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Best case for internal/external watercooling under $180?

post #1 of 4
8/8/12 at 5:51pm
Thread Starter 
Need to upgrade from my raidmax simildom, it is hard to keep everything organized inside the case.

I have my CPU watercooled with a 360 rad, I can have the rad. Inside or outside as long as there are holes for the water to run through. Or a case that can easily be modded or drill wholes in for the tubing. $180 budget.
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post #2 of 4
8/8/12 at 6:12pm
I'm obviously going to tell you to get my case - the Fractal Arc Midi. There's only three considerations with a 360 rad:

(1) I had to drill new mounting holes for it, only a 240 or 280 will fit without modding the case.
(2) You will only be able to use one set of fans with the rad, no push-pull setup will fit because it will interfere with the motherboard and tubing to the CPU block.
(3) You will also lose the top 5.25" bay, and there are only two in this case. I got around this by installing a Lamptron fan controller in the top bay, and it was short enough to fit the rad tightly behind it. ODD in the bottom bay.

It took a little work, but it was worth it and now looks amazing. The Arc Midi is a brilliant case and I highly recommend it.
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Heavy Water
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post #3 of 4
8/8/12 at 6:18pm
NZXT Switch 810 (360+240), Bitfenix Shinobi XL (360+240 or 360), but no space for HDDs if both rads installed), Cooler Master HAF X (only 360 without mods).

Thanks, Michalius.
Edited by DeXel - 8/8/12 at 9:31pm
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Ivy Bridge
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ST3300822AS Western Digital RED 3 TB Noctua NH-D14 Lamptron FC Touch 
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post #4 of 4
8/8/12 at 9:27pm
Shinobi has room for two 360mm radiators.
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zfz.Professional
(15 items)
 
zfz.Prodigy
(9 items)
 
zfz.Bench
(15 items)
 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7 3820 ASUS Rampage IV Gene EVGA GTX 690 4x4GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 
Hard DriveCoolingOSMonitor
2x128GB Crucial M4 Koolance VID-NX690, Koolance CPU-380I Win 7 64bit BenQ XL2420T, Samsung S23A750D 
KeyboardPowerCaseMouse
CM Quickfire Rapid Red Corsair AX760i CaseLabs SM5 Steelseries Sensei 
Mouse PadAudio
Artisan Glass Shiden Sennheiser PC-350 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
2500K ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe EVGA GTX 670 8GB Samsung 30nm 
Hard DriveCoolingOSCase
Samsung 830 128GB H60 Win 7 64 Bit BitFenix Spectre Pro 
Audio
NuForce uDAC 2 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
3570K Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 ASUS RoG Matrix 7970 8GB Samsung DDR3 1600 
Hard DriveCoolingOSMonitor
128GB Crucial M4 Prolimatech Megahalems Black Win 7 64bit BenQ XL2420T 
PowerCase
Corsair AX650 TripT Custom Bench 
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