Thin 360 vs thick 280?

Jay85 · 11 Oct 2019 at 21:04

which would benefit the most in performance? Those are my options as my current one at the front is a standard 30mm thick 240 rad.

Wanting to upgrade to a larger one but my options are a thick 280mm or a slim 360mm

Which is better?

pastymuncher · 12 Oct 2019 at 13:29

Thick 280 would be my choice and will most likely outperform the thin 360 while making less noise. I have just swapped from a pair of thick (60mm & 65mm) 360 radiators to a pair of Black Ice Nemesis GTX280 54mm thick radiators and my temps have actually dropped a degree or two while having four fewer fans (both setups run push/pull) and running them slower.

andicole0 · 12 Oct 2019 at 13:41

According to an EK blog https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-1-thickness-fpi/ a slim 360 will outperform a thick 240 so I think the longest rad that will fit as thick as you can fit. You'll probably find your case limits either length or thickness - don't forget fan thickness too.
Andi

Ross Thomson · 12 Oct 2019 at 16:39

everything equal it depends on the volume of each rad. A 360 has more surface area but if the 280 has more volume it will take longer to reach saturation point

pastymuncher · 14 Oct 2019 at 08:56

There is not that much difference in surface area between a 360mm and a 280mm which is one of the reasons I dropped to a pair of 280mm rads. FPI, fan speed and the flow path inside the rad can make a big difference as well.

MikeTimbers · 16 Oct 2019 at 13:51

280 rad = 39200 mm2
360 rad = 43200 mm2

280 can be used in more cases, takes up less space and allows fitting heights to therefore be adjusted somewhat. A 360 usually only fits one way forcing the fittings to be in a specific place and many cases won't accept a 360.

Smffy · 16 Oct 2019 at 15:22

andicole0 said:
According to an EK blog https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-1-thickness-fpi/ a slim 360 will outperform a thick 240 so I think the longest rad that will fit as thick as you can fit. You'll probably find your case limits either length or thickness - don't forget fan thickness too.
Andi

which is interesting given how crap the EK slums were

Reppyboyo · 16 Oct 2019 at 19:14

MikeTimbers said:
280 rad = 39200 mm2
360 rad = 43200 mm2

What sort of temp differences would this give?

Trying to make the same decision myself as my Meshify C can fit a 360mm if a bit awkwardly.
Also are 140mm fans not really water cooling optimized like a large amount of 120mm's are?

pastymuncher · 17 Oct 2019 at 09:15

Going from a pair of thick Coolgate 360mm rads (CG360 & G2 360) to a pair of thick Black Ice Nemesis GTX280 rads my temps have actually gone down as well as the fans making less noise. The new rads are better than the old rads but I was very surprised at the outcome. I am sitting here now with the water temps at 10.8 degrees C and dropping still (rads mounted in a box on a windowsill sucking outside air through them) with the fans (8x Arctic Cooling P14) running at 6v, 800rpm.

Drumroll · 17 Oct 2019 at 09:31

280, as 140mm fans tend to be quieter than similar 120mm.

Ross Thomson · 17 Oct 2019 at 10:30

pastymuncher said:
Going from a pair of thick Coolgate 360mm rads (CG360 & G2 360) to a pair of thick Black Ice Nemesis GTX280 rads my temps have actually gone down as well as the fans making less noise. The new rads are better than the old rads but I was very surprised at the outcome. I am sitting here now with the water temps at 10.8 degrees C and dropping still (rads mounted in a box on a windowsill sucking outside air through them) with the fans (8x Arctic Cooling P14) running at 6v, 800rpm.

that's because the GTX is a much better rad.

MikeTimbers · 17 Oct 2019 at 15:44

Reppyboyo said:
What sort of temp differences would this give?

really hard to say. the aim is to have more cooling than necessary in which case it would make no difference. If the 360mm rad was barely coping, a 280mm in its place would result in increased temps.

Reppyboyo said:
Trying to make the same decision myself as my Meshify C can fit a 360mm if a bit awkwardly.
Also are 140mm fans not really water cooling optimized like a large amount of 120mm's are?

there are plenty of 140mm water-cooling optimised fans equivalent to the 120mm ones. e.g. ML140 are simply bigger ML120.

Smffy · 21 Oct 2019 at 18:48

Lower FPI and thick rad you can’t go wrong in my opinion, which is why the HWLabs makes a big difference.

pastymuncher · 21 Oct 2019 at 19:19

They aren't lower FPI though. My GTX's are 16FPI, most other thick rads are in the 7-10FPI range. I know the HWLabs rads are probably the best around which is why I went for them but lower FPI does not always get the best results.