Best case for SILENT water-cooling?

krille · Post by **krille** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:13 am

I was first thinking Mountain Mods U2-UFO cube case with a PA120.3 radiator, however is it really a silent case?
http://mountainmods.com/index.php?cPath=21_61
http://mountainmods.com/index.php?cPath=21_32

Perhaps an Antec P180 would make for an even more silent water-cooling case?

Sig rig is to be cooled (high-end w/ FX-60, 78GTX SLI etc).

I currently have a cooler-master stacker (but no water-cooling gear) and it's not very quiet at all (very loud case, no insulation). I have a friend with the P180 and we could switch cases. I haven't decided what water-cooling gear to buy yet. Think I'll have to adapt that to the case.

Any other suggestions are welcomed too.

Cost isn't really an issue, I'm prepared to pay for silence.

Thanks ~ Kris

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 10:04 am

i have a resevator with a p180.

i've also got a Watercool Silentstar HD-Single in the loop and i'm very happy with it.

if you want to use the system fans that come with the case i've found that the lowest setting is almost silent.

personally i dont need them on, but i do have my eye on that nice resevator cooler fan zalman have anounced a few months back as long as its quiet enough ie i cant hear it 2 foot away.

krille · Post by **krille** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:11 pm

Cool, but I'm not convinced a Zalman Reserator will be able to handle an overclock FX-60 + High-End SLI or Cross-Fire. Would have loved it if it did.

I think I'll have to get normal rads, not sure what though (if going P180). If going MountainMods U2-UFO I'm definitely going for the ThermoChill PA120.3 with some low-speed Nexus fans or something.

But I have no clue what will fit the P180? Perhaps a monster-sized radiator mounted on top or something? No idea really.

Butcher · Post by **Butcher** » Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:12 pm

Got a U2-UFO on the way to me, decided I wanted something chunky to hold all my watercooling gear.

Not sure on the quietness front, it's a pretty open case which tends to mean noise gets out, but with quiet fans and such you could keep it fairly quiet I think. HDD noise is likely to be an issue - suspended drives would definitely be a good idea.

krille · Post by **krille** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:05 am

Butcher wrote:Got a U2-UFO on the way to me, decided I wanted something chunky to hold all my watercooling gear.
Not sure on the quietness front, it's a pretty open case which tends to mean noise gets out, but with quiet fans and such you could keep it fairly quiet I think. HDD noise is likely to be an issue - suspended drives would definitely be a good idea.

I was thinking there's plenty of 5½ drive bays for elastic HDD suspension on the Opti-1203. I was also thinking you could insulate all the walls (as much as possible of the front and back, not entirely of course) on the Solid Top one (no windows, no intake/exhaust on top). Preferably using both vibration dampening pads and noise absorbing pads. Should work no?

haelduksf · Post by **haelduksf** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:33 am

The P-series is pretty small when it comes to watercooling- it's pretty hard to fit & route everything, from what I've seen. If you don't mind doing some modding, you can do well. Have a look here for examples: http://www.hardforum.com/search.php?searchid=2935516

If it helps you any, I'm running an opty @ 1.55V and an X1800xl (also heavily overvolted) with a Bonneville heater core and two Yate Loons- keeps my CPU happily folding at 36C, and my GPU and CPU both below 42 playing games. It can run passive, but not with any kind of load. I don't have a stacker, but I have a very similar case, with the rad in the front.

As for "the best silent water case", there really isn't any. Your rad fans pretty much have to go on the outside, so the silencing is reduced to whatever you have on your northbridge, your PSU, and your pump, none of which should make much noise in the first place (and your HDDs, but you should suspend those anyway). To tell the truth, I'd keep the stacker, get an MCP-655 and a passive NB cooler, and work from there.

nici · Post by **nici** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:06 am

I you plan on running active rads, i would say keep the stacker. you can mount a 3x120 rad in the front blowing forward.

The P180 is definately cramped inside, and not ideal for watercooling. But its posible

Or you could get two reserators and run them parallel.. On for the GPUs and one for CPU and Chipset for example

I think that would be seriously cool, though 100-150€ more expensive than a proper actively cooled wc-setup.

If you get the reserators, make shure you add a pipe to the inlet of the reservoir like this. That´s what i did and temps dropped a few degrees

It mixes the water better and prevents warm water from being sucked back into the loop directly. Its just a matter of putting the tube there, the fitting is there stock

krille · Post by **krille** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:11 pm

Really, would dual reserator work? I'm thinking of purchasing an Iwaki RD20 as well.

edit: I already have passive chipset cooling.

nici · Post by **nici** » Fri Apr 07, 2006 1:16 pm

krille wrote:Really, would dual reserator work? I'm thinking of purchasing an Iwaki RD20 as well.

My reserator cools a 3700+ san diego, x800GTO @575/540, the nF4 chipset and a 250Gb samsung in an Aqua-Computer enclosure no probs

All running of the stock pump, wich an Eheim compact 300(the cheapest eheim). Two should handle your systems heat just fine. You could also just run one loop and connect the reserators in series but only using one pump.. Though i think separate loops would works better.

So it would work no doubt about that, and it would be quieter than a fan solution. You would have two huge aluminium towers to handle though, i think it would be cool but someone might say its madness

Even one Res gets alot of "WTF is that thing?" type of (positive)comments

An Iwaki RD20 would no doubt be a nice pump, at least when looking at the specs, but it might be overkill at least for now. No doubt that your 6 HDDs will be the loudest thing, i would put them in enclosures if using NAS isnt possible. Either watercooled or air-cooled.. The benefit of watercooled being that you can enclose them in foam

I did that to two 250Gb samsungs and i could just barely hear them at 2"(yes two inches). The problem is that with the thick foam the package got so large i couldnt fit it inside the case...

So its outside the case atm, with just one HDD.

krille wrote: edit: I already have passive chipset cooling.

My bad, i didnt´t check your mobo..

Butcher · Post by **Butcher** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:51 pm

krille wrote:
Butcher wrote:Got a U2-UFO on the way to me, decided I wanted something chunky to hold all my watercooling gear.
Not sure on the quietness front, it's a pretty open case which tends to mean noise gets out, but with quiet fans and such you could keep it fairly quiet I think. HDD noise is likely to be an issue - suspended drives would definitely be a good idea.
I was thinking there's plenty of 5½ drive bays for elastic HDD suspension on the Opti-1203. I was also thinking you could insulate all the walls (as much as possible of the front and back, not entirely of course) on the Solid Top one (no windows, no intake/exhaust on top). Preferably using both vibration dampening pads and noise absorbing pads. Should work no?

Have my U2-UFO case (solid top/sides, black) now, some thoughts.

It's big - you can fit everything for watercooling in with ease meaning more space to lay stuff out for airflow from low CFM fans.

Big panels = noise if not careful. It's Al too so less rigid than steel (though it keeps the weight down a bit). Adding some vibration damping materials would almost certainly help with this case. I've not got any as yet, I'm going to get it running then evaluate the noise level before buying.

HDD suspension - yes there's loads of room for that, not only are there the 5.25" bays, but there's a big empty space below them you can hang HDDs into. There's a fan mount there also which is nice for keeping hanging HDDs cool.

Downsides - you've basically got open front and back which makes noise damping not so straight forward. It'd be difficult to set up baffles or such to reduce noise exiting through the fan holes.

Also, the black powder coat is really sweet, I'm surprised just how nice it looks, seems very durable too, been working on it today and not a chip or scratch in it.

haelduksf · Post by **haelduksf** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:54 am

If you're interested in passive setups, there are many other solutions besides the reserator.

There's this bad boy, which is probably the most effective (you can use your own pump & blocks, and not some mediocre kit stuff), and the most expensive. This is very similar to the one in SPCR's Puget System review, here.
Then there's this one, which I actually found by accident while looking for the one above.

Or, if you wanna go really nuts, you could look into evaporative coolers- not only are they silent, but they give you below-ambient water temps...at the cost of increased maintenance. Have a look here under the "evaporative cooling solutions" heading for more info on that.

zds · Post by **zds** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 8:14 am

If you have enough budget, you could also consider using TECs to enhance cooling. If you can for example double heatsink temperature gradient (versus ambient), you should be able to do with just over half the heatsink.

But the caveat is that to do this, you need to get some serious TEC power, like total Qmax worth 4-5 times the amount of heat you want to pump. Otherwise you either run out of PSU power or generate too much extra heat with TECs.

Butcher · Post by **Butcher** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:22 pm

Evap cooling towers (AKA bongs) aren't silent alas. For one thing they require an updraft fan to get sufficient airflow to cool effectively. Also they sound a bit like a shower or small water feature, though you may count that a bonus.

Some interesting passive coolers there, only downside is they're all Alu from what I can see which will limit your block choices somewhat.

krille · Post by **krille** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:51 am

I don't really like the idea of TEC and pelts, but I thought it war really interesting with those passive rads here. However, I'm aiming for all copper solution (maybe some brass too), so adding Alu to the mix would lead to galvanic corrosion.

Are there no good or even better copper radiators (at least all copper piping/tubing)?

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:33 am

If you really want one of those Innovatek/Cape Cora rads then you could always go for an all aluminium setup, no idea how big the performance hit will be though.. Though you wont get the best performance available with a passive rad anyway. Unless you go with a rad from a cruise ship, no wait those pump seawater thru the engine blocks i think, better go and rob one from a truck and nail it to the wall then

You could also get a case suitable for a 3x120mm + 2x120mm rad setup.. No wait that´s what im doing!

At least i think it will fit...

Will look completely stock outside

Oh and if i seem even more whacko than usual that´s probably because for some damn reason i can´t get some bloody sleep..

Lliam · Post by **Lliam** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:33 am

nici, what about one (or two) of the thermochill PA160s?
Seems to fit one of those Mountain mods jobbos
Sorry a bit OT but possibly same/better performance for less fans?

nici · Post by **nici** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:45 am

Lliam wrote:nici, what about one (or two) of the thermochill PA160s?
Seems to fit one of those Mountain mods jobbos
Sorry a bit OT but possibly same/better performance for less fans?

Thanks for the links, looks interesting but i´ve kind of ordered the stuff already

And i should be able to keep at least some of the fans off at idle, maybe even at load.. Largely depends on how close together the fins are.. Well see

Ill be using the Aqua Computer airplex evo rads.

As to the actual question, if you want active rads then a big case is a must obviously, unless you want to make huge holes in a mid-tower. Keeping the stacker is clearly cheapest option adn it should work well, and if you like the looks you might as well just keep it

If you are not that fond of the looks for some reason you could get something else...

aug1516 · Post by **aug1516** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:41 pm

I had a U2-UFO and now have an Antec P180. The U2-UFO case can be quiet, but not nearly to the same extend as the P180. The aluminum vibrates quite a bit and the fans in the front and rear are just to close to the outside of the case to really baffle the noise much. There are a few things you can do to make the case quieter but I doubt it would ever be the same as the P180. Of course if you want to watercool the U2-UFO it will be a lot easier to do than the P180. I'm not even sure if the P180 has room for more than a single 120mm.

krille · Post by **krille** » Sat Apr 15, 2006 10:16 am

Ok, I want the P180. Just a little unsure about radiator placement etc. I'm thinking of going maybe dual ThermalChill PA160 rads.

Random Precision · Post by **Random Precision** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:41 am

krille wrote:Ok, I want the P180. Just a little unsure about radiator placement etc. I'm thinking of going maybe dual ThermalChill PA160 rads.

What about this? http://www.gtek.se/?mode=item&id=2454&s ... 5e5c9a7243
The top sort of seems perfect for a triple radiator and there's plenty of space for other 120mm fans along with the 18 drive bays.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:57 am

I think the whole idea of a case making a difference is rediculous.

just so long as it has very open air flow, a water cooled case doesnt do anything !!!

it just sits there!!

bigger the better if you put the gear inside, no matter at all with it outside. I would go with weight and front air intake space. most watercooled systems generaly have 1 fan somewhere to keep it stable and long life for 24/7 usage.