[SOLVED] Dual radiator system opinions

[naroslife]

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Hey guys,
I am building my first water cooling loop and I managed to get my hands on a 280 mm + a 120 mm radiator, both 45 mm thick. To be exact here are the full specs:

• Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 2x140mm Kit
• Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 120mm
• Alphacool Eisblock GPX-N Plexi Nvidia Geforce GTX TITAN X Pascal / 1080 Ti M02 GPU block

I plan to cool an oc'd 4790k and 1080 Ti Founders Edition with this. The case I have my eyes on is the CoolerMaster NR600

The best option would be to mount the radiators to the top and back, but I don't think they both would fit, especially not in push-pull configs.
So I'm thinking about having the dual radiator on the top of the case and the single one in the front top position with a push pull config to provide as much intake as possible with 2 additional intake fans on the front and 1 exhaust fan at the back. Can you guys think of a better alternative? Should I be worried at all about increased case temps because of using one radiator as intake considering both CPU and GPU are watercooled? I can imagine this even having a positive effect because the front intake radiator is cooled with fresh air.
I appreciate any feedback!
Thanks,
naroslife

 

[Pat Flynn]

Unless you plan on doing some bleeding edge overclocking, or have crappy fans (I recommend Noctua's), a push/pull will be overkill. Reason I say this is, I have a 2080Ti with an EKWB water block and a Corsair copper 240mm thin radiator and I can't get it to exceed 53 C (~24 C ambient) without a BIOS mod to increase the TDP. I have the GPU's radiator on the front of the case pulling in fresh air, so it would be similar to a 'Dual Loop' config like what you want to run. I also have the GPU OC'd to 2.1GHz constantly (it pegs the 338W power limit all the time, but doesn't ever exceed 53 C).

For optimal cooling results, put the larger radiator (suggest for GPU) on the front of the chassis, and the smaller radiator on the top (CPU). Splitting the setup into two separate loops (you'll need two pumps/reservoirs) might net a slightly better on the two cooling devices, but I can't confirm without testing.

 

[rubix_1011]

You don't need a dual loop setup for this, nor do you need push+pull, although both of those are your option.

A single loop makes use of all cooling capability by all radiators - there's little sense to separate into dual loops unless there is a specific need to focus so much more on one component than another. By making use of both radiators for both components, you provide them the ability to take advantage of all thermal dissipation available.

Running dual loops with a 280 and 120 (let's say 280 for GPU and 120 for CPU) - it is mentioned that the CPU is a 4790k which is overclocked....I wouldn't recommend a single 120mm worth of radiator just for that CPU when overclocked. And while the GPU might pull between 250 and 300w alone, it makes more sense to allow both components to share the cooling workload of a single loop.

 

[naroslife]

You don't need a dual loop setup for this, nor do you need push+pull, although both of those are your option.

A single loop makes use of all cooling capability by all radiators - there's little sense to separate into dual loops unless there is a specific need to focus so much more on one component than another. By making use of both radiators for both components, you provide them the ability to take advantage of all thermal dissipation available.

Running dual loops with a 280 and 120 (let's say 280 for GPU and 120 for CPU) - it is mentioned that the CPU is a 4790k which is overclocked....I wouldn't recommend a single 120mm worth of radiator just for that CPU when overclocked. And while the GPU might pull between 250 and 300w alone, it makes more sense to allow both components to share the cooling workload of a single loop.

I am not thinking about a dual loop. The bottleneck in my system is the CPU, so main focus is overclocking that as much as possible, while I would be satisfied with a light or even no overclock on the GPU.

Does it make sense to mount all rad to the front for the sake of them getting the freshest, coolest air possible?

 

[rubix_1011]

The idea of 'fresh' air isn't as much of an issue of just having good airflow overall. As long as the case has good airflow, the air coming into the 'front' of a case from ambient room temp air shouldn't have a huge difference in temp as air that is inside the case and being used for air to exhaust out through a radiator. If it is, then you have case airflow issues, not radiator issues.

The best cooling in the world will still fail if it cannot adequately exchange heat to ambient air.

It's the reasons convection ovens work so well - fans just continually blow hot air around inside a sealed environment.

 

[Gmoney06ss]

Why not just get a single 360? The top of the case doesn't support 280 per your diagram anyways. Nor would it support a 280+120 in the front.

 

[rubix_1011]

280 in front, 120 in top? Although one would argue why those sizes were chosen of all options potentially available.

Much of this depends on whether the diagram is an official radiator support image, or just mocked up based on number of fan slots.

If the first, 240 top, 360 front. But that's just me, although It kind of looks like the lengths of the rad support on top quickly runs into front rad support if the top is a 240.