Radiator fitting question..

[GSV]Lemming · 26 Jul 2021 at 10:11

I have an old case I have used several times for different builds that I got years ago, first used for a dual athlon motherboard that needed 2 PSUs to power all everything

. Its been sat in the garage for ages and I have been thinking of building a new water cooled machine over the coming months. Its an Asus case, double width on wheels that doubles as a side table for putting stuff on so is very roomy.

I assume radiators have dedicated mounting points in new cases that I will have to replicate in some way, but am wondering if its just a case of cutting a hole in the side panel and mounting to blow air out through them?

If I aim to water cool everything, how many radiators would I need ideally? Is it just a case of one big one or a couple in series? Looking at a high end cpu and graphics card, not fixed on anything yet, mainly want a great mobo with a lot of expansion ports. I will take my time building it so hope to have better priced GPUs by the time I get to the end and buy one.

mickyflinn · 26 Jul 2021 at 10:32

Radiators have 2 sets of screws one short and one long , the short screws are to mount the rad and long ones to mount the fans to the radiator.

They mounting holes are the same on both sides so cut a hole but making sure you can attach the screws to secure the rad to the panel.

I personally would want 2 x 240mm rads min to cool both cpu and gpu but the larger better to increase coooling and lessson fan speed.

What case is it ?

[GSV]Lemming · 26 Jul 2021 at 10:40

I don't know the model, will Google later to see if I can find it. It must be around 25 years old though, a great case with easy fit slots for a dozen drives or more.
Seems a waste to not use it again, old and bored enough to put some effort into building something attractive now I am working from home for what's left of my working life!

mickyflinn · 26 Jul 2021 at 11:14

Lets us know how what case it is if you find out.

LuckyBenski · 26 Jul 2021 at 12:29

Radiators use the same mounting hole spacing as fans e.g. a 120mm radiator has holes 105mm apart, which line up with a fan. A 3x fan radiator (like a 360mm) uses the same hole spacing as if you butted up 3x 120mm fans side by side. You can find technical drawings and print them out to scale as a template.

The same goes for 140mm fans and 140, 280, 420mm radiators.

Another thing to consider is how you'll mount your pump, reservoir, and route your tubes. If your case didn't have this in mind it may take some thought. But if you're cutting and drilling already it should be no problem! Do also think about airflow in general e.g. you'll need some air flowing through vents or fans too, unless you choose to have radiators as both your air intake and exhaust.

If your case is that large and you're using high end components, I'd aim to fit a lot of radiators in. Aim for at least 4x fans' worth but even better if you can do 6+. Radiator thickness will also improve cooling.

[GSV]Lemming · 27 Jul 2021 at 14:29

LuckyBenski said:
If your case is that large and you're using high end components, I'd aim to fit a lot of radiators in. Aim for at least 4x fans' worth but even better if you can do 6+. Radiator thickness will also improve cooling.

Do you mount these in sequence and have a single 'loop', or separate components to each radiator and multiple 'loops'?

Sorry for noob question

Mcnumpty2323 · 27 Jul 2021 at 15:24

in sequence for a single loop
though if using more than 1 pump
then yes you could do multiple loops
and it doesnt matter what order the components/radiators are
as long as the reservoir is feeding the pump
since loop temperature will reach equilibrium
regardless of what order the components are in