What radiators for this setup ???

phinix

phinix

phinix

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I'm planning to build nice setup and trying to calculate how many and what size of radiators I'm going to install.
Setup is OC'ed e8400@4GHz and two OC'ed GTX280 in SLI.
I wanted to use two 240 Swiftech radiators for this setup, but it may be not enough, right? One more thing - I can use 240 size radiators only, no space for 3x120 rads. SO should I add third 240 radiator or one 120 rad would be ok?
Second thing is the pump - is DDC 18W pump enought for this loop? Or should I build two loops? Which setup would be better?:

- one DDC Laing 10W pump + one 240 Swiftech radiator for CPU
- one DDC Laing 10W pump + one 240 Swiftech radiator + one 120 Swiftech radiator (or that be second 240 rad???)

???

Fans: I would liket o use some low speed, silent fans, Already have Noctuas P12s on one 240 rad and these are perfect, but too expensive so would use something like Yate Loons 12SL. Or can you reccomend some better silent fans (cheaper than Noctuas)?
 
To give you an idea of what would work, rather than what you are suggesting:

A PA120.1 on its own will be enough for the 2 cards as you don't need to keep them as cool as a CPU. A DDC 18w would be ideal

A separate loop with a PA120.1 will be enough for that CPU as it doesn't put out much heat. A 10w DDC would be enough.

That gives you some space to work with, also the Thermochill rads work better with low rpm fans. But nothing wrong with upping the loops to MCR220's if you so wish.
 
weescott said:
To give you an idea of what would work, rather than what you are suggesting:

A PA120.1 on its own will be enough for the 2 cards as you don't need to keep them as cool as a CPU. A DDC 18w would be ideal

A separate loop with a PA120.1 will be enough for that CPU as it doesn't put out much heat. A 10w DDC would be enough.

That gives you some space to work with, also the Thermochill rads work better with low rpm fans. But nothing wrong with upping the loops to MCR220's if you so wish.
Click to expand...

So, A single 120.1 rad with a fan would be fine for 2 GTX280 in SLI???? What kind of fans should I use? I mean I know that for thick rads like that there must be some high speed one, right?
And what about that Feser Xchanger - Double Radiator 240? Its even thicker than Thermochill. Maybe one 240 rad could go with cpu and gpus? or better do it in two loops?
 
Yes a 120.1 is enough for SLI'd cards.

Fan choice is not down to speed and rad thickness. It's down to fin density and pressure. That's why Thermochill and the new Fesser Company rads can use lower RPM fans and have a quieter loop.

Fesser rads are EXACTLY the same thickness as Thermochill rads but witha slightly higher FPI count. The MCR220 rad has a much higher FPI count and needs fans with more pressure to perform, accounting for more noise.

So for silence and performance with low RPM fans, Thermochill are only just ahead of Fesser [negligable], with Swiftech rads not too far behind again. Build qaulity of the Fesser rads are on par (if not better) with Thermochill. Choice comes down to budget and VFM.

You could easily do everything in a 120.2 loop with an 18w DDC. But for better temperatures and more CPU clocking headroom 2 loops would be better. But then again 1 loop is less clutter and cost. It's really up to you how you want to build the loop(s).
 
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Thanks Weescott! I can say you opened my eyes on few things here.
Well, Fesers are thicker than PA - PA has 61mm, Feser 75mm - that is a huge difference.
Price is huge for both - now I'm thinking - one 240 Feser rad is for £49, 120 - £39. £10 difference and like 2 times more power! Sounds like single loop would be a lot cheaper - two loops: £50 for DDC 18W and £39 for second rad...

* One 120 loop will be £89, that £178 for two loops.
* One 240 loop will be £100.

Plus all fans.... I saw nice Yate Loon clear with red leds for £5 coming out next week...

Is there a big defference between 10 and 18W pumps? Right now I have a Swiftech Drive 350 pump/block - which is actually a 10W DDC pump. Would this be enough for one 240 loop?

Another question is: how big would be a difference in temperatures using sinlge 240 loop and two 120 loops - for GPUs and CPU. Lets forget about speed and FCM of fans..
 
I can assure you that Fesser rads are the same thickness as Thermochill rads. I have both here to compare ;) Fesser rads are denser though, i.e. higher FPI count. :)

The 18w DDC will handle multi block loops much better than the 10w DDC and be a good upgrade from the Swiftech Drive.

2 single loops will be better for CPU temperatures than 1 loop as there will be less heat dump. There are a lot of variables to consider when calculating estimated temperatures. Ambiant temps, known heat output of components, TIM used, C/W ratings, water used.... so you can never give one all encompassing estimate. To say the difference would be significant would generally (but not always) be fair.
 
Thanks for help! Looks like dual loop would be best.
I just found this thread - I wonder why this guy cannot cool his E8400@stock with PA120.2???
 
Because he's doing it wrong? A PA120.2 with how many more times the cooling area of the stock heatsink? The rad can only cool the water. The block moves the heat to the water. I've not seen the thread but I've got a BIX120.1 cooling an over-clocked, over-volted Q6600 so it's not hard to do with much smaller rads.
 
What about this single loop:

CPU block (Apogee GTZ) -> Swiftech 120.1 rad -> GTX280 (Swiftech MCW60) -> GTX280 (Swiftech MCW60) -> Feser 240 rad -> res -> pump (DDC 18W)

???
 
forget the 120.1, the water leaving the GTZ is still more than cool enough to cool the gpus. Remember the water temperature around the loop varies by only a few degrees.
 
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