How much Rad Do I really need

[Ninjasupahsquid]

So... Heres the deal... Planning a new build for the future when GPU's are actually attainable

 

I have 3 cases in mind... each with varying amounts of radiator capacity

 

Less Radiator

 

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-OMEGA RGB (1x 360mm) Intake through the Front, Exhaust through the Top and Back

 

Medium Radiator

 

Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB (1x 360mm 2x 280mm) Intake through the Front, Exhaust out the Top,bottom, and back

 

FULL RADIATOR!!!!

 

Corsair ICUE 7000X RGB (2x 480mm) Intake through the front and side, Exhaust out the top and back

 

I am not very knowledgeable in how well each size radiator will cool a given system but I'm hoping thats where you can help.

 

I will be building a system with these specs:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X

Mobo: Asus Rog Crosshair VIII Hero (WIFI)

Ram: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8GB DDR4-3200 CL14

GPU: ANY 3080 I can manage to get my hands on

 

I will be overclocking the snot out of these components... and I want them to be Cooler than Samuel l. Jackson

I would prefer to use the least amount of radiators possible (less points of failure) but at the same time I know what kind of hardware I am going to shove into this thing. the 7000x is only if I VASTLY underestimated the cooling potential of the 680x... I want this thing to effectively be a 1000w Space heater... I want as little heat in the system as possible without running into diminishing returns.

 

Now I pass the question off to you... 

 

Will I be best off with the

A. Spec-Omega

B. 680x

C. 7000x

Edit:

The keen eyed among you will recognize the mainly corsair components in the build... I am an RGB whore... and my ocd will not allow me to have different RGB ecosystems in the same machine, and I hear that you can (jankily) sync that Crosshair VIII with Icue...

 

 

 

[LIGISTX]

3 minutes ago, Ninjasupahsquid said:

So... Heres the deal... Planning a new build for the future when GPU's are actually attainable

 

I have 3 cases in mind... each with varying amounts of radiator capacity

 

Less Radiator

 

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-OMEGA RGB (1x 360mm) Intake through the Front, Exhaust through the Top and Back

 

Medium Radiator

 

Corsair Crystal Series 680X RGB (1x 360mm 2x 280mm) Intake through the Front, Exhaust out the Top,bottom, and back

 

FULL RADIATOR!!!!

 

Corsair ICUE 7000X RGB (2x 480mm) Intake through the front and side, Exhaust out the top and back

 

I am not very knowledgeable in how well each size radiator will cool a given system but I'm hoping thats where you can help.

 

I will be building a system with these specs:

CPU: Ryzen 9 3950X

Mobo: Asus Rog Crosshair VIII Hero (WIFI)

Ram: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8GB DDR4-3200 CL14

GPU: ANY 3080 I can manage to get my hands on

 

I will be overclocking the snot out of these components... and I want them to be Cooler than Samuel l. Jackson

I would prefer to use the least amount of radiators possible (less points of failure) but at the same time I know what kind of hardware I am going to shove into this thing. the 7000x is only if I VASTLY underestimated the cooling potential of the 680x... I want this thing to effectively be a 1000w Space heater... I want as little heat in the system as possible without running into diminishing returns.

 

Now I pass the question off to you... 

 

Will I be best off with the

A. Spec-Omega

B. 680x

C. 7000x

Why a 3950x? Do you already have it? 5000 series is a decently good upgrade over 3000 series.

 

But either way, what is the reason you want to water cool? This is a big contributor to requirements for rad sapce.

 

I water cool for the noise reduction it provides. Its a PITA due to maintenance complexity and when you have to swap parts its not exactly a quick pull something out and replace. But the noise reduction is provides is what is worth it to me, and because I enjoy it...

 

If you just want it to work and don't mind noise, honestly a 240 with fans cranked would do it most likely... but that is sort of not worth it. Radiators are the cheap part of a loop. GPU blocks are 100-150 each, CPU blocks are ~80+, hell I have over 100 dollars in fittings in my loop... All in my loop costs about 700 bucks, and I think 180 of that is radiators. Point here is, rads are not very expensive in the scheme of it, so might as well get as many as you can fit in order to reduce noise.

 

 

Look in my sig, I run a 10700k @ 5.1 and a 2080 @ 2025 on a 60mm thick 280 up front and a 45mm 420 up top. With that, in games and ambient of about 75f, my GPU stays under 50c and my CPU stays in the 50's sometimes in the low 60's. And and at those temps my fans are all 900 rpm or less which is pretty quiet. At idle I have all fans turn off except the top 3 140's on the top rad, and I have them spin at 600 rpm so its dead silent at idle.

 

So, how much rad space do you need, well its up to what you want the loop to do for you. If you want max quiet, with that hardware, you likely need about the same as I have depending on what temps you are ok with. I wouldn't mind if my GPU ran up to 60c, but realistically the GPU will always be 15+c cooler then CPU, and I don't want CPU going up over ~75c in games. So I have my fan curves in corsair link tuned to keep temps under control without being too loud. If you don't mind a little noise or don't mind a bit of temp, you need less rad space. If you don't want those things, you need more. Good rule of thumb is 240 worth of rad space per high performance component is "good". 

[fonzz1e]

15 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Its a PITA due to maintenance complexity and when you have to swap parts its not exactly a quick pull something out and replace.

i went with alphacool tpv 16mm epdm soft tubing (same like EK ZMT) with 16mm barrow fittings

just swap my i7 4770k to ryzen 3600 few weeks back without draining or disassembling

 

@Ninjasupahsquid

if this is your 1st time i'd say go with soft tubing 1st, and fittings will cost u a lot (soft tubing cost a bit less)

and for GPU u might wanna do some research since not all waterblock fits the same AIB GPU

 

since the 7000X already comes with 140mm fans might as well get 420mm/280mm rads

[Ninjasupahsquid]

1 hour ago, LIGISTX said:

Why a 3950x? Do you already have it? 5000 series is a decently good upgrade over 3000 series.

 

But either way, what is the reason you want to water cool? This is a big contributor to requirements for rad sapce.

 

I water cool for the noise reduction it provides. Its a PITA due to maintenance complexity and when you have to swap parts its not exactly a quick pull something out and replace. But the noise reduction is provides is what is worth it to me, and because I enjoy it...

 

If you just want it to work and don't mind noise, honestly a 240 with fans cranked would do it most likely... but that is sort of not worth it. Radiators are the cheap part of a loop. GPU blocks are 100-150 each, CPU blocks are ~80+, hell I have over 100 dollars in fittings in my loop... All in my loop costs about 700 bucks, and I think 180 of that is radiators. Point here is, rads are not very expensive in the scheme of it, so might as well get as many as you can fit in order to reduce noise.

 

 

Look in my sig, I run a 10700k @ 5.1 and a 2080 @ 2025 on a 60mm thick 280 up front and a 45mm 420 up top. With that, in games and ambient of about 75f, my GPU stays under 50c and my CPU stays in the 50's sometimes in the low 60's. And and at those temps my fans are all 900 rpm or less which is pretty quiet. At idle I have all fans turn off except the top 3 140's on the top rad, and I have them spin at 600 rpm so its dead silent at idle.

 

So, how much rad space do you need, well its up to what you want the loop to do for you. If you want max quiet, with that hardware, you likely need about the same as I have depending on what temps you are ok with. I wouldn't mind if my GPU ran up to 60c, but realistically the GPU will always be 15+c cooler then CPU, and I don't want CPU going up over ~75c in games. So I have my fan curves in corsair link tuned to keep temps under control without being too loud. If you don't mind a little noise or don't mind a bit of temp, you need less rad space. If you don't want those things, you need more. Good rule of thumb is 240 worth of rad space per high performance component is "good". 

Meant to write 5950x... I edited it...

Main reason I want to watercool is so I can get the most out of overclocking... seeing as that can be one of the limiting factors in overclocking...

With the rest of your comment in mind... I think ill do the Crystal Series 680x... It should keep everything nice and cool... Hopefully

[LIGISTX]

4 minutes ago, Ninjasupahsquid said:

Meant to write 5950x... I edited it...

Main reason I want to watercool is so I can get the most out of overclocking... seeing as that can be one of the limiting factors in overclocking...

With the rest of your comment in mind... I think ill do the Crystal Series 680x... It should keep everything nice and cool... Hopefully

A nice noctua heatsink will do just as well to be honest. At that point your luck in the silicon lottery means more then your cooling solution, NHD15 vs custom water.

 

Custom water will run cooler, but unless you really enjoy the “art” and process of water cooling, the OC difference isn’t much. It’s main advantage is noise. Like I said, my loop was over 700 bucks, for 1/7th that you can get a NHD15 which will not be much different for gaming loads. Silicon lottery will matter at this point. But if you think you will enjoy the process and don’t spend the “not really worth it” price premium, go for it, it’s certainly fun. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

3 hours ago, Ninjasupahsquid said:

I will be overclocking the snot out of these components... and I want them to be Cooler than Samuel l. Jackson

Are you just talking regular heavy overclock or extreme overclock?

 

If you are talking extreme overclock then you could hook up a waterchiller to your system and run your components at ambient, though i absolutely do not reccomend going sub ambient or subzero if you havent insulated the parts that you are gonna be watercooling, not to mention having a coolant that doesnt freeze

 

linus has made a video on this called chilling threadripper 2 if i remember correctly

 

 

if you just wanna heavy overclock then the custom loop will do you well since its actually worth building a custom loop if you are gonna oc the crap out of your cpu and gpu, unlike building a custom loop purely for asthetics and only getting the downsides whilst not harnessing the benifits

 

 

3 hours ago, Ninjasupahsquid said:

CPU: Ryzen 9 5950X

Mobo: Asus Rog Crosshair VIII Hero (WIFI)

Ram: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 4x8GB DDR4-3200 CL14

GPU: ANY 3080 I can manage to get my hands on

If you arent using any productivity programs that require a crap ton of cores then go for a 5900x or 5800x instead

 

Great board for ocing but why not go for the dark hero instead?

 

Not sure if i can bash the ram since its cl14 and most cl14 rams are rgb and expensive asf

 

 

Seems ok for a max performance ocing build