Not me, but wanted to share this custom case design. Finished Product More details below. Source: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1843172
Really cool. It actually makes a ton of sense not to put the water cooler stuff in a box - now they're always accessing the local room atmo instead of being in a closed system where the closed system hopes to have a good recycling with the local room atmo. Obviously a lot less can go wrong with this one. The only issue is when you open room temperature bottle of Dr. Pepper - they always spray the shit everywhere and you're bound to get some of it on some exposed electronics. That is why my work room (aka tiny wardrobe with a computer in it) is off limits to sealed bottles and cans of any type. They have to be opened outside since the top of my casing is open as it's where the CPU water cooler is at so any spillage would be able to enter the casing.
Ok... so it's been a while since my A+ classes... but I seem to remember that there was a reason cases were designed the way they were with fan placement and air flow distribution. Taking out a cover could hinder this process by as much as 5-10C. Not a big deal unless you're running high end gaming components that run really close to thermal shutdown temperature.
Yea, that's a valid point. If the case actually has good ventilation then it's a good way of ensuring that the components are constantly getting air from one side of the casing while it's ejected from the opposite end. So, basically the case fans themselves create airflow even if the components themselves didn't have any. So, when a well built case has fans upon fans an open 'caseless' setup is essentially just fans in row. The problem could be that the local air near the computer would heat up if the airflow in the room itself wasn't optimal and the components would be reusing some of the air they've already used. So, while no casing beats a poor casing a good casing can beat no casing. Also, good casing, besides providing a boos for airflow it also provides physical protection for the precious contents - against bugs, liquids, dust etc., whatever shit people got floating, roaming, flying, thrown and generally moving in their apartments. An ideal casing would include ventilation tubes that would during winter pump cold air from outside to computer and heated air into the apartment and during summer the direction would be reversed.
I always kinda figured the best case setup would be like a wind tunnel - big pusher fan on one and, big puller fan on the other. Keep a constant stream not only for cooling but also to keep dust from settling inside.
True, but the water cooling is setup only for the North and South Bridge and the Processor... unless that's not RAM next to the Processor... They only have heat sinks for ambient temperature. Inside a case, there would be air flow to move the warmer air away from the heat sink, thus making it effective.
Also, parts of motherboard may heat up over time, part from the currents going through it and part from the heat radiated from all the surrounding heat sinks and such.
