Lian Li V700

After seeing this case and it's bigger brother, the V750 in the early leaks, I had to have them (yes, both).

I wasn't sure if I would be using the V700 or the 750 for a watercooling build, so here are some clearance pictures of the V700 for those that are interested.

There is about 48-49mm of space between the roof and the motherboard. On a Maximus V Gene, there is 55mm of space between the motherboard and the MOSFET heatsink.



You would think that this would allow for enough space to fit a 30mm radiatior, or something as tiny as the H100. However, much to my dismay, where it contacts is right at the EPS 8 pin plug. It isn't offset enough to clear it. It fits no problem when there is no plug on it, but it only leaves a few mm of room between the fan and the empty plug. So when you go to put one on there, there's just not quite enough room. This is exacerbated if you have a nice uni-sleeved cable that bulks out even more.



With a bit of cutting on the top, it would be pretty easy to offset the mounting points for a top radiator, but I was loathe to do it with this beauty. So, no H100 native fitting, unless you use 120x20mm fans It won't go in the front either, as you will either not have a good mounting place for it to clear the PSU, or it will get in the way of the PSU.

For those brave enough to cut the top a bit, more clearance pictures. 100mm of space between the floor and the bottom of a mATX board.



There *should* be enough space for a floor mounted 240mm radiator, but it will certainly be snug with the plugs from the PSU.



One of the coolest features of this case is all the different places you can mount HDD's. In the floor, there are these holes:



Simply attach the anti-vibration grommets to the bottom of your HDD.



Then slide them right in.



With the HDD cage in place, you could have a total of 7 HDDs (or 6 and one optical drive) and 2 SSDs installed. Pretty amazing for a case so small.

Here's the mounting bracket for the PSU.



That plug can be routed through a hole in the bottom of the bracket and alongside the bottom corner of the side to be nearly completely out of eyesight.

With those posted, time for me to shut it down and finish up cable management, which is certainly a lesson in patience coming from the 600T. More pictures to come later.
Edited by Michalius - 5/1/12 at 5:07pm

Okay. ~20 hours of labor and it's done. Basically my build went as thus:

-Put Maximus V Gene in to get an idea of clearances, took lots of pictures. Plan watercooling loop.
-Become so enamored with it, that I decide to just go for it and swap in the parts from my 600T build.
-Realize that the H100 won't fit in there with the MVG because of the EPS 8 pin conflicts with fan.
-Cut fan housing to make it fit, it doesnt.
-Route 8 pin cable downward to create an extra few mm of clearance, doesn't reach PSU.
-Look up 20mm thick fan radiator performance, followed by weeping.
-Mount H100 in the front of the case (which I successfully did), then remember PSU needs to go there too after about 5 hours of measuring, drilling, and mounting.
-Swap parts again, put in Sabertooth (EPS power has a bit more clearance there), still not enough.
-Decide to just say screw it and go for an H60/80 or a CM TPC 812, put stock heatsink on for the time being.
-Realize that bottom mounted HDD drives make cable management a total nightmare.
-Put back on HDD cage to add more rear 'hiding' space, remount HDDs.
-Need to go to bed after I was sitting and staring at it for like 10 minutes without thinking.
-Finish cable management this morning. Wasn't bad by any means, but would be a disaster for a novice.

End result (excuse the teeny stock heatsink):



That's all the parts from this build:



Crammed into a case that is significantly smaller:



Despite the difficulty, I love this case to death. The fit and finish is absolutely brilliant, and the design is so different yet everything works well. I can't think of a better case if you value design, quality, and are aiming for an air build.

Sent the MVGene back, waiting for the V750 to do the crazy water build for sure.

I think airflow for this case is best done as swapping the top two fans as intake and adding some filters there. Having a single 140mm in the front as intake which is right above the PSU exhaust really limits cooling potential. I'd much rather have a good positive pressure setup with this, as in stock form I'd imagine it'd get dusty very very quick.

If you guys want any other clearance pictures or up close shots of anything in specific, let me know.

Second 7970, yeah. Two 560ti's or something of that nature would fit just fine.

It's a price that can't be understood until you build in one. As soon as you run your hand down the curved brushed aluminum exterior, it all begins to make sense.