Water cooling setup?

[guilhermehees]

Hi guys,

I want to water cool my PC and I need some help to choose the components. I have U$1000 - U$1100 and my setup is:

I7 4790k

Asus Maximus VI Extreme

3-way SLI GTX 780

Phanteks Enthoo Pro

I can't use push pull on my H100 because the fans hit the motherboard heatsink, so at the top a slim radiator will be required. A new case can be purchased too if it fits the budget (900D, Enthoo Primo maybe?)

Thanks for the help =)

[TheDudeWhoTriesHard]

When you say you have $1k-1.1k, you mean you have that much to spend for a cooler, right?

If so, I'll just go with what I've learned here in the forums, LTT YouTube channel and DazMode YouTube channel

1.) You have an Enthoo Pro. That is a playground for a custom water loop. So, follow this rule of thumb: 1 radiator fan slot per component (preferably 120mm fan and up and radiator fan slot per component) +1 fan slot for temperature safety.

2.) 900D and Enthoo Primo are pretty much balls to the walls for water cooling due to the amount of radiators that can be placed. But the Enthoo Pro is already close to what those two offer, and IIRC, the Enthoo Pro is half the price. Its pretty much enough. HOWEVER, you may have to sacrifice the bottom hard drive bay or both for a radiator on the floor next to the power supply or the front (which I prefer you don't do that because the heat gathered to the radiator being pushed inwards will just bring the heat back to the components externally... still bad and somewhat counter productive, but my vary)

3.) My suggestion: 360 radiator at the top (420 radiators are a bit iffy since XSPC's 420 rad is a tight fit), 240 at the front or 280 if you remove the optical drive bay if you aren't gonna use the hard drive cages and the optical drive bay (you may even fit a 360 in the front just by drilling holes), and a bit optional to mount a 240 or 140 (120 for easier compatibility) rad at the bottom (if you aren't gonna mount a rad infront, and if your PSU is short enough), and a 120 or 140 rad at the rear exhaust. Fans I'd recommend are: Noctua NF-F12/A14 brown or black, Corsair SP120/140 High Performance or Quiet, Noiseblocker fans (ask the others which model), and maybe Aerocool's Dead Silence series fans.

4.) Top mounted radiator set as pulling/pushing air out of the case, rear exhaust as pull or push outwards, bottom mounted rad as exhaust (may affect powersupply's intake) or pulling/pushing air down, and front rad as in-take (it is counter-productive and kinda looks stupid if its exhaust, when most if not all the air from outside of the case should go through the front... unless the airflow of your room blows air inside the case from the back of it)


Well, don't take my word for it. Better to gather as much info from the others as well. I'm serious when I say that there are gonna be people who are gonna give a better answer that suits yours. But if mine works for you, glad I could help

[guilhermehees]

When you say you have $1k-1.1k, you mean you have that much to spend for a cooler, right?

If so, I'll just go with what I've learned here in the forums, LTT YouTube channel and DazMode YouTube channel

1.) You have an Enthoo Pro. That is a playground for a custom water loop. So, follow this rule of thumb: 1 radiator fan slot per component (preferably 120mm fan and up and radiator fan slot per component) +1 fan slot for temperature safety.

2.) 900D and Enthoo Primo are pretty much balls to the walls for water cooling due to the amount of radiators that can be placed. But the Enthoo Pro is already close to what those two offer, and IIRC, the Enthoo Pro is half the price. Its pretty much enough. HOWEVER, you may have to sacrifice the bottom hard drive bay or both for a radiator on the floor next to the power supply or the front (which I prefer you don't do that because the heat gathered to the radiator being pushed inwards will just bring the heat back to the components externally... still bad and somewhat counter productive, but my vary)

3.) My suggestion: 360 radiator at the top (420 radiators are a bit iffy since XSPC's 420 rad is a tight fit), 240 at the front or 280 if you remove the optical drive bay if you aren't gonna use the hard drive cages and the optical drive bay (you may even fit a 360 in the front just by drilling holes), and a bit optional to mount a 240 or 140 (120 for easier compatibility) rad at the bottom (if you aren't gonna mount a rad infront, and if your PSU is short enough), and a 120 or 140 rad at the rear exhaust. Fans I'd recommend are: Noctua NF-F12/A14 brown or black, Corsair SP120/140 High Performance or Quiet, Noiseblocker fans (ask the others which model), and maybe Aerocool's Dead Silence series fans.

4.) Top mounted radiator set as pulling/pushing air out of the case, rear exhaust as pull or push outwards, bottom mounted rad as exhaust (may affect powersupply's intake) or pulling/pushing air down, and front rad as in-take (it is counter-productive and kinda looks stupid if its exhaust, when most if not all the air from outside of the case should go through the front... unless the airflow of your room blows air inside the case from the back of it)

Well, don't take my word for it. Better to gather as much info from the others as well. I'm serious when I say that there are gonna be people who are gonna give a better answer that suits yours. But if mine works for you, glad I could help

 

Wow, thanks for your reply!!! One more question... I'm using a Noctua NH-D14 for my CPU, do you think that a 360mm rad at the top and a 140/120mm at the back would be fine to cool just the GPUs? Or a 360mm would be fine? I'm not overclocking my CPU that much (4.6GHz) and the D14 keeps the noise down. Water cooling the GPUs would help me to keep the noise down as well...

[guilhermehees]

Anyone else wants to share your thoughts?

[airdeano]

i've run the Pro with 4770k and 2x 780 on a 360x 45 in the roof and 240x60 in

the front intake. was the same/similar experience with the 750D. adding the 3rd

780 could run on the same, but the fans might be a bit faster than 1200 rpm.

[TheDudeWhoTriesHard]

Wow, thanks for your reply!!! One more question... I'm using a Noctua NH-D14 for my CPU, do you think that a 360mm rad at the top and a 140/120mm at the back would be fine to cool just the GPUs? Or a 360mm would be fine? I'm not overclocking my CPU that much (4.6GHz) and the D14 keeps the noise down. Water cooling the GPUs would help me to keep the noise down as well...

Well, like what I said, 1 rad slot per component and an extra rad slot for safety. Technically, since you have 3 780s, a single 360 just to cool it would be fine. But if you live in a country that's pretty much hot all day er'day, I'd get a 360 and a 120 (rear exhaust) for that. If you're cooling your CPU along with it, you're okay with 360 + 120, but I'd get an extra 120 and mount it at the bottom. But IF and only IF the area of the computer's gonna be in is well cooled except when its summer, 360 + 120 is alright.

And a Noctua NH-D14 is still an awesome cooler.