HTPC cases that fit AIO watercoolers

[TheThirdMan]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to free up some floor space that my tower cases use and I'm thinking of transferring a PC to an HTPC case and use it hooked up to the TV. Does anyone know of an HTPC case that fits an H80 Corsair cooler? I know the silverstone Crown series do, but they're a bit on the large size! All the sub 200mm high silverstone cases seem to only have 80mm fans on the back and if they do have 120mm fans, they won't support a radiator without obstructing the motherboard.

Any help appreciated, thanks!

 

[DesiPower]

many support 120mm on the side, will those help?

 

[Fallen Kell]

many support 120mm on the side, will those help?

Not in my experience because the radiator+fan is too deep/thick and will not fit due to the motherboard. You would need a case that fits a 140mm side fan that accepts 120mm mount points which would hopefully raise the radiator/fan up above the motherboard.

The other option is a case that has a top 120mm mount point and nothing obstructing it below (like a DVD/Blu-ray drive). Really though, I think you are going to need to use the taller cases for now until someone comes up with a better design with water cooling in mind, but I don't really see that happening to be honest with the current trend of lower power CPU's being used for HTPC's. People would rather go passive heatsink than water cooling at this point.

 

[TheThirdMan]

Not in my experience because the radiator+fan is too deep/thick and will not fit due to the motherboard. You would need a case that fits a 140mm side fan that accepts 120mm mount points which would hopefully raise the radiator/fan up above the motherboard.

The other option is a case that has a top 120mm mount point and nothing obstructing it below (like a DVD/Blu-ray drive). Really though, I think you are going to need to use the taller cases for now until someone comes up with a better design with water cooling in mind, but I don't really see that happening to be honest with the current trend of lower power CPU's being used for HTPC's. People would rather go passive heatsink than water cooling at this point.

Yeah, that was my fear. Oh well, no worries! Thanks for the replies!

 

[SheHateMe]

I would just get a Noctua cooler. The
Noctua NH-C14 is amazing and I have it inside of an NmediaPC 7000B. Temps are pretty great running on stock speeds with the CPU, I am looking into overclocking it soon.

 

[TheThirdMan]

I would just get a Noctua cooler. The
Noctua NH-C14 is amazing and I have it inside of an NmediaPC 7000B. Temps are pretty great running on stock speeds with the CPU, I am looking into overclocking it soon.

I've always wanted to get one of those coolers for the HTPC, I was just wandering if there's a way to keep my current AIO cooler as it's great at keeping the overclocked CPU cool. Looks like I'll have to look at a standard cooler anyways.

What's the clearance like on that cooler? Does it affect memory slots?