HTPC case for watercooling

[k4p84]

Since moving to my new flat i have had to set up my pc on the floor of my open plan living / dining / kitchen room !

I am only using a cheap £30 case at the moment.

I like the idea of having my pc on tv stand, a sony two shelf glass a faire. (I did take a pic of it but to forgot to bring my camera in to work....DOH ! )

I have pondered on HTPC cases before but did not see the need for a landscape case in any of my prior places.

The most difficult part to accommodate would be the triple rad and loop for my cpu and sli'd gpu's. Most HTPC's are geared towards the silent / air cooled market not the overclocked water cooling one :-( .

I have not set a budget but i am expecting Mr Tax man to be giving me about £400 of my own money back :-) .

I am rather taken by the cases with LCD screens but they do cost a lot for what you get !

I already have an MCE remote and 5.25 bay lcd screen.

Currently browsing the SilverStone range, where else should i look for quality HTPC cases that fit my bill

ED

[Mul.]

I dare say that there aren't many HTPC cases that will fit a huge 120.3 loop let alone ATX desktop cases!

What are the full system specs of your HTPC?

[k4p84]

basic specs are

Q9550

SLI GTX 280's

Bluray Drive

Two Samsung 1tb drives

Watercooling kit

XSPC triple rad

XSPC CPU block

XSPC GPU blocks

Laing pump with XSPC top

Noctua fans throughout

I already have this kit and its working fine.

I have seen HTPCs with liquid cooling but they do all seem to use external rads or stand alone solutions.

I would like the unit to be self contained.

I may just get a Cosmos S again and pop it all in there.

It would not be as fitting as popping a HTPC case under the TV but it would fit everything in.

ED

[Mul.]

Honestly with a setup like that, it'd be a shame to have to break it up to fit it in a HTPC case as I really can't see how a self contained 120.3 loop could be done with such a case. ATX tower case gets my vote.

[k4p84]

I need to get a new motherboard and ram too.

Currently using MSI P7N Diamond :

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p...amond&class=mb

I just can not get it to overclock.

I have been looking at XFX boards but they are pricey.

With the prices of DDR3 been reasonable now i dont mind the added cost but then why move to DDR3 when i am not going to go over to i7 etc for a good year at least.

ED

[Mul.]

That doesn't surprise me as about the only nVidia based Intel chipset that overclocked Quads reasonably well were the DDR3 790i's. They're not cheap either and honestly if overclocking was part of the plan, you're probably better off selling your DDR2, 780i and Q9550 to then go Core i7. You should get pretty close to retail value of the Q9550 as they're in demand, the 780i should go for £80-100inc and whatever RAM you have shouldn't have trouble shifting either. Good X58 boards like the EX58 UD3R start from £155, you can find the i7 920 for just over £200 I believe and Tri Channel DDR3 kits have dropped in price quite nicely

[k4p84]

You sir are tempting me far too much, but in a good way

[Mul.]

Do the right thing k4p84. Core i7 awaits