Question AIO cooling & cooling config

[Dekb97]

Hello everyone. I am currently upgrading/building my pc since my mobo and cpu is fried (probably due to high temps for several years).

I’m going with the 3700X and plan to OC it (not crazy, but just getting some software to do it for me).
Same goes for my ram.
I want aio for my cpu since i’ll join the wave and get at tempered glass case and make it a rgb hell.

My question for you guys. I originally planned to get me the new p400a with the mest front, but since it doesn’t support a rad up top, i’ll be forced to put the rad in the front. I see 2 ways of doing this:

A 240 rad in the front + a 120 fan below it to cool gpu (if there is space for rad and a fan under it in the front)
or
A 360 rad in the front (but then i’m concerned case and gpu temps will be too high)

Second question. I will have a 120 as exhaust in the back. Now the top supports either 2x120 og 2x140.
Would you put additional intake in the top or make it exhaust too?
And either way, what size?
Since I’d like rgb and dont like how corsair icue only detects corsair parts, i’ve set my eye on the new Thermaltake Water 3.0 AIO. And for fans, I’ll use there fans aswell.

Sorry for bad english, and thank you all on beforehand.

 

[CountMike]

Hello everyone. I am currently upgrading/building my pc since my mobo and cpu is fried (probably due to high temps for several years).

I’m going with the 3700X and plan to OC it (not crazy, but just getting some software to do it for me).
Same goes for my ram.
I want aio for my cpu since i’ll join the wave and get at tempered glass case and make it a rgb hell.

My question for you guys. I originally planned to get me the new p400a with the mest front, but since it doesn’t support a rad up top, i’ll be forced to put the rad in the front. I see 2 ways of doing this:

A 240 rad in the front + a 120 fan below it to cool gpu (if there is space for rad and a fan under it in the front)
or
A 360 rad in the front (but then i’m concerned case and gpu temps will be too high)

Second question. I will have a 120 as exhaust in the back. Now the top supports either 2x120 og 2x140.
Would you put additional intake in the top or make it exhaust too?
And either way, what size?
Since I’d like rgb and dont like how corsair icue only detects corsair parts, i’ve set my eye on the new Thermaltake Water 3.0 AIO. And for fans, I’ll use there fans aswell.

Sorry for bad english, and thank you all on beforehand.

Let's start with overclocking 3700x, no need to overclock it at all. it's boost frequency is just about equal to it's best OC.
A 360 AIO is more than enough to keep it cool at all times, air coming thru such radiator is barely couple of degrees higher than room temperature so no danger of overheating any components inside, you are free to put it in front (case permitting) as intake. A 240 AIO would most probably be enough too, my CM Nepton 140XL is doing bag up job of cooling.
The rest is left to having about same amount of air going out, so you can plan other fans to achieve it.

 

[Karadjgne]

An air cooler is a chunk of metal strapped directly to the cpu and a fan blows air through it. Consequently you get direct heat to metal temps and the air from the fan is heated too. Everything is hot.

An aio is a liquid heat exchange. Cpu heats up and the liquid absorbs it, but doesn't get hotter. It's like a pan of water on the burner, no matter how hot the burner is, that water will take several minutes to even get warm, never mind hot.

What that means is that the liquid passes across the cpu, goes back to the radiator. The liquid itself is still case temp, it's not hot at all. The air blown in from a front intake isn't cooling hot cpu temp, it's cooling air that's the same temp as the inside of the case.

So if case temps is 32°C, the liquid in the aio might be 33°C, put across a cpu that's 70°C, but the liquid in the rad is still 33°C. You literally are adding 33°C air to a 32°C case. If you keep that up for an hour or 3, case temps would eventually climb to @ 40°C, but that's about as high as they'll go. Because the cpu simply doesn't put out enough wattage to make the liquid any hotter.

Like taking that pan of water, putting it on low and expecting it to boil. A burner puts out @ 200w to 1500w, cpus (even gaming) rarely get to 200w.

No worries about a 360mm aio, it's not going to heat up anything.

You can't put a 240mm in front and a 120mm underneath. A 240mm rad will have 20mm worth of reservoir on the bottom, sticking directly into the space needed by the other fan. The only way to do that is mount the rad inside the frame and the fans outside the frame at which point the rad is partially blocking the lower or upper fan.

 

[Paperdoc]

Regarding your second question, with a rad on the front and its intake fans, your TOP fans should be exhaust.

 

[Dekb97]

Thank you everyone.

Karadjgne thanks for the explanation, mate. I know the water won't reach near the same temp as the cpu itself, but I figured there'd be a bit more heat exchange between the two, but of course I didn't think of how much (or little in this case), there was emitted from the cpu. Thank you, mate.

Paperdoc thanks for the tip. Any particulary reason it shouldn't be intake too, and then just a single exhaust at back?

Countmike thanks for sharing your experience and your take on my setup. Guess I won't be overclocking it then

 

[Paperdoc]

Your case needs both air intake and exhaust. In my opinion, they should be nearly balanced in terms of actual air flow, with slightly more intake than exhaust, but that's another smaller debate. So to start you have an AIO system radiator to be mounted in the front, and one rear exhaust fan. Obviously you do not want to mount the front rad and fans so that they, too, are exhausting air; make them intakes. The alternative of mounting two additional fans at top as intakes, and making the rear and front exhausts, is not a good air flow system. Most people believe if you have a choice, making the rad fans intake fans ensures that the air they get directly from the room is a bit cooler than air taken from inside the case, so that's preferred.

So, if you have two or three rad fans as intakes at the front and one rear exhaust fan and then plan to add more, the best option is one exhaust added on top. That gives you a near balance on intake and exhaust, with maybe a slightly greater exhaust potential because the intake fans are drawing air through a dust filter and the rad fins, thus reducing their air flow. Adding TWO top exhausts would make it even more unbalanced. And placing two fans on top, one in each direction, would produce poor air flow pattern in the case top.

 

[Dekb97]

Your case needs both air intake and exhaust. In my opinion, they should be nearly balanced in terms of actual air flow, with slightly more intake than exhaust, but that's another smaller debate. So to start you have an AIO system radiator to be mounted in the front, and one rear exhaust fan. Obviously you do not want to mount the front rad and fans so that they, too, are exhausting air; make them intakes. The alternative of mounting two additional fans at top as intakes, and making the rear and front exhausts, is not a good air flow system. Most people believe if you have a choice, making the rad fans intake fans ensures that the air they get directly from the room is a bit cooler than air taken from inside the case, so that's preferred.

So, if you have two or three rad fans as intakes at the front and one rear exhaust fan and then plan to add more, the best option is one exhaust added on top. That gives you a near balance on intake and exhaust, with maybe a slightly greater exhaust potential because the intake fans are drawing air through a dust filter and the rad fins, thus reducing their air flow. Adding TWO top exhausts would make it even more unbalanced. And placing two fans on top, one in each direction, would produce poor air flow pattern in the case top.

Right okay, so I need to balance intake and exhaust to approx. the same. Well, if I get 360 rad as intake, then a 120 as exhaust in the back, would I then put a single 120 or a single 140 in the top as exhaust too?

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, that would give you good air flow balance and air flow direction. It is likely that three 120mm fans on the rad as front intake, allowing for a modest reduction in their air flow due to the rad and dust filter, will be slightly more than the two exhaust fans, and yield slight positive pressure inside your case. That is what I prefer. That way any small air leakage through case openings will tend to blow outwards, preventing dusty outside air from entering. Of course, you still will need to inspect your front intake filters and clean them from time to time, to ensure continued good clean air intake.