Where to put my rad?

Chronictank

Chronictank

Chronictank

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12 Jan 2006
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I rescently purchased Swiftech H20-220 Apex "Ultra" Watercooling Kit, which comes with a MCR220 Radiator.
Swifttech recommends this be put on the back of the case, i dont want to do that if at all possible as my desk is backed against the wall and has little/no fresh air flowing behind there (i cute holes in the table and fed through the cables including the power extension which i made a little compartment for in the bottom, as a result the desk is right up against the wall.
heres my case
inuti.jpg


This leaves me 3 possibilities, attaching the RAD to the side panel, the bottom of the case, the top or the front.

Now the bottom is out as the various articles and the swiftech manual says to avoid it and the side panel would make things too complicated in terms of opening and closing the case.

I think i would prefer this option as then everything is contained in the case itself, but i read that you should keep the RAD at the top of the case


Alternatively on top, which i personally dont like as its messy


Another alternative would be to have it in the cd drive bay (there is space for 4 drives, the rad takes up 2) and have a fan blowing air in over it
 
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If it fits with just removing one HDD cage, go for the front option.

Have it sucking air in. <-RAD<-FAN<-CASE

As it is "only" a single 120mm fan design you will want the coolest air possible going over the rad.

This is also the easiest place to mod. You simply make a hole for 120mm fan and if its messy, the front case bezel will hide all sins.

That would be my choice anyhow :D
 
nah, the Rad that comes with that kit the MCR220, is a 120x2 format rad.

you would be best off mounting it in the ceiling of the case, and sacrificing two of the CD bays - but you would want to purchase a 120.2 rad grill to make this look neater.

I say sacrifice the two drive bays, but some pieces of equipment, if you place the rad right will still fit - like fan controllers or maybe a LCD display :)

I will post some pics of my setup in a min...
 
Looking at the Chieftech case, it seems that you'd be able to get a 120.2 radiator in the front without the HDD bays, I'm sure I've seen it done on the same case. I think that would be your easiest option.
 
Need to take out both sets of HDD trays to fit a double rad at the front, and then the front bezel would need major mods to get a decent supply of outside air to the rad.

Bottom mounting is OK but you'll lose access to mobo parts and slots.

I'd go for internal top mounting as gr1mey suggested above - would be easier and better performing.
 
Another vote for the top mounting here. Case fronts often block your air flow majorly. I took a hacksaw to my Soprano case to get some decent air into the system :D
 
DaveMac said:
Need to take out both sets of HDD trays to fit a double rad at the front, and then the front bezel would need major mods to get a decent supply of outside air to the rad.

Bottom mounting is OK but you'll lose access to mobo parts and slots.

I'd go for internal top mounting as gr1mey suggested above - would be easier and better performing.
Click to expand...

Ah, didn't know how much work would have to be done to the panel. In that case I'd go for a top mount.
 
Hold up!! I have the same case and I have a 92.2 Thermochill rad in the top as you similarly want.

The problems I've found are: If you have the In-Out rad barbs by the PSU you "may" have problems with PSU's, especially Modular PSU's where the connectors take up quite a lot of room and easily foul with the barbs/hose. Secondly if you turn the rad 180deg so the barbs are at the front of the case then the piping has to take sharp bends to get back across the case to the res/pump and CPU.This could lead to kinked tubes.

Top tip: use 7/16" tubing rather than 1/2" tubing, is slightly slimmer, fits the barbs more reassuringly, looks better and is cheaper than Tygon.

If I was starting from scratch like you I'd go for a front mount. Ditch the HDD and FDD cages, cut the whole lot out and mount the Rad there. The bezel will hide everything and you will have shorter pipe runs too!
Get some 5 1/2" - 3.5" adaptors to mount your HDDs in the top of the case.

Just my £0.02 worth! :p
 
Im going to mount my rad (the same one) today and after doing a lot of reading I had decided to mount it externally at the rear of the case. However, that would leave me in the same postion as you regarding desk space.

Ive decided to follow a suggestion in this thread of mounting it on the side panel. Im not clear how this would affect removing that panel to fiddle with things inside the case (I seem to do that rather a lot!)

The main problem with not mounting the rad vertically (or at least with 1 barb uppermost) is that Ive read that its easier to build up bubbles in the system.
 
DoubleCheese said:
Hold up!! I have the same case and I have a 92.2 Thermochill rad in the top as you similarly want.

The problems I've found are: If you have the In-Out rad barbs by the PSU you "may" have problems with PSU's, especially Modular PSU's where the connectors take up quite a lot of room and easily foul with the barbs/hose. Secondly if you turn the rad 180deg so the barbs are at the front of the case then the piping has to take sharp bends to get back across the case to the res/pump and CPU.This could lead to kinked tubes.

Top tip: use 7/16" tubing rather than 1/2" tubing, is slightly slimmer, fits the barbs more reassuringly, looks better and is cheaper than Tygon.

If I was starting from scratch like you I'd go for a front mount. Ditch the HDD and FDD cages, cut the whole lot out and mount the Rad there. The bezel will hide everything and you will have shorter pipe runs too!
Get some 5 1/2" - 3.5" adaptors to mount your HDDs in the top of the case.

Just my £0.02 worth! :p
Click to expand...


but that case is huge, all you would have to do is move the rad closer to the front of the case.

My tj03 is small compared to this chieftec and I can still easily access my PSU with a top mounted rad. :confused:
 
Pulled all the cd drives out and had a look what it was like top-mounting the rad,
DoubleCheese is right it is a very snug fit lenght wise, but its enough room for everything because i bought a Seasonic 600w which has all the cables bundled on the corner of the PSU so you can run the cables round very easily.
The problem with the Chieftec is that the front plate holders come quite far back into the case, so you lose about 2 cm at the front where you cant screw anything in so the RAD needs to be brought back further into the case.
Saying that the case is very wide so you can easily mount the rad to one side and have pleanty of space for the cables round the back it just doesnt look as aesthetically pleasing on the outside as the fan grills will be to one side of the case. Will take some pictures of the whole process so you can see what i mean when the last few bits arrive (waiting on gfx card cooler block ) as i want to test the setup for 24 hrs outside the case before putting it in

I dont want to front mount it anymore as i will lose my Zip drive
 
DoubleCheese said:
Hold up!! I have the same case and I have a 92.2 Thermochill rad in the top as you similarly want.

Secondly if you turn the rad 180deg so the barbs are at the front of the case then the piping has to take sharp bends to get back across the case to the res/pump and CPU.This could lead to kinked tubes.
Click to expand...

this is how i have my rad in my Wavemaster and i have no kinks at all. or sharo bends. because it goes pump - rad - cpu - gpu - res - pump the tightest bend in there is from the res back to the pump but it still dont kink
 
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