New to WC - Eclipse P300, R5-5600X & 3090FE

Just my 2 cents here.
Watercooling is great for temperature, but you still need good airflow, not only for the radiator but for the whole system.
The 3090's backplate gets very, very hot, even watercooled. The only way to tame it at nice cool temperature would be active backplate or similar solution, but them that's loads more heat being dumped inside the loop.
Watercooling CPU and GPU in the same loop, unless going crazy with rad area, usually your CPU will idle at higher temperature, but shouldn't be an issue if rad area is enough for GPU + CPU.
Your case, even swapping the front, isn't the most watercooling-friendly. Doable, but there's more compromises than I would normally bother, limiting what you can do.
A second hand O11 or O11 air would allow dual thick-ish rad top and bottom, and side intake (+ front intake if O11 Air).
 
Drumroll said:
Just my 2 cents here.
Watercooling is great for temperature, but you still need good airflow, not only for the radiator but for the whole system.
The 3090's backplate gets very, very hot, even watercooled. The only way to tame it at nice cool temperature would be active backplate or similar solution, but them that's loads more heat being dumped inside the loop.
Watercooling CPU and GPU in the same loop, unless going crazy with rad area, usually your CPU will idle at higher temperature, but shouldn't be an issue if rad area is enough for GPU + CPU.
Your case, even swapping the front, isn't the most watercooling-friendly. Doable, but there's more compromises than I would normally bother, limiting what you can do.
A second hand O11 or O11 air would allow dual thick-ish rad top and bottom, and side intake (+ front intake if O11 Air).
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Thanks for the info, that's all good to know. Seems I wildly underestimated how much I'd need to change to acheive a workable WC setup with the components I have, glad I came and asked the Q's. I'll take a look at that case, thanks. Choosing a case is now the one area I'm unsure on as I would like to retain a reasonably modest case size due to availabe space. However I take your points regarding the heat generated by the 3090 so I might be limited to how small I can keep things. Time for some browsing! :)
 
Lots of great cases around for watercooling these days. If you like your Phanteks P300, the P500A or P600S are both great for watercooling.
 
Well after lots of flipping between choices I finally ordered a P500A and transfered everything across from the P300. Plenty of space and now I need to come up with a layout for the loop. I'd like to mount the GPU/Block vertically in the hope of retaining the soundcard, also mounted vertically behind the GPU via a 2nd riser cable. If not the SC will have to go in favour of an external solution.

On GPU blocks - I've been looking at the Bykski 3090FE blocks on that website and there are several different versions at varying prices but they all look the same? Is it just differences in manufacturing materials or something?

 
jonny909 said:
On GPU blocks - I've been looking at the Bykski 3090FE blocks on that website and there are several different versions at varying prices but they all look the same? Is it just differences in manufacturing materials or something?
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Yes.. Some have different design materials.. Acetal, Copper, Plexi, RGB versions etc etc. There may be different blocks but not every block fits the same card, some may be universal while others fit specific types e.g. Asus TUF Waterblock only fir Asus TUF cards or Asus Strix cards to Asus Strix waterblock.

For FE (i only know abotu EKWB blocks) but same principal applies... just different designs aesthetically.. and usually minimal degree difference

P.S. Bykski website only offers 2 waterblocks for the 3090FE... one with an active back plate and another as an AIO
 
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im4gine3 said:
Yes.. Some have different design materials.. Acetal, Copper, Plexi, RGB versions etc etc. There may be different blocks but not every block fits the same card, some may be universal while others fit specific types e.g. Asus TUF Waterblock only fir Asus TUF cards or Asus Strix cards to Asus Strix waterblock.

For FE (i only know abotu EKWB blocks) but same principal applies... just different designs aesthetically.. and usually minimal degree difference

P.S. Bykski website only offers 2 waterblocks for the 3090FE... one with an active back plate and another as an AIO
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Thanks for confirming. Yeah it was the other (Chinese) site I was on and they seem to have the 3090FE block listed a few times at differing prices. Just assumed it was materials. I seem to remember there being an issue with having a mixture of certain materials in a loop, which can cause corrosion? I didn't want to accidentally order the block and then be limited when chosing further components because of what the GPU block is made from.
 
jonny909 said:
Thanks for confirming. Yeah it was the other (Chinese) site I was on and they seem to have the 3090FE block listed a few times at differing prices. Just assumed it was materials. I seem to remember there being an issue with having a mixture of certain materials in a loop, which can cause corrosion? I didn't want to accidentally order the block and then be limited when chosing further components because of what the GPU block is made from.
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Aluminium with mixed metals can cause galvanic corrosion.

As long as the blocks are copper, copper core, nickel plated etc, you are fine
 
The thing with two vertically mounted cards is the one you can see has to go to a lower PCIE slot than the one you can't see. So you need to check your motherboard's lower slots can run at the necessary speed for the GPU. Personally I doubt it's worth the hassle but YMMV.
 
MikeTimbers said:
The thing with two vertically mounted cards is the one you can see has to go to a lower PCIE slot than the one you can't see. So you need to check your motherboard's lower slots can run at the necessary speed for the GPU. Personally I doubt it's worth the hassle but YMMV.
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Thanks, I did check and the lower slot will run the GPU however I have a feeling it might make tube routing complicated and the soundcard could get in the way. Still pondering that one.

Another newbie question if I may. Will a single 420mm rad mounted at the front be sufficient to cool both the CPU and GPU? My outline plan would be 420mm rad at front, flat res+pump attached to that and the phanteks 120 distro on the rear fan mount, leaving just fans up top for exhaust.
 
jonny909 said:
Another newbie question if I may. Will a single 420mm rad mounted at the front be sufficient to cool both the CPU and GPU? My outline plan would be 420mm rad at front, flat res+pump attached to that and the phanteks 120 distro on the rear fan mount, leaving just fans up top for exhaust.
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I would say so although it isn't the radiator that cools anything, it's the fans on the radiator. I have a 60mm 420mm rad cooling a 1080ti and a 1070, overclocked and fully loaded folding. That's probably less than your 3090 alone but I use very low flow cheap fans because I don't need more. Your mileage may vary.

What fans do you plan to use?
 
MikeTimbers said:
What fans do you plan to use?
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Unsure as I'm still undecided on the layout. I've currently got three Corsair AF120s pulling air into the front of the case, mounted on the exterior behind the grill. I'd like to retain those to use as exhausts up top. The two 140s that came with the case are currently mounted in the top. I quite like the space gained inside the case by mounting 3 x 120mm front fans between the case and grill but that I assume would mean a lack of full coverage for the 420mm rad. Not sure how much of an issue that is, guessing it depends on fan ability?
 
I guess you could mount the 420 on the inside and use 3 120s on the outside of the grill. Not seen that done but I don't see why not. You kind of waste having a 420mm rad though. Does it really make so much space difference (25mm) to have the fans outside the case?
 
That's a good point, the space saving is fairly minimal. So seeing as I already have two Phanteks F140SK fans from the case, I'm wondering if it's worth just getting another one of those and using them for the rad? The Phanteks site says they have 84.5 CFM and 1.23 mm static pressure.
 
Phanteks make nice fans. Shame you don't have enough posts to do a "Wanted" as I bet there are plenty of these lying around other members' houses.
 
Yeah that's true. Although it looks like they're about 8 quid so I can't grumble really, seeing as I thought I'd have to be buying three new fans initially. Thanks for your help.


I think that just leaves the pump/res combo and fittings for me to decide on and I'll have something resembling a shopping list.
 
OK, I think Ive got a complete list now:

1 x Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Acryl GPX-N RTX 3090 Founders Edition
1 x Glacier D120 Distribution Plate
1 x SK140 Black PWM Fan - 140mm for rad (two already owned)
1 x Corsair Hydro X XR5 420mm Copper Water Cooling Radiator
1 x Glacier C350I CPU Water Block Acrylic Cover RGB LED - Black
B1 x arrow SPB17-TM 960LPH 17W PWM Mini Pump Reservoir with LRC 2.0 RGB
Barrow G1/4" Matte Black Compression Fitting For 14mm Rigid Tubing
Barrow G1/4" Matte Black 90 Degree Rotary Compression For 14mm Rigid tube
2 x Clear Acrylic Tubes 500 mm Tube Size OD 14mm
1 x Barrow G1/4" Matte Black Push Design Drain Valve Male To Female

I've initially gone for the small Barrow pump/res as my assumption is having that Phanteks distro on the opposite side will give me more coolant 'footprint' to mitigate the tiny reservoir. I can't currently see a way to mount the pump/res to the radiator though, so it might have to sit on the case floor. I would have liked a larger flat res/pump combo but blimey they're expensive for what they are.
 
im4gine3 said:
waiting on pics.. may need couple more tubing than what you already need.. it's easy to mess up.. unless you are used to bending acrylic
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Yeah it'll be the first time bending acrylic since my CDT classes at high school many years ago! :cry: Before buying anything else I'll definitely be getting a practice pack of tubing to see if I'm any good at it. Going to be interesting!
 
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