Radiators, Water cooling, and Fans, Oh my!

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mklein1234

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Jan 12, 2014
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So I just bought a Fractal Design Define S case in my first step to building a custom water cooling loop. I would be cooling an AMD fx8350 and an MSI 980ti. I have room on the top and front for up to either a triple 120mm or 140mm radiator.

What size should I go with and what kind of fans? I'd like to keep my system as silent as possible. So that would lead me towards the 140mm radiator because more surface area means more cooling at slower fan speeds, just thinking out loud here.

A factor in the radiator size selection is that the case already came with 2 fractal design dynamic 140mm fans, so would it be possible to run just one triple 140mm radiator and then only need to buy one additional fan and call it a day at that?

And I'm assuming I should buy a fan controller as well. Which fan controller should I look at, and how easy are they to install/use? Is there software I need to install or is it all taken care of by the motherboard fan controller?

I'm somewhat new to this so any information would be great. I watch a lot of Jayztwcents so I have a basic understanding of what it takes to water cool my system but all these brands that I've never heard of makes selection of some parts to be very confusing. I'm going with EK for most of the parts already (waterblocks, pump, res, PETG)
 
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Hi and welcome to watercooling :)

It's not easy to make a decision with all the possible combinations out there. I should know - I'm preparing my part list for nearly a month now, and I still don't feel that it's perfect.

But onto your questions:

Radiator size: yes 140mm has more surface area than 120mm. But you have to factor in the radiator thickness and FPI count (Fins Per Inch)
Normally thicker radiators have lower FPI. Lower FPI means that a fan can push air with less restriction through the fan. Fans with a higher static pressure can push air through higher restriction with lower RPM. This is just a summary of the basics.

So now you have a few variables: Radiator size (fan size and thickness), FPI cont, fan speed and static pressure.

My reasoning goes as follows: do I want a silent operation with no/small overclock, or do I want to overclock and don't mind louder fans (RPM)

So if you want silent operation you should go with the highest radiator surface area you can (fit and afford). For my build I'm going with 45mm thick EK radiators and high static pressure Noctua fans. But you can find your own balance between those factors.

As for number and length of radiators: the more the merrier (up to a certain point). I used this excel sheet to get a basic idea about heat dissipation and TDP calculation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5w1t7kanqykb6d9/radiators.zip?dl=0

The rule of thumb for radiators is 2 sizes + 1 size for any additional part you cool. So for CPU + GPU a 3x140mm should be ok - but as I said above, you have to factor in the other variables, depending on your needs (silent vs overclock)


As for fan controller: I only have limited experience with it. I used 1-2 4pin spliters in the past with no problems (managing fan speeds from BIOS) and will go for a 1-4 4 pin spliter from EK. But you can also go more custom with optical bay controllers that have knobs or displays:

http://static.scan.co.uk/images/products/1771914-b.jpg
http://static.scan.co.uk/images/products/1922448-c.jpg


I hope my ramblings have helped a little. I'm also new to this but I gladly share the things I learned this far. Is this your first water-cooled build?
 
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Good info from Captain_Hindsight above. Like mentioned, do you plan on OCing? This can factor in layout choices. TDP calculation can also be very helpful. That said, for my own build I choose to maximise(within reason) cooling capacity. This made my initial cost much higher, but allows room for upgrades, expansion. My previous custom loop, I had good temps but high noise. I didn't want to go that route again after a case upgrade. I also OC, so I factored that in. Since I wanted both low noise and temps while OC'd, I had to increase cooling capacity. Though this likely isn't a rule of thumb, I tend to recommend all the radiator you can fit/afford for custom loops. This way, if you change CPUs, add another GPU, it's less likely you have to completely change your loop.

For fan/pump control, it depends on part choices. For myself, my pumps are PWM controlled based on temp using CPU fan headers. My fan controller is the "knob" style. I prefer a static fan speed for my radiator and case fans. Installation of fan controller is pretty straight forward. Mine is powered by a 4-pin Molex, and has 6 3-pin headers to attach the fans to. It is a Lamptron FC5V3 controller. Speaking of which, I also have low-FPI rads and run their fans at lower speed(~ 1200 RPM). My previous setup has high-FPI and high-rpm fans. Both setups are 120mm fans.

Sorry for the somewhat long-winded post. Any other questions, just ask and I'll try to help if I can.
 
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To reply to both of you;
Id like to overclock both GPU and CPU. Right now the CPU is cooled by a corsair H80i and that does the job just fine at 4.2ghz. The GPU often has a +150mhz OC on it but definitely needs more cooling.

I Think Ill go with 2 3x140mm radiators. more radiator space means the fans can run slower.

As for when the controller comes in is where i have my real problem with the define S case, it doesn't have any 5 1/4 drive bays for a drive mounted fan controller. I'm sure I could fabricate one but that's just another thing that I don't want to do unless I have to. Do you have any recomendations for an internal fan splitter/controller? my motherboard only has 1 case fan and one cpu fan header.
 
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I have a gigabyte 78LMT-USB3, I think its the rev 4.1 version. Its the blue PCB one, the other revisions all use black PCBs.
 
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blerg i didnt mean to pick this as the answer, but that is exactly what im looking for in terms of fan controllers
 
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Glad to hear your plan is progressing. It looks like the PWM splitter should work. You may have to adjust the PWM profiles to get settings just right, as they will all be the same. You would want all the fans to be the same make/model by going this route. Even though both fan headers on your motherboard are 4-pin, if you want to attach the splitter to the sys_fan header, you'll need to check if it actually supports PWM. This isn't always the case. You may need to attach the splitter to the CPU_Fan header in this case. Either way, the power for the fans is coming in from the power connector on the splitter, not the motherboard(which is good).
 
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well the build is put together but now I'm getting a BSOD on boot with an error stating "system service exception (nvlddmkm.sys)" Ive read up a bit on that error code and i either killed my gpu or theres a driver error that came out of nowhere (driver 359) Im really hoping its a driver error. ive started a new thread relating to that problem. fingers crossed I don't have to dismantle my loop and RMA the card.
 
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