Watercooled Motherboard and O11 Distro Plate Question

[Mark-McG]

Hi Everyone,

 

Im considering building an ATX watercooled system in the 011 Dyanic (maybe razer edition). build will be:

 

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X

MoBo: ROG CROSSHAIR VIII FORMULA (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 CHIPSET ATX MOTHERBOARD

GPU: NVIDIA ASUS ROG STRIX RTX3090 

RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengance Pro RGB DDR4 LPX 3600 

Storage: 500GB Corsair MP600 SSD

Case: Lian Li 011 Dynamic

 

Water cooling: 

Corsair Hydro X CPU Block

GPU Block TBC

EK 011 Dynamic distro plate

2x Radiators TBC

6x Corsair QL120 RGB Fans 

 

My question is:

 

Would it be acceptable to have a run like this using the motherboard

 

DISTRO PLATE>>CPU>>MOTHERBOARD>>RAD>>DISTRO PLATE

 

Or is it more hassle than its worth? If so I would go for a Motherboard with standard cooling.

[VeganJoy]

seems that the order in which your components come in the loop doesnt matter as the water moves very fast and everything ends up at the same temps. watercooling the mobo is a bit of a waste as the vrms wont be getting hot enough for it to matter, especially with the bottom to top airflow in the o11. the hero is more than sufficient there. but its neat and if ekwb's formula bridge fits the crosshair thatd be a cool idea. think its only for the z490 formula though

[jaslion]

9 minutes ago, Mark-McG said:

Hi Everyone,

 

Im considering building an ATX watercooled system in the 011 Dyanic (maybe razer edition). build will be:

 

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X

MoBo: ROG CROSSHAIR VIII FORMULA (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 CHIPSET ATX MOTHERBOARD

GPU: NVIDIA ASUS ROG STRIX RTX3090 

RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengance Pro RGB DDR4 LPX 3600 

Storage: 500GB Corsair MP600 SSD

Case: Lian Li 011 Dynamic

 

Water cooling: 

Corsair Hydro X CPU Block

GPU Block TBC

EK 011 Dynamic distro plate

2x Radiators TBC

6x Corsair QL120 RGB Fans 

 

My question is:

 

Would it be acceptable to have a run like this using the motherboard

 

DISTRO PLATE>>CPU>>MOTHERBOARD>>RAD>>DISTRO PLATE

 

Or is it more hassle than its worth? If so I would go for a Motherboard with standard cooling.

Watercooling the motherboard is something totally not necessary. The vrm heatsinks are plenty on good boards and the o11 is a case that if configured correctly does not lack any airflow what so ever. All the motherboard watercooling would do is cause more flow obstruction and a slower flowrate.

 

For the o11 the most efficient setup is to have 2x360mm rads one top one bottom with all fans going intake. This will result in the best cooling possible. Are you going for the O11 or the O11 XL? The razer edition is basically just a sticker put on the front (yes it's not a sticker it's a bit better than that but that is how it looks and it does not look nice when looking from the inside).

 

Run wise there are plenty of examples with using the distro plate and most just pull straight lines from the component to the plate which looks nice. Order of the components doesn't really matter.

 

 

[HM-2]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

For the o11 the most efficient setup is to have 2x360mm rads one top one bottom with all fans going intake. 

My understanding is that on a non-XL the optimum setup is lower fans intaking through small radiator and top fans exhausting through large one. That ensures slight positive pressure and consistent airflow; the actual temperature increase created by a single pass of 30/40mm radiator cooling is negligible. Hotboxing your system is seldom ideal.

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, HM-2 said:

My understanding is that on a non-XL the optimum setup is lower fans intaking through small radiator and top fans exhausting through large one. That ensures slight positive pressure and consistent airflow; the actual temperature increase created by a single pass of 30/40mm radiator cooling is negligible. Hotboxing your system is seldom ideal.

This is not the best setup. This causes the top rad to run at massively reduced efficiency to such a point that it being there will not really help much with temperatures as well heated up air isn't gonna cool a liquid that is the same temperature. Having both as intake is going to create a very positive pressure system. On either case this is the best config when using the distribution plate.

[HM-2]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

On either case this is the best config when using the distribution plate.

I'm not sure I agree, especially when using a distro plate. On the Dynamic there's pretty much zero ventilation that isn't going to be covered with either rads or distro plates. Having that high a positive pressure strikes me as doing no more than impeding fan static pressure and reducing cooling efficiency. 

 

Assuming you're only running a 30-40mm radiator at the bottom as that's all you can comfortably fit with an ATX board in a standard Dynamic, my thinking is the temperature of the air exiting the rad into the case is really not likely to be substantially higher than ambient. 

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, HM-2 said:

I'm not sure I agree, especially when using a distro plate. On the Dynamic there's pretty much zero ventilation that isn't going to be covered with either rads or distro plates. Having that high a positive pressure strikes me as doing no more than impeding fan static pressure and reducing cooling efficiency. 

 

Assuming you're only running a 30-40mm radiator at the bottom as that's all you can comfortably fit with an ATX board in a standard Dynamic, my thinking is the temperature of the air exiting the rad into the case is really not likely to be substantially higher than ambient. 

Thing is the case isn't sealed off with the distro plate. It still has a lot of gaps around it and the back fan cutout is made with 6 intake fans in mind. All intake delivers the best cooling in that case.

[HM-2]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

All intake delivers the best cooling in that case.

Given that I'm currently building a 2x 360 rad custom loop in an XL at the moment I'd be really grateful if you could provide figures to back up those claims, if you have them? I might re-evaluate my fan placement if there's actual evidence suggesting better cooling with all-intakes...

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, HM-2 said:

Given that I'm currently building a 2x 360 rad custom loop in an XL at the moment I'd be really grateful if you could provide figures to back up those claims, if you have them? I might re-evaluate my fan placement if there's actual evidence suggesting better cooling with all-intakes...

All I have is people on the internet saying that their temps are better with all intake. So that is as far as data goes. I can also totally see why as there is more than enough outlet for air everywhere when all are intake.

[MaratM]

8 hours ago, HM-2 said:

Given that I'm currently building a 2x 360 rad custom loop in an XL at the moment I'd be really grateful if you could provide figures to back up those claims, if you have them? I might re-evaluate my fan placement if there's actual evidence suggesting better cooling with all-intakes...

I use o11d with 3 360 rads and the temps are fine

bottom intake, side and top exhaust, It does make sense that if both top and bottom are intakes the temps might be a slightly cooler, but it all depends on the goal you need to achieve, if these couple degrees on the CPU or GPU will make any difference for your every day use. I could try to get some data but it is a pain in the bottom to disassemble the whole rig just to swap the fans around.

I have to "identical" rigs - 8700k+1080ti both watercooled but one of them has 3 360 rads and the other 2 240 rads as for the temps and noise the temp difference on CPU and GPU and coolant is better with 3 rads, but only a couple of degrees and the small rig is very slightly louder.

both of them are in my signature.