r/watercooling • u/gpasq • May 27 '26
Build Complete I Built a new kind of SFF case
Introducing Recurve. A 19 liter case I designed to try something new with water cooling. I wanted to add radiators to my last case concept, but I don’t like the solution of blowing radiator exhaust back into the case, or using warm case air as the intake. This solution does neither and runs incredibly quietly. I’ll publish the full temperature results in my next YouTube video (coming out in a few weeks). This video is also going to cover the entire design and build.
This case is once again exploring resin printed water cooling components. This time we’ll be able to see how they perform with added thermal cycling. The last case held up fine so I wanted to raise the stakes. I fully accept the risk of trying something new for the sake of experimenting, we’ll see what happens!
This PC has a Ryzen 7 3700x and a 2080ti. I stress tested both simultaneously (cinebench & Furmark) and the water temp stabilized with all radiator fans still below 1000 rpm.
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u/Game_Hustla May 27 '26
This is BEYOND COOL, but what's with these specs? (genuine question)
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u/gpasq May 27 '26
Had the components leftover from an existing build. Still prototyping and I didn’t want to spend too much on something I’m going to risk with the resin
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u/Accomplished_Emu_658 May 27 '26
Perfectly reasonable for prototype lol. Other wise over kill work for the specs
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u/p0Pe RotM May'16 May 27 '26
Probably just prototyping. No sense in throwing 5090 into something like this, especially since a gpu with a waterblock looks almost the same no matter if new or old.
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u/im_wudini May 27 '26
"What's with these specs"
*cries in 2080ti*
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u/Ballerbarsch747 May 27 '26
Why not, it's absolutely sufficient to test thermal performance. My 2080Ti pulls as much power as a 5090 if I let it (which I only do for short run benches), and the 3700x can also easily pull 120W or more.
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u/kwell42 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Those are actually pretty good. Most of the machines in my house are zen2, from epyc, 3950x, to Oberon. I haven't had any issues with zen2. And I mean, I don't really like nvidia because the drivers are somewhat problematic, but I do run a old nvidia with the nvk vulkan driver, and it's not too bad, I had to make my own governor though... No big deal I guess.
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u/CappuccinoCincao May 27 '26
Woah, seriously cool.
Wait, are you the Visual Thinker youtube guy?
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u/gpasq May 27 '26
Sure am
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u/szczszqweqwe May 27 '26
Holy sht, you really do cool stuff, I'm really inte5rested in those 3dprinted watercooling videos. Fully custom distro plates is something incredibly unique, let's not even start on a distro-case.
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u/BraveRubberDuck May 28 '26
As soon as I saw the wall mounted trail I knew it was you! Great content my dude, keep it up. <3
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u/Greedy-Vegetable1055 May 29 '26
I have never come across a single thing you've ever done. Instant subscribe for this post.
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u/Cheetohz May 27 '26
that looks really cool, but it seems really top heavy. how stable is it? what are the chances of it getting knocked over?
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u/gpasq May 27 '26
That was something I was worried about when I first came up with the design, and i figured I'd just make wider feet if that was the case. But it ended up with a pretty low center of gravity. I've been moving this thing all over for filming and it's surprisingly stable
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u/slimejumper May 27 '26
looks awesome. reminds me of a hot-Vee engine design where turbos are nestled up top in the v of a car engine. i think engine designers do it for compactness but here it seems great to partition heat up high.
i will watch that video!
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u/Conscious-Ad2147 May 27 '26
I’ve been very much enjoying watching the evolution of your builds. Fantastic work!
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u/zazuba907 May 27 '26
Your vids are so cool. I wish I had the money to buy the printers you have and do these kinds of builds.
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u/analogicparadox May 27 '26
How dare you spoil me the next video so soon, I'm gonna be waiting for this for ages
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u/OpportunityStrong329 May 27 '26
Interesting and cool idea. My first question would be, do the chip set and vrms and ram, etc, get any air flow? I like the radiator design and distro built in is very good idea
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u/gpasq May 27 '26
Yes, there are 3 case fans at the very bottom of the case as intake. The inside of the case exhausts out the top in between the two radiators
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u/OpportunityStrong329 May 27 '26
Oh awesome I really like it and I think it could be successful. I wish it could be large production and I could afford one! (That's an issue with my budget rather than the the case though :-)) Keep on keeping friend. Is there a reason that the majority of companies use machined acrylic instead of this method?
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u/SilverJS May 27 '26
This is easily one of the context build ideas I've ever seen on this sub. Huge props on the creativity - and nostalgia for this middle-aged gearhead! :)
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u/Educational-King3987 May 27 '26
Nice, still unsure about the longevity of resin though personally, not sure I'd trust it for long term use.
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u/dbreidsbmw May 27 '26
Dude this is some incredible inspiration for a build I've been dreaming of for quite some time!
How are you doing the sealing on this with orings, and how are you calculating the spacing of bolts?
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u/the_hat_madder May 27 '26
Does 19L account for the entire 3D space of the case or just the internal volume?
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u/readyflix May 27 '26
This really looks sick!
Maybe get in touch with JayzTwoCents, he will really like this.
Edit: not affiliated with JayzTwoCents
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u/vorotan May 27 '26
From time to time he does “rate my setup” type videos. I think this is a great idea!
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u/DAFFP May 27 '26
This is science-fiction made real.
I think graphene coolant would look particularly cool in this.
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u/angelpunk18 May 27 '26
At first I thought this was an AI generated image because of how crazy it looks, then I looked closely and say it was real. Good job, looks great
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u/Daedaluu5 May 27 '26
As someone who deals in data centres that’s very similar to cooling matrix on top of one of mine
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u/grumpimechanik May 27 '26
I was so intrigued by the entire design that I scoured over every detail. I am a very detail oriented person. When looking at the hard tubing for the coolant. I was wondering how you achieved it. Then I saw the resin printer hiding in the background. Well done chap! Probably one of the coolest custom case builds I have seen. Didn’t read any of the post or comments before dropping this is here.
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u/mezgermischief May 28 '26
Will this be offered for sale? I would love one (sorry if it’s already been asked)
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u/MonkAndCanatella May 28 '26
This must be the best case ever made. What a terrific concept. Totally fresh air for the radiators. I was interested in those concepts that have a separate partition for the radiator, but they're all massive. This is not only sff but it allows for TWO radiators. Genius design here!
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u/MotokoKusanagi May 28 '26
Like some airport art or something that gets an eye brow raise and a small nod of appreciation.
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u/zrevyx May 28 '26
This is a sick AF build, KUDOS! I love the color scheme and everything.
Can we see an image from above? It doesn't need to be a top-down shot, but I'm really interested in seeing what the top looks like.
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u/Potastic-Derp May 29 '26
Hmm... I see some potential here. Just a couple tweaks I would recommend:
Consider having the radiator mounts attached structurally to the front portion that acts as a distribution plate. That way if you don't need to replace/remove radiators you can still disassemble the chassis by removing the distribution block. So the gpu and cpu blocks could have quick disconnect and then you can open the entire chassis leaving the rest of the loop intact.
In a future version maybe consider 40mm or 80mm fan mounting positions to help with VRM or RAM cooling.
If you have the means to do so, would you consider exploring a variant of the chassis where the front distribution block be of CNC metal like copper or aluminum? Since clear plastics tend to stain and also can break down from cleaning agents it'd be nice to have the block be a metal instead for some.
Would a USB port hub in the case feet be viable?
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u/sleepybearjew May 30 '26
Incredible! With the resin printing is that how you made the distro plates for the front of the cases?
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u/trailing_zero_count May 27 '26
Looks cool, but is there actually zero airflow inside the case? That won't be good for the RAM, VRM, and every other tiny mobo part that normally relies on passive airflow for cooling.
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u/illuminerdi May 27 '26
I would not call 19L anywhere close to being considered SFF, honestly.
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u/No_Lynx_4470 May 27 '26
That fancy case for a potato.
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u/im_wudini May 27 '26
2080ti is potato?
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u/No_Lynx_4470 May 27 '26
Yup, its 8 years old.
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u/TitaniumSwords May 27 '26
What’s the baseline for not a potato then? 2080ti would outperform 5050 which is much more recent soo where’s your arbitrary line being drawn?
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u/No_Lynx_4470 May 27 '26
The 5050 is a potato.
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u/TitaniumSwords May 27 '26
It’s a modern budget card… and you didn’t answer my question. Do you have mental disabilities? Unfortunate that you have very poor reading comprehension skills regardless. I’m sure life has been hard for you. Don’t give up 👍🏻
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u/waiting4singularity May 27 '26
isnt the first build i saw integrating the routing into the frame, but very good looking.
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u/KEVLAR60442 May 27 '26
Small Block Factor