CM Storm Trooper - Plans & Advice!

DaleTheWhale

DaleTheWhale

DaleTheWhale

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THE SPOILER BELOW HAS LOTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE CASE AND CAN BE QUITE HELPFUL FOR ANYONE USING THIS CASE.

Hi,

I am planning on a full upgrade for my PC in July/August to include the new Haswell chips and on top of this I want to go full blown with a custom water-cooling loop. I want to try and plan out everything I need from the case side of things and have a mapped out idea of what components I intend to get, what i'll need and if everything will go together. I understand the CM Storm Trooper is a great case, however in a water cooling sense, it seems quite limited and I would rather keep the case then switch it out.

As far as my knowledge extends and with how I've played with my build at the moment without any modifications or changes the case can Handle 2 x 240mm radiators and 1 x 140mm at the back. The front i'm unsure as to whether this will mount a radiator properly as the HDD cages are the parts which you can attach fans to and not the actual case, so that might be an issue.

Ideally, this is going to be quite a large project and would like some guidance and opinions over the next few months and what to do and how would be the best way to tackle it.

What I want to water-cool would be -

Intel 3570k/4750k with a nice moderate overclock, say 4.4+
2 x 7950's or if I can wait 2 x AMD 8950's/GTX 770's

I think I'd be sitting on a single card for a little while and then X-fire/SLI in the near future but i'd definitely want the option in the future. What would you guys suggest, I know you can fit a 360mm in the roof with modding, but I've never modded cases or had any exposure to using tools to do such mods. Also I know a 360mm can go in the front, but I'd lose the HDD bays which would be handy to keep at least one.

Suggestions/Opinions/Ideas. I will be posting up a few baskets with what components I'll most likely want to get and some mock up images of how to make it look etc.

This will kick start Project - Omen again which I started at Christmas: Project - Omen


Notes/Case information & Links

Related Threads for Information so far;

Original Project Thread
Watercooling - Radiators and Cooling

Figures to have noted down:

Watercooling:
Top Clearance - 60mm = 35mm Radiator & 25mm Fans [280mm or 240mm]
Bot Clearance - 100mm+ = 60mm Radiator & 50mm Fans [240mm]
Front - Can take a 360mm radiator at 60mm thickness.

General Case Information:

Fan Controller -
Each cable handles 1A, splitting that into 0.5A per fan.
SP120 fans only take 0.18A.
 
Last edited:
Doomedspeed said:
A few more idea's here too: http://www.overclock.net/t/1104349/the-official-cooler-master-storm-trooper-storm-stryker-club/2990

Down towards the bottom of the page is a build by hagardproductions that looks awesome. (He also explains (basically) what he has a few posts below the pretty picture.
Click to expand...

That is extremely nice and pretty much the setup I'd want. A nice thick radiator in the bottom with push/pull, and then a thin/single set of fan radiator in the top. I think you can get 3 out of 4 fans in the top of the case, with the handle blocking one so semi-push/pull.

Thanks for the help so far Doomed, having a look at how to wire all the fans up in the case. Can you get fan splitters to hook 2 fans to 1 channel on a controller. I'm looking at the NZXT Sentry which has 5 30w channels, could they be split to wire up the radiator fans?

They'll be at minimum 9 fans, 4 for the bottom rad, 3 for the top & 1 at the back and 1 at the front. So, 4 channels will need to be doubled up?
 
Yeah you can use a splitter. For these channels. You may even be able to use a triple splitter depending on fan controller wattage.

It sounds a great setup.
 
It's going to be great fun as I'll have the money spare to do it and I've always wanted to watercool. Having a AMD phenom CPU at the moment with a 6950, I was put off, but come the release of Haswell seems a perfect time to do a big project like this!

I think I may have this thread as the main one whilst I plan, as I'll be gathering information for different areas on what I want to do so far, I'm getting the water cooling planned.

Very exciting!
 
just had a read through the 360mm rad in the front (have this case myself and had to have a little look lol) i think you should do the 360mm in the front mod and have a 240mm in the roof.

then you can run the fans at a slower speed as there will be more surface area and gives you more room to add things to the loop :)

(may have to watercool my storm trooper now! i want to see how you go about it tho, if i get any ideas when messing with the case ill let you know :)
 
beasty6 said:
...(may have to watercool my storm trooper now! i want to see how you go about it tho, if i get any ideas when messing with the case ill let you know :)
Click to expand...

There's a few options and the 360mm in the front is definitely one of them. The only thing i'm a little worried about is my HDD's and mounting a Res/pump. I'm going to get some measurements and drawings together and figure out will work the best. If it's possible to get a way to mount just about the 360mm Rad then I think it will work perfectly as I can use the SSD cage mount at the bottom for my SSD's.

Going to see if I can mount a reservoir between the middle two grommets at the back of the case. So the cable can still get through + it's on show, plus the pump can go directly below it then on the floor in front of the 360mm rad.

PS: Please do share some idea's, it's still a little while away yet but, there's many options and I think it will be a great build for the new hardware coming out this year!
 
I know he's the reason I bought this case! I added it as an option in my original post, but I don't fancy modding the case as of yet, but thanks for the suggestion.
 
do you think you could get a EX240 with 1 set of SP120's at the top? after reading your threads, i wanna watercool my next build with the same case :D

are you going with 2x 240mm rads?

i think im going a 360 up front and a 240 t the top for a 3820 and a 690 or 790 depending when its released.

i did look at making some L-brackets at work be need to have a close look at were they can be mounted without drilling holes etc

ill get some mock ups and ideas for the L-brackets and let you know what works (will make a few different ones and try them)

just to get hold f a damaged radiator for the mock ups now :)
 
That sounds fantastic! I've been speaking to a friend at work about mounting radiators and reservoirs in the case and might have a little look into getting some brackets made and getting a 360mm in the front of the case with a 240mm in the roof.

If you have a play around, share what you find out, glad some of the threads i've made has gave you a similar idea. I think it's a great case and has great potential for a amazing build & water cooling!

Definitely keep me updated on what you mock up!
 
yeh it has, i love the case, would be soo much better if it supported 360mm rads in the front and top out of the box!

i will do buddy, ill have to get a rad to mock it all up with first but ill see what i cad do :)
 
Would make the case that extra bit perfect, do like the design of it quite a lot.

Should have access to the MM soon, might see if anyone has anything on the cheap side to play around with for the time being, would love to do it all now, but I've been waiting for Haswell and I think it will be the perfect time to indulge into water cooling.
 
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