · May 30, 2013

i <2 custom case designs, it shows creativity and enthusiasm towards an amazing hobby

carolkarine · May 31, 2013

okay, so update #2 on the planning.

i <2 custom case designs, it shows creativity and enthusiasm towards an amazing hobby

I hope you like this case. TBH I'm not sure about the windows on top. maybe I'll have another window down the side to show off my rad stack.

speaking of rad stacks, this is the *BASIC* idea behind what I'm doing.

anyways, I expect that I'll use more along the lines of 12 fans and 3 240 rads. each rad will technically be in push-pull.

like that.

next I've got to consider how to get the airflow right for the rads. In order to do this, I'll just use an aluminum shell - or chimney, if you'd prefer to think of it like that. It'll have to go out one of the back two panels.

here we see the start on a loop, and me getting more used to 3ds max. the black box on top of the radiators hides the last set of fans and a fan mount to the outside.

I won't be watercooling the ram, but both GPUs and the CPU will be getting blocked. right now I'm thinking about how to block the GPUs. If I use the right kind of block, the tubing can stay behind the cards.... then again, it might be easier (considering I'll have PCIe extensions back there) to put the tubing in front of the cards. let's see how that looks.

hmm. what about with the side panels on?

I like it. if course, I need to model both the motherboard and CPU block and tubing.but for now, I'm happy with the visibility of the tubing runs between the rads. in the real build I might need to space the rads more in order to get the tubing runs I'm looking for. maybe an extra set of fans in between?

tomorrow I'll model the mobo and CPU blocks. then I'll go in and start working out details - like cable runs and case frame. I'm still not sure on how this will disassemble.most likely I'll have 4 posts with some sheet aluminum at the top and bottom (all black) and then everything will thumbscrew onto that.