Log A02 - Custom Watercooled Vertical Case

articnova

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Sep 28, 2020
16
28
Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd share a personal case that I originally had finished building in July but only just got round to finishing off this week as I needed to change some fittings.

This is a vertical case that is watercooled only using a 140mm radiator and was more of a test to see if I could get away with little cooling hardware, taking advantage of the simplier air flow.

Case
  • 153mm x 216mm x 355mm (WxLxH) - With a full size DDC on the back the full outside dimensions would have the length at 242mm.
  • Rear panel is a custom distro plate
  • Bottom to top air flow
  • Single 140mm x 45mm radiator
  • Using a G Unique Archdaemon so no internal PSU
Components used
  • Ryzen 5 3600
  • Nvidia 3080ti FE + EKWB FE block
  • Kingston Fury 16GB DDR4
  • Barrow AM4 Icicle CPU block
  • Alphacool 140mm x 45mm Radiator V2
  • Arctic P14 Fan
  • Barrow fittings + Koolance LP fittings
  • 600w G Unique external PSU and Archdaemon
Now in terms of cooling, it satisfies my daily usage which is light web browsing and for dialing into work. In terms of heavy usage, the most I ever do is play Apex Legends which in the album I included a HWInfo screenshot of an hour gameplay. You can ignore the min values as I started it after playing for a bit but with a room ambient temp of 22-23C the coolant temp hit 44C as it's peak.

The caveat with that temp peak is that I have lifted the case an additional 1cm off the table at the front of the case as I found that without the increase air gap at the bottom the coolant rises to low 50ish, something like 53 or 54C. Quite a difference and is one of the issues with my design.

In terms of idle it tends to stay around 29 to 31C with the fan running at 1100rpm with an ambient of 22C. When it comes to gaming obviously the fan is running at the full 1600rpm. In terms of noise it isn't that bad and it's not louder than an air purifier I have in the same room and I tend to game with headphones/IEMs in so the noise isn't a factor for me.

There are things that I am unhappy with regarding the project and the design but overall I'm just happy that it came into existence.