Lian Li dynamic - distro or reservoir/pump combo - which one

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Hello :)
I have the razer edition lian li 011 dynamic. Looking to water cool both gpu and cpu.
2 x 360mm radiators ideally. cpu is raptor lake i5 and gpu is gainward rtx 4090.

My plan is to have one radiator at the top in-taking cool air, then one at the bottom also in-taking cool air.
Ideally then have the 3 side fans alo in-taking cool aire to help case temps for motherboard memory etc.

Seen the distro plates you can get. side mounted ones I dont want as that would loose any fans for bringing cool air into the case.
Front ones look good, but likely mean I couldnt go 360mm radiator at the bottom (Unless anyone can suggest one).

So that may mean a pump/reservoir combo that I can attach to the bottom radiator or side raditor (Seem a lot have brackets now to let you do this).

There are so many available though so very hard to decide. I dont mind hard tubing or flexi.
Seen the watercool heat killer, thermal take, corsair etc. Any suggestions or thoughts?

Thanks
 
Just did a build
011d xl version with front distro
Not sure what the size difference from xl to yours is
But I barely squeezed in a 58mm rad at the bottom
And got push/pull fans on it too
Can't see why front distro would prevent you having bottom radiator
Though may only be a thinner rad with one set of fans
If your 011d is a bit smaller

Would think most people with 011d
Do bottom radiator intake
Top radiator exhaust
Side fans intake
If you do everything intake the smaller version 011d doesn't
Even have a rear exhaust fan does it?

Should you get a front distro
Be aware there's version 1 and 2
Version 1 the ports do not line up with ek quantum Surface radiators
Or other ek matrix 7 products probably too
And you can't directly attach radiator to distro using
Push/friction fittings
I learned this the hard way over Xmas
Though stubbornly made it work using soft Tubing
As couldn't send back and replace stuff over xmas
 
011d is smaller. Front distro pump placements mean in can get in the way of 360mm radiators.
I wanted both radiators as intakes to both be pulling cool air through the radiators. There is no rear fan on the case but there is vents. Thought if every fan is an intake it would force hot air out the vents. Does that make sense? also creates pressure in the case so dust doesn't get in.

Seen the EK distro but there newer products dont seem to be getting great reviews. The distro they do for mine seems to be side mounted as well so a no go really as would loose three fans. Would be ok I guess if I only wanted 1 radaitor.

Happy to be corrected on any of the above though :) every days a school day
 
Yeah knew it was a bit smaller
Just not how much
You may be right about the pump getting in the way
Of a 360mm bottom radiator
Thought they used a smaller ddc pump for some reason
Would really have to research more to see if a 30mm x 360mm
Could fit or not
Or what about 360mm top and 360mm side with front distro?
And fans on the bottom

Yes there's vents
But you won't get a lot of airflow through those
Would depend on the cpu and gpu used
But I doubt anything high end/hot would be good
Just relying on positive air pressure to expel through vents

And yep
You're totally correct never too old to
Learn something new

Ek does have a configurator for all that stuff
In theory it should tell you what will fit
Though no idea how accurate it is in practice rather than theory
 
I think you should rethink your airflow.I would have the top fans as exhaust and blowing up to expel the heat. Have bottoms fans as intake and top fans as exhaust keeping the airflow in one direction. This frees up the side area so you can put fans or distro plate in there. If you have the top rad as an intake you are also fighting thermodynamics , hot air rises and you are trying to force it the opposite direction.

We do not have a wind tunnel or a supercomputer to be able to crunch the aerodynamics of your planned fan orientation. I think if you had all the fans blowing in then it would create to great a positive pressure and lessen the actual airflow with many internal airflow eddies. Keep it simple and blow air in one direction imho.

I have an O11 Dynamic with 60mmx360mm rad at the top, I would recommend the same for your build because it doubles the fin area from a 30mm rad. Not too sure whether you can get a 60mm in at the bottom , i have my gpu vertically mounted so just a single rad for me.
 
Could also browse through the watercooling case gallery
And see what others have done with that case
 
I think you should rethink your airflow.I would have the top fans as exhaust and blowing up to expel the heat. Have bottoms fans as intake and top fans as exhaust keeping the airflow in one direction. This frees up the side area so you can put fans or distro plate in there. If you have the top rad as an intake you are also fighting thermodynamics , hot air rises and you are trying to force it the opposite direction.

We do not have a wind tunnel or a supercomputer to be able to crunch the aerodynamics of your planned fan orientation. I think if you had all the fans blowing in then it would create to great a positive pressure and lessen the actual airflow with many internal airflow eddies. Keep it simple and blow air in one direction imho.

I have an O11 Dynamic with 60mmx360mm rad at the top, I would recommend the same for your build because it doubles the fin area from a 30mm rad. Not too sure whether you can get a 60mm in at the bottom , i have my gpu vertically mounted so just a single rad for me.
Hi

I did think organically, but having the top radiator sucking air from inside the case, wont that be bad as its sucking air though it thats already been warmed up? I will have two radiators in the setup.
Maybe side and bottom for radiators sucking air in, and fans on top for sucking air out? Then distro or pump/reservoir combo in the front.
 
In an ideal world
Yes cooler air from outside the pc case
Should be sent through the radiators
But in practice even the other way around still works
Though may be a bit warmer
Not tried but possibly top and bottom rad intake
Side fans exhaust
One reason I like my lian li al120 fans
It's relatively easy to flip those over to test the difference
Between intake and exhaust
Since each block of my 3 fans you can just pull off 1 connector
Flip the fans over and reconnect
 
Not sure how thick a rad you can fit in the side when using a front distro plate, if you go for that plan then it is a very complex loop , especially for hard tubes. I would not recommend that plan because there is a substantial amount of room at the top of the case and you would be leaving it mostly empty.

There has been tests done where they stacked multiple rads on top of each other so the hot air would be blowing through them all and it doesnt make that much difference. I personally would keep the airflow as simple as possible and let thermodynamics and fluid mechanics work as intended.

With this being such a popular case there has been a lot of testing done on it and iirc the best set up is airflow from top to bottom with side as intakes. Think most of the testing was done with AIOs and not multiple rads.


When I get a waterblock for my 7900xtx I will be redoing my loop and still going to use the single 60x360. I want the gpu vertically mounted so no room for rad at bottom and I have side distro. There are no hard and fast rules and the main reason to watercool is aestetics so go for what you like the look of.
 
Not sure how thick a rad you can fit in the side when using a front distro plate, if you go for that plan then it is a very complex loop , especially for hard tubes. I would not recommend that plan because there is a substantial amount of room at the top of the case and you would be leaving it mostly empty.

There has been tests done where they stacked multiple rads on top of each other so the hot air would be blowing through them all and it doesnt make that much difference. I personally would keep the airflow as simple as possible and let thermodynamics and fluid mechanics work as intended.

With this being such a popular case there has been a lot of testing done on it and iirc the best set up is airflow from top to bottom with side as intakes. Think most of the testing was done with AIOs and not multiple rads.


When I get a waterblock for my 7900xtx I will be redoing my loop and still going to use the single 60x360. I want the gpu vertically mounted so no room for rad at bottom and I have side distro. There are no hard and fast rules and the main reason to watercool is aestetics so go for what you like the look of.
If you have the same case as me, you can vertical mount and fit radiator in the bottom. No I would upload a pic of mine but no idea how to attach a pic on here from my mobile.
 
Not sure how thick a rad you can fit in the side when using a front distro plate, if you go for that plan then it is a very complex loop , especially for hard tubes. I would not recommend that plan because there is a substantial amount of room at the top of the case and you would be leaving it mostly empty.

There has been tests done where they stacked multiple rads on top of each other so the hot air would be blowing through them all and it doesnt make that much difference. I personally would keep the airflow as simple as possible and let thermodynamics and fluid mechanics work as intended.

With this being such a popular case there has been a lot of testing done on it and iirc the best set up is airflow from top to bottom with side as intakes. Think most of the testing was done with AIOs and not multiple rads.


When I get a waterblock for my 7900xtx I will be redoing my loop and still going to use the single 60x360. I want the gpu vertically mounted so no room for rad at bottom and I have side distro. There are no hard and fast rules and the main reason to watercool is aestetics so go for what you like the look of.
Pic here
 
So after looking around
It might be possible to get a 360mm in the bottom
With front distro
But would mean taking a dremel to the bottom few pci slots
Just to get the extra tiny bit of space
Ie the thickness of the distro

Me I have no issues cutting, drilling,dremel etc
If its necessary to make something fit lol
That's why it's called custom watercooling lol
But not everyone will go to that extreme
 
Wouldn't mind doing that. Still not 100% distro. Few nice reservoir pump combos. Aquatuning one with leak protection and the watercolor heat killer is nice. Just want to get plenty of opinions and don't right first time. Will be asking plenty of questions
 
Seen some people with ek issues
Not had any myself
But of course people tend to post when they have a problem
But not when everything works fine
Happens with all sorts of items
Without knowing the % of complaints compared to
Amount of items involved in total that have been sold
It's not easy to see the whole story
But yes there's companies like barrow and byski which can be cheaper
Lot of people like those
And got a feeling ocuk is starting to sell barrow stuff
 
I have an O11-Dynamic with watercooled 4090 FE + 5080x (GPU with Alphacool block, CPU with EK block). I have 2 360 EK slim radiators, one at the side with fans for intake, and one at the top with fans for exhaust.
I've been using this radiator config for 3-4 years (I had a 2080Ti before) and never had any issues. I've recently upgraded to the 4090 and did only limited testing, but temps seem pretty good.
I use an EK pump/reservoir combo that is attached to the side radiator with an EK bracket.

My GPU is mounted vertically with the Lian-li vertical mount so I can't have any fans at the bottom. What kind of vertical mount are you using?
 
I have an O11-Dynamic with watercooled 4090 FE + 5080x (GPU with Alphacool block, CPU with EK block). I have 2 360 EK slim radiators, one at the side with fans for intake, and one at the top with fans for exhaust.
I've been using this radiator config for 3-4 years (I had a 2080Ti before) and never had any issues. I've recently upgraded to the 4090 and did only limited testing, but temps seem pretty good.
I use an EK pump/reservoir combo that is attached to the side radiator with an EK bracket.

My GPU is mounted vertically with the Lian-li vertical mount so I can't have any fans at the bottom. What kind of vertical mount are you using?
Could you see the picnic linked above? I use the

LIAN LI O11D-1X-4 RISER CARD CABLE. Plenty of room for radiator and fans underneath​

 
Could you see the picnic linked above? I use the

LIAN LI O11D-1X-4 RISER CARD CABLE. Plenty of room for radiator and fans underneath​


It's the same I use for vertical mount. From the looks of it, your GPU doesn't have any support at the bottom? It seems to be only attached to the case with the GPU bracket.
I have it installed like in the picture below. I thought of installing it like you do, but was always afraid it didn't have enough support.

71Nll3ju5FL._AC_SL1280_.jpg
 
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