Cooling an i7 4790k in an Antec Eleven Hundred V2 (and Airflow Qs)

[NLionheart]

So, after all of the recommendations here and reddit to drop the FX 8350 from my build in favor of an Intel chip, I spent my days off reading into why and am finally convinced. This does mean I'll be scrapping my Sabertooth 990FX board (maybe selling it for ~$100? Basically unused. I'll look into that later).

Anyway, with that decision came a "fuck it, why not?" epiphany and upping my budget by up to ~50% to accommodate some vanity (As seen in the new part list, I'll try to get to them without getting too ranty) But more importantly, while I was looking into AIOs for the 8350 out of sheer overkill, they appear to be a minimal necessity for the 4790k, barring the Noctua solutions that will interfere with my vanity.

So let's get into the meat of it:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII FORMULA ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($304.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($254.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($207.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($207.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tr-X OC Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tr-X OC Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred V2 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Pro Platinum 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Case Fan: Cougar CF-D12HB-B 64.4 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.75 @ SuperBiiz)
Fan Controller: NZXT SENTRY 3 Fan Controller ($29.99 @ Directron)
Total: $2042.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-22 18:00 EDT-0400

The big things here different from before;
-Already purchased one of the R9 290x's, I'll get the second one with the majority of the rest of this. Previously I included my current 60Hz/1080p monitor, took it out this time, because I'll likely be replacing it with one or more 144Hz monitors after the tower itself is built. The same with the peripherals (still looking for headset recommendations).
-Stopped being a retard with RAID configs and just dropped it to 2 500GB 850 EVOs with a new backup.
-Might as well lower the overall sound profile, especially if I can get the blue I wanted in the first place, though any other recommendations are still welcome for quiet+decent CFM fans

And then there's the new mobo, which is where the vanity (the armor) isn't that much more expensive than similar boards, with some red accents to the black which, in my opinion, look great with blue light. Also, potentially will make it easier to do a custom water kit if that's ultimately necessary.

BUT FINALLY WE ARRIVE AT THE POINT OF THIS TOPIC
Thank you for your patience.

According to Antec's site @ http://support.antec.com/support/solutions/articles/1000100885-kuhler-antec-case-compatibility-list, the Kuhler H2O 1250 should fit in the top dual 120mm fan slot, but nowhere else seems to confirm this. This unit concerns me on two fronts, namely the plastic backplate and the noise potential on extreme mode, because the fans cannot be replaced. Still, I like the ideas present with putting the pump away from the CPU itself.

That being said, if the 1250 supposedly would fit, are there any specific dimensions I should make note of to see if a Corsair h105 would work instead?
I'm also thinking of potentially push-pulling, either way. For better or worse, it seems like the only way to do so would be to mount the pulls on top of the case. Not necessarily opposed to this, as it'd just be another little project for me to work on to add some plastic or steel enclosure around them.

Or... are there any other 240mm AIOs I should look into instead?
Or... would a push-pull 120mm AIO be sufficient with no overclocking?

But, onto general airflow.
Since there's just going to be the two 2.5" SSDs and the one 3.5" HDD, there's not much resistance between the front intakes and the internal bay fans. Using my dead board, I confirmed that there'd still be room between the bay fans and this specific 290x.

That led to a somewhat strange realization that the manual for the Eleven Hundred suggested having the side panel fans mounted as intakes rather than exhausts. If I've already got the front intakes and the behind-the-motherboard intake, regardless of how I end up cooling the CPU, I'm left with positive static pressure. Sure, that's fine for the front intakes since there's already a dust filter there...

But the sides have no filters, which, yes, is something I could just add on, but then looking at the airflow - I'd have 4 case fans pointed at the 2 GPUs with their combined 6 fans pushing air down with the only exhaust being the PSU and the vents in the back and bottom of the case, with the latter being largely covered by the PSU.

Would flipping the fans to exhaust rather than intake help or hurt airflow and temperatures at that point? My real concern there is really the amount of heat potentially being dumped onto the second card.

As always, any advice or recommendations are appreciated.
(Hey look, you guys even got me to switch to an Intel! I do listen sometimes!)

 

[ingtar33]

ok. Welcome to the forums NLionheart;

1) can you post a budget?
2) I noticed in what you wrote a LOT of interest in limiting noise, is this really important to you?
3) are you married to that case, fans and water all in one coolers?

I'll explain, i'm a bit of an over clocker, got both an intel and amd, and have done a lot of experimenting on noise reduction (i'm a bit of an audiophile), so i can give you a LOT of suggestions based on my experiences.

here are my first impressions -
the r9-290x is sorta NOT the gpu you get if you want to limit noise. don't get me wrong, it's a fine card, and there are "almost quiet" gpu coolers you can get for it. so if you're open to suggestions on the r9-290x, i've got a few, which can limit the noise

not a fan of that case. (yes, i recognize the pun i just wrote, and it was intentional) -don't get me wrong, I don't dislike antec cases, i thought their 902 v2 was the best mid tower case released in 2009. It still has a warm spot in my heart. I know you purchased the eleven hundred but i think we'll need to talk a bit about how you put that case to use, because it does have some particularities to it that might get in your plans (IMHO)

Those are god awful fans. we need to talk more about the fans you're going to use with that case.

not a fan of the fan controller. the bitfenix recon is a much better fan controller on almost every level (if you MUST have a touch screen), personally i prefer the non-digital fan controllers. they tend to work better.


As to your questions -
the main consideration is THICKNESS of the radiator, and position of the motherboard. Is your case an 1100 or 1100v2? because antec changed the position of the 240mm radiator mount from the back of the case to the top. on the 1100 you'll probably be ok with the h105; i'll know in an hour if the 1100v2 will fit it (I seem to recall antec built the 1100v2 in a funky way, so i'm not sure it will fit)

the 105 is definitely a "thick" radiator.

-fan orientation; almost every case is designed for venting out the back and top, with intake from the front and bottom. keep to that setup and you should be fine. as for the side fans... those fans are mostly to move air between gpus, or push air down onto the northbridge of your motherboard. it's definitely supposed to function as an intake.

 

[ingtar33]

EDIT: yes, the antec 1100v2 will PROBABLY have issues with the h105; depends on your motherboard but it will likely hit the heatsinks on the VRMs, maybe your ram too; push pull is completely out for it as well.

the antec 1100 might actually work with the h105, even in push pull. looks more likely to work to me.

 

[NLionheart]

1) can you post a budget?
2) I noticed in what you wrote a LOT of interest in limiting noise, is this really important to you?
3) are you married to that case, fans and water all in one coolers?

1) It's somewhat subjective, but in the area of $2500-3000. Basically every $150 after $2000 delays the additional purchases after the main components by another day.

2) On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, limiting noise is at least a solid 7.

3) It's an Eleven Hundred V2 (dual 120mm top fans rather than a single 200m top fan) I'm not necessarily married to any of them; but I have already purchased the case and put some time into painting and badging it; nothing that couldn't be redone or done better, but it's not something I could flip at this point either. Its real appeal came from the unusual behind the motherboard fan, which meant a cooler solution both in temperature and appearance. The fans were only mentioned specifically because of their specific LED color and extremely low sound; granted I could likely accomplish comparable results with a combination of Corsair SP120 and AF120s.

From the other notes, this Tri-X is actually fairly quiet, though I haven't put it under full load for an extended period of time; for those in particular, the noise level has already been deemed "acceptable" for our house.

And thanks for the suggestion on the fan controller. I almost wish this motherboard came with the RoG front base, but I definitely like the aesthetics of a touch screen controller.

But, as before, even with the FX 8350 based build, I'm not likely going to do much overclocking based on the amount of overkill the 4790k will be for my purposes anyway; I may eventually upgrade the cards to a 395x2 setup in a year or so when they stabilize.

 

[ingtar33]

ok.

let me chew on this one an hour or two. i'll come back with a series of suggestions moving forward. No harm in that antec. It's not a bad case, especially if you were getting an AM3+ and planning some solid overclocking. Due to the behind the socket fan. It still has some utility with an intel, but not as much.

I'll give you a "quiet" and performance option.

My issue with the gpu is when 2 are in the case the bottom card will superheat the top card. so while one card will be ok, two will get loud. though i can offer some suggestions on that as well.

moving forward, my definition of "quiet" is very very quiet, like "ambient noise" <11db quiet. when you start to get that quiet several things start to happen. one of them is the more fans you have the louder your system will get. this is unavoidable. so a "quiet" single fan has to be freaking impossible to hear before i call it "quiet"

As for blinging it up with LEDs. I will give you my thoughts on that as well. take them or leave them, i know it's mostly your taste no matter what. but I've had some nice experience with certain LED methods... so i'll give you some options.

 

[ingtar33]

QUIET VERSION

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII FORMULA ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($304.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($131.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($389.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tr-X OC Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tr-X OC Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred V2 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 1050W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($181.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200 59.1 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.75 @ OutletPC)
Fan Controller: BitFenix Recon (Black) Fan Controller ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Other: NZXT HUE ($33.99)
Other: Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV ($80.99)
Other: Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV ($80.99)
Total: $2170.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-23 00:15 EDT-0400



PERFORMANCE VERSION (louder version, but a bit more overclock headroom.)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII FORMULA ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($304.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($131.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($389.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tr-X OC Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 4GB Tr-X OC Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Eleven Hundred V2 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 1250W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($201.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($12.89 @ OutletPC)
Fan Controller: BitFenix Recon (Black) Fan Controller ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Other: NZXT HUE ($33.99)
Other: Arctic Hybrid II ($114.99)
Other: Arctic Hybrid II ($114.99)
Total: $2257.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-23 00:21 EDT-0400

 

[ingtar33]

BTW: i suggest you use the NZXT Hue instead of "LED" fans. there are barely any LED fans worth using. I've used the HUE, it's fantastic. Almost no documentation which is a pain, but fantastic. It also comes with enough LED strip to light up a whole mid/full ATX tower case. It lit up my Define R4 and then some.