W/C - Is this enough?

UnusualSuspect · 26 Oct 2007 at 13:21

Hi,

I'm about ready to start setting up my watercooling, but I've been reading around these forums and most people seem to be going toward a 2 fan radiator. What I have at the moment is a Black Ice GT Stealth I with just the one 120mm, which is going to be trying to cool my system.

I have three blocks - CPU, Chipset and 8800 GTX - and the pump is a Laing DDC-1T with the Alphacool Top and Water Tank Attachment. So..

Is this enough? I've bought it in the hope of lowering my temperatures, but will a single fan radiator be enough to deal with the heat coming from the three blocks, or am I looking at needing a 2 fan setup?

If I need 2 fans, that means a change of case at the same time, as the Antec 900 really has very little room. Hopefully what I have will be enough, but just for reference my current temperatures (at stock) are (at idle - just tapping out this post):

Case: 37c
CPU: 34c
8800 GTX: 61c

I think the GTX cooler has become a little unseated. Been having higher temps ever since I moved it from one case to the other and back again. It affected all temps, as the case temp went up.

Wiggins · 26 Oct 2007 at 13:53

I'm no pro at watercooling but if your putting a block on the GFX and the temp is currently 61c on air, then I would say a 2 Fan Rad at least.

cooljimy84 · 26 Oct 2007 at 14:00

2 fan rad at least, that gonna be a lot of heat....
Can't you just chop up the case, or stick the rad on the back via some mounting thing thing..

Wilst · 26 Oct 2007 at 14:33

I'm in the midst of building my w/c setup and there are 2 Black ice stealth 360rads going in the front of my 900 so it not that small

that does mean external HD rack but so worth it. More practically though there was a thread a while ago of a guy who put a thermochill 120.2 in the front and then had 2 drive bays spare for a HD and DVD. If u needed more room then a radbox and hanging the rad off the back would probably be your best bet.

I don't think a single rad will happily manage that loop even with with a pair of nutty CFM fans. What CPU are u running and at what speed?

Amonlym · 26 Oct 2007 at 15:54

well, 1 rad will "cope", its jsut a matter of how low you want the temps - the hotter the water compaired to ambient the better a rad is as shedding energy. all you can do is try it and see, nothing stops you fitting the stock gfx back on while you save for a new rad / mod the case to accept it.

remember adding more and bigger rads suffers diminishing returns. - going from 1*120 to 2*120 might drop temps 7c, going to 4*120 may only drop another 2c.

UnusualSuspect · 26 Oct 2007 at 17:51

Wilst said:
I don't think a single rad will happily manage that loop even with with a pair of nutty CFM fans. What CPU are u running and at what speed?

C2D 2.4GHz. I've overclocked it to 3.2GHz on air, but wasn't happy with messing with the memory timings and.. stuff. So if I can get it up to 3.4GHz then the memory will be running at standard. Only thing I'm worried about is that I hit the 3.2GHz when I had 2GB in there, I've added an extra 2GB since and I hear that messes up a lot of overclocking.

How can you get two 360s in an Antec 900? Theres like no room there. Theres the two drive bays at the bottom, one of which I need, then theres a small amount of space at the CD/DVD area. I've opened the drive bays and they seem to be a part of the case front, the whole 'black guard' things, the fans and the bays all fit into one. Is it possible to take those apart without too much trouble? I could get a 2 fan in if thats possible. I haven't had much more than a cursory look over yet.

About the GTX - it used to run nicely at around 49-52c before I moved it around, case temp was a nice 24c, which is why I think its become unseated. The case is now up in the high 30s and the GTX is in the low 60s, with exactly the same setup as before.

Okay, so assuming I went ahead with a one fan radiator, how much of a benefit to temperatures am I looking at here? With those 3 in a loop and the current temperatures as a reference point, am I looking at knocking 10c off or will I be getting roughly the same?