Hi guys, It has been approaching upgrade time for a while, and I've always wanted to do a full blown, dual loop heavily watercooled case. I started out watercooling around 6 years ago when I bought an AIO with my first major PC build, I liked the performance but wanted to push it further and rebuilt my loop a few times over the last few years, up to last weeks clean and tidy ready to sell on the system: The case I had always planned was a Corsair 900D, an absolute behemoth to lay out some very tidy dual loops, but then I saw the In Win 909 with it's glass sides and brushed aluminium finish and had to have it! Quite a size difference!: So this will be a dual loop X99 Build, grey and yellow colour theme and I'm hoping to continue the high quality glass and aluminium theme through the inside too. The main complaint with the In Win 909 is the cooling, with limited airflow through the front which is normally blocked by a radiator, and the base of the case usually used for pumps and or reservoirs, cooling suffers and I'll be aiming to maximise the airflow through these areas with this build. First up the case needs some modification... I want to use the top chamber for the reservoir(s) and I'd also like to open up the other side so you can actually see the 2nd tube, so inner chassis comes out: and out with the HD cages: and then some grinder and dremel action: Still needs some tidying up to make it a bit straighter and tidy in the edge, but looks like it'll work Also opened up the front fan holes a bit for both quieter operation and more airflow hopefully: Next, before measuring up my blanking plates and planning out the runs I wanted some components to check sizes and fit, so in with the shiny new boxes: Shortly after this Asus announced their X99 Strix Motherboard, so this will most likely be changed before the end of the build as it fits the colour scheme much better Now layout wise I was planning to put pumps and reservoirs in the top section, 2 140 fans underneath the base of the case in the tray, a 280x60MM rad in the base for CPU, 2 140mm fans up front, and a 140 and 360 Rad in the back for GPU loop. Unfortunately, this didn't quite work out how I had planned, but at least I got a name for the build!: Pumps don't fit in the top section, rad in the base will be ok with some extra trimming, but the fans in tray idea doesn't work as it blocks all the airflow to the front . And the 140 rad in the middle section is too thick to allow good airflow to the rear radiator, unfortunately it doesn't line up shroud style either or it would have been ok! So after some playing around with differing layouts this is the final idea: 280 in the base will be replaced with a 30mm thick rad, and fans will go on top, pumps mounted to the back 'wall' horizontally, and 140 rad and fan swapped around to allow a gap to the 360 rad and fan setup: I'm also working on an idea for a custom reservoir that should hopefully be finalised and on it's way to be CNC'd this week, and if that works out I'll show some pictures here. If not I'll be using some Primochill CTR tube reservoirs. Thanks for reading! PS Apologies for the awkward rotation on some of the pics, not sure how to fix that as it's correct on my PC and in a browser as an image! Will see if I can rotate and save them in paint next time before uploading maybe...
I've subscribed, was looking at replacing my case with the InWin 909 recently and it'll be interesting to see what can be done with it.
It's obviously a lot smaller than the 900D I originally planned but I think there's some good potential in it if you start to bring in plenty of cool air through the front- you could really maximise the cooling with another 280 or maybe marginally a 360 slim rad in roof, but it really limits your space for reservoirs and a dual loop.
Ok so, with a bit of chopping, and a bit of changing (to a 25mm rad) everything now fits in the base of the case Works out quite nicely now with the height to the front fans and has clearance to the base of the motherboard. I'm hoping tube fittings, a T piece and a 90 bend in acryling will fit on the rad with the outlets facing down as I want this to be a drain for the CPU loop - may have to try a few things and see what works here. Means I will probably have to turn it on it's front to bleed it, but I think that will beat trying to change fluid out with it mixing in the bottom rad!Drain ports will be in the rear so I can use those to help bleed potentially. Started tidying up the other cuts too when the dremel battery died on me, cordless is great for attacking things at any angle but the battery is an annoyance! Also started to think about the airflow out of the main 'motherboard chamber' and realised there's very little once I have a clean blanking plate across the top as it blocks the double hole through the top and back to the rear rad. I'm considering options here to ensure the rear radiator gets plenty of airflow and hopefully remains positively pressured, but with 3x120 exhaust and currently 1x120 inlet it could be tricky! Next update should hopefully be finishing off the case modifications, then onto planning out some wiring and tubing routes so I can start sleeving cables!
Currently considering this lay out with a 140 fan cut between the upper section and main section, with some sort of custom CNC mount for the EK pumps to use the original mounting rubbers: Slightly contradictory to my original plan of pulling cool air into the case unrestricted, but more radiator area overall, and alphacool rads have a low fin count so shouldn't restrict too badly - but they will warm the air a bit. But I've realised actually getting air to the 'outer' section to keep it positive pressure is probably the bigger challenge. Hopefully this with 2 Corsair AF fans at 120/140mm would greatly help with that. I'll probably use the front for CPU and base for GPU loop. Thoughts anyone? I think I'll try and hook up some fans and do a quick smoke test to make sure the final layout works.
Minor update, but going ahead with the layout in the last post, and the glass tubes for my custom reservoir have arrived! Measured them up and the variation wasn't as bad as the spec could have been, so I can now get the reservoir ends CNC'd.
Mainly been having some technical issues with the bench set up of this recently, Asus motherboard didn't want to play with my 950 pro SSD, but none of the usual fixes worked for me. Strix motherboard swap seemed to fix it, and it looks much better for the build too! However it's now having other boot issues, think I've narrowed it down to the power supply as I've tried going through the issues with different video cards, 1 RAM stick/swapped and obviously new mobo, so only comment elements are PSU (a refurb unit) and CPU, which tend to have very low RMA rates. Just ordered an EVGA 850 replacement for some trouble shooting. For now, here's a quick idea of the final case layout with the custom res and blanking plates: This is from the rear (so ignore the 'flat' rather than in win pattern, it's just a representative block.)
