How many radiators do I need?

Benny144 · 7 Mar 2016 at 13:35

So I want a water cool loop to cool my 4790k and R9 nano.
I'm thinking a minimum dual 120 rad (240) but I can run up to a 280 (dual 140) and then an extra single 200.
So I've got a dual 120/140 option on top, and a single 120/140/200 space at front.
It's a Xigmatek Aquila case.
Thanks in advance for the help.

Also will I need a certain pressure of pump?
I'm trying to keep cost to a absolute minimum. I've figured I could save money by running to single rads in the dual slot (for example two 120 rads are cheaper than a 240 including a fixings)

Robzere31 · 7 Mar 2016 at 13:46

I've always read that you should allow 120mm of radiator per item bieng cooled + 1 additional 120mm
Not sure how true that is, but as a guide I have 520mm of radiators (1x 240mm & 1x 280mm) for my 4770k & 980ti.
Seems to work very well with fans only running at 30% when gaming.

To be honest, the radiators I have are a little overkill for my needs, but I got them for a good price & it's always nice to know you have the capacity to add to the system at a later date & not worry about the cooling side of things.

TerabyteMike · 7 Mar 2016 at 14:05

I have one h75 cooling my fx cpu and another cooling my r9 290x. The gpu stays a lot cooler than the cpu but I'm putting then both on a 360 radiator soon for a little overhead. Not sure if that helps

deFiniLoGy · 7 Mar 2016 at 14:26

A lot of the time, the answer is as much as you can fit in your case.

And if you'd like to keep cost to a minimum, try looking at AIOs, as they're certainly more bang for buck.

Benny144 · 7 Mar 2016 at 15:07

deFiniLoGy said:
A lot of the time, the answer is as much as you can fit in your case.

And if you'd like to keep cost to a minimum, try looking at AIOs, as they're certainly more bang for buck.

I've got an AIO on my CPU at the moment. Isn't one for my GPU right now (doubt there ever will be), problem is my AIO isn't expandable and an expandable predator 240 is still quite expensive and doesn't give that much cooling (really its only a thick 240) for the price.

deFiniLoGy · 7 Mar 2016 at 15:38

Benny144 said:
I've got an AIO on my CPU at the moment. Isn't one for my GPU right now (doubt there ever will be), problem is my AIO isn't expandable and an expandable predator 240 is still quite expensive and doesn't give that much cooling (really its only a thick 240) for the price.

However, given the total amount of rad spaces available in your case (280 + 120 max?), you might not see that much more cooling capacity than getting 280 AIO.

But theoretically 360 is enough for your loop, but if you're currently not happy with an AIO (assuming you're using a 240 AIO) then you won't see much more cooling for CPU+GPU in a single loop cooled by 280+120 rad.

Benny144 · 7 Mar 2016 at 21:08

deFiniLoGy said:
However, given the total amount of rad spaces available in your case (280 + 120 max?), you might not see that much more cooling capacity than getting 280 AIO.

But theoretically 360 is enough for your loop, but if you're currently not happy with an AIO (assuming you're using a 240 AIO) then you won't see much more cooling for CPU+GPU in a single loop cooled by 280+120 rad.

My GPU isn't cooled by the AIO right now.

I want to water cool my GPU as well and I think the most economic way is actually to build a full custom loop for the CPU and GPU