BIG Case suggestions ?

[PS2SP]

Hi - long time lurker, first time poster, so hopefully you'll be gentle and offer your suggestions regarding a BIG case.

Presently I've got an Antec 1200 which is big but having recently built a PC for a friend using the Cooler Master Storm Sniper it made me realise the Antec 1200 is too narrow compared to the Sniper, unfortunately the Sniper's not big enough for my setup.

Presently running :

CPU : i7 950
Memory : 12GB DDR3 (Crucial CT25664BA1067.M16F = 6x 2GB)
MoBo : Asus Rampage III Extreme
GPU's : 3x Asus GTX 470 v2
HDD's : 2x Crucial RealSSD 64GB + 2x Maxtor 500GB Diamondmax 23
Opt. Drive : LG HL-DT-ST DVDRAM
PSU : Corsair AX1200

Also have ....

An Aquacomputer triple bay HDD cooler
2x Fan Controllers in 5.25 bays
An EK Dual Bay Spin Reservoir

Also running 2 water cooling loops, the 3x GPU's on one loop and the other loop cools the CPU, Memory, Chipset and HDD's.

I've got a Koolance external radiator enclosure, an EXOS I believe it's called.

In total there's 3x 120x2 radiators, 2 on the CPU, Memory, etc. loop, (1x thin & 1x thick), and 1 on the GPU loop, (1x thick).

So even with the external Koolance EXOS, the case is pretty full.

Plus I'm toying with adding a 4th GPU for handling the Physx side of games as the 3x GPU's are struggling a bit when running 3x 24" monitors in portrait @ 3299 x 1920 pixels, and also adding another radiator into the GPU loop as the GPU's are running at ~70*C running Crysis 2, Bulletstorm, Bioshock 2, etc. even with the water cooling.

So looking for something bigger than the Antec 1200, hopefully wider like the CM Sniper, maybe with more options for adding the 4th radiator, ideally another 120x2 or bigger.

I've looked at Mountain Mods, which really seems to be the only option, save for a custom job, but their U2UFO and Ascension cases are too wide to fit under my desk.

Though the Pinnacle 24 looks the part but at only 9 inches wide it's not much bigger than the Antec 1200, and only has 3x 5.25" bays when I need at least 8.

So thinking about asking Mountain Mod's to custom something, but if I can find an out of the box solution then I think I'd prefer that.

Also looking for black to go with the rest of my hardware ideally.

So any suggestions much appreciated !

Thanks in advance !

PS2SP

[slaveofconvention]

If you can find one, the Lian Li 343b is a pretty huge case off the shelf, but it's double the width of most cases so might have the same problems as with the mountain mods units :S

Silverstone has a huge replacement for the TJ07 they were showing off in Vegas at CES too, now I think about it

[blueonblack]

I got to get my grubby paws on a Silverstone TJ11 at CES in Vegas this year and I was *very* impressed. Huge case and very well built, like most of their cases.

[PS2SP]

Hi - thanks both for taking the time to reply, much appreciated !

Re: the Lian Li, yup unfortunately too big alike the MM 'boxes'

Re: Silverstone is it the TJ11 you're both referring too ? I've found this : http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cas...tj11-preview/1 and it look promising, so just reading up it now.

But if there's another Silverstone case that fits the bill if you can let me know model no's or links that would be great, thanks !

[slaveofconvention]

That's the case we're both referring to - blueonblack and myself were two of the 5 staff members who were at CES this year - we were actually standing next to each other when we were oohing and aahing at this monster. It really IS huge compared to any case I own (and I own a fair few) - lots of cool features too which make you realise Silverstone really are looking at the details as well as the wow factor

[PS2SP]

Thanks for the speedy reply, and hmm pricey ~£475 from Scan or Specialtech, ouch, oh well, prolly roughly the same price as a custom MM case once shipping, taxes and customs are added, and prolly a more feature rich case too, right off to research

[x88x]

You could also check out Danger Den's cases. Similar design to come of Mountain Mods' stuff, but they have more in the 'tall and thin' bracket, and their double wide towers are a little thinner than MM (MM Ascension == 18" wide, DD 21 == 14.65" wide).

[diluzio91]

3rd for the silverstone. the thermaltake armor 10+ is huge too... Add the 800D to the list... The HAFx is a pretty big one.... but i would ditch the hdd cooling... its really not doing much besides heating up your loop. link to the silverstone

http://silverstonetek.com/products/p...pno=TJ11&area=

[PS2SP]

You could also check out Danger Den's cases. Similar design to come of Mountain Mods' stuff, but they have more in the 'tall and thin' bracket, and their double wide towers are a little thinner than MM (MM Ascension == 18" wide, DD 21 == 14.65" wide).

Hi - thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately the DD cases don't seem to have enough 5.25 bays and I don't think I'd be be careful enough with full acrylic to keep it dust free or undamaged

Though somewhere between 12" to 15" is about the right width meaning space outside the bank of GPU's to mount a decent fan or set of fans to aid the w/cooling, and then space on the opposite side to route cabling and possibly a radiator or two

3rd for the silverstone. the thermaltake armor 10+ is huge too... Add the 800D to the list... The HAFx is a pretty big one.... but i would ditch the hdd cooling... its really not doing much besides heating up your loop. link to the silverstone

http://silverstonetek.com/products/p...pno=TJ11&area=

Thanks, I'll take a look at the suggestions ..... unfortunately they all seem to have the same limitation of being only 9" wide

I thought briefly about custom'ing my Antec 1200 myself, but that idea died quite quickly don't trust myself too much, building PC's not a problem, working on cars not a problem, anything diy'ey that requires patience and precision counts me out.

Re: the HDD cooler, it has occurred to me to drop it, tho' it does drop the temp' of the 2 Maxtors by around a minimum of 10*C roughly when the PC's under load compared to air/fan cooled.

That loop is setup >

HDD cooler > Reservoir > Pump > 1st Rad' (thin) > CPU > 2nd Rad' (thick) > mem' cooler > chipset cooler (EK all-in-one) > back to HDD cooler

The only thing that get's toasty in that whole loop is the memory, the CPU and HDD's hover around ~35-40*C between idle and under load, pretty much the same for the chipset's NB+SB.

The memory idles at 35*C but I've seen it go upto 65*C under prolonged load, i.e. 8 hours of gaming.

Mind you the temp sensor is affixed to the outside of MIPS mem' cooler assy. nearest the CPU socket midway down, so it's probably picking up heat from the CPU or more probably the 3 GPU's below the memory slots.

But W/C loops wise beyond adding another rad to the gpu loop and rearranging the order of the other loop I'm pretty happy, but if I add a 4th GPU to the case I know those temp's will increase even more.

So ................. might have to drop MM a query

Thanks everyone for your help tho'

PS2SP

[x88x]

Another option would be to get more efficient or bigger radiators. For example, the TFC Monsta I have is only a 3x140 (ok, it's also 4.1" thick ), but I'm confident in saying that with proper push-pull fans it by itself would cool your entire system at least as well as your current rads. Or just replace that thin rad with a better one; that would give you a nice boost in radiator surface area.