Where should I mount the watercooler radiator. Top, front, or bottom??

[Mortem420]

I've just recently purchased the Rosewill BLackHawk Blue Edition Gaming MidTower and it looks like the case has lots of space inside for parts and stuff so im thinking about putting a watercooling system in it. Now, it seem like this case offers lots of different places to mount fans/radiators. I was wondering if it would be a better idea to have the fans on the radiator as intake or exhaust. Also, I am wondering whereabouts in the case i should mount the rad. It seems like i can mount the rad on the top, front and bottom of the case. and i could also put a small rad on the back of the case but i have a bigger case so I figure I may as well get a bigger rad. Any help would be much appreciated

 

[mj120394]

What cpu cooler do you have or are planning to get?

From personal experience, I have my h80i set as exhaust with a lot of intake. Reason being is because my GPU exhaust throws out a lot of heat and if it gets exhausted from the radiator, the fins start to get hotter and liquid temps get hotter resulting in CPU temps getting hotter.

I prefer having radiators set as intake (or in my case, a push-pull). I would say that it would be better to have your system be front mounted or top mounted depending on where you have dust filters.

 

[mcnumpty23]

for a 120mm rad usually the rear

for a 240/280 or 360 usually the top

from my own experience only a few degrees difference from intaking through the top rad vs out

though that can vary depending on the rest of your components and the case used

for example my graphics card is also watercooled so not dumping heat into the case and my case has good airflow

 

[Mortem420]

well i believe the case im getting has space for a radiator and a dust filter on the bottom of the case so thats why im wondering about bottom mounting. It also looks like id have enough space to do a custom loop what i get confident enough. The case has feet on it so it stands about an inch or so off the floor. Im not too sure what CPU cooler to get but the Enermax Liqmax II has been suggested and ive taken a look at it and it looks pretty good. Im actually not even entirely sure what parts im putting in this build. I kind of saw the case online and just had to buy it 😛 the planning here is pretty poor but I'm hoping with help from this site ill get a really good custom gaming build going

 

[Mortem420]

I watched some reviews on the case i bought and people were saying that it doesnt look like it has enough space in the top to comfortably house a radiator. The only way ill know for myself though is when i get it and inspect the case. Im just unsure of whether i want to do front mounting because then i may lose all my HDD/SSD cages and im not sure if theres anywhere else in the case to mount storage drives

 

[Mortem420]

And apparently top mounting and front mounting your rad can result in up to a 10C difference for the CPU depending if your using an open air shroud, an enclosed blower style or a water block on your GPU

 

[mcnumpty23]

says Bottom: 1 x 120 / 140mm Fan if looking at the right case

where you thinking more than a 120mm rad?

and for bottom mounting

need to be sure the tubes are long enough as they will have to get past your graphics card

 

[Mortem420]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ocYU9nnULI

Video review for the case. at about 6:30 she says that 2 140mm or 2 180mm fans can be mounted on the bottom

You may have been looking at the normal Rosewill BlackHawk case. Im getting the blue edition. So idk how much that differs from the regular one other than color and price

 

[mcnumpty23]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ocYU9nnULI

Video review for the case. at about 6:30 she says that 2 140mm or 2 180mm fans can be mounted on the bottom

You may have been looking at the normal Rosewill BlackHawk case. Im getting the blue edition. So idk how much that differs from the regular one other than color and price

looks like you can do it if you remove the hard drive cage

though i wonder how much room you will actually have given that your psu cables will be coming out right at the rad

though havent watched the whole video yet to see it better as my dinners ready lol

 

[Mortem420]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ocYU9nnULI

Video review for the case. at about 6:30 she says that 2 140mm or 2 180mm fans can be mounted on the bottom

You may have been looking at the normal Rosewill BlackHawk case. Im getting the blue edition. So idk how much that differs from the regular one other than color and price

looks like you can do it if you remove the hard drive cage

though i wonder how much room you will actually have given that your psu cables will be coming out right at the rad

though havent watched the whole video yet to see it better as my dinners ready lol

Yeah thats what i was thinking. And im ok with losing an HDD cage cause the chances of me having more than 4 drives in my pc is low. Plus theres an HDD dock on the top of the case so even if i took all the cages out i guess i still have a spot to put my HDD. And the cord management in the case looks pretty decent so im hoping there wont be any conflicts between the PSU and the rad taking up eachothers space

 

[Mortem420]

So i think im gonna do bottom mounting. Should i only put fans to pull air outside into the rad or should i also install fans on top of the rad aswell??

 

[mcnumpty23]

i tend to only use 1 set of fans on my rads

if 1 set gets you good temps then its not really worth it to add the second to gain a bit more

you reckon the tubing will be long enough to reach the bottom?

and not fond of the tubing going in front of the graphics card myself

2 reasons

1 --i think it doesnt look very good--so not a major reason there

2--if you want to take the graphics card out it gets a bit more complicated

 

[Mortem420]

Idk ill have to try and find a waterooler with longer tubing then. Or maybe just try a custom loop if i really have to

 

[mcnumpty23]

if you already have the case then using a bit of string or similar would give you a rough idea of the length the tubing needs to be to reach the bottom

 

[Mortem420]

I dont have the case yet, I ordered it on amazon on like Saturday so idk when ill actually be getting it. But thats definitely a good method for getting a generalized idea of how long the tubing will need to be, ill be sure to try it out

 

[Dudewitagun]

I dont have the case yet, I ordered it on amazon on like Saturday so idk when ill actually be getting it. But thats definitely a good method for getting a generalized idea of how long the tubing will need to be, ill be sure to try it out

Mortem, I am trying to mount a 240mm rad as well, the deep cool captain, and I was wondering if you ever did get that radiator to mount on the bottom by removing the bottom two hard drive bays. I definitely don't wanna cut off the top of the case like some other guys did.

 

[Mortem420]

I dont have the case yet, I ordered it on amazon on like Saturday so idk when ill actually be getting it. But thats definitely a good method for getting a generalized idea of how long the tubing will need to be, ill be sure to try it out

Mortem, I am trying to mount a 240mm rad as well, the deep cool captain, and I was wondering if you ever did get that radiator to mount on the bottom by removing the bottom two hard drive bays. I definitely don't wanna cut off the top of the case like some other guys did.

I really wish i had an answer for you, but due to shipping delays and what seems to be a complete lack of product, I never even ended up getting the Case from Amazon. But its always just worth a try to mount it and then plan to maybe put it elsewhere if the bottom mount doesn't work out