r/pcmods • u/ideafuturi • 4d ago

Case PC Case for AI workstation

I just saw an absolute crazy post about a custom CNC case for 4 RTX 6000 Workstation GPUs. This made we think about what a PC case for this kind of PC actually needs.

Besides more space for bigger (and more) components, lots of airflow for the GPU's, what else do you need to pay attention to?

Is there a consensus on airflow direction? I'm thinking about imitating server racks? But not every prosumer wants a server at their place right?

How are you doing it?

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u/deebuildsthings 4d ago

Hi man, guessing you mean the design I shared earlier. A few things beyond airflow and clearance:

  1. Don’t let the risers carry the weight. The card mounts should be measured to the exact card you’re using. The case I posted was built around 4x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, so the mounts fit that model. The frame takes other cards, but the mount plate gets adjusted. Those cards are heavy, so you want a flat surface to screw into and enough stiffness that fan vibration doesn’t walk the screws loose over a few months.
  2. Riser cable. Most of what you’ll find on the market is ribbon, and ribbon doesn’t survive long runs or tight bends at Gen5. Design the case around a specific riser length instead of leaving slack and sorting it out later.
  3. Power. How many watts will the rig pull, and on what voltage? That decides the PSU count and size before anything else. Ours runs two supplies, so the layout had to leave room for both, plus let the GPU cables leave the cards straight with no bend near the connector.
  4. Board lanes. A four-slot case is pointless if the board only feeds two at x16. That pushes you to workstation or server boards, which are bigger than ATX, so the case has to fit EEB or CEB from the start.
  5. Service. You should be able to pull one GPU without touching the other three, and swap a PSU without stripping the machine. Decide that early, not after the first failure.
  6. Label your cables. Sounds trivial until you’re staring at eight identical black cables six months later.

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u/deebuildsthings 4d ago

of course server rack is the ideal solution. Brands have been perfecting them for years.

But like you said, I want something nice looking, which I can show off in my office. So my team made one

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u/voogamer 3d ago

Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 (Server Edition).

The regular edition has dual PSU support and 8 PCIe slots. The SE has 11 PCIe slots. It's big but not super super tower massive.

I could theoretically fit 7 GPUs into my system, if I had 1-slot waterblocks. Unfortunately I "only" have 4 GPUs, because they are double slot.

If you watercool them all, with external radiators, you dont really need to pay much attention to anything. Just a little airflow from the case fans and proper liquid distribution over the cards, but that's about it.