Radiator mounting position

sparkymark75 · 7 Jan 2019 at 14:53

New to water cooling and in anticipation of the arrival of my Fractal Design Define R6 case and Fractal Design C24 CPU AIO cooler, (240mm rad) what's the best way to arrange the radiators?

I also have my GPU cooled via a Kraken G12 and a Corasir H55 AIO (120mm rad).

Should the CPU radiator be mounted in the top of the case and the GPU in the front of the case? And should the fans be in a push or pull setup?

TangoEchoAlpha · 7 Jan 2019 at 18:20

What's the GPU and CPU? Are either overclocked?

sparkymark75 · 7 Jan 2019 at 18:24

TangoEchoAlpha said:
What's the GPU and CPU? Are either overclocked?

1080 Ti and an i7 8700 (non K).

No plans to overclock either.

TangoEchoAlpha · 7 Jan 2019 at 18:34

sparkymark75 said:
1080 Ti and an i7 8700 (non K).

No plans to overclock either.

I am trying to think about what the Define R6 is like, but have you considered the CPU radiator in the front, the GP radiator at the rear and then a couple of fans in the roof? That way you'll draw cool air in over the radiators and have static pressure within the case as you should have more air coming in than being exhausted.

I'm sure lots of other people will come up with some suggestions

sparkymark75 · 7 Jan 2019 at 18:36

TangoEchoAlpha said:
I am trying to think about what the Define R6 is like, but have you considered the CPU radiator in the front, the GP radiator at the rear and then a couple of fans in the roof? That way you'll draw cool air in over the radiators and have static pressure within the case as you should have more air coming in than being exhausted.

I'm sure lots of other people will come up with some suggestions

I'll consider anything mate given I'm new to watercooling. Just got back into PC building having last done it about 18 years ago (when water cooling was very niche).

sparkymark75 · 8 Jan 2019 at 00:31

TangoEchoAlpha said:
I am trying to think about what the Define R6 is like, but have you considered the CPU radiator in the front, the GP radiator at the rear and then a couple of fans in the roof? That way you'll draw cool air in over the radiators and have static pressure within the case as you should have more air coming in than being exhausted.

I'm sure lots of other people will come up with some suggestions

Looks like I’d have to put the GPU rad in the bottom as the case supports a 420 mm radiator in the top, 360 mm in the front, and up to 280 mm in the base.

Ross Thomson · 8 Jan 2019 at 10:31

cpu intake, gpu exhaust.

Bugbait · 8 Jan 2019 at 12:50

sparkymark75 said:
New to water cooling and in anticipation of the arrival of my Fractal Design Define R6 case and Fractal Design C24 CPU AIO cooler, (240mm rad) what's the best way to arrange the radiators?

I also have my GPU cooled via a Kraken G12 and a Corasir H55 AIO (120mm rad).

Should the CPU radiator be mounted in the top of the case and the GPU in the front of the case? And should the fans be in a push or pull setup?

Bit confused by your sentence above in bold and italics. Isn't the Kraken G12 a 240mm radiator? Where does the H55 (120mm) come into play?

Assuming you have 2 x 240 radiators I would install one in the base and the other in the front assuming the tubing will reach. Configure both as intake to bring the coolest air through the radiators and then back and top (just fans) as exhaust if needed. The top radiator mount in the Define R6 (my secondary PC uses this case) is very shallow and even a standard thickness radiator and fans will obscure some of the motherboard. This may or may not be an issue depending on your motherboard though.

sparkymark75 · 8 Jan 2019 at 13:03

Bugbait said:
Bit confused by your sentence above in bold and italics. Isn't the Kraken G12 a 240mm radiator? Where does the H55 (120mm) come into play?

Assuming you have 2 x 240 radiators I would install one in the base and the other in the front assuming the tubing will reach. Configure both as intake to bring the coolest air through the radiators and then back and top (just fans) as exhaust if needed. The top radiator mount in the Define R6 (my secondary PC uses this case) is very shallow and even a standard thickness radiator and fans will obscure some of the motherboard. This may or may not be an issue depending on your motherboard though.

The Kraken G12 is a kit that allows you to fit an AIO to a GPU.

https://www.nzxt.com/products/kraken-g12-black

I used it with the Corsair H55 AIO.

Bugbait · 8 Jan 2019 at 16:42

Ah ok, that makes sense now. Ideally you still want all radiators in an intake configuration if possible. If not then the earlier suggested intake 240 and exhaust 120 will work as well, just not ideal.

Although a 1080Ti generates more heat than a 8700 with both at stock or overclocked so maybe consider using the 240 to cool the GPU?

sparkymark75 · 15 Jan 2019 at 12:05

So I've ended up with the following configuration;

Corsair H100i RGB Pro as CPU cooler, mounted in the front of the case as an intake with the fans in a pull config
Corsair H55 (mounted in Kraken G12), mounted in the rear of the case as an exhaust with the fan in a push config
Replaced the NZXT 92mm fan on the Kraken G12 with a 92mm Arctic PWM fan and connected this to the GPU fan header via a mini PWM adapter so that this fan is controlled by GPU temps
Replaced the Corsair fan that came with the H55 for a 120mm Arctic PWM fan so and hooked this to a motherboard fan header
2 (of the 3) Fractal Design 140mm case fans are mounted on the top as an exhaust

GPU temps are mid to high 20s at idle and mid 50s running benchmarks. They can creep up to low 60s running PUBG but I've not really had an extended gaming session on it yet.

CPU temps are pretty similar to the GPU.

Ross Thomson · 15 Jan 2019 at 17:28

not too bad - you using the new P12 or the older F12 fans

sparkymark75 · 15 Jan 2019 at 18:20

Ross Thomson said:
not too bad - you using the new P12 or the older F12 fans

F9 and an F12 fan. Didn’t realise the P fans were newer. Oh well, they do the job and appear to be quiet.

sparkymark75 · 15 Jan 2019 at 20:02

sparkymark75 said:
So I've ended up with the following configuration;

Corsair H100i RGB Pro as CPU cooler, mounted in the front of the case as an intake with the fans in a pull config

Corsair H55 (mounted in Kraken G12), mounted in the rear of the case as an exhaust with the fan in a push config

Replaced the NZXT 92mm fan on the Kraken G12 with a 92mm Arctic PWM fan and connected this to the GPU fan header via a mini PWM adapter so that this fan is controlled by GPU temps

Replaced the Corsair fan that came with the H55 for a 120mm Arctic PWM fan so and hooked this to a motherboard fan header

2 (of the 3) Fractal Design 140mm case fans are mounted on the top as an exhaust

GPU temps are mid to high 20s at idle and mid 50s running benchmarks. They can creep up to low 60s running PUBG but I've not really had an extended gaming session on it yet.

CPU temps are pretty similar to the GPU.

Actually, I've screwed up. I've got the H100i at the front exhausting (push), the H55 at the rear exhausting (pull) and the two 140mm fans at the top exhausting (push). The inside of my case will be a vacuum :eek:

. Everything seems to stay at reasonable temps so I'll change it when I get free time.

masscrazy · 6 May 2020 at 12:07

Any pictures of the setup, sounds sweeet!

Question about the GPU fan header, I have the mini fan adapter to 4pin fan, yet it does seem to work not spinning, connect the same fan to mobo header and it works. My GPU has two fan headers, I tried it on the top left, just under the sli bridge connector. Any ideas why that might be?