r case labs cases worth it?

[courtiousdoge]

my build:http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bGbj8di

i m havin trouble fitting my components on corsair 750d so made the swicth to a 900d and and the problem remains and  a lot of ppl on dis forum told me to switch to the case labs sma8,mercury s5 or any 1 of em

are the cases worth it

r they good 4 me

will it be significantly better than the 900d

what case would u recomend 4 me

[xgn]

What size of case do you need?

[Senzelian]

If you're having problems fitting that in a 900D, then a Caselabs case won't help you either.
I could fit all of that in my PC-O8 cube case. But I would use a 360mm, and two 240mm radiators instead.

Edit: I guess you can fit your 480mm rads in a caselabs case, but that would be a very uneffiecient use of the available space with only two graphics cards, one reservoir and two radators...

[courtiousdoge]

i m thinking sbout the mercury s8

[leadeater]

I use an LD-PC V8 with 3x EKWB XTX 480 RADs, two bottom and one top. It's a tight fit and all visible tubing is hardline. Parts list below, update slightly since parts have changed so could be slightly wrong. Mainly changed from soft tubing and CPU + motherboard block to hard tubing and full monoblock.

 

Shortened parts list:

i7 4930k
Rampage IV Black Edition
16GB (4 x 4GB) G.Skill 2400Mhz
LD PC-V8 (Case)
1x EK-FB ASUS R4BE Monoblock – Acetal+Nickel
2x EKWB AMD R9 290X
2x EKWB Monarch x4
4x EKWB Monarch Module
3x EKWB 480mm XTX
1x EKWB D5
1x EKWB Res X3 250

8x EK Furious Vardar FF5-120

 

Yes I water cooled the RAM, cos uhhh........

 

You will fit everything in your parts list in to this case but the hex case screws are annoying as hell if you need to open it often.

 

Edit: If you do consider the LD PC-V8 get the reverse model, I wish I did. More room up top around the RAD.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

Do you write like that on purpose?

[xentropa]

I have a caselabs magnum m8.  They fetch a real premium, but if you can afford them, they are otherworldly.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Unless you already bought the rads...  

 

Stick with 140s and you don't need anywhere near that much even turning shit down all the way. 

 

Feel free to checkout my build in the sig,  but I have even an more power consuming system sitting in a midtower right now. 

 

Also I think caselab cases are not worth it, but then again, I also think the 900D should never be bought. 

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Unless you already bought the rads...  

 

Stick with 140s and you don't need anywhere near that much even turning shit down all the way. 

 

Feel free to checkout my build in the sig,  but I have even an more power consuming system sitting in a midtower right now. 

True dual 480 RADs isn't really required for anything, not even 4 GPUs need that much. But I get the feeling that part of his purchase choice is much like mine, less about practicality and party a show piece.

 

I ran my system fanless for a year and only put fans on it recently when EK launched their fans. The fans themselves still don't run when I'm using it, I turn them on after gaming when I've left them room. Nothing quite like total silence.

 

If this is not the case however then definitely don't go buying a huge and expensive case to fit RADs you don't need and spend money you don't have to. 

[Curufinwe_wins]

10 hours ago, leadeater said:

True dual 480 RADs isn't really required for anything, not even 4 GPUs need that much. But I get the feeling that part of his purchase choice is much like mine, less about practicality and party a show piece.

 

I ran my system fanless for a year and only put fans on it recently when EK launched their fans. The fans themselves still don't run when I'm using it, I turn them on after gaming when I've left them room. Nothing quite like total silence.

 

If this is not the case however then definitely don't go buying a huge and expensive case to fit RADs you don't need and spend money you don't have to. 

Good points. Now to complicate things,  I personally don't think bigger cases automatically look better, and unless you do two loops (which does look so freaking cool) hardware dwarfism is a bitch. 

 

I don't quite run fan less idle (semi fan less and max 400 rpm)  or gaming (active max 650 rpm) .  

 

@ OP (those really familiar with wc will already likely know this) A quick tidbit:

 

It should be noted though that with fans running at the same noise,  you generally get equal to better performance from a 280 rad over a 360 and almost always from a 420 over a 480.

 

With this in mind you can often get quite similar total cooling from easier to fit components.

 

For example finding a case that will do a 360 and 480 requires going to very large full towers while I have a 280 and 420 sitting in a midtower (although without mods there is exactly one other midtower on the market that can do it. Well two technically but the R5 requires basically completely butchering it.)

 

So if you still want to get that much cooling you should also consider cases (if applicable) that fit 2x 420s instead. 

 

Final tidbit,  the FF5 fan variants from EK are really loud,  and a sad truth is that tuning down high speed fans is not close to as effective soundwise as buying quieter fans in the first place.  I'd recommend the FF2 or FF3 versions. 

[OneshotOtter]

I think the caselabs sma8 would be a great case for you! you could easily fit both 480 rads in it.  If you dont know of him already, look up Jayztwocentz on youtube! He does a lot of quality watercooling videos and went through a similar transition of switching from a corsair 900d to a caselabs for his pc: skunkworks.

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Final tidbit,  the FF5 fan variants from EK are really loud,  and a sad truth is that tuning down high speed fans is not close to as effective soundwise as buying quieter fans in the first place.  I'd recommend the FF2 or FF3 versions. 

I got the FF5's solely because I hate the colours on the lower models. Seriously EK what the hell, disgusting grey fan blades. I see they have changed the colours slightly now and also added a full black option for the FF4.

 

8 FF5s on full RPM is close to a vacuum cleaner.

[Curufinwe_wins]

2 hours ago, leadeater said:

I got the FF5's solely because I hate the colours on the lower models. Seriously EK what the hell, disgusting grey fan blades. I see they have changed the colours slightly now and also added a full black option for the FF4.

 

8 FF5s on full RPM is close to a vacuum cleaner.

Yer.  Pretty bad. 

 

You could also consider fractal design hp-14 fans.  (for 120s noctua is still the way to go imho,  esp since you don't want to run at near full speed.) 

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Yer.  Pretty bad. 

 

You could also consider fractal design hp-14 fans.  (for 120s noctua is still the way to go imho,  esp since you don't want to run at near full speed.) 

Yep, was going to get the NF-F12 IPPC 2000 PWM but they are almost 50% more and it was just easier to add the EK fans in to an order I was already doing.

 

If you want really loud though I have some Nidec Beta SL 120mm 12V 3.3A 6000 RPM fans, I call them finger removers. So quiet too, only 66dBa