Watercooling Liquid cooling users: what form factor does your motherboard correspond to?

Hello,

I am currently in the process of working out a design for a water cooling case which I am hoping to eventually sell commercially. As a result, I am looking to get an idea of the distribution of motherboard sizes in performance users' systems. I have had little luck finding relevant results online and I would therefore greatly appreciate it if you could take the time just to pick one of the options I have listed in the poll on this post.

As this case is to be designed entirely for use with a fully water cooled system (or at least with all the really big heat generating components being water cooled; CPU(s), GPU(s), motherboard etc), as the airflow through the system components would be quite minimal, I am looking to see what the distribution is among water cooling users only (or also those who intend to fully water cool their current hardware). I would therefore politely request that only users who fit into that category respond to the poll.

Also, do let me know if I have left out any options that are relevant to you. I am aware there are quite a few obscure server-orientated form factors out there that I have not included, but I am guessing that it is unlikely a significant number of users will be using these.

I will also be asking this question on other hardware forums I frequent, so if you happen to come across one of these other polls, please do also contribute by voting on those aswell.

Thanks again!

Odai.

EDIT: I've managed to post the thread without a poll, will ask a moderator to help me out. Bear with me.

 

ATX and EATX will cover most people I think. However, as watercooling is quite a niche, and high performance also fits in well, supporting HPTX might also be a plus. To that end, you'd need 10 PCI slots, and a decent amount of space to fit HPTX motherboards. This is not really an issue anyway, as modern GPUs often extend off the end of EATX boards anyway.

 

ATX, SSI-EEB and a proprietary SSI-CEB based form factor. But I do my own cases for those.

 

mini-ITX. But I've got a GTX 480 plugged into it so I looped them together, despite only a mild overclock it's super lovely and quiet and I like listening to the calming trinkle of reservoir. Most of my kit is external.

 

Both of mine should be ATX...

...though for my usage i need to have decent fan cooling for the heat sinks around the cpu (as i don't buy chipset blocks after seeing no gain with an EK block on the original Rampage) & the HDDs (as i tend to install loads of them & esp something like my 15K7s would get quite hot otherwise)...


& i externally mount my rads as it gives far better temps - both in terms of directly cooling the components in each loop & the case temp itself - with care taken with the hole size...

...with a Cosmos case i used to use (& may do again before too long), the rubber gromets for passing the tubing out of the back were too small for even 3/8th OD.


tbh though, if i were looking for a new case now, i'd want something simple looking that could fit bunches of HDDs in & the option for loads of fans...

...kind of like the Lian Li PC-A71 i own (with the top for 3 fans - so 8 fans in total - plus the ones on the rad of course), but with an inch more room below the board & shifting the main HDD bays to the left (looking from the front), rather than them being dead centre, to give a bit more space for cabling.


[Edit]

Oh, having just looked... Probably something more like the PC-A77F with a T-LF37B-2 top on it might be good enough for me...

...well, if someone wants to give me £300 to buy it that is(?).

 

Something like the Elysium but more focussed on watercooling would be perfect!!!

 

ATX here, although I may add a simple loop to cool my son's mATX based CPU; but only talking about something like a H50, which I'm guessing doesn't really count in the context of this thread.

 

You're stalking me, aren't you?

 

*checks the expiry date on the restraining order*

Might be.

 

Hi,

Just wanted to say, that im using XL-ATX. (now i have the bug i really wouldnt want to go smaller.

I wont be buying a new 2011 cpu system until i find the 2011 version of my UD9.

However i would imagine the standard eatx would be what most people would be using.

Its quite difficult to commercialy produce a case and i think most people on here are likely to make their own cases still?.

I had intended to make my XLATX case commercialy, however after realising the corners id have to cut to make it cost effective, i decided that i couldnt do it.

It would of defeated my object of going for top quality cost irrelevant.

Then i do see cases for sale in the £300+ range, so i may rethink at some point.

Its just that i would find it difficult going from thick machined panels and custom milling etc to a more likely

1. Thinner panels
2. Pressed instead of machined
3. Anodised instead of powder and then paint then artwork etc etc.

However if i did some market research id prob have a better idea.

Good luck though, theres always room for more cases on the scene.

 

Currently using an ATX board, although the case can take EATX.
Next build I'm planning in the next week or two is matx, although would have possibly gone mitx if I could find a case which would take a 240 which was a similar price to the matx case I'm going for (fractal arc mini)

 

@ Number Six, have you been rattling around in my head? I've just had the same idea, been looking up the prices of CNC machines and workshops recently, also managed to get a few ideas onto CAD, but personally I'd agree with Bloodypete, something like the Xigmatek Elysium, or The Little Devil V10 would be a good place to start from.

Edit @ Pablofunky only XL ATX Lga 2011 board is the Gigabyte UD7 (the big orange one) but it only has 4 Dimm slots total, personally I'd recommend the Asus Rampage IV if you want to switch to 2011 as although it's not XL-ATX you can do up to quad Sli or Crossfire

 

thetrashcanman,

Cheers, yeah that xl format seems a little odd, as whilst the ud7 (new 2011) looks like xl, it seems its still shorter.

Xl format has the other 3 mounting points 42mm thurther down, But the XL doesent seem an official format as such, so i guess its subject to a little change, like the hp format type.

Its somewhat confusing still at the moment.

 

My maximus is classed as ATX, But is about 30mm wider than a standerd ATX, and its not classed as a Eatx as it still only has 7 pci slots.

 

It would be classed as eATX if it's that much wider than the mounting holes eATX has nothing to do with how many PCIe slots the board has, don't know if your getting confused between eATX and XL-ATX maybe?

 

Mini ITX with Danger Den liquid cooling.

 

XL-ATX and HPTX are not considered valid standardized form factors. The fact that there are boards featuring layouts called XL-ATX and HPTX is irrelevant, as there is no "standard (in fact, I've seen about three different XL-ATX formats.) Proprietary standards are never a good idea. I have a server board that only fits one case-it's a PITA. So while it would be nice to include those form factors, where are you gonna get a cleanly delineated standard?

Also, forgot I have a liquid cooled mini-ITX as well.

 

Yes, liquid cooling important when you overclock ITX system.

 

I wouldnt cater for the 'HPTX' market, its so very small you would not see any return from the outlay of designing such a case really..

 

One thing to note for case design with water cooling, is a place to install one or more radiators outside. Most cases can accommodate one outside, but many require home modification to take more.