First time custom water cooling, help needed ( 3090FE )

rIcK

rIcK

rIcK

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Hello folks!

I have been a long timer user of air cooled PCs and have built my computers for many years however have always shied away from water cooling. I have however put custom coolers on graphics cards and a variety of other component modifications so I have no issues with getting my hands a little dirty.

I have recently purchased a 3090FE to replace my custom cooled 2080Ti which had a Raijintek cooler on, and it is sadly quite noisy when I fire up a game and is something I want to fix.

I would like some general guidance on where to start and what bits to look at:

I believe my case will fit a 240 or 280mm radiator and I am a massive fan of Noctua fans, the most important thing to me in this is noise levels over all else.

Here is what my system looks like right now:

pc.jpg


Intel 9900k
Z390 MATX Motherboard
Fractal Design Meshify Mini-C Case ( https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/meshify/meshify-c-mini-dark-tempered-glass/black/ )
Noctua NH-D15 ( https://noctua.at/en/nh-d15 )
A variety of Noctua Fans

So my questions:

What radiator should I go for?
What pump and reservoir should I go for?
What tubes and fittings should I use?
What waterblock should I use for my 3090FE?
Any other tips or things to consider?
 
Would like soft tubing, no budget in mind since I don’t know the costs involved. But basically as good as you can get without wasting money on minor increases.
 
Joxeon said:
I can shave 8c of my 3080 with no loss of performance or 15c with a 6% loss by undervolting while considerably reducing fan noise so it maybe worth trying before going down the route of water cooling.
Click to expand...
I’ve already undervolted with some success, but the pitch of these fans at anything above 50% is horrendous. I can run the fan at around 60-70% but that is still a fair bit noisier than my old 2080Ti setup.
 
Thanks for the feedback, I think its most sensible to go with a full loop as mentioned.

The 3090 is *really* long, but the PCB is considerably smaller.

I wonder if its worth going with one of the radiators with low profile radiator and fans?
I also wonder if something like the 'SWIFTECH APOGEE DRIVE II' which is a CPU block and pump integrated can save some space?

Here is someone with the same case doing a full loop on reddit from the looks of it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooli...s_done_its_over_for_now_meshifyc_mini_custom/
 
Shiari said:
The problem is, you wouldn't even have the room for 2x 240 rads, they'd foul on eachother. You might be able to get 1x240 (possibly 1x280?) & 1x120 rads in, and thats it. That's not really enough cooling for both CPU and GPU while keeping noise down. Plus it would be really difficult to fit a pump and resevoir anywhere.

Edit: just dug up the manual, thanks for linking to the case. It apparently supports 240+280 rads (page 15/16) at the same time. The description on page 16 suggests a 360 would even fit, but I think that's a mistake. But all the same, you'd have real difficulty finding a place for a pump + reservoir with all those rads and GPU block in there.
Click to expand...

I am thinking the drive bay would potentially fit could fit the pump and or reservoir, given I don't really use it. Also a bit of googling seems to show others have managed with the define mini c and also the meshify mini c, so it should be doable in my case.

A couple of random examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sXzJMjl3J0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czUA822xk7E
 
Joxeon said:
You could deshroud and and strap a couple of 120mm noctua fans on although this won't look as classy as a custom water setup it should solve the noise issue without needing to spend much.
Click to expand...

Deshrouding a 3090FE isn't really possible, but this gave me the idea of just strapping the Noctua fans I have to my GPU and making sure the air flowed in the same direction. Thanks for the suggestion!

I made a bit of a hacky mod and attached the fans to the motherboard header and linked it to GPU temperature and maxed them out at around 1200RPM, then turned the FE fans down to 30%.

Temps have dropped drastically and the card is now sitting at around 60C under heavy load and the system is basically silent, not terrible for a couple of fans I had lying around anyway... Gives me chance to consider the watercooling properly and potentially a different case.

gpu1.jpeg

gpu2.jpeg
 
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