120.2 for cpu and gfx

Slinkie

Slinkie

Slinkie

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Hi Folks,

Would a 120.2 be good enough to cool a cpu and a gfx? I am thinking along the lines of the thicker rads like the thermochills.

One the same lines as above. I am thinking about just using the 120.2 for the cpu and potentially getting a 120.1 on it's own loop for the gfx card. Would this work?

Also, for a single loop (120.2 and cpu only) what pump would you recommend?
 
For a PA120.2 (or any rad really) the rad needs to be paired with fans which between them can handle the heat load. And that then means knowing what the cpu/gpu are, what clocks, what volts and what usage pattern.

Will the rig be running games for 20 minutes a day or folding on cpu and gpu 24/7? Must the system be quiet as well?

You haven't provided nearly enough information to determine the answer to your vague question.
 
Its a gaming pc, not left on 24/7

spec is E8400 currently at 4ghz and a 4870

Would prefer it to be as quiet as possible but not going for silence, I will be using 2 x Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fans on the rad
 
Then I would say that the PA120.2 would do. Use YateLoon fans or Noctuas (basically the same things) with a decent pump/res and a good set of blocks. If you're gaming then noise wouldn't matter too much so you could go with a fan controller allowing the fans to be turned right down when not gaming and up to full power when you are.
 
For a 10C delta, e.g. air ambient 20C, water 30C. Which is quite a lot tbh. With reasonable fans and flow rate, the PA120.2 should be ok for about 250w of heat load. A dual core and 4870 should be ok. With quieter fans you might be pushing it a bit, PA120.3 would a safer bet in that case.

 
Let's say we have a higher ambient and a 20C delta with a good block and a 125W cpu, the cpu would still be at a very safe temperature. Water-cooling noobs always want to get to sub-air-cooling temperatures and think the goal is to get to 40C under load but with modern cpus that simply isn't attainable or necessary.
 
I want to put a water cooled setup into a Lian Li A05B and so a 120.3 isn't really an option. Also, I'd prefer everything to be internal, I don't want an external rad. I'd also like it to be a little bit future proof. The spec would be;

Lian Li PC-A05B Aluminium Black Case
ThermoChill PA120.2
12V Laing DDC-1T Pro w/XSPC V3 Acrylic Pump Top
EK-Supreme CPU - Plexi Universal Inc i7 (1366)
EK-FC4870 4870 CF
XSPC Bay Reservoir - Clear Acrylic

+ tubes plus liquid etc.

My 4870 isn't overclocked, I don't see the point since it doesn't seem to make that much difference. it's only my E8400 that is clocked.

Thanks for the help.
 
Get the XSPC reservoir top and you won't need the bay res and more importantly the loop will be much easier in such small case. I stand by my ercommendation, get a fan controller and the 120.2 will be easily enough.
 
Would 1ltr of liquid be ok for this loop? Or should I get 2 just to make sure?

Spec is

Lian Li PC-A05B Aluminium Black Case
ThermoChill PA120.2
EK-Supreme CPU - Plexi Universal Inc i7 (1366)
EK-FC4870 4870 CF
Laing DDC Top/w Reservoir (XSPC)
Brushed Aluminium Stripes PA120.2 Rad Grill
7/16" ID - 5/8" OD Clear Hose (XSPC) -2m
PrimoChill Anti-Kink Coils 5/8"- Black - 2m
Feser One Cooling Fluid - UV BLUE

all will have 1/2" barbs
 
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MikeTimbers said:
Let's say we have a higher ambient and a 20C delta with a good block and a 125W cpu, the cpu would still be at a very safe temperature. Water-cooling noobs always want to get to sub-air-cooling temperatures and think the goal is to get to 40C under load but with modern cpus that simply isn't attainable or necessary.
Click to expand...

A 20C water delta is a hell of a lot of energy transfer (Cp 4186 J/Kg°C with typical PC cooling mass flow rates, 1GPM+), I've never seen it in practice, even passive. The Thermochill charts always over estimate the cooling delta in my experience. And remember from the cpu core to water temp there are two further thermal resistance transfer coefficients to include. A 20C water/air delta and higher ambient could easily see 40C+ idle temps let alone load.
 
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40 deg + isn't ideal! Is that going to be the case for this build? I want to do this really as a project. I am not really looking for amazing temps but I'd like them better than there are at the mo. currently my E8400 idles at 35 deg
 
fornowagain said:
A 20C water delta is a hell of a lot of energy transfer (Cp 4186 J/Kg°C with typical PC cooling mass flow rates, 1GPM+), I've never seen it in practice, even passive. The Thermochill charts always over estimate the cooling delta in my experience. And remember from the cpu core to water temp there are two further thermal resistance transfer coefficients to include. A 20C water/air delta and higher ambient could easily see 40C+ idle temps let alone load.
Click to expand...

And with a block around .12 you'd get sub-60s load temps :shrugs:

My Q6600 which runs full load 24/7 idles at around 40C and with a copper-toped GTX stays below 60 at load. That's with a single BIX and a quietish fan. Oh and a simple DDC1 10W pump and a T.

You don't need big rads to cool modern chips.
 
fornowagain said:
A 20C water delta is a hell of a lot of energy transfer (Cp 4186 J/Kg°C with typical PC cooling mass flow rates, 1GPM+), I've never seen it in practice, even passive. The Thermochill charts always over estimate the cooling delta in my experience. And remember from the cpu core to water temp there are two further thermal resistance transfer coefficients to include. A 20C water/air delta and higher ambient could easily see 40C+ idle temps let alone load.
Click to expand...

MikeTimbers said:
And with a block around .12 you'd get sub-60s load temps :shrugs:

My Q6600 which runs full load 24/7 idles at around 40C and with a copper-toped GTX stays below 60 at load. That's with a single BIX and a quietish fan. Oh and a simple DDC1 10W pump and a T.

You don't need big rads to cool modern chips.
Click to expand...

Both the above flew right over my head! Will this set up be ok for what I need from it. I don't want to use it to push my hardware to it's limits, I'd prefer to keep my CPU and my GFX card as they are but I want a new case and a bit of a project for my Christmas hols!
 
MikeTimbers said:
And with a block around .12 you'd get sub-60s load temps :shrugs:

My Q6600 which runs full load 24/7 idles at around 40C and with a copper-toped GTX stays below 60 at load. That's with a single BIX and a quietish fan. Oh and a simple DDC1 10W pump and a T.

You don't need big rads to cool modern chips.
Click to expand...

I never said otherwise. You do realise the amount of heat transfer it would take to raise the water delta 20C with the kind of mass flow rate in these systems. I think you mis-interpret my point. The charts use a 10C delta which I said is a lot, in practice you will never be able to dump (that is transfer dQ/dt) enough heat into the coolant to raise it much more than half that.
 
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Don't worry about it. It's just discussing what the rads can do and fornowagain is correctly pointing out how good the Thermochills are and I'm merely stating that they're better than they need to be.

Your other thread shows that a 120.3 simply won't fit in the case you want to use and I think you'll be fine with a 120.2. Your temps might not be as low as you might think they "should be" but the other thing I'm saying is that they don't need to be super low.

Story: I used to have a 750E P3. I could get it to 1000 but the overclock was marginal and with air-cooling it was unstable. The first water-cooling I put on it meant that it dropped by 5C and was suddenly super-stable.

Moral: the water-cooling was worth it.

Story: E6600 running at 3.4GHz using a modern 6-heatpipe heatsink cooled by a 120omm fan. Quiet, stable.

Moral: You don't need to water-cool this chip.

Your story is up to you.
 
fornowagain said:
I never said otherwise. You do realise the amount of heat transfer it would take to raise the water delta 20C with the kind of mass flow rate in these systems. I think you mis-interpret my point. The charts use a 10C delta which I said is a lot, in practice you will never be able to dump enough heat into the coolant to raise it much more than half that.
Click to expand...

I understand. I'm just saying that the margins we all used to care about are no longer so fine. Suppose you have a heatload of 250W. You have a 120.2 rad with quietish fans. The rad may not do a great job of cooling the water resulting in a highish delta between water and ambient.

Does it matter?

I contend that it doesn't. Blocks are incredibly efficient and the chips can stand very high temps compared to five years ago. So what if the water-air delta is very high? So what if the resulting cpu temp is 60C? All I'm saying is that a 120.2 will handle enough heatload to stop a modern chip from overheating.
 
Is there anyway of knowing for definite if the set up will be better or worse than it is now or do i just have to wait and see (currently my system is totally stable but in a battered old case, I want a smallish case that looks good that can sit on my desk and look good.)

Also is there anything I need to add to the spec I posted above? I presume all the screws I need will come with the parts

Edit: Including screws to mount the rad below thee fans, so the fans push air out of the rad out of the top of the case
 
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I have a Noctua on my CPU with a single fan and an accelero on my 4870 with a single 120mm fan.

CPU idle is 35deg and 4870 idles at 40 deg.

Under load CPU hits around 57-60 deg, not sure on GFX card though.
 
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