Rad/s In or Out?

[Gary_AM]

I've never had a water cooling setup before and I've just ordered bits for my very first build (Case, Mobo, CPU, PSU and Water Cooler).

My question - is it better performance wise (as opposed to 'looking good') to mount my radiator outside of my case?

I'm in favour (atm) to go outside. My reasoning is that I've read that a cpu at idle is roughly around room temp plus a 'bit'. Once you start cranking it up the temp obviously rises, with this you also have the temp generated by your gpu/s and psu, along with all other moving parts. This has to (in my mind) raise the ambient temperature within the case way above the room temp.

So if I put my rad/s outside of the case, along with the appropriate fans, I should achive lower temps, as opposed to the rads being inside.
I appreciate that it won't look as good, but my priority is performance and not wasting the money my dad gave me to buy the bits.

I'm a keen woodworker and would construct a 'housing' for them so as to keep the noise down somewhat, although noise is not a big problem.


thanks
Gary

 

[Flying_Hellfish]

Mounting the rad outside of the case will be louder obviously. By how much, depends on the noise isolation of the case. But if you're going to mod then I guess that won't be a problem. I presume you know about the brackets (Linky.

The main reason most people mount outside is to increase rad space. You can get some real beasts for external use.

What case have you bought out of interest?

 

[Gary_AM]

Hi
Flying Hellfish, I've gone for the Corsair Obsidian 900D Super Tower Case (CC-9011022-WW)
No I didn't know about the brackets - just had a look, thanks! It looks a lot easier than building one

edit - I guess the case is quite big and probably has a lot of room for the rad/s, but I'm thinking I can fit more stuff for a lower temp if I plan ahead

Gary