Hi All - I have ordered a Thermaltake Level 20XT as my new project. The rig will be used as a general use/benchmarking/gaming rig for extreme online NooB PWNage!!! Now the case in it's basic form is gorgeous with all that glass, add some RGB lighting and it looks the mutts nutts. However all that glass restricts air flow, so my goal is improve air flow into this beauty. I plan on doing this by making a mesh front panel, with two 200mm fans behind it, raise the overall height up a bit with some taller feet and add some 140mm fans to the floor of the case. With some additional 140mm fans blowing cold air over the MB. A 140mm rear fan and 200mm roof fan will act as exhaust fans. The component cooling will be handled externally by a Watercool MO-RA3 360mm heat exchanger, with 8x 180mm fans in a push/pull config. So installing rads will not be an issue. I plan on getting a custom Acrylic reservoir made up which will be split in two, one cold side / one hot side. Each side will have a Swiftech MCP35X pump attached to it. I currently have this set-up in my CM Cosmos II case, along with all of the other components. I will use flexible tubing as it's more convenient for keeping the modular aspect to this case, as I'm forever swapping hardware and like the flexibility and ease of fast strip-downs. Tech Spec; Core i9-10900X Asus Rampage VI Extreme Omega Trident Z RGB 3600Mhz CL16 32GB RAMM WD Black SN750 1TB NVMe's x2 WD Black SN750 2TB NVMe x1 EVGA 1080Ti FTW3 BeQuiet Dark Pro 11 1200W Custom cables Custom fan grills Lots of mesh Cooling; Watercool Heatkiller IV CPU block Watercool MBX VRM block EKWB RGB GPU Block Custom Acrylic Reservoirs Koolance QD3 quick disconnects Masterkleer Tubing Mayhems X1 UV Coolant EKWB fittings Watercool MO-RA3 cooler Raijnitek RGB fans - Iris 140mm + Anemi 200mm Enermax Apolish 180mm fans TBC.................... Pic of current rig attached;
Update #1: The beast has arrived!!! All in one piece which was a relief, sadly tho upon inspection it appears that my plan to make a mesh front panel has to be scrapped. As the glass front is bonded onto the plastic front panel with some super strong glue. I think I will end up destroying both parts, with my attempts to separate the two, so I think I will have to leave them well alone. It also looks like TT have changed the design a bit from the original photo's on their webby, as the OG unit was not as well fixed as the one I received. So I will have to improve the floor air intake, to maximise air coming into the case.
Update #3; First mods on the TT L20 case, I had to cut out the support brackets for the side fans, as they blocked all room to fit some side panels. I started off with the Dremmel, but it took 2 hours just to cut one out, so I switched to the angle grinder which was way faster, but not quite as neat tho. I also cleaned up the front panel by removing some of the clutter for a cleaner look.
Update #4: I've spent the last 2 days enjoy ing the sunshine and managed to get quite a bit done. I removed the end rails which support the rads/fan brackets in the roof. I squashed the locating lugs and refixed them slightly lower down. This is to ensure that the support sub-frame I will make for the roof fan and reservoir will sit in the C channels on either side and add a bit of support too. I then cut some 40x3mm aluminum to create the sub-frame and test fitted it into the roof. I also cut up some mesh to create the roof vent and mount for the roof fan.
Update #5: I cut some more aluminum to make a support frame for the middle section adjacent to the mobo tray. I also cut some 6mm aluminum to create a shelf for some extra fans I will be adding later on. I also cut the mesh lower side panels out and bent the bottom to provide a fixing point. And lastly I removed the floor panel and replaced it with a mesh panel I cut out, just to maximise air flow into the floor area and hopefully increase air flow to the floor fans I will be adding. I'm well pleased with my efforts especially seeing as I cut everything by hand, with just a few simple tools.
Update #6: I got some more work done, I glued the frame onto the central mesh panel, I made a bracket/rail for my central fans using an Lian Li T60-1b fan bracket and I added a aluminum rail to give extra support to the floor mesh plate I previously cut out. I then sprayed them up and I also gave the rest of the case a blow over to improve the areas where I'd cut out from. And also improve the cheap matt black OEM paint, with some better satin black paint. I also added a edge capping to seal the rough cut edges on the lower case sides. Edit; Sadly my images are deemed "too large" - so I can not upload them.
Update #7: After some faffing around with epoxy resins, which sadly did not provide a strong enough bond, the roof sub-frame is now bolted in and awaiting paint.
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This bad boy arrived the other day, a top quality job and it fits perfectly too!!! https://imgur.com/gallery/Brd994O
Thanks bud; Update #8: I spray painted the sub-frame, so it's already for installation into my TT L20 XT case.
Update #9: Roof sub-frame sprayed and fitted into the case. I resprayed the entire case again as well. I swapped the cheap plastic feet out, for some nice aluminum units. I had to double them up to in order to lift the case up higher, to allow more air to enter from underneath it. I cut out the top mesh rear panel. I doubled up on the mesh for some extra strength. I also finished making the front grill section and resprayed it along with the motherboard tray and edges on the mesh side panels, The case is coming along nicely now and starting to look how I envisaged it.
Update #10: I finished off the roof top mesh panel and added some rubber trim to it. I also added some custom fan grills I had made by Coldzero to the mesh side panels and fitted all of the fans. The bottom 2 are Noctua NF-A14 industrial PPC 3000Rpm units which will most likely be very noisy, but at least I can decrease their speeds if necessary. The roof and front fans are 200mm Raijintek Anemi RGB units and the rest are 140mm Raijintek Iris RGB units. getting closer to hardware fitting time for-sure!
Update #11: I finished off the case today, by carbon wrapping all of the front surrounds, I/O panel, roof and side panels to hide the cheap looking plastic trims. As well as some of the visible metal rails on the top and bottom of the sides. I also sorted out the cable routing, for a nice hidden look. I'm just waiting on some fittings and then I'll be all set for transferring the hardware over from my Cosmos II.
Update #12: THE BEAST IS COMPLETE!!! I had some issues with the lighting and needed extra cables, splitters etc, but finally got there in the end. Here's some snaps of the final build, I'm extremely happy with Howley and he has turned out better than I expected. Lots more pics can be found here; https://imgur.com/a/KY7b46o I'll take some night shots, so that you can see the beast in his full glory!!!
