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Small case for watercooling

B

badb0y

Diamond Member
Hi guys I need a smaller case for water cooling, I currently have the RV03 which is pretty good but I don't like how big it is. I would much rather prefer a mid tower so if anyone has any suggestions please post them below.

I don't want to mod the case so keep that in mind and it must fit a 240mm rad and a 120mm rad. I might even get another 240mm rad to replace the 120mm rad so that's another thing to consider.

So far I am considering the CM 690 Advanced II but even that case looks like it's pretty big.
 
As someone with very little hands on experience, but a ton of reading and research into this exact matter, I'd personally recommend the Fractal Arc MIDI. It's a really wide Mid tower and can fit a 240 or 280 up top with loads of room for push / pull set ups or 60mm thick rads. It's also got a removable HD bay with extra room to fit another 120mm rad in the front. There's a fair bit of room for watercooling without having to mod a single thing. The case is reportedly very well built and is spacious due to it's wide design.

Limiting factors are the few drive bays, So if you go with a dual bay reservoir you lose a DVD drive (not really a big deal as I use external drives anyway).

It's just as accommodating as most full towers without eating up a ton of floor / desk space. In some cases it's actually more accommodating as you don't have clearance issues with the ram or mosfet heatsinks.
 
The Silverstone TJ08-e is a pretty popular mATX case for water cooling, and is a bit smaller than the Arc Midi mentioned earlier in the thread.

It can fit a Magicool 180mm rad in the front and your choice of 120mm rad in the back. That would get you 46,800 mm^2 of radiator surface area which is 8.33% larger than a 3x120mm radiator at 43,200 mm^2.

Some people have placed the Phobya Xtreme 200mm radiator in front as well for a little more performance. Additionally, people have gotten especially creative and done things like mount an additional 140mm radiator in the 5.25" bays and cut an exhaust hole at the top.

I'm currently on air in my TJ08-e but am looking to move to water soon 😀
 
badb0y said:
I looked into the arc midi but I need something even smaller than that.
Click to expand...

Cases much smaller than that are not really conducive, or productive to watercooling.

If you've got really tight space requirements, you're probably better off (money and performance wise) to go with a good flowing case and run an air cooler.
 
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