Radiator Placement

[LuigiNumber1]

So, in the near future i am going to buy a new GPU and an AIO cooler for my CPU. I have decided to go with one of GIGABYTE's waterforce cards since I don't want to have to go through the stress of setting up a custom loop. 

Anyway my question is, if i were to have these two components in my rig then it would involve two radiators (CPU: 280mm, GPU: 240mm). My case can support these but i was just wondering about placement. Would it be best to have the CPU radiator at the front as an intake and the GPU rad as an exhaust on the back top or the other way round? There is also a 120mm exhaust fan at the back. I've also heard that having a negative air pressure inside the case is better than positive.

 

Also what would be the best way to completely remove Radeon software/drivers as the new GPU would be Nvidia?

[kelvinhall05]

From what you've described, it sounds like you're planning to have your intake fans suck air through your CPU radiator which heats it up, and then put that air through the GPU radiator.

 

 

If that's the case, your GPU will have poor thermal performance and it's just overall not a great idea. Also, why no air cooling? If you're gonna watercool everything, even a cheap and easy softline loop will perfom better than two seperate AIOs.

[Bombastinator]

I prefer slight positive over slight negative myself simply because dust isn’t sucked into corners and cracks where it is hard to remove. Heavy negative and heavy positive are both bad.  It’s possible heavy negative is less bad than heavy positive though.

[For Science!]

Whatever you do, keep a portion above the pump otherwise you may experience premature failure.

[LuigiNumber1]

1 hour ago, kelvinhall05 said:

From what you've described, it sounds like you're planning to have your intake fans suck air through your CPU radiator which heats it up, and then put that air through the GPU radiator.

 

 

If that's the case, your GPU will have poor thermal performance and it's just overall not a great idea. Also, why no air cooling? If you're gonna watercool everything, even a cheap and easy softline loop will perfom better than two seperate AIOs.

Could I put both gpu and cpu radiators as intake then if that would be a better option?

[LuigiNumber1]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

I prefer slight positive over slight negative myself simply because dust isn’t sucked into corners and cracks where it is hard to remove. Heavy negative and heavy positive are both bad.  It’s possible heavy negative is less bad than heavy positive though.

So would you suggest having both radiators as intake and then the one fan as exhaust or is that too positive?

[kelvinhall05]

3 minutes ago, LuigiNumber1 said:

Could I put both gpu and cpu radiators as intake then if that would be a better option?

Yeah, but I would still aircool.

[LuigiNumber1]

8 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Yeah, but I would still aircool.

Do you mean like GPU air cooled and CPU liquid or are you talking about something else?

[LuigiNumber1]

1 hour ago, For Science! said:

Whatever you do, keep a portion above the pump otherwise you may experience premature failure.

What do you mean by "portion above the pump" and "premature failure"?

[Bombastinator]

9 minutes ago, LuigiNumber1 said:

So would you suggest having both radiators as intake and then the one fan as exhaust or is that too positive?

I would call that pretty hardcore positive.  The issue is your chip cooling fans are also your i/o so whether the case is positive or negative would depend on how hot they were running.

 

if all the fans ran at the same rpm all the time I would put the 280 up front in, the 240 up top out, and the 120(140?) in back out.  At the same rpm the 280 in front should produce just a bit more air than the 240 and the 120 because they’re smaller and probably running relatively slow vs their diameter. (800 rpms is kinda fast for a 140 but not fast at all for a 120) Thing is that’s going to vary.

[LuigiNumber1]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I would call that pretty hardcore positive.  The issue is your chip cooling fans are also your i/o so whether the case is positive or negative would depend on how hot they were running.

 

if all the fans ran at the same rpm all the time I would put the 280 up front in, the 240 up top out, and the 120(140?) in back out.  At the same rpm the 280 in front should produce just a bit more air than the 240 and the 120 because they’re smaller and probably running relatively slow vs their diameter. (800 rpms is kinda fast for a 140 but not fast at all for a 120) Thing is that’s going to vary.

So basically just keep all fans at same RPM? also the back 120mm fan is just an exhaust fan. So also are you saying have the 240 rad as intake or exhaust? Here is an image from someone who sort of had the same problem but they have a custom loop but it should still give you an idea...

[Bombastinator]

No, top arrows going up.... and that looks a bit different than described.  I need to look at that pic for a sec..

Edited January 25, 2020 by Bombastinator
Hmmm

[Bombastinator]

SLI GPUs, single resovoirless  closed loop.  Really thick radiators for AIO.  2 fans in front that look like 120s.  Can’t tell anything about the top fans.

 

I was assuming 2 120s top facing out, 2 140s in front facing in, 1 120 in back facing out.

thats what looks like 2 360s.  Thick ones.

[LuigiNumber1]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

SLI GPUs, single resovoirless  closed loop.  Really thick radiators for AIO.  2 fans in front that look like 120s.  Can’t tell anything about the top fans.

 

I was assuming 2 120s top facing out, 2 140s in front facing in, 1 120 in back facing out.

thats what looks like 2 360s.  Thick ones.

thats not my setup thats just an example of what i could do. So would you have front intake and back and top exhaust?

[For Science!]

6 hours ago, LuigiNumber1 said:

What do you mean by "portion above the pump" and "premature failure"?

if the pump is physicallly the high point air will accumulate there over time. A pump running with air in it will wear out significantly faster and eventually stop working.

[LuigiNumber1]

37 minutes ago, For Science! said:

if the pump is physicallly the high point air will accumulate there over time. A pump running with air in it will wear out significantly faster and eventually stop working.

Ah ok, thank you

[kelvinhall05]

9 hours ago, LuigiNumber1 said:

Do you mean like GPU air cooled and CPU liquid or are you talking about something else?

I would aircool both, but if you insist on watercooling your CPU, that's also fine.