AIO Watercooler placement query

Mikeycallin1 · June 23, 2015

Hi,

I'll start by apologising as I'm a newbie on here but I'm building my first gaming rig and was looking for any tips/advice. I'm using an NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed case and wanted to use an AIO water cooling unit, either a Corsair H100i, H110i or a H110i GTX (but not restricted to these if anyone has any better advice). I've seen a lot of pictures online of similar setups but all the radiators are top mounted and I didn't want the warm air to be pulled through the radiator when it's exhausting out the top (not sure if it matters to much). Also I wasn't keen on the idea of having the air pulled in from the top since it wouldn't be a natural flow (again, not sure if it makes any difference?).

So my idea was to maybe mount the radiator at the front so that the air is pulled in from the bottom through the radiator and out the top. Does anyone know if this would be possible using an AIO unit since I don't feel confident putting together a custom loop?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bittenfleax · June 23, 2015

-snip-

If I where you, I would have it exhausting out of the top. Have 1 fan exhausted on the back, 2 fan intake on the front and 2 intakes on the bottom.

OR

Put the RAD on the bottom with fans exhausting the heat out of the bottom through the rad, then 2 fan intake on the front, 1 exhaust on the back and 2 exhaust on the top.

EDIT

I recommend the Corsair H110i GTX or H100i

Mikeycallin1 · June 23, 2015

Thank for the advice, do you know (possible from a similar setup) if the tubing will be long enough for the rad to reach the bottom of the case on either the H110i GTX or H100i?

June 23, 2015

If you aren't overclocking your CPU, then I really don't see the point of going with such an expensive AIO. A Hyper 212 will do the job perfectly fine. On the other hand, if you game, your GPU is most likely gonna heat up (idk why people are so crazy about watercooling their CPU when it is the GPU they should be more concerned). So look for something like Corsair HG10 so that you can strap that liquid cooler to the GPU and actually make good use of it.