Radiator Thickness??

Whiff30812 · 28 May 2020 at 17:57

Good Afternoon!

So I have recently ordered this..

8Pack Xtreme ASUS Maximus XII Formula Overclocked i9 10900K @ 5.2GHz Gaming Bundle

Now its coming with a 360mm radiator which is 60mm thick now after measuring up it looks like im short of 2 mm with fans fitted in my case.. :eek:

My question as this is my first water cooled system is would a 360mm with 30mm thickness still be good enough? im not water cooling my GPU only the CPU.

Many Thanks!

Chris Beard · 28 May 2020 at 17:59

Depending on fan speeds I'd estimate you'd be okay.

From what I've read recently radiator thickness is not a good indicator of performance (counter intuitively)!

Too Tall · 28 May 2020 at 18:22

The best performing 30mm radiators are the Hardware Labs 360 GTS and Magicool G2 Slim at quiet fan levels.

ttaskmaster · 28 May 2020 at 18:45

Chris Beard said:
From what I've read recently radiator thickness is not a good indicator of performance (counter intuitively)!

Depends on setup. Thick rads tend to perform best in push-pull, or at least with hugely powerful fans... but you tend to go deaf after a while!
I'm actually in the process of slimming mine down, as I don't have room for Push-Pull on a 60mm and Push only just isn't cutting it in today's temperatures.

Too Tall said:
The best performing 30mm radiators are the Hardware Labs 360 GTS and Magicool G2 Slim at quiet fan levels.

Both of those are quite restrictive compared to others, though. That can be a big factor in some builds.

Jamin280672 · 28 May 2020 at 18:48

Too Tall said:
The best performing 30mm radiators are the Hardware Labs 360 GTS and Magicool G2 Slim at quiet fan levels.

+1 for the magicool rads, I was very surprised, Performs better than my corsair one @ twice the price, with the same fans.

Whiff30812 · 28 May 2020 at 18:50

To be honest im not 100% sure that 60mm won't fit until I put the board into the case it's that close with the push fans on....
I have this coming and only just now did I think about the thickness of the case.

EK-KIT X360 High Performance Watercooling Kit

customer service seems to think it will fit but be very tight im just nervous about it all...

I mean it is very borderline a couple of mil if that!

Whiff30812 · 28 May 2020 at 18:59

ttaskmaster said:
Depends on setup. Thick rads tend to perform best in push-pull, or at least with hugely powerful fans... but you tend to go deaf after a while!
I'm actually in the process of slimming mine down, as I don't have room for Push-Pull on a 60mm and Push only just isn't cutting it in today's temperatures.

Both of those are quite restrictive compared to others, though. That can be a big factor in some builds.

Restrictive in what way?

Jamin280672 · 28 May 2020 at 19:13

Whiff30812 said:
Restrictive in what way?

I dont find mine restrictive at all, and im using loads of angle fittings in my build, the flow sensor im using is spinning like crazy.

This might be still uploading, magicool is the front rad, corsair is the top one.:

The sound you hear is the room fan in the background, the PC is silent.

Whiff30812 · 28 May 2020 at 19:37

Jamin280672 said:
I dont find mine restrictive at all, and im using loads of angle fittings in my build, the flow sensor im using is spinning like crazy.

This might be still uploading, magicool is the front rad, corsair is the top one.:

The sound you hear is the room fan in the background, the PC is silent.

After watching your video this one came on...

I'll be honest this has made me feel a bit better about a 360mm 30mm radiator..

ttaskmaster · 28 May 2020 at 20:44

Whiff30812 said:
Restrictive in what way?

Flow rate.
The 360 GTS is twice as restrictive as their SR-2 models, for example.
Neither are particularly bad rads, but there are better ones.

This is a little old now, but the stats remain: https://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/11/radiator-round-2015/

Jamin280672 said:
the flow sensor im using is spinning like crazy.

Yeah, that's what they do. Mine spin even on the lowest settings... But what actual flow values are you getting on the D5?

pugheaven · 29 May 2020 at 15:59

Glad to hear doesn't make much difference as I've gone for 30mm myself, wanted 27mm but I went and ordered wrong ones, so I'll have a slight misalignment to the water block, but I'll sort it. Yeah, I didnt' want massive big thick things so unless needing extreme cooling I can't aimagine needing them tbh. I'll be running a 240mm rad for my CPU and a 240mm for the GPU so that should be enough for my 8core Xeon and 5700xt