Advice on loop planning

[Jupsik]

Hey, 

 

I'm in need of some advice regarding planning my first custom loop. The aim of the loop is to increase the silence of my pc and currently only involves cooling the cpu. The reason being that the games I play will most likely run on my phone, but are cpu intensive. Thus the only thing that really makes proper noise is the 240mm aio cooling my 5800x. At some point, once my gpu is due for an update (currently using 1080ti), I plan to add the gpu to the loop as well. If need be, I can expand the loop at that point as well.

 

My case is the fractal define C, which I would I would like to keep using. My question is whether to go with (i) a single 240mm rad on top, (ii) a 280mm rad in the front, or (iii) both. The aim being a significant reduction of noise in comparison to my current 240mm aio (x52 kraken). I also currently already have 2x 140mm noctua fans in the front which I think I can keep reusing for a potential 280mm rad. And 1 more note, that 280mm option would have clearance issues due to the length of the GPU, thus 1 of the fans would need to be located inside the space of the front cover and airflow to that fan would consequently be restricted. 

 

For comparison, the 5800x seems to be a hot one and to keep the cpu temp below 70c, my aio runs at full pump speed and about 75% (@65c) - 90% (@70c) fan speed when gaming. Under a gaming load, the coolant goes ~20c over ambient (22c room temp, vs 42c coolant temp). 

 

Any advice is appreciated. 

[For Science!]

20 minutes ago, Jupsik said:

Hey, 

 

I'm in need of some advice regarding planning my first custom loop. The aim of the loop is to increase the silence of my pc and currently only involves cooling the cpu. The reason being that the games I play will most likely run on my phone, but are cpu intensive. Thus the only thing that really makes proper noise is the 240mm aio cooling my 5800x. At some point, once my gpu is due for an update (currently using 1080ti), I plan to add the gpu to the loop as well. If need be, I can expand the loop at that point as well.

 

My case is the fractal define C, which I would I would like to keep using. My question is whether to go with (i) a single 240mm rad on top, (ii) a 280mm rad in the front, or (iii) both. The aim being a significant reduction of noise in comparison to my current 240mm aio (x52 kraken). I also currently already have 2x 140mm noctua fans in the front which I think I can keep reusing for a potential 280mm rad. And 1 more note, that 280mm option would have clearance issues due to the length of the GPU, thus 1 of the fans would need to be located inside the space of the front cover and airflow to that fan would consequently be restricted. 

 

For comparison, the 5800x seems to be a hot one and to keep the cpu temp below 70c, my aio runs at full pump speed and about 75% (@65c) - 90% (@70c) fan speed when gaming. Under a gaming load, the coolant goes ~20c over ambient (22c room temp, vs 42c coolant temp). 

 

Any advice is appreciated. 

More radiators is better, especially for multi component loops. The Define C is a tight fit for most things, but I think you should be able to get front and rear radiators in, you can see various builds in the C-series case in my signature.