I've recently been given this beautifully blank full tower case. It's about 17x24x8 inches and it looks to be steel. Both sides and the top are removable and so is the motherboard tray. I'm planning to turn it on its front so that cold air is pulled from the bottom and hot air comes out the top (because heat rises). Also, I'll have a horizontal filter below the 3 120mm fans. The dust will collect on the bottom of it and hopefully fall off when the fans aren't running (I hate dust). My vertical filters usually get a 1/4 inch thick layer of dust after about 3 months and I'm trying to avoid that. Pictured, you'll see a shelf I put on top of the computer to keep dust from falling inside when the computer is off. A friend told me that there are fine screens (like speaker screen) that can keep the dust from falling in. I'm considering that instead (because the shelf looks weird). What do you guys think of this functional design (we'll talk aesthetics later)? I know there's some extra room in there, but I don't want to hack up the case. I'm trying to do this project on the cheap side. For now, it's just for my backup system. Is there a down side to mounting hard drives vertically? Note: I don't do water cooling. I'm strictly a natural aspiration kind of guy. Mike
I don't quite like the idea of mounting intake fans on the bottom like that, especially if the 3 fans are filtered. Dust won't fall off the filters - they'll likely stick anyways, further starving the fans for fresh air. For the top, you can make a shroud similar to the one featured on Antec's 182 case, that prevents objects or dust from falling into the case without hindering an outward channel of air. Visualize a sloped roof above the top fan(s) with the top and 3 sides blocked off. The slope serves to help direct air out through the one open side of the shroud.
Water cooling madness? Seems like you have a perfect case for that, there's more room in there than I can believe.
It's called a plenum I could also keep it vertical, but I like the visual effect of the extra long case. btw, I already figured that the dust wouldn't fall off, but a quick hit with the vacuum will solve that. In any case, the thermodynamics of it I like. Here you'll see the same concept as above, only the extra vertical room has been cut out. This will give for a nicer long visual effect. However, it will probably require more labor than I want to put into it. I'll build a case from scratch before I cut this thing apart with my tools. Here's an earlier concept I had. However, there's maybe enough room to relocate the motherboard and PSU to the top of the case. It's plus or minus 1/4 inch. Edit: Here's some similar cases... first one's $50 shipped. http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-7-BAY...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45f2409e67 http://cgi.ebay.com/ATX-FULL-TOWER-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item51839720a0
