Small Case?

Paladine

Paladine

Paladine

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Joined
28 Oct 2006
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457
I am looking to do a high end build with water cooling but want to put it in a small case that will still allow me to run a full custom loop.

Planning to go with 2x NVidia in SLI
Beefy Intel CPU (i7)
32GB RAM
HW RAID Controller
Icy Dock MB994SP-4S (with 4x 500GB SSD in RAID)

I want everything on the loop.

I have only run closed loop until now, so this will be my first step into custom loops. Budget isn't really an issue, but I would like it to be as small as possible and quiet as possible with exceptional cooling.

Not really sure where to start.

Case needs 2x 5.25" bays (one for Icy Dock and one for Optical Drive) - would like at least 2 (preferably 4) USB 3.0 on the front.

Internal drive space is not an issue - in fact if there are not internal drive bays at all that would still be fine.

I am thinking I might have to go and get one custom fabricated because I really haven't seen anything which matches what I need - but hopefully someone on here has.

Looking forward to replies.
 
Can't think of anything that would do the job off the top of my head but why the Icy Dock? do you need your raided SSDs to be hot swappable? if not it would be far less space to just conceal them somewhere in the case, for instance under the motherboard tray.
Again do you really need a DVD drive? a large amount of people don't use them any more seems most games are downloaded and they use external media on USB sticks or SD cards.
If you do need a DVD drive still you could consider a slot loading one which can be mounted in many different ways to save space.

I ask because you would open yourself to more options if you didnt require the 5.25" bays. for instance the Parvum cases would hold 2 240mm rads which would be sufficient for your cpu and sli just about.
 
what mobo are you using?

If budget is not an issue and you would like exceptional cooling capacity,

I would say either go for Parvum System or Caselabs.

You won't regret ;)
 
Haven't decided on the build components yet, wanted to see if there is a viable case first. Just tired of having such a huge chunk of metal next to me all the time but still want performance and cooling.
 
Actually looking at NZXT H440 I could be persuaded to give up on the Icy Box and maybe go for a custom mod for hot swap drives or do without hot swap - it is a nice case.
 
So this is what I have come up with so far, but I still need some help putting the loop components together if anyone would care to advise? Ideally I would like the loop to have 2x 240 Rads (don't think I could fit 2x 360 + res in this case but if it is possible then 2x 360 would be preferable or 1x 360 in top and 1x 240 in front if I need the space for res).

Also not particularly happy with the RAM would like a Quad Channel 32GB Kit which can be watercooled but could only find 16GB (4x4GB) kits on OCUK - so any suggestions there would be appreciated.

YOUR BASKET
2 x OcUK Tech Labs H2O Custom EVGA GeForce GTX 780Ti Classified "Dual BIOS" 3072MB Watercooled Graphics Card with Backplate £670.00 (£1,340.00)
- 2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC780 GTX Classified - Acetal+Nickel £89.99
4 x Crucial M550 1TB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT1024M550SSD1) £399.95 (£1,599.80)
1 x LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i SGL Controller Card - (OEM) RAID £283.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI FORMULA Intel Z87 Watercooled Motherboard £280.00
- 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FB KIT ASUS M6F - Acetal+Nickel £79.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £233.99
2 x OcUK Tech Labs Watercooled Memory Modules - TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £203.99 (£407.98)
1 x LSI MegaRAID LSIiBBU07 Battery - (Retail) £139.99
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - White £94.99
Total : £4,640.69 (includes shipping : ).

 
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Have you looked at a Corsair 450D or a Fractal Design ARC R2 Midi?

Both can deliver a 360 up top and a 240 in the front in relatively small spaces.
 
Paladine said:
So this is what I have come up with so far, but I still need some help putting the loop components together if anyone would care to advise? Ideally I would like the loop to have 2x 240 Rads (don't think I could fit 2x 360 + res in this case but if it is possible then 2x 360 would be preferable or 1x 360 in top and 1x 240 in front if I need the space for res).

Also not particularly happy with the RAM would like a Quad Channel 32GB Kit which can be watercooled but could only find 16GB (4x4GB) kits on OCUK - so any suggestions there would be appreciated.

YOUR BASKET
2 x OcUK Tech Labs H2O Custom EVGA GeForce GTX 780Ti Classified "Dual BIOS" 3072MB Watercooled Graphics Card with Backplate £670.00 (£1,340.00)
- 2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC780 GTX Classified - Acetal+Nickel £89.99
4 x Crucial M550 1TB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT1024M550SSD1) £399.95 (£1,599.80)
1 x LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i SGL Controller Card - (OEM) RAID £283.99
1 x OcUK Tech Labs - Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI FORMULA Intel Z87 Watercooled Motherboard £280.00
- 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FB KIT ASUS M6F - Acetal+Nickel £79.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £233.99
2 x OcUK Tech Labs Watercooled Memory Modules - TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit £203.99 (£407.98)
1 x LSI MegaRAID LSIiBBU07 Battery - (Retail) £139.99
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - White £94.99
Total : £4,640.69 (includes shipping : ).

Click to expand...

To save you some money:

1. Don't get a RAID card as Z87 have 6 SATA3 6GB/s slot, you can run RAID 0 off the motherboard while being more secure than a RAID card (personal experience)

2. Install the motherboard blocks yourself instead of getting the tech lab fitted one... You can compare the cost when you buy them separately...

3. You don't really need to w/c RAMs... Unless you are doing some really hardcore overclocking... and if you are doing some serious overclocking... you should get the M6E board but not the M6F board.

If you intend to go w/c on RAMs for the look of it, then go for Samsung RAM and fit the RAM block yourself as well. These RAM overclock pretty well (Ask 8 Pack).
 
deFiniLoGy said:
To save you some money:

1. Don't get a RAID card as Z87 have 6 SATA3 6GB/s slot, you can run RAID 0 off the motherboard while being more secure than a RAID card (personal experience)

2. Install the motherboard blocks yourself instead of getting the tech lab fitted one... You can compare the cost when you buy them separately...

3. You don't really need to w/c RAMs... Unless you are doing some really hardcore overclocking... and if you are doing some serious overclocking... you should get the M6E board but not the M6F board.

If you intend to go w/c on RAMs for the look of it, then go for Samsung RAM and fit the RAM block yourself as well. These RAM overclock pretty well (Ask 8 Pack).
Click to expand...

I am going mirror+stripe raid and would prefer hardware raid over motherboard software raid, for the battery backup. This is a work as well as play machine so I have to make sure my storage is well protected.

But thanks for the other pieces of advice - cost is not really an issue as this will be a company expense anyway and I would rather just put everything together than have to start messing around dismantling cards to fit blocks and backplates. But I will certainly take a look and see if the cost difference is worth it for me. All comes down to how much extra time it would take me to fit the blocks/backplates myself and whether or not the cost of having them pre-assembled is more than my time is worth doing something else.
 
Paladine said:
I am going mirror+stripe raid and would prefer hardware raid over motherboard software raid, for the battery backup. This is a work as well as play machine so I have to make sure my storage is well protected.

But thanks for the other pieces of advice - cost is not really an issue as this will be a company expense anyway and I would rather just put everything together than have to start messing around dismantling cards to fit blocks and backplates. But I will certainly take a look and see if the cost difference is worth it for me. All comes down to how much extra time it would take me to fit the blocks/backplates myself and whether or not the cost of having them pre-assembled is more than my time is worth doing something else.
Click to expand...

Ah...

I don't know how the warranty turn out for the watercooled motherboards to be honest.

But if money is not a concern, then I think you can pay the extra for the "watercooling" warranty from OcUK for the motherboards :D

P.S. God having unlimited money is just so good :rolleyes:
 
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