CPU vs GPU, which should get the larger radiator

[bogo663]

So I got the bitfenix shinobi xl case which supports a triple rad on the top and front, and a double rad on the bottom. Since I know the air should exhaust at the top and back of the case, I am going to use the front triple rad and the bottome double rad. I have a 3770K and a 690. My question is, which unit would give the greatest improvement in gaming when overclocked so I know which one i need to water cool?

 

[inzone]

The 690 being a dual gpu card would not need to be overclocked and will give a great performance in games , the cpu would need to be overclocked to give better performance so I would overclock the cpu and at the same time you could bump the 690 up a bit and not need extra cooling. I'm only talking a 50 to 75 mhz bump on the 690, just enough to give it a mild boost.

 

[cbrunnem]

So I got the bitfenix shinobi xl case which supports a triple rad on the top and front, and a double rad on the bottom. Since I know the air should exhaust at the top and back of the case, I am going to use the front triple rad and the bottome double rad. I have a 3770K and a 690. My question is, which unit would give the greatest improvement in gaming when overclocked so I know which one i need to water cool?

i highly recommend the radiators being in the front and bottom and used as intakes. i think this is what you are saying but a lot of people dont recommend this and recommend them to be exhausts which i personally think to be stupid and has no ground to stand on. other then that i agree with inzone.

 

[manofchalk]

If its all one loop, then it shouldn't matter where the radiators are placed in in the flow order.
If your running parallel loops, then I think it would be best to have the 690 using the larger radiator.

 

[toolmaker_03]

You can't do that man of chalk, all parallel setups need to be a balanced loop some what. I am building two more parallel setups currently on my new build log, this is to give some more info on that subject here at tom's. So please stay tuned and I will do my best to explain each configuration I am using and why it works. Making your rig parallel is something that is a lot easer said than done, but I know that using two different radiators would be a bad idea for this type of setup, but two matched rads would work fine, as long as the pump outlet is going to both blocks at the same time. This is the configuration that I will be using for my dad's build, it will be matched with a monstra rad, with have really good flow through them.

 

[manofchalk]

I guess parallel wasn't the right word to describe how I interpreted it, separate?
I was thinking the OP might be referring to making two full water-cooling loops, one dedicated to the GPU and other for the CPU. Far as I know with it set up like that, the performance of one loop shouldn't affect the other (except maybe one intaking the others exhaust).

 

[inzone]

Anyone who has water cooling in their case to cool the different components knows that when gaming or stressing the components (cpu,gpu) you get more warm air from the radiator and if you have the radiator installed inside the case with the fans blowing form the outside through the radiator into the case will make the inside of the case very warm. If I do mount a radiator inside the case I put it at the top with the air blowing out and with this case having the option to put several radiators I would use the top and front spots and have two 360mm radiators that can be used for cooling, one for the cpu and one for the gpu. The bottom opening can be used to blow cool air into the case.
With this setup of using a 360mm radiator on each component you can overclock both and both will be cooled sufficiently. I have a 240mm radiator cooling an overclocked 3930k and I have a 360mm radiator cooling two GTX 680s overclocked and both components are cooled sufficiently.

 

[cbrunnem]

Anyone who has water cooling in their case to cool the different components knows that when gaming or stressing the components (cpu,gpu) you get more warm air from the radiator and if you have the radiator installed inside the case with the fans blowing form the outside through the radiator into the case will make the inside of the case very warm. If I do mount a radiator inside the case I put it at the top with the air blowing out and with this case having the option to put several radiators I would use the top and front spots and have two 360mm radiators that can be used for cooling, one for the cpu and one for the gpu. The bottom opening can be used to blow cool air into the case.
With this setup of using a 360mm radiator on each component you can overclock both and both will be cooled sufficiently. I have a 240mm radiator cooling an overclocked 3930k and I have a 360mm radiator cooling two GTX 680s overclocked and both components are cooled sufficiently.

i would agree with this if you are water cooling both the cpu and gpu but if its just the cpu like most people do then i disagree. the temp of the air coming off my radiator never goes above 28*c but i cant say the same thing about the gpu. my case temp is HIGHER when i use the radiator at the top of my case and not the bottom. therefor i am going to get WORSE temps because i am using hotter air to cool my rad then ambient temps. I guess i just do things different then most.