Enough rads or do I need one more?

sl06bhytmar · October 24, 2016

Hello,

I posted my problem here earlier and I kept long time searching for ideal radiator

Well anyway now that I have given up finding that kind special radiator decided to use my AIO water coolers still as mock up until Christmas...

Now I calculated GTX 770 @ 1215, 1.2V + 2600k @ 4.5GHz, 1.42V is about 430W (minus GPU VRM TDP) total so I was wondering would two rads be enough or should I mount additional 120 or 140mm radiator to front panel also.

Ignore fans coming out of the case, I didn't have enough short screws so used longer ones for time being until I go and buy shorter ones (tough I kinda like the look).

What do you say another radiator needed? Temps are for 2600k are 70C for package, 72 for cores, for GPU it is 50C for package.

Mounting extra radiator to front panel would be pushing it hard to keep everything inside the good old Lian Li PC-Q08B

RollinLower · October 24, 2016

the general rule is to have 120mm of rad space for every component + an additional 120mm. so 3 120mm rads or a 240 and a 120mm rad would be ideal i think.

Naeaes · October 24, 2016

I just love it how Lian-Li cases never end up looking like the engineers intended. For whatever random reason you just have to remove or add something weird. Luckily aluminum is easy to work with. Keep it, man!

I'd say one more 1x120mm wouldn't be useless but your currents temps aren't a huge problem either. If I were you, I'd just get higher RPM fans and a manual controller.

sl06bhytmar · October 24, 2016

37 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

I just love it how Lian-Li cases never end up looking like the engineers intended. For whatever random reason you just have to remove or add something weird. Luckily aluminum is easy to work with. Keep it, man!

I'd say one more 1x120mm wouldn't be useless but your currents temps aren't a huge problem either. If I were you, I'd just get higher RPM fans and a manual controller.

Well yeah, dremeling didn't take took too long... First time using small rotatory tools to cut holes but I think I almost nailed the roof cut perfectly (just one oops and lightly tilted) and used first internet search for 240mm radiator fan hole template but guess somebody has been clicking that 24.5mm fan spacing 240mm radiator template a lot. Well it left convenient spacing for cable or tube routing.

I am kinda glad that I can still use 5.25" bay for small device like card reader or resevoir when its total length (cables / tubes included) doesn't exceed 80mm.

Currently using Gentletyphoon AP14 and AP15 (1450 and 1850 rpm) fans that I had stored away when I heard Scythe won't be able to manufacture these anymore. And for manual controller I had a controller with auto or manual setting for fans before but in the end once I had set wanted noise level I stopped playing with settings. So probably just going to use simple 5,7,9 or 12V invidual channel stepper board.

So yeah seems like I need to start plan how do I fit the frontal radiator... I would say there is 45mm clearance before radiator or fan touches the HDD cage or comes out from front panel.

Edit: Also found that you can re-use AIO coolers, turns out it is pretty simple process so probably going to save nice penny when I combine the old AOI coolers into same loop with a new reservoir and additional radiator (probably trying to get salvaged 120mm AIO cooler rad for free).