Watercooled Open Case

DampCat · 25 Jan 2009 at 17:11

Hi

Been asking this question around but havent seemed to get an answer yet. Kinda need to know before i invest a lot of money into it!

Basically, im getting an open case. Thus, no airflow will be passing across the motherboard. I have some simple questions regarding how this will affect the system:

Will a 120.3 with high flow pump be enough to cool a slightly overclocked CPU (e4300 @ 3.01ghz), stock 8800GT and 4 sticks of Ram? Or will i need 2 loops?
How about the NB/SB? Since there will be no airflow, should i invest in watercooling the NB and SB or just put larger heatsinks on them?
If the NB/SB should be watercooled, will they also fit into the first loop or am i really pushing my luck here? Could i reduce the first loop to 120.2 (ram, cpu and gfx) and use a 120.1 for NB/SB?

Otherwise... how would you reccomend setting it up? Will one loop be enough and if not, how should i run the loops over each item?

Thanks for the help

Ben M · 25 Jan 2009 at 17:16

there's no point in watercooling RAM

a 120.3 is fine for the card, cpu and NB. that's what I'd do.

MidnightLamp · 25 Jan 2009 at 17:28

seconded
1 loop with 120.3

pastymuncher · 25 Jan 2009 at 19:25

I run a single loop to cool the cpu, gpu and nb with a 120.3 rad. It copes very well. Water cooling the ram is pointless.

What do you mean by open case? A case with the side off or one of these skeleton things? The only thing that may get toasty are the mosfets on the gpu and motherboard.

WJA96 · 25 Jan 2009 at 22:17

He's got a DimasTech Banchetto I believe. A PA120.3 is plenty for everything. And as it's a P5N-E I would be looking to cool the Northbridge, but the Southbridge shouldn't get warm at all if I recall correctly.

shadowscotland · 26 Jan 2009 at 12:08

Run my system completely passively - so understand your worries, but your bench will have fans so just cool the CPU/NB/GPU as the other have said.

I watercooling the CPU / NB / raptor / 8800gs / PSU and used a enzotech CNB-R1 on the SB, and extra 'wings' on my geil ram (simular to Scythe Kama Wing) I also accept it's overkill apart from when the house hits over 30c in summer (and pigheadly still don't use a fan)

DampCat · 26 Jan 2009 at 15:40

Cheers dudes, cleared up a lot for me. i think i'm going to:

* 1 Loop with 120.3
* CPU, VGA and NB blocks
* Replace the heatsinks on SB and Ram to something more upmarket just to feel safe.

What about mosfets? Will they been fine? I've never paid attention to them before.

Thanks for the help guys