Getting bored with basic cases? Would you prefer a bottom-mounted P/S in the case? Perhaps an isolated drivebay, too?

[MadRat]

Before you get too far, this rant has nothing specifically to do with the following link. I only used it as a reference because it jogged an idea from me.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/hardware/chilli/chillip1.htm

This example of a bottom-mount powersupply is not very good, considering its 1/4" thick aluminum design, but the powersupply location (at the case's bottom) is nice. I like the idea of blowing hot ait freely out of the top rear corner. I also like the idea of keeping the drives and the powersupply isolated from your motherboard. IMO this would be pretty easy to do!

Again, this case is a poor example. (See: http://www.ocworkbench.com/hardware/chilli/dsc00090.jpg) The powersupply is mounted on its side whereas a flat-mount would be better. The design I used for an example probably ends up dumping heat into the case from the drive.bay!

If the powersupply had been isolated from the case with a fan under the powersupply and some insulation, the powersupply couldn't possibly add much heat to the case. Shift the motherboard up higher so that the rear-mount fan sucks air off the cpu's area would be good, too. Mount the harddrives low, floppy at midlevel, and the CDROM up high to spread out their heat-generation, too.

I wonder if there could be a way to booty-wrap the drives into their own compartment so that their heat could be isolated from the motherboard compartment, too? I figure we already booty-wrap the drives from the front, why not include a wrap over the rear areas, too!?! Only the rears of the CDROM, harddrive, and floppy need to be accessible from inside the motherboard compartment in order to run cables and powerleads.

A case fan sucking from above (or perhaps blowing from below) the drive.bay would aid cooling. With the sideways-mounted harddrive(s) getting the freshest air, you get the most cooling at the greatest heat generator in the drive.bay compartment. Surely such an "isolated drivebay" system could easily support heat-removal of a CDROM, CD-Writer, 3.5" floppy, 3.5" zip, and two hard drives.

NOTE TO ANANDTECH MODERATOR: Its ridiculous that you cannot spell out D-R-I-V-E-B-A-Y!!!! The e-word is blocked!?! This is such a waste of the filter system.

 

[JokerF15]

how bout those clear cases:

www.designcomp.com

they look good..but the price =)

 

[MadRat]

Clear cases sound pretty cool. It has to be cleaner than that one PVC case!

 

[DaddyG]

Come on MADRAT, you know that the e word is not allowed for legal reasons. Law Suites are NOT productive.

 

[MadRat]

Suites are generally nice places to stay on a road trip, or a place to do business. Besides that, the "e word" is not condoned in any way shape or form by his website. Just an excuse to play with the filter in my opinion.

 

[Killfile]

Call me insane, but I like having the something that chucks out large amounts of heat at the top of my case - y'know, as heat rises and all ...

 

[Insane3D]

Killfile:

OK, you are insane.

 

[MadRat]

The powersupply introduces a bottleneck to airflow in the case, hence most serious overclockers use a fan mounted on the top of the case. However, move the powersupply down, insulated it from the rest of the case, and add an exhaust fan where the traditional powersupply has been, the problems with airflow are eliminated. Not only that, but by shifting the motherboard up, too, the exhaust fan could suck heat directly off the corner of the motherboard holding the cpu and voltage regulators.