Radiator for low noice

[William_D]

Looking for a radiator with a quiete system without sacrificing to much performance being the main goal. Looking to run dual 360 rads. Running a 5900X and a 1080 ti so 2x360 is hopefully more then enough to the point where i can run the fans at very low speeds. 

I've seen alot of conflicting info on what rad to choose for this but the Hardwarelabs GTX, GTS and SR2 all come up as contenders.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[ChrisLoudon]

Hi buddy, as you said, 2 x 360 for those components is probably overkill even with an moderate overclock on both.

 

You should be able to get good cooling performance and more importantly low noise levels with 6 x120 fans running a low rpm.

 

My only note would be to say that radiators with a greater fin density or thick rads might have better cooling capacity due to increased surface area BUT you will need to run your fans at a higher rpm to push or pull through increased resistance.

 

I can't comment on Hardwarelabs kit as I've always gone for EK stuff

[Analog]

If you want to run the fans at super low speeds you will need a rad, with low fin density. I as well, can't comment on the Hardwarelabs components. I went with EK myself as well. Still, running two 360mm rads for your setup is completely overkill and you will be spending unnecessarily. Just for comparison, I got 3900X overclocked to 4.4GHz, which on this processor is pretty much the limit, regardless of voltage, and I have it cooled by a 360mm and a 120mm.  Got some Arctic P12 fans and have those locked at 1200RPM, at which point they are dead silent. Max temp I get on the CPU is 77C and that is when stress testing. Under normal usage, the temps never break 65C. So yeah, if you want to have the dual 360mm rads just for the looks, then go ahead, but I don't think that it will be necessary. Depending on which case you have you might be better of with a single 480mm radiator if you can fit that or instead a single 360mm plus perhaps an additional 120mm, should be enough. 

[William_D]

2 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Hi buddy, as you said, 2 x 360 for those components is probably overkill even with an moderate overclock on both.

 

You should be able to get good cooling performance and more importantly low noise levels with 6 x120 fans running a low rpm.

 

My only note would be to say that radiators with a greater fin density or thick rads might have better cooling capacity due to increased surface area BUT you will need to run your fans at a higher rpm to push or pull through increased resistance.

 

I can't comment on Hardwarelabs kit as I've always gone for EK stuff

Rads seem to come either thick with low fpi or thin with high fpi. Know of any low fpi slim rads like what you mentioned?

[William_D]

1 hour ago, Analog said:

If you want to run the fans at super low speeds you will need a rad, with low fin density. I as well, can't comment on the Hardwarelabs components. I went with EK myself as well. Still, running two 360mm rads for your setup is completely overkill and you will be spending unnecessarily. Just for comparison, I got 3900X overclocked to 4.4GHz, which on this processor is pretty much the limit, regardless of voltage, and I have it cooled by a 360mm and a 120mm.  Got some Arctic P12 fans and have those locked at 1200RPM, at which point they are dead silent. Max temp I get on the CPU is 77C and that is when stress testing. Under normal usage, the temps never break 65C. So yeah, if you want to have the dual 360mm rads just for the looks, then go ahead, but I don't think that it will be necessary. Depending on which case you have you might be better of with a single 480mm radiator if you can fit that or instead a single 360mm plus perhaps an additional 120mm, should be enough. 

When adding up the cost of the loop, another 360 seems like a cheap enough addition to lower fan speeds even more. If i could add another 360 and rund 600rpm i would. The goal is komplete silence. Alos thinking of adding a 3080 when and if they become available. So want enough headroom for that. In my mind a good rad is also something I can reuse for several loops.

[ChrisLoudon]

On 1/18/2021 at 3:19 PM, William_D said:

Know of any low fpi slim rads like what you mentioned?

Give the EK SE360 a look.

 

EK has the EX (thick), PE (normal) and SE (slim) range to suite almost every need.

 

They have a nice clean design but the only criticism I have with the EK rads is they only have a single option for flow and return connections. TBH with 360 rads, its unlikely you will have any clearance for anything other than the default positions of these but on smaller versions I cans see how its good to have the flexibility.

[William_D]

10 hours ago, ChrisLoudon said:

Give the EK SE360 a look.

 

EK has the EX (thick), PE (normal) and SE (slim) range to suite almost every need.

 

They have a nice clean design but the only criticism I have with the EK rads is they only have a single option for flow and return connections. TBH with 360 rads, its unlikely you will have any clearance for anything other than the default positions of these but on smaller versions I cans see how its good to have the flexibility.

The EX 360 still has a high fpi. Thick + dense would force me to run fans at higher speeds.

 

[OliTheBear]

3 hours ago, William_D said:

The EX 360 still has a high fpi. Thick + dense would force me to run fans at higher speeds.

 

 

According to EK their XE rads have a low fpi - https://www.ekwb.com/blog/radiators-part-1-thickness-fpi/

Quote

The EK-CoolStream SE radiators, also labeled as Slim Radiators, all have an FPI of 22, while the EK-CoolStream XE radiators pack 16 fins per one inch. The EK-CoolStream PE radiators are in between these two and have an FPI of 19, with a special „split fin design“.

 

Would have wished this to be on their product page though... I'm considering 2x480 XE's for a completely over-the-top build.