Radiator size

GeniusGizmo

GeniusGizmo

GeniusGizmo

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Joined
13 Oct 2012
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3
Hi, Im new to water-cooling, I intend to watercool two GTX580's, the CPU will remain air cooled for now. I have a Fractal R4 case so space is an issue, what size radiator will cool the two cards, is a 240 slim rad enough!!?. Im guessing from what ive read elsewhere it wont be enough but wanted to understand what my options are when space is an issue.

-Could I crank up the fan speed and have fans in a push pull config to make the slim rad work
-Would a thick radiator(60mm vs 30mm) make much of a difference

I am not looking for amazing temps, and I wont be over clocking. What I am looking for is stability. My air cooled graphics cards used to have temps in the 70s but sounds like a jet. If I can achieve this temp with watercooling whilst significantly reducing the level of noise I will be happy.

thanks
 
You could get a thick 240 in the front, a thin 240 up top and possibly a 120 of some sort on the rear.

I was looking at this case myself.

I would just go the whole hog and do your CPU while you're at it. Makes sense.
 
It will be tight and will really come down to your motherboard with heatsink positions etc, but doable.

You should be fine with a 240 on the front. I used to cool a GPU on a single thin 120rad. Not the best, but it done the job.
 
If going with a single dual fan radiator I would go for the thickest one you could fit, 60 or even 80mm. Gtx580s run pretty hot and will appreciate the extra cooling potential of the thicker rad. How much space do you have in your case? Bear in mind also that fans will add an extra 25mm thickness per row.
 
Wouldn't it make a difference if the thin 240mm x30mm had more FPI than a 240mm x 60mm, as the more FPI the cooler your temps get.
Least that's the way I understand it, but I've have been wrong beefore. ;)
 
if you have two 580s your going to need 2x240s thick rads ! my 570 runs hot also and that's with an I5.

the r4 is not far off the r3 and i crammed a 240 and a 120 in mine, i'd say get a bigger case, or your going to be hacking the thing apart to make room.
 
My GPU only loop (2x 7950s) is cooled by a thin 360 with very slow fans in pull. Max temps with very large OC is 54 degrees.
 
Yeah I thought they ran hotter, just thought I would put the info there for reference.

I would go for 2 x 240s and see what temps are like, you can always add more rad.
 
Slim rad definitely not enough

Hi all. Thanks for your replies, I had already gone to the store and purchased a thin 240 and have only just seen the rest of the replies in the forum and most of you were right! Temps are waaay too high. My air cooled 580 runs cooler. I am thinking a thick 240 in the front now 60-80mm with push pull sounds about right. I think I would also need to install fans in the roof and side of the r4. At the moment it has sound dampening. I love the r4 as it was quietish when air cooled and its not a huge case. I have an 800d which I'm not using at the moment(this was my old case). I'm thinking if I want to go the water cooling route ill need to revert back as by the time I've water cooled the r4 it's going to be covered in fans and sound like a jet which was my original problem
 
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