Which Radiators / Fans

Hi All,

I'm looking advise of what the best Radiators for a 900D case.

Probably looking at Fitting

480mm(Top)
480mm(Bottom)(Rear)
240mm (Bottom)(Front)

Will be wanting things to be as Silent as possible so probably only have fans in either push or pull configuration.

What would the recommendations be for this? I was thinking for Top- Push and the bottom Pull

I'll Be cooling a 4790k CPU , Mobo and 2 GPUs (currently 2 r9 290x matrix) probably will upgrade in near future for more performance)


I'm a Fan of the EKWB products so which would be the best Radiators here to use

the EK radiators for 120mm I think are some of the best out there. review for xe
go for PE/XE
as for fans everyone will say differently. Get some fans with decent static pressure @ low rpm's because you won't run your fans over 900rpm.

as for push pull, i remember the fact that there is very little difference between push or pull.

I just learnt the hard way! Radiator height and depth need to be considered too as they may not fit. I originally purchased two EK PE 240 rads but they wouldn't fit, I had to get 2x 240mm SE rads. S means slimline, P means performance and I think X means expert but they get fatter and fatter!

thanks for the recommendations so far

Don't buy the EK slims is my advice, I can vouch for the terrible performance in the tables... on mobile but there's a good radiator roundup here with lots of charts:

http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/11/radiator-round-2015/6/

I've personally now got the HWLabs SR2, 480, 360 and 2 x 240 but badger is right make sure you check the total size on the rad as these for example are pretty fat around the edges and rounded which can be awkward.

I was recently forced to retire an original Thermochill PA120.3 due to a microleak it had somehow managed to get. Took the opportunity to replace it with a cross flow design rad, an Alphacool Nexxxos UT60 X-Flow to be exact. The rad is situated in the case top and the repositioning of the rad outlet has allowed better tube routing. This also made bleeding MUCH easier for me, as cross flow radiators naturally expel air from one end to the other, without having to do too much case rocking, which was always a ball ache with a top mounted rad with both fittings pointing downwards at one end. My experience was it was considerably easier to manipulate where you wanted the air in the rad to go when bleeding. Performance seems on a par so far too. So I can vouch for a cross flow design in addition to the other advice offered.

Bubo said:

I was recently forced to retire an original Thermochill PA120.3 due to a microleak it had somehow managed to get. Took the opportunity to replace it with a cross flow design rad, an Alphacool Nexxxos UT60 X-Flow to be exact. The rad is situated in the case top and the repositioning of the rad outlet has allowed better tube routing. This also made bleeding MUCH easier for me, as cross flow radiators naturally expel air from one end to the other, without having to do too much case rocking, which was always a ball ache with a top mounted rad with both fittings pointing downwards at one end. My experience was it was considerably easier to manipulate where you wanted the air in the rad to go when bleeding. Performance seems on a par so far too. So I can vouch for a cross flow design in addition to the other advice offered.

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Thats good to know, always wondered how people get on with those and for most loops it just seems a much more useful layout!

I've used both Alphacool's XT45 & HWLABS SR-1 in the same configuration that you're looking at

Both worked a treat on my 5960x, MB chipset block, 3 x 980ti's

I have EK SE 240. Not as good as the PE's I has before, but they do the job and I have no complaints with them.

Bubo said:

I was recently forced to retire an original Thermochill PA120.3 due to a microleak it had somehow managed to get. Took the opportunity to replace it with a cross flow design rad, an Alphacool Nexxxos UT60 X-Flow to be exact. The rad is situated in the case top and the repositioning of the rad outlet has allowed better tube routing. This also made bleeding MUCH easier for me, as cross flow radiators naturally expel air from one end to the other, without having to do too much case rocking, which was always a ball ache with a top mounted rad with both fittings pointing downwards at one end. My experience was it was considerably easier to manipulate where you wanted the air in the rad to go when bleeding. Performance seems on a par so far too. So I can vouch for a cross flow design in addition to the other advice offered.

Click to expand...

Out of interest how are you finding the performance of the alphacool coming from the thermochill. I am making a similar move myself as I am changing case, I currently have a PA120.4 and will be getting a XT45 420 & 360 x-flow.

Also how much cleaning did the alphacool need?

Before the change I had a Thermochill PA120.3 and a PA120.2 in a single loop, both with push/pull Xilence Red Wings fans at full speed. After the change I still have the PA120.2 with the same push/pull fans, but went to push only on the Alphacool with Noctua FM12 fans instead. The Noctuas I have running off my mobo PWM header and speed controlled by the bios. I had to change the top fans cos they were knackered, what with being mounted horizontally for like 10 years, ran fine but were noisy due to the bearings.

When running something like AIDA64 cpu test I'm finding the top fans barely ramping up at all. I guess this is a combination of the current low ambient temps and also my other rad on its own must be capable of handling this load, either that or the Alphacool is so good it doesn't need the fans to ramp up. I certainly think it is at least on a par with the PA120.3. Probably also shows me it wasn't worth running push/pull, certainly with those fans.

As for cleaning, I did flush it with hot water as usual and there were a few black flecks, but nothing serious. Water didn't come out cloudy or anything, was happy to put it straight in without going on to a vinegar flush or anything like that.

While writing this message I've had AIDA64 going for 15 minutes and cpu temp is hovering around 50°C. I set my top fans to run at 100% @ 55°C, 50% @ 40°C.

Bubo, thanks for the info mate good to hear your happy with the upgrade.

I also have a 900D, this is what i run

Alpahcool 480 55mm top in push config
Alpahcool 480 40mm bot. in push config
Alpahcool 240 40mm bot. in push config

140mm rear exhaust
120mm front intake

Running Corsair SP fans for rads and all connected to fan controller at 38% fan speed

Im Running a 5820 @ 4.4 and GTX 1080 @2k

System is whisper quiet and cpu max temps around 60 in summer and 50 for GPU.
GPU hits about 43 in this cold weather.

Also The corsair fans are not that great, but i liked the look of them, so with better fans the temps. would improve.

But having the system as quiet as possible is my highest priority. The temps are not the lowest compared to some systems out there, but everything is stable , quiet and temps and resonable. Hope this helps

Blame said:

I also have a 900D, this is what i run

Alpahcool 480 55mm top in push config
Alpahcool 480 40mm bot. in push config
Alpahcool 240 40mm bot. in push config

140mm rear exhaust
120mm front intake

Running Corsair SP fans for rads and all connected to fan controller at 38% fan speed

Im Running a 5820 @ 4.4 and GTX 1080 @2k

System is whisper quiet and cpu max temps around 60 in summer and 50 for GPU.
GPU hits about 43 in this cold weather.

Also The corsair fans are not that great, but i liked the look of them, so with better fans the temps. would improve.

But having the system as quiet as possible is my highest priority. The temps are not the lowest compared to some systems out there, but everything is stable , quiet and temps and resonable. Hope this helps

Click to expand...

thanks this helps a lot