Best radiator setup for AIO GPU

[shadow85]

I have a MSI Sea Hawk X RTX 2080 Ti.

Currently the radiator/fan is mounted to the rear of the case as exhaust. It is hitting 69°C with a few minutes of gaming.

 

What is a better setup for my Corsair 900D case. Should I have the GPU radiator fan on the side or front of the case for intake?

Is the fan on the GPU suppose to be connected to the motherboard or can it be left on the GPU connection from factory?

[Cb2394]

Hey,  novice myself when it comes to water cooling,  but I would believe that you want to push and/or pull cool air through the rad, which would be better achieved by intake rather than exhaust, as you're exhausting the hot air from inside the case.

 

Basically, if my logic is correct, and it might not be, if so correct me, but you can only keep the water in the rad as cool as the air moving through it,  and because it's exhaust air,  you're keeping it at the ambient temperature inside your case instead of the ambient temperature outside the case.

[shadow85]

Ok that sounds good.

 

I am going to re-arrange the GPUs rad location then. Since I have the Corsair 900D case, I have no chance of having the Rad reach the front as an intake, so I will place it on the side bottom of the case as an intake.

[Tristerin]

Leave this as exhaust.  You can push pull config for better temps.  The air blowing across the radiator will be much colder than the temp of the liquid heating up the metal of your radiator.  So your case temps incoming will determine the overall case temps average if you are concerned with this introducing more heat into the GPU

 

Intaking HOT air (intaking any radiator) is never optimal compared to intaking the coldest air possible.  Your 2080 Ti is running in VERY acceptable temp limits.

 

 

[shadow85]

Yes it is running acceptable 2080 Ti temps.

 

But I still think it is unacceptable for a water cooled card running factory OC clock speeds.

 

I manually set fan speed to 80% and that got the tempa down to 64°C. Still not that great. So later tonight I will try intake setup on the side.

[Mick Naughty]

Depends on what else is in the case. What cpu cooler? 

Id use it as intake as it’s prolly a 120 rad which is barely enough for anything now. Give it the best chance it can at cooling something. Leave the fan as it is so you can control it based on gpu easier. 

 

Also may have to check the orientation of the rad is some tend to have air in them still and can cause temp issues. 

[shadow85]

Ok so moved the radiator as intake to the bottom side of the case.

 

Using the stock fan and a Corsaor SP120 in a push/pull configuration and that has dropped the temps to 57°C after 1 hour of 4K gaming in The Evil Within 2, also with a +50 core overclock bringing me to 2010 MHz.

So the temps are much more acceptable and better but still think there could be improvements.

[airdeano]

27 minutes ago, shadow85 said:

Ok so moved the radiator as intake to the bottom side of the case.

not a good move. the radiator acts as also the reservoir. trapping air (to allow expansion) from the system. mounting the radiator low will push the air into the pump, causing cavitation. cavitation will kill a pump causing overheating issues. do not mount the AIO radiator lower than the pump.

 

best mounting for an AIO radiator is higher than the pump:

from this, the air is trapped in the top of the radiator and will not be pulled into the pump causing pump death.

[Guest]

*asks for advice* *proceeds to ignore advice of people doing this for years*

[Tristerin]

7 minutes ago, nick11682 said:

*asks for advice* *proceeds to ignore advice of people doing this for years*

bwuahahaha - next post - why is my CPU temps so high (pump hasn't failed yet) - then will explain orientation and (while all this can be negated by an extreme exhaust) then get told this is bad for not only his GPU, but over CPU temps because the case is now hotter...blah blah - oh well at least his pump will fail before the CPU takes any damage.

[shadow85]

Ok maybe I should have made it clear that I was looking at ways to better the temps, I mislead people by asking best way to setup the radiator placement.

 

I ultimately wanted to lower the temps and I have achieved this by placing the radiator fan as intake on the bottom of the case.

 

But so far there have been about 50/50 contradicting suggestions on what is the best way to set it up. I asked this exact question in another forum and some members there told me to mount it on the front as intake where as on this thread people have stated something else to do. Based on all theconflicitng feedback, I decided I needed to test my setup another way hence this is why I brang the radiator to the front as an intake.

 

I was not trying to ignore anyones advice, I was just gathering as much opinions as possible and making my own assessments from it thank you nick11862.

 

19 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

bwuahahaha - next post - why is my CPU temps so high (pump hasn't failed yet) - then will explain orientation and (while all this can be negated by an extreme exhaust) then get told this is bad for not only his GPU, but over CPU temps because the case is now hotter...blah blah - oh well at least his pump will fail before the CPU takes any damage.

Bro what meds are you on? My AIO CPU cooler has maintained a max temp of 66°C under load including now and after the way I adjusted my GPU radiator placement. Are you delerious or something, I have nothing at all to complain about on my CPU temps??? Lol

[Tristerin]

13 minutes ago, shadow85 said:

Bro what meds are you on? My AIO CPU cooler has maintained a max temp of 66°C under load including now and after the way I adjusted my GPU radiator placement. Are you delerious or something, I have nothing at all to complain about on my CPU temps??? Lol

I run a 125w CPU at 50c max, but I know nothing of temps.  Or AIOs - you the pro bro so just do you till it fails!

 

OP - in the end there are multiple configurations.  However there is usually only 1 optimal per case.  I mean it cant really be any other way right?  Then everything else is at the sacrifice of something else.  

 

Just make sure you read the post in this topic of yours regarding pump failure due to orienting the radiator below the pump.  

[thedangerine]

3 hours ago, shadow85 said:

Ok maybe I should have made it clear that I was looking at ways to better the temps, I mislead people by asking best way to setup the radiator placement.

 

I ultimately wanted to lower the temps and I have achieved this by placing the radiator fan as intake on the bottom of the case.

 

But so far there have been about 50/50 contradicting suggestions on what is the best way to set it up. I asked this exact question in another forum and some members there told me to mount it on the front as intake where as on this thread people have stated something else to do. Based on all theconflicitng feedback, I decided I needed to test my setup another way hence this is why I brang the radiator to the front as an intake.

 

I was not trying to ignore anyones advice, I was just gathering as much opinions as possible and making my own assessments from it thank you nick11862.

 

Bro what meds are you on? My AIO CPU cooler has maintained a max temp of 66°C under load including now and after the way I adjusted my GPU radiator placement. Are you delerious or something, I have nothing at all to complain about on my CPU temps??? Lol

If I have learned anything about the tech community its that no one ever agrees with each other and that anything that doesn't match up with their opinion on how something should be done is completely wrong and stupid. Do whatever it is that you feel is best for your build based on trying out different arrangements and enjoy what sounds like a sick rig