This is one of my personal designs at creating a custom water-cooling
case and I currently don’t have a name for it yet. This is the first version
of the prototype that I got made and I’m simply just using it to fit test
components for now. And I have to say so far it did come out to what I expected it to do.
If you’ve been watching my channel, then you know I’m a big fan of open-air
chassis and I’m all about that when it comes to PC builds. So,
I’m going to talk about how and why I came up with this design and then I’ll talk about the
specs and features it’s supposed to have, and what I plan on doing with it.
First off, I want to thank MSI for sending over the Z790 Edge DDR4 motherboard for me
to test my build. This is also my first time using a motherboard that
has a toolless M.2 slot for installing your SSD, meaning all you have to do is
press the little notch on the side to pop it open which is super convenient and easy.
If you’re not familiar with MSI’s line of boards, this MPG series falls between their MEG and MAG
series, MEG being the top enthusiast line which you’ll see their higher end boards
like the Godlike or the ACE. MAG is more of the entry level stuff like the Tomahawk which has
one of the best reputations and purchase value for gaming motherboards going back a few generations.
Now the MPG Z790 Edge I have here come in both DDR4 and DDR5. I specifically chose DDR4 because
I really wanted a higher RAM capacity at 64GB since this will be going into my main editing
rig. At the same time, I also want as fast of a clock speed as I can get and DDR5 currently
isn’t quite as stable rocking past 32GB while pushing speeds past a point where it
would make it worth buying over DDR4. If I was building this with a gaming focus and didn’t
need higher capacity, then I would’ve chosen DDR5 at 32GB probably at 7200 MHz or above.
So now, I must give credit to the two main sources that inspired me to create this case. The Mobius
by Yuel Beast was and still is by far my favorite open-air mini-ITX case. In fact,
it’s my favorite mini ITX case period, and that was the first inspiration. That case
is something that I recently rebuilt as an entertainment system in one of
my rooms and I do have a video of that on my channel if you want to check it out.
The second inspiration goes to Alessandro at Explore Modding when
I saw his ARES build. The ability to flip the computer depending on
your PC placement left or right side of the desk was awesome.
Having owned the Mobius for 3 years now, as much as I would like it to be my main rig,
it being an ITX case wasn’t built to support cooling for more power-hungry of the eventual
advancing technology like the 13900K and RTX 4090 which is a combo I personally want now for
my 4K video editing rig and occasional ultra settings gaming in 2023. At the same time,
with such a combo, I had to go ATX to really optimize it.
Coincidentally, I got into AutoCAD around this time and decided to make a larger ATX version
of the Mobius while wanting the ability to flip the case ambidextrously without going
too deep into the more complex mechanisms involved with Alessandro’s build’s ability
to rotate on the fly. And I also wanted to provide this case to other people who
were interested in the idea via group buy, so the design solution had to be simpler.
So, specs and features, it is made intentionally with custom water-cooling in mind while supporting
one of the largest radiators that would be able to sufficiently cool the higher
end components in 2023, a thick single 480mm radiator. The goal of this case is not to go
overboard and support any size radiator on any panel, after all it is modeled
after an inspirational minimalist case that has dedicated mounting spots for specific components.
The motherboard tray slides back and forth to accommodate different size
graphics cards as well as hardline tube lengths based on what routing design you
want. The ATX power supply bracket slides left and right depending on how close or
far you want it from the motherboard tray. PSU slide adjustment is also important for
when you flip your motherboard tray to left or right side of the case.
Motherboard tray is locked in place via four 10-32 screws, two on top and two on the bottom
of the main frame. The PSU bracket is also locked in place via two 10-32 screws on the bottom panel.
The user is also given the option to place the power button in the top center of the
case or middle of the motherboard tray like so. I will note that depending on the build,
the motherboard tray area might be too busy for the power button to be placed here but someone
might want the option anyways, perhaps even to press it from behind like this. But I would expect
most users to utilize the power button up on the top panel though as that seems most convenient.
Currently this prototype measures roughly 240mm wide,
380mm long and 560mm tall at least on the main frame. The length of the
build will also depend on how far back the motherboard tray is set.
The last piece I want to show is an optional radiator guard. It attaches to the 480mm
radiator via the topmost and bottom screws mainly for aesthetic purposes giving it a
cleaner look. But on the side where your fan cables are being routed to the motherboard,
it serves to hide those cable runs better. Now I only designed the optional guards for a 480mm
radiator because that’s what I personally plan to use, I don’t have these designed for other sized
radiators yet… and I don’t know if I will. That will be left open for discussion at a later time.
The mockup build for this prototype is using a stock 4090 FE as I haven’t put a
water block on it yet to show a full loop because I do need to use the stock 4090
here for another project before I tear it down. I do have the second revision
of this case already on its way next week, so I’ll have a follow up video with more
details and changes for that as well as a full hardline custom water-cooling loop done for it.
If you have any ideas or thoughts about my case design here, feel free to drop
them down in the comments below. I welcome any constructive feedback or you can join my Discord
server to see the discussions going on and also early announcements for things like this. So,
as always thank you so much for watching, and as always, I’ll see you next time. Peace.