What is the best cooling method in a Corsair 4000 series case?

[askopte]

So a few days ago i posted a topic here for advices on a "D15S to CLC 280" upgrade. The replys uniformly suggests me to just kept the D15S. Unfortunately things goes south faster than i expected.

As it turns out the performance of D15S relies heavily on the ambient temperature and the air temperature inside the case. After a day of use (or gaming) the CPU (5900X) is much easier to throttle than in the morning of a day, especially the other heat source inside the case is a 450W beast GPU. So i started to find a better cooling solution, only to find out that i was in an awkward position because of the case(4000D Airflow). 

Don't get me wrong, i think this case is fantastic for its price and the airflow itself is very decent, but only when you are trying to cool down a overclocked 5900X, the problem start to occur. Overall there are these problems if i want to upgrade to a better cooling solution (280 AIO and better)

1. Front radiator problem: 360 aio fits, but only in a non-GN-approved way, and there really isn't that many affordable high-performance 360 AIO cooler in the market. Liquid freezer 2 is a good option, but the radiator is too thick to fit in the front. 280 aio fits well and the pricing is reasonable, but for a push-pull config it interferes with my GPU, no matter it is a slim rad aio or a liquid freezer ii.

2. Top radiator problem: 280 aio does not fit when you have a slightly taller ram. Ripjaws V is not the tallest ram, but still tall enough to invalid this option. (slim rad may fit, 240mm is not affected)

3. Exhaust fan problem: The rear of the case can only accommodate a 120mm fan, and the top mesh is pretty dense. My S12As can only move a bit of air through them.

4. Case size problem: Even if i saved enough money for a custom loop, this case is too small for one. 

 

So these are some ideas i have and i'd like to hear your opinions:

1. Wait till next-gen D15 and upgrade to the new fan (possible 1-2c improvement)

2. 240/280mm slim rad aio on the top (?c improvement) Example: CLC 280, EK AIO Basic 240

3. 280mm aio front with half push-pull and half push only (?c improvement) Example: Liquid Freezer 280

4. 360mm slim rad aio (?c improvement) Example: EK AIO Basic 360, H150i family

 

Thanks in advance.

[freeagent]

I would suggest fans rated @ higher than 60cfm, its hard to call something airflow orientated when every hole has a 45cfm fan running @ 500rpm

 

I am not sure on the case dimensions, but if it is a full sized case your going to want to move all the air you can. 

 

I would skip the next gen D15 and pick up a Thermalright Frost Commander 140, you can get them on Aliexpress right now. Its a badass cooler. Probably no reviews out yet. But its better than my Le Grand Macho RT, which is as good as a D15. Better in some ways actually.. but that's another conversation

 

Good luck 

 

[Quickstrike]

Well you have a thermodynamics problem here... Your D15 looses efficiency because the case gets heat saturated because the 4000D is such a small case. 

 

36 minutes ago, askopte said:

So these are some ideas i have and i'd like to hear your opinions:

1. Wait till next-gen D15 and upgrade to the new fan (possible 1-2c improvement)

2. 240/280mm slim rad aio on the top (?c improvement) Example: CLC 280, EK AIO Basic 240

3. 280mm aio front with half push-pull and half push only (?c improvement) Example: Liquid Freezer 280

4. 360mm slim rad aio (?c improvement) Example: EK AIO Basic 360, H150i family

 

Thanks in advance.

1. Wait till next-gen D15 and upgrade to the new fan (possible 1-2c improvement)
Granted the D15S is a good choice for standard air cooling  and light OC but you'll need more air flow and you're not going to get that in a budget case without adding some serious fan. If your are thermal throttling now it's not gonna get better.

2. 240/280mm slim rad aio on the top (?c improvement) Example: CLC 280, EK AIO Basic 240
Might work if you crank the fans to some serious level (to move air) but you wont have a lot of thermal mass there. Your loop might saturate.

3. 280mm aio front with half push-pull and half push only (?c improvement) Example: Liquid Freezer 280
If you pull in rad case in a case that resists air you just end up with a negative pressure setup. Go push but make sure you have enough fan taking to air out.

4. 360mm slim rad aio (?c improvement) Example: EK AIO Basic 360, H150i family

The H150i is by no means a slim rad. I've had problem fitting them in supposedly monstrous Be quiet case because of VRM heats sink on boards (a generally the case were not designed for air flow). Depending on your Mobo the rad might not fit.

BTW, you could mod the PSU shroud to fit a 360 AIO "the right way". Just use a rotary tool and the hoses on a Corsair 150 are long enough (put your fans on a push config).
BTW "the right way" means that the pump is not at the top, not that the tubes are up. In a 4000 your pump might be high but it would not be at the top of the loop, the hoses for the rad would be, the pump would not be pushing air for a long time.

Overall You have three choices, move more air, produce less heat of just ditch the case for something better.

Right now, you're fitting a V10 on a Honda Civic's frame.
You could lower voltage on your OC, put 4 140MM in there (2 front and 2 top) to get the air in there going, or get yourself a good case like the Mastercase h500 mesh, or the Phanteks Eclipse, or an open air setup like Thermaltake Core P3 series, you know... cases actually made for overclocking and moving air.

Oh last piece of advice, steer clear of EVGA and DEEP cool AIOs... I've had personals experiences. Corsair units never crapped out on me

My 2 cents

[askopte]

Thanks for your reply. I avoided to change the case because i just upgraded to this one to deal with the heat from the 3080 (old one is a NZXT H500, even worse), but i guess i don't have a choice now. 

53 minutes ago, Quickstrike said:

You could lower voltage on your OC, put 4 140MM in there (2 front and 2 top) to get the air in there going, or get yourself a good case like the Mastercase h500 mesh, or the Phanteks Eclipse, or an open air setup like Thermaltake Core P3 series, you know... cases actually made for overclocking and moving air.

I'm already running 2x Arctic P14s as intake and 2x Noctua S12As as exhaust, so the next step is probably find a better case rather than better cooler (at least now). 

Currently i'm considering the new Meshify 2. Will that upgrade bring any performance improvement? (with D15S)

[Jeppes]

4000D airflow should be just fine. More likely that you just push too much voltage and expect unreasonable temps.

[askopte]

1 hour ago, Jeppes said:

More likely that you just push too much voltage and expect unreasonable temps.

Well currently i’m just letting PBO doing its job and expect not to throttle. (To be fair PBO does tend to push too much voltage, but from my perspective 1.26v@185w when stress testing was not that bad, at least comparing with Zen 2)

[Jeppes]

6 hours ago, askopte said:

Well currently i’m just letting PBO doing its job and expect not to throttle. (To be fair PBO does tend to push too much voltage, but from my perspective 1.26v@185w when stress testing was not that bad, at least comparing with Zen 2)

Auto-oc rarely makes any sense if you know even a little about over clocking. Just look into pbo2 and curve optimizer and you should get similar results with -20W:s.