I ordered a Windy MC3 computer case 2 months ago, and earlier this week, it arrived at my door in a shipping container. Windy cases are premium aluminum enclosures, made in Japan, with a high degree of engineering and craftsmanship.
http://windy-online.com/cube_case/mc3/
The case I purchased is unique in that it allows a Mini-ITX motherboard to be used with full-sized components, without restricting expandability, while still offering excellent airflow. The one concern with Mini-ITX boards is the expansion card space - only 1 slot is allowed, and on Mini-ITX boards, this is usually a PCI slot. I have an iBase M900 industrial motherboard, which has a single x16 PCI-E slot, but the current generation of high end PCI-E graphics cards use 2 slots or more with their massive heatsinks. Because the board, and case, allowed only 1 slot, I needed to install a single-width card, that still allowed adequate cooling, in a smaller case, so I decided to use watercooling in this case. The CPU, Northbridge, and Graphics card are all watercooled. Because the components will be run at their factory settings, 3/8" tubing was adequate for this system.
Components used are:
-Windy MC3 Cube Power Computer Case
-iBase M900 PCI-E Mini-ITX motherboard
-Intel Pentium D 945 3.4GHz Dual Core CPU
-BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB Watercooled Edition
-2GB DDR2 Memory (OCZ)
-Dual 750GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2 drives
-Samsung SATA2 DVD-RW
-Thermaltake Prowater 850, with optional Northbridge cooler
-Corsair VX450W 450W Power supply
The system is running WinXP, with a Vista skin.
Components installed, sans PSU - the Windy MC3 uses a rear-loading Power Supply, so this component can be installed last:
Water Loop Routing - to eliminate any concern over kinks, 90 degree elbows from Dangerden were used:
Radiator is mounted on the reverse of the case, 120mm fan installed inside of the case, and controlled by iBase motherboard as 'CPU' fan, with a thermoswitch (to reduce noise):
The Windy MC3 comes with significant slack cable, this is wire-tied out of the airflow path, next to the Power Supply where it no longer poses a restriction. Because the case is wider than a standard ATX case, there is plenty of room for additional cable slack on either side of the Power Supply:
View through the Power Supply mounting location, towards the Hard Drive Rack - the Windy MC3 supports 4 standard Hard Drives on its removable aluminum mounting rack:
Another overview of Water Loop, the Samsung SATA DVDRW is a reduced profile unit, although the case can support full size 5.25" drives in its 3 bays:
BFG GeForce 8800GTX, factory watercooled edition - I had to notch out the case's support beam to allow clearance for the 3/8" barbs:
View of the front of the case, Windy includes a drive facade, to improve the aesthetics of optical drives - two are included, but I am only using 1 drive:
Cables tucked into position:
Video Card, this helps provide a scale to the case, this is a standard 8800GTX, the case, although it appears standard size, is approx 6" shorter than a regular mid-tower case, an appearance further emphasized by its wider proportions - this is a 'small' computer case, part of the 'cube power' line of Windy cases:
Case in front of Samsung 24" Widescreen LCD moniter:
After a 24 hour burn in period, to ensure no leaks in the water cooling loop, the power supply was installed, and the system was configured - custom boot, logon, and shutdown screens, created in the same style as the case, were added to the cut down version of WinXP SP3 Professional installed on this system.
Results in 3DMark06 were a respectable 10668 points, this is with a Pentium D processor, WinXP, and single channel DDR2 SDRAM.
With a Core Duo CPU, Vista with its updated driver set, and a newer version of DirectX, scores in the 13000-13500 range should be attainable, with a single PCI-E card, in a tiny (and silent) enclosure.
http://windy-online.com/cube_case/mc3/
The case I purchased is unique in that it allows a Mini-ITX motherboard to be used with full-sized components, without restricting expandability, while still offering excellent airflow. The one concern with Mini-ITX boards is the expansion card space - only 1 slot is allowed, and on Mini-ITX boards, this is usually a PCI slot. I have an iBase M900 industrial motherboard, which has a single x16 PCI-E slot, but the current generation of high end PCI-E graphics cards use 2 slots or more with their massive heatsinks. Because the board, and case, allowed only 1 slot, I needed to install a single-width card, that still allowed adequate cooling, in a smaller case, so I decided to use watercooling in this case. The CPU, Northbridge, and Graphics card are all watercooled. Because the components will be run at their factory settings, 3/8" tubing was adequate for this system.
Components used are:
-Windy MC3 Cube Power Computer Case
-iBase M900 PCI-E Mini-ITX motherboard
-Intel Pentium D 945 3.4GHz Dual Core CPU
-BFG GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB Watercooled Edition
-2GB DDR2 Memory (OCZ)
-Dual 750GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2 drives
-Samsung SATA2 DVD-RW
-Thermaltake Prowater 850, with optional Northbridge cooler
-Corsair VX450W 450W Power supply
The system is running WinXP, with a Vista skin.
Components installed, sans PSU - the Windy MC3 uses a rear-loading Power Supply, so this component can be installed last:
Water Loop Routing - to eliminate any concern over kinks, 90 degree elbows from Dangerden were used:
Radiator is mounted on the reverse of the case, 120mm fan installed inside of the case, and controlled by iBase motherboard as 'CPU' fan, with a thermoswitch (to reduce noise):
The Windy MC3 comes with significant slack cable, this is wire-tied out of the airflow path, next to the Power Supply where it no longer poses a restriction. Because the case is wider than a standard ATX case, there is plenty of room for additional cable slack on either side of the Power Supply:
View through the Power Supply mounting location, towards the Hard Drive Rack - the Windy MC3 supports 4 standard Hard Drives on its removable aluminum mounting rack:
Another overview of Water Loop, the Samsung SATA DVDRW is a reduced profile unit, although the case can support full size 5.25" drives in its 3 bays:
BFG GeForce 8800GTX, factory watercooled edition - I had to notch out the case's support beam to allow clearance for the 3/8" barbs:
View of the front of the case, Windy includes a drive facade, to improve the aesthetics of optical drives - two are included, but I am only using 1 drive:
Cables tucked into position:
Video Card, this helps provide a scale to the case, this is a standard 8800GTX, the case, although it appears standard size, is approx 6" shorter than a regular mid-tower case, an appearance further emphasized by its wider proportions - this is a 'small' computer case, part of the 'cube power' line of Windy cases:
Case in front of Samsung 24" Widescreen LCD moniter:
After a 24 hour burn in period, to ensure no leaks in the water cooling loop, the power supply was installed, and the system was configured - custom boot, logon, and shutdown screens, created in the same style as the case, were added to the cut down version of WinXP SP3 Professional installed on this system.
Results in 3DMark06 were a respectable 10668 points, this is with a Pentium D processor, WinXP, and single channel DDR2 SDRAM.
With a Core Duo CPU, Vista with its updated driver set, and a newer version of DirectX, scores in the 13000-13500 range should be attainable, with a single PCI-E card, in a tiny (and silent) enclosure.
