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

[endorium]

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

 

[endorium]

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

 

[endorium]

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.

 

[endorium]

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.

 

[endorium]

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

 

[endorium]

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

 

[endorium]

Just not keen on ek. Seems there quality has gone downhill recently. Especially when they aren't a budget option either you would expect many issues.

 

[endorium]

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​

 

[endorium]

It has plenty of support installing in the top brackets. I did make a little GPU support bracket for it like the one that came standard with the 4090. More than secure and means loads of space underneath

 

[endorium]

@ endorium I have looked at the pic and took a while to compute in my mind what was going on. You have somehow managed to mount it way higher than I have seen before.

If you are planning to mount it in a similar vertical position and have a 4090 the gpu pcb/backplate will almost entirely cover the cpu socket, the 4090 pcb is very short but extra wide and has the power connector poking out as well. It may be really easy to route the tubes from gpu to cpu but going from gpu to a front mounted distro plate and then back to the cpu socket may be nigh on impossible with hard tubing. No real way of knowing how this will work until you have the parts in place and can actually see what is going on.

Not going to be easy and I am sure sym30|1c set up is simpler and will cause you less stress.

It's partly why I'm not bothered about a distro.
It's a 4090 installed now.
Would just make a loop circuit rather than back and fourth to a distro. At least that's my thinking at the moment.

 

[endorium]

Great shout with the cross flow radiators. Had t thought of that. Thanks

 

[endorium]

Yep, I can think that will be my plan. Looking at the heatkiller tube 200. Get a good D5 pump for it.
Then need to see what are the better crossflow radiators.

CPU cooler will go the new thermaltake pacific mx2 ultra. Looks fancy

Then for gpu waterblock going to wait I think for the Stealkeys water block they recently announced.
Alphacool do one for my gpu (Gainward 4090). Cant find many long term reviews on their waterblocks for gpu though

 

[endorium]

Just bear in mind that if you are going for a pump/reservoir combo, mounted to the side, then you will likely restrict the length of any GPU that is air cooled. See this old photo of my 011D with a 1080Ti:

That is a combined 200mm reservoir and D5 pump, mounted to fans. You wouldn't fit a chunky air cooled GPU in there as well as a side mounted pump/reservoir.

Going to watercolor the gpu as well in the loop so will be plenty of room all iny basket with overclockers to collect tomorrow. Looking forward to bending acrylic tubes

 

[endorium]

@endorium Look forward to seeing the final photos of the build!

So am I

 

[endorium]

Progress so far

Hopefully you can access and see the video link above. This is my progress. Used acrylic tubing. Never do e anything like this before. Still waiting on waterblock for gpu sonot will change.

58mm radiator up top and 30mm in the bottom. Extremely happy with it so far

 

[endorium]

Deleted

 

[endorium]

Not had time to read through the thread but heres my take..

If you want a boring clone 011d with excess tubing runs geta a distro. If you want it to look clean and more unique go with a pump res combo. Can even hide the pump res either above or below the psu in the rear compartment.

As for fan orientation. Side intake, bottom intake and rear exhaust have been tested and proven to give the best results.

Thanks for the input. Put a link to a video of what I have now done with it. Just waiting on the GPU water lock to complete it

 

[endorium]

@endorium Your build looks great, you should be proud. The run out from the cpu block is a little wonky but can be redone when you do the gpu block if you want. The long run into the cpu block is very nice indeed.

Thank you. Yeah, that one pipe went wonky. Never done it before so was all a trail. That pipe will be redone when I get the GPU block. Acrylic pipe ready and waiting for it