There are a number of issues with fitting two of our water cooling kits in the Antec 1200 case. Case modifications will need to be made to fit in the two water cooling units. There are two hybrid solutions available. But first, let’s examine the dual water cooling scenario.
This first picture shows the first issue:
The bulges on the top and bottom of the radiators prevent the ability to mount them vertically without needing to cut out holes (or hammer out bulges) to allow the case siding to close properly.
This vertical mounting is necessary to allow the two radiators to be mounted side by side. If positioned sideways the bulge on the top or bottom protrudes into the adjacent mounting position. However, an additional modification would need to be made to the corner to allow the second radiator to be mounted even when both are vertical. The above picture also shows the next problem. Note how the radiator on the right is slightly lower.
A notch will need to be cut out of the corner of the case to allow the radiator to be positioned properly.
Also note the Corsair system is being used here because the Coolit Eco will not mount to the motherboard due to the capacitors being too close to the mounting holes in the board.
So, the dual water cooling is plausible, but only with the corsair system, and with some case modifications.
The alternative is a hybrid cooling solution involving one water cooler and one air cooler. The below pictures illustrate the possibilities with two different sized Noctua heat sink configurations.
You will notice that the radiator is now mounted sideways, so there is no need for case modifications. The above picture is with the smaller Noctua heat sink.
The above picture shows the larger Noctua heatsink. Note that the Corsair tubes are brushing up against the heatsink. Potentially, over time this could cause the tube to rupture. However, I do have a solution for this. There is a moldable silicone based material called sugru that is heat resistant (like silicone oven mits) and hardens when exposed to air. Potentially, we could put some of that around the tube and it would avoid that issue. http://sugru.com/
The above picture shows how the sideways mounting removes the possibility of mounting a second radiator due to the bulges. Also, the 120 mm Noctua fan fits nicely.
You will note that we will still have the issue where there is a single column of hot air flowing from the HDD module, through the Noctua, and then through the radiator. It is possible to mount the radiator on the second fan in the corner, however, due to the bulges and space restriction in the corner, it cannot be mounted sideways like the above picture. Potentially, although this is a bit of a stretch, we could modify the top of the case to make room for the bulge. This modification would involve cutting out a metal bracket that sits just below the top exhaust fan. This would likely give us the necessary 5 mm clearance to fit the radiator sideways.
So basically we have three likely solutions:
1) Dual water cooling: It’s the most work and would be a very obvious case modification, but it would provide the best cooling.
2) Simple Hybrid water/air cooling: It’s the least amount of work, requiring no case modifications, but it is not an ideal solution because heated air is continuously recycled to cool five HDDs and both CPUs.
3) Modified Hybrid water/air cooling: It involves a case modification, but no one would notice the difference (like a sleeper car), and it would provide better cooling than the second option.
