Is water cooling possible in this case?

[Shmee150]

Ok, I'm keen to by this SilverStone LC18 case:



Not going to be buying for a month until the Core 2 Extreme X6800 is here, so what I'm thinking is that if I could get a water cooling set up of sorts into the case it would be great. I will be planning on getting a gfx card like 7950GX2 to cool and obviously the high end processor. I have no idea how much physical space is needed for water cooling systems, the hard drive rack fits 5 drives, I need a minimum of 3 in there, as well as 2 disk drives, and I would also expect a number of cards in there, maybe 4 in total.

So who reckons it's possible? I want a high end system, but I know it's a fairly crampt case and I doubt air cooling will be up to scratch with the space available.

Thank you for the input!

ShMeE

[Shmee150]

I'm looking at the Asetek Waterchill kits at scan, just as a starting point, I found the dimensions of the main pump/reservoir of 153x95x60, which I believe would fit in the lower hard drive slot (possibly the one above also). It will only be running the CPU and VGA coolers, I expect to buy a mobo with passive chipset cooler and there will not be room for hard drive coolers I don't think, but what I can't work out is where to put the radiator/fan?

I'm not even sure how good a graphics card it is possible to get water cooling for? Probably better off having two of something less good?

Thanks,

ShMeE

[BUFF]

Does it have to be in the case?
How about something like Corsair's Nautilus?

[aidanjt]

the problem is with the pump, they usually use as much room (or more with certian models) than radiators that take 120x120mm fans. Desktop cases are probibly the worst choice for adding watercooling, if it's too cramped for air, it's definatly going to be too cramped for water.

[Butcher]

Depends a lot on the gear. Mine's a fairly snug fit in a mountain mods U2-UFO for instance, which is most definitely NOT a small case.
You can get smaller gear but smaller rads and smaller pumps are going to limit performance.

[dave87]

How about the Zalman reserator - by the looks of it its a htpc - so silent cooling would be a good idea?

EDIT - ignore me I just read the specs of the components you intend to put in it.

You could try a double 120mm rad in the bottom - next to the PSU, but then finding space for pump etc is a problem. If you don't use a res and use something like the dangerden fillport, I don't see much of a problem. Having said that you will have to modify the case a bit

[Lu-tze]

Some of the swiftec sets come with compact pumps. Or if you are building your own system, you could get the c-systems pump, which is small. I dont know how you can install a decent rad internally, without cutting up the case. You could get a dual 80mm rad and mount it externally on the exhaust fan mounts, though i would consider buying the swiftec set that comes with a dual 120mm fan and rad bow, allowing you to mount the rad with fans externally.

The 7950 GX2 as far as i know can't be water-cooled due to its twin card design. Look at the 7900 gtx instead.