Best 360mm radiator?

GoogalyMoogaly

GoogalyMoogaly

GoogalyMoogaly

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Hi all,

You may be aware that I'm having issues achieving the temperatures and quietness that I hear so much about. There is the option of getting 1 or 2 1080 rads and getting a case/stand for it (or them), but this seems a bit drastic. Also, I'd like it all to be contained within the PC case if I can.

I'm currently using a CM 690 II advanced with:
Top: XSPC RS240 rad (240mm)
Bottom: EK Coolstream XT 240 (240mm)

I'm currently using Apache Vipers on them but have got some 1850rpm Gentle Typhoons that I've not yet gotten around to fitting.

I'm wondering if I'd be better off buying a case that would support a thick 360mm rad?
I know I'd effectively be going from 4 x 120mm of rad space to 3 x 120mm of rad space, but if I got a thicker rad (e.g. Black Ice GTX or SR-1, Phobya G-Changer, XSPC RX360 or a Thermochill TA) would that more than make up for it?

Which of the 360 rads available these days is the best?
Does a thicker rad mean you need higher rpm fans or will it cause more noise?
Is it better to have a higher or lower fin density? (Black Ice SR-1 had 9 fins per inch, while the GTX has 20 fpi)

Thanks.
 
higher FPI means you will need higher rpm fans as higher fpi means more restriction.

I don't think you need to upgrade, i had the same case, with a 2600k and a gtx 580 with a thermochill PA 120.2 in the bottom, a hardware labs GTX in the top and an XSPC RX 120 in the back. Temps were lush and actually lower now that i have all that in an 800d with a 360mm SR1.
 
Different rads are better at different fan speeds. High fpi like the hw labs gtx come into their own at high rpm but at the cost of noise. Low fpi rads like the sr1 excel at very low rpm and are designed with silent running in mind. Rads like the thermochill pa series and the xspc rx's are great all rounders. I chose a sr1-420 and run my fans at 600rpm for near silence. Data from skinnee

triplesv2oc920deltat.jpg
 
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So it's looking like the Black Ice SR-1 and the XSPC RX360 offer very similar performance. I think I can get the XSPC RX360 for around £73 + p&p. So that's probably the pne I'd go for unless I see either come up on the MM.

The other question, which I imagine is harder to answer, is will I see much of a performance change over my current setup?
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
So it's looking like the Black Ice SR-1 and the XSPC RX360 offer very similar performance. I think I can get the XSPC RX360 for around £73 + p&p. So that's probably the pne I'd go for unless I see either come up on the MM.

The other question, which I imagine is harder to answer, is will I see much of a performance change over my current setup?
Click to expand...

i would just go which ever you can find cheaper as there both good with any fans looking at the reviews.
 
Would an RX360 be enough by itself to cool a 1055T @ 3.5Ghz (or 3.8GHz) and an Nvidia GTX 480 (possibly overclocked) or would I need another rad too?

If you do, could you mount a RX120 at the bottom of the HAF 932 by the PSU?

Alternatively I could replace the 240mm EK Coolstream XT (which don't seem to get great reviews) with an RX240 at the bottom of my CM 690 II and have that in the loop with my RS240. That combo must surely be about as good as a single RX360 isn't it?

Because the RX rads are low FPI does that mean you need higher CFM fans with less importance on static pressure? I was going to use Gentle Typhoons, but I'm not sure these have the best CFM for 120mm fans. Would Gentle Typhoons be any good on low FPI rads?

Thanks for all the help/advice and graphs so far.
 
I use a pair of 120.2 RX rads with 8 Scythe AP-15's in push pull cooling an i7 950 @ 4.2GHz and a pair of overclocked 3Gb GTX 580's and it cools fine.
 
Hi, you helped me out with my build now would like to repay complement. Having had time to evaluate and test my system and look at the pic of your system you placed on my thread, i noticed you used the tool free clips on the res. I tried them but found i had vibration through the drive bay cage, so i removed them and fixed into place with the supplied screws and that seemed to cure that problem. Also i noted you commented on my 90 degree connectors on the bottom rad. look at my build and you see i have the flow pumped to the top rad first then CPU down to the GPUs then into the bottom rad. The right angle fittings slow the flow down enough so the fans do not have to work so hard to cool the flow from the GPUs. The faster coolant flows over the fans the less time they have to cool the coolant so restrict the flow and the slow the fans down to have better cooling, as the coolant takes that little longer to pass over the fans. So in theory lower temps. My idle temps at the moment are CPU 24c AND GPUs 38c. Hope this helps
 
I don't think I'm ever gonna get an idle CPU temp of 24ºC as my ambient is usually around 22ºC (according to my thermometer) and I think a delta temp of 2ºC is a bit ambitious even at idle (I'm getting closer to 7-10ºC delta temps at idle).
I am tempted to screw in the reservoir, although I think the big issue with the pump is that it's going at nearly 100% most of the time (guessing because of the PWM fan curve of my motherboard).

I'm now torn between getting a new case and a 360mm rad or just getting a RX240 or 240mm SR-1 to replace the EK Coolstream XT in my current case. The second one would be the cheaper option, but I tried doing the cheaper option first time around.

Maybe going from a 4870x2 to a 480 and replacing my Vipers with Gentle Typhoons will be be enough?
 
max51 said:
Also i noted you commented on my 90 degree connectors on the bottom rad. look at my build and you see i have the flow pumped to the top rad first then CPU down to the GPUs then into the bottom rad. The right angle fittings slow the flow down enough so the fans do not have to work so hard to cool the flow from the GPUs. The faster coolant flows over the fans the less time they have to cool the coolant so restrict the flow and the slow the fans down to have better cooling, as the coolant takes that little longer to pass over the fans. So in theory lower temps.
Click to expand...

In the same way does the reduced flow not also mean that the water spends more time in each waterblock getting heated up by each component before getting to the rad?
So wouldn't this undo any benefit gained from spending more time in the rads?
 
GoogalyMoogaly said:
In the same way does the reduced flow not also mean that the water spends more time in each waterblock getting heated up by each component before getting to the rad?
So wouldn't this undo any benefit gained from spending more time in the rads?
Click to expand...
No, only if the restriction was on the top rad. The flow is slowed down after it has gone through the top rad CPU and GPU's, then restricted going through the bottom rad then back up to the pump where it is speeded up again.
 
max51 said:
No, only if the restriction was on the top rad. The flow is slowed down after it has gone through the top rad CPU and GPU's, then restricted going through the bottom rad then back up to the pump where it is speeded up again.
Click to expand...

I don't get it?
How can some water be moving faster than the other water if it's all moving along the same tubes?
Like with cars on the motorway, if the cars at the front have to slow down as traffic merges from 3 lanes into 2 the traffic in the middle and at the back has to slow down too or they crash into the cars in front. Yeah, to start with the cars that haven't caught up to the traffic will move faster but once they catch up (i.e. no air in between) they can only move as fast as the cars in front, surely?

To be fair my similes usually suck, but hopefully this makes the point?
 
To give you an idea i did a little overclocking of the cpu today and then run Prime 95 for an hour. Overclocked to 3.6GHz. Ambient temp was 21c and the core temp went up to 32c with the GPU's sittiing around 38c. Idle temps where fluctuating between 22c and
24c
 
Then when it comes out of the two lanes back into the three it speeds up again. It is the same principles they have in fridges, heat pumps and central heating systems. Either going from large pipes to small or putting flow restrictors in the line.
 
max51 said:
Then when it comes out of the two lanes back into the three it speeds up again. It is the same principles they have in fridges, heat pumps and central heating systems. Either going from large pipes to small or putting flow restrictors in the line.
Click to expand...

But that's because if you pump the same amount of water through a smaller tube it has to flow quicker to get the same volume through isn't it?

And yes when it comes out of the 2 lanes it speeds up, but in your loop the reduced flow is at the end so with your example of the 2 lanes merging back into 3 it suggests that only the bit after the merge is fast everything before (i.e. everything before that radiator and after the pump) is going slow, it would only be what's after the radiator and before the pump that's moving fast.

Either way your loop does seem to be working for you, which I'm pleased about. I'm just disappointed that after 2 tries mine is still extremely loud (I measured nearly 40-50db, using a free app on my iPhone) and pretty damn hot for water cooling. My GPUs idle at 35ºC and 38ºC it's my CPU that gets hot.

What was your VCore when overclocked?

Also you said you "core temp" went up to 32ºC, I presume you meant "CPU temp" as I believe core temps are pretty worthless on AMD chips? (My core temps are usually pretty low)
 
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