Hello fellow nerds,

I'm currently planning a fairly extensive mod on my PC-V2010B. Some of the extra parts needed will have to be made on custom order (aluminium bends, laser cuts and maybe some powder coating), I will try and do the rest with my trusty dremel, files or whatnot.
Here's the original case:


Anyway let me show you how far I got in the planning as I'm currently kinda stuck on the watercooling components selection. By the way I could do with some advice in that particular area (or comments/advice on whatever else you think I should change/add/remove/improve).

So without further ado, I bring you my Big & Heavy Lian-li !!!
(still working on a name)




I liked the plain lines of this Lian-Li so I'm trying to keep that curvy look to it. Since I'll only be using 1 optical drive and, as you'll see later on, none of the other stock 5" 1/4 bays, I imagined this billet 8mm aluminium front bezel. Still working on sourcing this thickness though; I found an ebay store that might be able to ship left over cuts for me that would suit the job.
Before this case I used to have an Antec P182 and liked the spoiler on it, pretty practical for sitting stuff on top without obstructing airflow, and also I think it looks really cool.
No crazy paintjob planned, the simply orange lines on the door edges suffice my appetite for bling on that part. Maybe I'll add some slimline vinyl art (see HP's blackbird 002 for what I'm thinking of)
The bezel hosts 2x140mm fans. I have big depth constrains here so I'll need 20mm thick fans. I've seen that aerocool makes some which might do the trick. Bothers me that they wont start under 10.5v or so though.
The bottom part of the bezel has more than enough space behind to host power/reset buttons, fan/lights controls and/or maybe a window into a reservoir.





Ok this is when you realise the sheer size of that case. I'm a big HDD consumer (using 11 right now) and although I played around with some for awhile, 3x5"1/4 to 4x2"1/2 adapters just aren't pratical enough for me. The 2x 4 HDD bays down the lower section are nice but since I'm gonna use that space for water cooling they had to go. So what you see here is a couple PC-A70f inspired HDD cages. I contacted performance-pcs to order some but they're really slow with feedback. the cages I'm on about are actually a touch too tall for my needs so I might get them custom made to what you see here.
The bottom section is home for a blackice GTX420 radiator sandwiched between 5x140mm fans (the PSU doesn't leave enough clearance for a 6th, but there's still room enough for the rad to breathe). I actually won't be using the standard PSU plate as I want it to suck it's cool air from outside and I didn't think that simply reversing it's fan was a good idea. There's lot's of spare room ahead of the PSU for whatever else is needed, be it, pump(s), reservoir(s), light power inverters you name it.





OK, here we can see I managed to squeeze in a blackice stealth GTS240 radiator on top, and believe it or not, even with 14 harddrives up front, there's still room for a Radeon HD5870!
Don't mind the cable passthrough hole in the middle, that'll be reduced to a more reasonable size. I'll probably still need some kind of hole there though. My Areca 12 port Raid controller sits under the GFX card and unfortunately uses SATA cables (up to 12) and not the 1 to 4 multilane cables.
There's some room behind the optical drive, it could be used for a pump or reservoir, but having water sit on top of so many harddrives seems like a disaster waiting to happen, so I was thinking of using that void to host a HDD docking station of some sort; single or dual slot, IDE/SATA or SATA only, I'm not sure yet. Depite the fears mentionned above, that'll probably be where the fillport will be too.





A few word on airflow and cooling in general.
In the bottom section it's a simple right to left, no front intake. The PSU takes it's air from outside and blows it out the back. The pump(s) should benefit from the cool air radiator intake.
I guess the top section is a bit more questionnable. First of all the whole thing appart from the HDDs will be watercooled: CPU, videocard, motherboard, even the raid controller. So knowing that, I thought it wouldn't matter much having the front HDD warmed airflow come from the front, through the (custom) vertical section into the motherboard compartment. I chose this vs side vents as I want to keep HDD noise reasonnably low and will use sound dampener on the doors. To help the 2x140 rad (blowing up), I'll be reversing the rear fan so it brings in coolish air from the back.
I won't expect much from the vertical section 120mmx12mm Scythe fans, they'll be helped by the fairly obstructed 2x140mm front intake and just there to remind the air that, yeah, that's the way to go :p


About the watercooling:
Last I played with water in a PC was 6 or 7 years ago, and back then, choice was far from what it is now. So I must say I'm a bit lost in that sea of components.
Should I should go single or double loop, considering I'll upgrade my Q6600 and 8800GTS 512 setup to a beefier GFX card and a 1155 or 1366 socket sooner or later?
What kind of pump and reservoir would you recomment?, should I even bother using a reservoir?

There's heaps of space to fill that case, so I'm open to any suggestions you may have.

Thank you
Hope you enjoyed reading this.

I want to see this come alive. When can we expect you to break ground on this mod.

I'm still waiting for an initial feasability and quote reply from sheetmetal.ie
I want to know what they can and can't do before altering the design accordingly.
I want that cage as factory looking as possible, maybe even slap in some SATA backplane if I can figure out how to make something clean for NOT 40$ a piece :p

The case itself is empty already and I'm stocked up in dremel cutting wheels

Watercooling is still a big head scratcher though, I'll take any advice you can throw at me on that part.
I have different versions of the bottom rad layed out but still pretty much undecided on parts and loop setup.
Blocks will only come later as by the time all this is ready I'll probably be dying for an upgrade

But basically things could start quickly from the moment sheetmetal.ie replies to me

An evolution of the design...



Using the round modder's mesh instead of the hexa, modified the front bezel and changed the color theme a little

Please Let know if you think I'm heading in the right direction or have suggestions, I'll be happy to hear.

thanks for reading

definitely in the right direction, the new design looks much better

Nice design,like it very much
Good luck with the build

Thank you for the thumbs up guys
I appreciate the support.

During the night, I had a bit of a revelation.
This tower is so tall with very basic lines. This begged for pure simplicity.
And to keep this simplicity in mind throughout my work this is what will be my wallpaper for some time from now:




/me likes

Wow, I'm really liking that last design a LOT!

Thanks Scirocco, I'm glad you like it too

I'm a bit stuck in terms of inspiration right now.
I tried to model a billet aluminium spoiler too but aren't convinced with the result. That still needs some work.
Still waiting for a reply from sheetmetal.ie for a 1st quote. I think I'll put a litte pressure on them and send in some more plans for parts, see what that does. Might contact other companies too.

No news whatsoever from performance-pcs, but anyway the standard A70H HDD cage won't fit as is, and the HDD spacing might be too much for it to fit modded anyway so it'll have to be custom.
So I'm kinda stuck right now, not knowing if I can go ahead with the planned design or not.
I'll have a few days off in 4 days time and expect to get some more modeling done then.

Just a quick update with my latest renders and questions.

I'm trying out a new watercooling "engine" (Rads/pumps/res) configuration as I found the 3x140 + 2x120 seup a bit awkward, especially in the lower compartment, with the power supply a little in the way.
So I came up with something probably more powerful in terms of cooling power, and keeping it all in the lower part, when the earlier version's dual 120 was in the top.




What we have here is a triple 180mm fan arrangement blowing fresh air through six 2x80mm xtreme rads.
I hope replacing 3x to 5x 140mm fans plus another 2x 120mm fans by 3x 180mm will make the whole thing quieter. Considering the lower rotation speed (around 700rpm max), also the sound's nature should be less intrusive, playing in the lower frequencies.

The PSU ,not shown on these renders, ends up at the extreme top, sitting behind the optical drive with all it's cables hanging behind the HDD cages limiting cable length and simplifying cable routing.

Question:
I'm willing to cool the CPU, GPU, Motherboard Chipset & VRM and the Areca Raid controller, using six 2x80mm radiators...
What kind of setup would you recommend?
2 rads with 1 pump for the raid & motherboard?
4 rads with 1 or 2 pumps for CPU + GPU ?
1/5 maybe?

What kind of pumps and loop(s) would you recommend?