Will this work for an exterior rad mount

[rds1220]

I'm getting a list together to makes sure I have everything I need to get my watercooling up and running. Unfortuantly the Corsair Obsidain 650D case can't mount a 360 or 420 at the top of the case so what I wanted to do was something like this pictured below.

But instead of having fans mounted to draw air in on the outside what I was thinking was something like this.

http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1163

So I would mount the rad to the computer like he did with the back to back 120mm fans then I would have that fan shroud for cooling the water in the rad. Or would it be better to have three individual fans rather then that kit.

 

[rubix_1011]

That is just a shroud assembly; it is meant to go on the top of your case that is cut out with a rad inside- it doesn't include the rad.

Or would it be better to have three individual fans rather then that kit.

Not sure I understand this part...

The image above at least has a 240 mounted in the top and the back mounted RX240- can you not go this route along with the external rad?

 

[rds1220]

Yea nevermind I just saw that. WHat I can't figure out it how this person mounted the back to back fans on the back of the case and how he mounted the rad to those two fans. Also how he would power those back to back fans so it will suck air out the 120mm interior rear mounted fan.

 

[rubix_1011]

Power back to back fans? If they are blowing the same direction, it would be no problem. It's quite possible that the fan mounted to the back of the case has been gutted and simply used as a mount. If you look close enough, it's likely either a push/pull/pull or push/push/pull setup with how many fans are actually used on that top mount.

 

[house70]

Actually, putting the three fans on top of each other will not give any improvement in airflow, unless you use progressively higher speeds for the fans as the air passes through. Otherwise, you will push the air against resistance from the next fan's blades and so on. It's same principle as an airplane's turbine. Probably the dude used gutted fans as support to create an air duct. Or he's just wasting power on this setup. Unless he's done his homework and has some fan speed regulators that do just that.

 

[rds1220]

Thats what I was thinking of doing. I was going to gut those two fans and use it as a mount/air duct. But how would you mount that first exterior fan to the case. Would you have to drill holes in the back of the case so you can screw it on?

 

[rubix_1011]

Just find and use some long screws from the hardware store. You really would only need to gut 1 fan...or none at all. You could also make standoffs instead of using a gutted fan- often times hardware stores sell plastic and aluminum spacers you could use.

 

[nforce4max]

Should have planed ahead when you were in the market for a case to begin with. Time and time again I see people who are paying $150-300 for a fancy high end case for only there to not be enough room or mounts for everything that was needed to be installed. The method in the pic that was used to mount the rad will work but it defeats the purpose of such a case and posses a few problems when the rig is being moved between places such as going to a lan party.

 

[rubix_1011]

^Yeah, often people buy the bling vs. practicality and functionality.

 

[rds1220]

i know I liked this case. The thing is I was nwever really planning on water cooling I wa just going to use the hyper 212 and one video card. But then I decided to do two cards which will create alot more heat and overclock the CPU so I figured I would water cool. Are there any mid size towers that will accept a 360 or larger rad or do only full towers accept such big rads?

 

[rubix_1011]

If you run into problems running SLI/Crossfire air cooled in a case, you have problems with airflow to begin with. There are a lot of cases that are designed to be pretty looking, but the have horrible airflow problems. Watercooling doesn't necessarily solve those problems, either. It simply removes the main heat producing components and transfers that heat to the radiators- whether they are mounted inside or outside, you still have heat to dissipate. Your motherboard, power supply and HDDs still need air to cool them, so airflow is even more important in a watercooled case. For those people that strictly 'want all the radiators hidden inside your case'...where do you think all the heat they dissipate goes? Back inside the case. Poor case airflow...problem remains. While a water loop allows your components run at cooler, sustained temps due to the amount of heat able to be removed, you may not get as much heat, but watts consumed are directly related to watts dissipated...heat will be created and it needs to go somewhere.

 

[rds1220]

Temps so far are fine mid 20's at idle and mid 30's-40*C at load. I still want to water cool though. So back to cases are there any mid towers that can accept a 360 or 420 rad or is that only for full towers?

 

[rubix_1011]

800D, HAF series...there are lots, but these are very commonly used.

 

[rds1220]

Being that I already have a Corsair case I know what I'm getting. I know I'm getting a good quality case that will last forever so I was looking at the 800D Obsidian. Another one that I was looking at was this but it seems WAY overpriced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163067

The interior isn't painted, the thumbscrews are a joke, no dust filters. I like that you have the rad in the bottom though that draws air in directly from the side of the case.

 

[Homeboy2]

Being that I already have a Corsair case I know what I'm getting. I know I'm getting a good quality case that will last forever so I was looking at the 800D Obsidian. Another one that I was looking at was this but it seems WAY overpriced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163067

The interior isn't painted, the thumbscrews are a joke, no dust filters. I like that you have the rad in the bottom though that draws air in directly from the side of the case.

I like the rad placement, but 92 mm fans? Not enough fans, fans too small. Price too big. 350 for a metal box? No way. Might as well go for a caselab.

 

[rds1220]

I forgot abou this thread so I'll make an update. I'm not going with the exterior mount on the Obsidian I'm going to sell that and get a full tower case that accepts water cooling better. I still really like the TJ07 and there's still a good chance I'll end up with that but Silverstone along with Murderbox is coming out with a new updated version of the TJ07 thats suppose to be alot better. I'm going to wait to see how that case looks its suppose to be out before the end of the year.

As for fans I agree so what I was going to do is mod it. If you look at Linus Tech Tips he has a TJ07 for his personal gaming computer and he does a good job modding it. He took out the 5.25 bay drive covers on the front panel and added two 140mm fans with a front rad. Then he used mesh covers to make it look nice. I'm probably going to do the same thing and use the two back fans as exaust along with the top two 120mm's. That along with water cooling should keep things pretty cool.