Watercooling case question

Mockingbird · 22 Aug 2011 at 10:04

Possibly this belongs in "cases", but I'll check here anyway.

I've seen some cases with a set of rubber grommeted holes on the back of the case for watercooling pipes.

I can see two good uses for these:
1) taking fluid to and from an external radiator (saves sapce in case, keeps heated air as separate as possible)
2) just leaving a loop outside the case to show off the fancy coloured fluid.

Both of these would require an even number of holes,

so why on earth do some cases have three of these holes? I know it's a silly thing to worry about, but it bugs me no end.

Martini1991 · 22 Aug 2011 at 10:10

Some cases have three holes because some cases use that USB 3 plug which goes into the motherboard back, so they can put it through there.
I explained that so bad, but you get the drift

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rjk · 22 Aug 2011 at 10:48

it is for USB3 cables mainly.
however. if you have external radiators, then your fans will be external too. you will need a fan power cable going externally to power them

Mockingbird · 22 Aug 2011 at 11:37

Ah, ok, so it's for other cables/wires, rather than parts of the cooling loop?

that actually makes a lot of sense. I had been trying to envision a method by which a loop wouldn't need to return to the case (I don't know what I would have been - WC GPU with the input nozzle on the outside of the case?)

thanks folks.