Can you ever have to much radiator capacity?

[Robzere31]

Currently running the following,
1 280x60mm
1 240x60mm

Ive been offered for free a 360x60mm radiator.
Thought of swapping the 240mm out but it would mean modifying the case to get the 280 & 360mm in.

You think it's worth the effort?
Current temps are fine, but I have the urge to do something!

 

[Minstadave]

Current temps are fine

Total waste of time.

 

[paradigm]

I have the urge to do something!

Looking at your "watercool build", if you want to "do something" go hardline

 

[Robzere31]

Total waste of time.

Thought as much, but just curious as to wether it would do anything.

Looking at your "watercool build", if you want to "do something" go hardline

Not really interested in hardline tubing, as it seems a bit of a pain when you need to remove something.
As it is now, I can have the loop drianed & gpu/cpu out in 15 mins.

When I swapped out the motherboard/cpu the other week, it took me less than an hour.

 

[Razor Time]

If you have an urge to do something to your loop grab and aquaero, hours of customising and fine tuning your cooling setup.

 

[Glanza]

I've had 2 or 3 rads before and once everything is upto temperature it's been 1 or 2 degrees difference.

 

[ubersonic]

Sure somebody asked this the other day

But yeah technically you can have too much, once you reach the point where you have enough rad space to maintain temps and noise you find acceptable the only thing more radiators will do is add restriction to your loop which is bad as it can raise temps and/or cause leaks.

 

[Legend]

Adding more rads obviously means more fans which means more noise. You will quickly reach diminishing returns with temps once you get above 2 decent size rads really, but the noise will only continue to grow the more fans you add. Hardly desirable.

 

[Smffy]

I've got way too many but the case is massive so it's fine, overkill but everything's seriously cool to the point SLI 1080s overclocked are maxing at 33c under 100% load. For you adding another 120mm is simply not worth it, if you have to mod the case don't bother... I did it just because, don't even run the fans most of the time or very low because I've got 17.

 

[LeMson]

Plum in a house rad!

 

[bremen1874]

Plum in a house rad!

Why would you put a plum in a house rad? Wouldn't the stone get stuck?

 

[Smffy]

Actually thinking about it how many people use those water chillers? Presumably you can get away with minimal rads if you chill the fluid externally...

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

I have 2 480 x 60 rads. Can't have too much overkill

 

[Holst1981]

I have two 520 rads.
All the fault of ocuk as they had them on special offer.
Still not finished my custom case yet

Total overkill, but with pwm fans it's no problem.

 

[khemist]

I wouldn't bother with it at all, only if you want to tinker about.





Back in 2014 i made up a little external 360 Monsta radiator rig running externally into my old TJ08-E case that then had a 200mm rad in it just on the cpu, just because why not?.

At the minute i have a 480mm external setup running just cooling my CPU but my GPU is being added soon and that will be plenty to run at low fan speeds with great temps.

 

[Blame]

Adding more rads obviously means more fans which means more noise. You will quickly reach diminishing returns with temps once you get above 2 decent size rads really, but the noise will only continue to grow the more fans you add. Hardly desirable.

More rads plus more fans is less noise. You can run all the fans at near silent operation and great cooling. I run 2x480 and a 240 with 12 fans running at the lowest possible rpm. whisper quiet. i keep them on the same rpm during the winter and summer. GPU and CPU both overclocked aswel

 

[Legend]

More rads plus more fans is less noise. You can run all the fans at near silent operation and great cooling. I run 2x480 and a 240 with 12 fans running at the lowest possible rpm. whisper quiet. i keep them on the same rpm during the winter and summer. GPU and CPU both overclocked aswel

To a point... you can only run fans so slow. It is quite possible to pass a threshold where you are getting more noise with no improvement in temps.

 

[spoffle]

Adding more rads obviously means more fans which means more noise. You will quickly reach diminishing returns with temps once you get above 2 decent size rads really, but the noise will only continue to grow the more fans you add. Hardly desirable.

That's not really how it works. More rads equals more fans, but this equals less noise due to the fact that you don't have to run the fans as fast.

If you're putting more radiators in and not dropping the fan speed, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Legend]

That's not really how it works. More rads equals more fans, but this equals less noise due to the fact that you don't have to run the fans as fast.

If you're putting more radiators in and not dropping the fan speed, you're doing it wrong.

Of course, I see your point, but fans only run so slow, and it's not like you can keep ratcheting fan speed down relative to quantity of fans... eventually you hit a bottom speed limit (400-600RPM typically, depending on the fan in question, some will be higher). For example, for fans running at 600RPM, x12 of them are going to emit more noise than x8. That's just obvious, they aren't totally silent. How much noise will depend on the fan of course, and it may be negligible in some instances to the point that it isn't really noticeable. Every set-up will be different. Ultimately though, it's pointless beyond a certain number, especially when you factor in cost/performance.

 

[Quartz]

Do you not need a more powerful pump to get the water round?