advice on my first custom loop

t103Ninja · 27 Feb 2017 at 18:50

hi guys, i am going to be building a new PC very soon and would like to do my first custom water cooling loop

i'm going to be doing the loop inside a fractal define S case, i want to put a 360mm rad in the front and a 140mm radiator on the back and leave the moduvents on the top because they sound dampening stuff on them and i want it to be as quiet as possible

would it be ok to have it setup like that and would it be worth going for push/pull on the 360 or the 140 or both?
as this is my first time doing a custom loop any tips or advice would be highly appreciated

thanks

Legend · 27 Feb 2017 at 20:20

Personally I would use the top. You won't need to worry about noise with a full loop, it will be VERY quiet if you choose the right components, and you'll get much better performance with x2 360 rads.

t103Ninja · 27 Feb 2017 at 21:22

Legend said:
Personally I would use the top. You won't need to worry about noise with a full loop, it will be VERY quiet if you choose the right components, and you'll get much better performance with x2 360 rads.

ill be cooling a CPU and a single GPU, wouldn't 2 360's be abit overkill?

Legend · 28 Feb 2017 at 00:18

t103Ninja said:
ill be cooling a CPU and a single GPU, wouldn't 2 360's be abit overkill?

Not at all, there's no such thing when it comes to watercooling

! If you want silence, it makes sense, all fans can be running low RPM with high FPI rads. Ideal set-up.

foop · 28 Feb 2017 at 14:56

Another vote for not having the radiator at the front, especially if it's blowing air into the case - all the heat that you're removing from the CPU and GPU will be wafting over things as warm air. This isn't necessarily going to be a really bad thing, but why do it if you don't have to?

Push-pull isn't essential. It improves cooling, but not by a huge amount. On the down side, you end up spending twice the money on fans, and it's more of a pain fitting a radiator with fans on both sides into a case.

If you've got the space for push-pull it might be better getting a thicker radiator and just using push. On the other hand, you might prefer the way push-pull looks as part of the build. As with all water-cooling choices, this depends on the radiators, the fans, the case, the phase of the moon...

Fundamentally, with a simple CPU-GPU water cooling loop it doesn't matter hugely how you do it as long as you don't make glaring mistakes. A design that you find easy to design and construct will probably be a better idea than one that is technically correct but which you struggle to assemble.

Legend · 28 Feb 2017 at 15:16

foop said:
Another vote for not having the radiator at the front, especially if it's blowing air into the case - all the heat that you're removing from the CPU and GPU will be wafting over things as warm air. This isn't necessarily going to be a really bad thing, but why do it if you don't have to?

Rads function best by bringing cool air over them. It seems to be a common misconception that you need to exhaust them. An exhaust fan at rear will do the job just fine. Also, you ideally want to maintain positive pressure to avoid dust build up, so with a rad top and bottom on intake, and exhaust at rear, temps (and noise levels) will be excellent with x2 360 high FPI rads and low speed fans.

t103Ninja · 28 Feb 2017 at 17:46

Legend said:
Rads function best by bringing cool air over them. It seems to be a common misconception that you need to exhaust them. An exhaust fan at rear will do the job just fine. Also, you ideally want to maintain positive pressure to avoid dust build up, so with a rad top and bottom on intake, and exhaust at rear, temps (and noise levels) will be excellent with x2 360 high FPI rads and low speed fans.

so you would recommend a 360 on the front and top set as intake and only a single exhaust fan?

according to fractals site the define S can take a 420mm rad in the top how well do you think it would perform using a single 420mm rad?

Legend · 28 Feb 2017 at 19:25

t103Ninja said:
so you would recommend a 360 on the front and top set as intake and only a single exhaust fan?

according to fractals site the define S can take a 420mm rad in the top how well do you think it would perform using a single 420mm rad?

It would manage OK with a 420, but x2 360's would perform better, and yes, I'd have all rads intake with rear as exhaust.

t103Ninja · 28 Feb 2017 at 19:37

Legend said:
It would manage OK with a 420, but x2 360's would perform better, and yes, I'd have all rads intake with rear as exhaust.

2 360's as intake it is then

what about loop order? i want it to be a clean look so my idea was to have pump>GPU>CPU>top rad>front rad>reservoir
i think that would look pretty good and hose lengths would be pretty short but i'm worried that i would be sending hot liquid from the GPU to the CPU, does that sort of thing make a difference or would it just equalize?

Legend · 28 Feb 2017 at 20:19

t103Ninja said:
2 360's as intake it is then

what about loop order? i want it to be a clean look so my idea was to have pump>GPU>CPU>top rad>front rad>reservoir
i think that would look pretty good and hose lengths would be pretty short but i'm worried that i would be sending hot liquid from the GPU to the CPU, does that sort of thing make a difference or would it just equalize?

Loop order doesn't matter, providing you have the res above the pump, it's all good. Temperature will equalise in a loop over a relatively short period of time, so you don't need to worry about it. Just focus on what looks the best.

t103Ninja · 28 Feb 2017 at 20:58

Legend said:
Loop order doesn't matter, providing you have the res above the pump, it's all good. Temperature will equalise in a loop over a relatively short period of time, so you don't need to worry about it. Just focus on what looks the best.

alright then, thanks a lot for all the advice now i just to pick out what bits to use