240 Rad for CPU/GPU

Rainagul

Rainagul

Rainagul

Associate
Joined
4 Aug 2009
Posts
1,727
Location
Canterbury
Hi,

A quick question for those of you know more then me about the subject of water cooling. In the process of getting my new water cooling under way soon and I'm looking to cool both the CPU and GPU with a 240 rad sandwich fan set up.
I know this set-up will be the "minimum" in order to cool both. However, from you're own knowledge/experiences, how much of a realistic improvement would there be from getting a 360 rad?
In case it helps I will be cooling a 4.8GHz 2600k and a stock EVGA 580.

Cheers
 
Well I haven't got a WC set up yet. But at the moment, temperatures look something like this.
CPU (idle) : ~35
CPU (load): ~55-60
GPU (idle): ~45-50
GPU (load): ~70
 
Ah, what I was going to say, if your temps are already low, a bigger rad will make little or no difference. But if your CPU is on the verge of melting, the the extra raddage will do a world of good :)
 
Hmm. Well I guess there is no accurate way of estimating what kind of temps I can expect, but would you be confident cooling both with a 240?
I can't imagine that temps would be any worse then what they are right now. Ideally, I don't mind the CPU temp staying at what it is at the moment with the water cooling. I'm mainly trying to get the GPU to drop with the water cooling by about 10 degrees under idle/load compared to what it is now.
 
Hardware temp decrease is not your main concern when determining your water loop.

Your main concern is ensuring that your loop can stabilize the water temp under load.

For example under load if your cooling cannot stop the water temperature from rising, your hardware temps will continue to rise as the water heats up.

On idle my water temperature (i7 2700 5.0 Ghz + 2x GTX 580 @ 970/2300) runs at 25C with all fans running at 30%. Under load with OCCT, the water temperature rises to 29C with all fans running at 100% and stays at this temperature The GPU temps don't pass 54C .

If your cooling is not sufficient, your water will continue to rise and therefore increase the hardware temps over a period of time.

Adding a 360 in will help to ensure that your water loop will achieve stabilization under load and therefore prevent your hardware temps increasing indefinitely.
 
Alright, well decided I will just wait a month or two longer , get some more cash and go for a 360 rad in a new case, instead of doing a halfway job with a 240. Cheers for the tips.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom