Advice Needed for First Custom Water Cooling Loop

[Kakarot7]

Hi everyone,

I've got some specific questions on my first water cooling loop, i've watch a bunch of video guides but they haven't answered all my questions.This is my second build,the spec is below:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/LzmYGX

1. Does the position of the rad matter?

I have space for a 360 in the front or top of the case.

2.Is it worth cooling my GPU as well or get a stable working loop with just my CPU?

3.If i just water cool the CPU is a 360 overkill?

Not sure if this is right place to post this.

Thanks.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

1. Not very much, if you're using the top space as exhaust it'll be fine.

2. Yes, 360mm's of radiator space should be enough for both the CPU and the GPU, even if they're both very hot.

3. Yes, general rule of thumb is you want 120mm's of radiator for every heat producing component in the loop. A single 120 would be fine for the CPU but a 360 would be perfect for the CPU and GPU.

[Lord_Karango17]

1. The top would be better, as you can have it as an exhaust, and not blow hot air all over the components you are trying to cool.

 

2. IMO it isnt worth it to custom loop just for the cpu, as an AIO will be much cheaper. Doing it for both the cpu, and gpu would be better bang for the buck

 

3. A 360 for the cpu would likely be past the point of diminishing returns. There are 360mm AIO's but they dong perform much different than a good 240mm AIO.

[ryanmmax]

If you plan on OC'ing both GPU and CPU then put them in a single loop with the rad on the intake.  This will keep your CPU/GPU cooler and raise the ambient temp in your case, but since you wont be OC'ing the SSD/PS/RAM/ect then its no big deal and their designed heat sink/spreaders will be fine... 

 

If you do an AIO CPU cooler, then put the rad on the exhaust if you need more GPU performance, and on the supply if you want to OC the CPU more...  At thise point its a matter of thermal throttling and finding out which is more of a bottle neck for a given aplication

[Kakarot7]

Thanks for the replies all very useful.