Case Experience?

[cotter_]

Hi everyone, this is my first post^^

I will soon be upgrading my i7950 (OC 4.2), X58Gigabyte, other old stuff....
I will be running 660ti's in SLI and plan to Water cool the system.

With my new jump to water cooling, I am afraid I will need to upgrade my trusty antec 100 (best case Evaaar).

I am considering either a Corsair 600t, or a NZXT 630.

Can anyone lend me some experience into water cooling with either of these cases, or perhaps recommend a better choice for the same price, $165.

I have been through the reviews and a lot of online resources, but would rather hear from the people who live with these cases (silence is a rather massive interest to me).

Any help would be great^^

 

[Feronix]

Welcome to the forums mate

Out of the two, definitely the Phantom 630. It can hold a 360mm + 240mm rad. The 600t can only take a slim 240mm and a 200mm rad. Decent pressure optimized fans for rads don't really exist within the 200mm range which is a big downside to 200mm radiators.

 

[leathart123]

Out of those two cases I would prefer the 630, more watercooling options. However on newegg, for 170, you can get a nzxt switch 810 which in my opinion looks better than the 630 and you can have a 360 in the roof and 240 in the front/bottom

 

[Hellbeard]

Welcome.

I don't have any hands on experience with these cases but have been researching the same questions as my situation is very similar.

The NZXT Switch 810 is very popular as a watercooling case.
Top 360 80mm with pull or 45mm with push+pull, and bottom 240 80mm push + pull.

You can also got a 360 60mm in push+pull in the top but that depends on your motherboards
VRM heatsink and 8-pin connector because it will hang slightly over the motherboard, and will require some moding of the case.

NZXT have also just recently released the Phantom 530 but I don't know much about it yet. Have to wait for the review.

Fractal Design also have some interesting additions to their ARC line of cases coming soon. Again, have to wait for the reviews.

As far as silence, then watercooling would be the way to go. I believe
(and take this with a pinch of salt as my experience with watercooling is very much lacking)
that a 360 rad 60mm thick (like Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 or XSPC RX 360) with low RPM fans will cool a CPU and a GPU.
TITAN Waterblock review

If you run SLI than you want to add a 240 rad or maybe go with 2x 240 60mm thick rads.
If you are on a tight budget than watercooling is tricky as it is expensive with custom loops,
and you don't want to cut corners. Again with watercooling don't save on the case.
Make sure you by a case that will fit all your hardware and maybe
some room for future expansions.
There is a lot of inspiration and ideas in the Rig Gallery and the Project Logs.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Really wouldnt bother wasting your money watercooling 660's matey

Also you really need to have a think about cases because as said above your choices are not really big enough fella

 

[cotter_]

Thank you everyone for the advice,

Looks like I can rule out the 600t, as the NZXT 630 seems to offer a lot more.

"Again with water cooling don't save on the case." Is what I really needed to hear!!

I may consider going for an NZXT 830 or 810 as a good case was made for future expansion.

As far as watercooling the 660ti's goes. Under heavy load atm, they run at around 70-85 deg, which is safe i think?

However they are quite loud.

When the build happens, i'll post some pics ect.

Cheers

 

[vorticalbox]

Thank you everyone for the advice,

Looks like I can rule out the 600t, as the NZXT 630 seems to offer a lot more.

"Again with water cooling don't save on the case." Is what I really needed to hear!!

I may consider going for an NZXT 830 or 810 as a good case was made for future expansion.

As far as watercooling the 660ti's goes. Under heavy load atm, they run at around 70-85 deg, which is safe i think?

However they are quite loud.

When the build happens, i'll post some pics ect.

Cheers

those temps are about what most get to on air, i've seen my 7770 get in the high 70's.


the switch 810 can have 2 140 MM fans on the drive cages that you can pitch towards CPU and GPU, has monster air flow which will drop your temps.