Two back-to-back radiators

[sw_hunt]

I've got two 4x140mm radiators, an Alphacool Monsta 560 and a Phobya G-Chanegr 560. I am considering mounting them back-to-back, ie the air will flow: fan1 -> Rad1 -> Rad2 -> fan2. Water is a single loop and will flow through the cooler rad first. Fans are 8 x BeQuiet Silent Wings 2. What I want is near silence (slow fans) and big cooling. Currently it's a 3770K at 4.8GHz and a clocked GTX 980 but will get upgraded to a 6 or 8 core clocked Extreme CPU later this year. I will be using two D5 pumps in series, but running them fairly slow to keep the noise down - two slow pumps should generate more flow and less noise than one going flat out.

The Silverstone Temjin TJ11 - just - has room in the bottom to fit the two rads like this, but I can't fit them anywhere in the normal side-to-side or separate configuration - hence the crazy back-to-back arrangement!

So, yes, I'm blowing slightly warm air into the second radiator and the fans have a bit more work to do to blow/suck though about 140mm depth of rads. Am I better off sticking with just a single rad or will the above give noise / cooling benefits?

 

[argeru]

I think what you're describing is real overkill. For two components, 1 4x140 radiator will be more than sufficient. The first rad will do its job and then just push cool water into the next rad. No point in doing that. Especially with the 980 being so efficient.

Nonetheless, 2 radiators in succession won't offer any benefit over a normal setup. You'd be better off running the radiators before a component in order to send cool water across the block so it can grab as much heat as possible.

Ex: pump->rad->cpu->rad->gpu->pump/res

As for fans, I highly recommend the scythe gentle typhoons, 1450 rpm if you want silence. You want something with high static pressure for radiators. High CFM is not as important.

 

[JimF_35]

It will work but will not be as efficient as if you were to put them side by side but my guess is you case is limited on room. By putting them back to back you are increasing the surface area of the cooling fins. You could do this just as easy by getting a double thick radiator. Remember that the air following over the second radiator is going to be warm from the first radiator so your second radiator will not be as efficient. If it were me I would get a double thick radiator.