Turning point

[Guest]

Hi guys,

Something I've been thinking about for a while, mainly since the SM8 competition and a more indepth look into CaseLabs cases. At what point does the number of radiators have no more impact on the cooling of a system? Firstly I realise that it's going to depend on the ambient temperatures of the room so I'm not looking for a definitive value but I'm also not looking for 'a 360 or a 240 should cool you fine' - I'm looking for a rough idea of when adding more radiators will yield no more performance.

I put a rather detailed entry into a competition for a CaseLabs case and the more I think about it the more I think that doing a fully custom case (paint job ect) would be a hell of a lot of fun and grant an amazing end product. This got me looking into the rest of the Caselabs lineup in a more detailed manner, noting that some of the cases can take up to 4 480mm radiators.

Would you notice a change between 12 x 120 and 16 x 120? Again, as I said - I realise this largely is dependent on your ambient temps but if you were trying to dissipate as much heat as you could, would an extra 480 or 960mm of radiator space make a difference?

I've got a fairly good idea of whom is going to respond (Airdeano, Ghost, Whaler or even Linus :P) but all responses are welcome :)

[Manofchalk]

Once you have enough raddage to cover the TDP of whats in your loop, adding more radiator wont lead to better temperatures because at that point its going to be the efficiency in the blocks that will dictate performance. But adding more allows you to use slower fans, so if silence is a goal then over-radding is a good move.

[Guest]

As far as fans to I do plan on running near silent with undervolted units - most likely NF-F12's.

[Helltech]

I would venture to guess that you will get diminishing returns with more than ~240mm per item.

E.G. a 480 rad for a CPU and a GPU probably wouldn't be much different than a 240 rad and a 360 rad for the same setup. I could TOTALLY be wrong, I've never tested anything that hardcore, but it's just a guess.

[Ghost]

Once the power draw of all the components in your loop are equal to the amount of power that can be released by all of the radiators in your loop.

EDIT: Haha love the last line of your OP. Didn't read it till the end.

PS: You can look up how much power a radiator can give out on radiator reviews. And TDP is the max amount of power your components give out.

EDIT 2: Bear in mind, more water+rads in your loop means the longer the lag behind the water temperature will be. So if you had a 5L reservoir it might take a very long time for your coolant to heat up which would help if you wanted to counter short bursts of heat with your water loop.

EDIT3: I'm blabbing a bit today. If I didn't answer fully or missed some points or you have no idea what i meant up there just say.

[Whaler_99]

As you mentioned, really hard to say - also depending somewhat on what fans you use. Crap fans = more rad versus better fans = less rad, for same temps. Are we running thick versus thin? All that will come into play. How many of the fans are intaking fresh air (front and bottom mount) versus "intaking" heated air (such as top or rear mounted rad's) and then exhausting?

Lot of variables... personally, I have gone with the 120mm per block + 120mm. I think in the case of something like a SM8 and cooling a CPU, and couple of GPU's, the old thumb in the air, 480 would be a minimum. Maybe another 240 for clearance and headroom? After that I wonder how much cooler you could get it? Going with a second 480 instead of a second 240 - maybe a degree?

But, more rad would mean a lot less fans needed, so nice and quiet system....

[Ghost]

As you mentioned, really hard to say - also depending somewhat on what fans you use. Crap fans = more rad versus better fans = less rad, for same temps. Are we running thick versus thin? All that will come into play. How many of the fans are intaking fresh air (front and bottom mount) versus "intaking" heated air (such as top or rear mounted rad's) and then exhausting?

Lot of variables... personally, I have gone with the 120mm per block + 120mm. I think in the case of something like a SM8 and cooling a CPU, and couple of GPU's, the old thumb in the air, 480 would be a minimum. Maybe another 240 for clearance and headroom? After that I wonder how much cooler you could get it? Going with a second 480 instead of a second 240 - maybe a degree?

But, more rad would mean a lot less fans needed, so nice and quiet system....

Horizontally placed rads can induce convection currents to cool themselves while vertical rads will always need airflow from a physical source. That's something to bear in mind. (That source could be +ve air pressure inside the case not necessarily a fan pushing directly into it.)

[Whaler_99]

As you mentioned, really hard to say - also depending somewhat on what fans you use. Crap fans = more rad versus better fans = less rad, for same temps. Are we running thick versus thin? All that will come into play. How many of the fans are intaking fresh air (front and bottom mount) versus "intaking" heated air (such as top or rear mounted rad's) and then exhausting?

Lot of variables... personally, I have gone with the 120mm per block + 120mm. I think in the case of something like a SM8 and cooling a CPU, and couple of GPU's, the old thumb in the air, 480 would be a minimum. Maybe another 240 for clearance and headroom? After that I wonder how much cooler you could get it? Going with a second 480 instead of a second 240 - maybe a degree?

But, more rad would mean a lot less fans needed, so nice and quiet system....

Yep - lot a variables... head hurts..

[Ghost]

As you mentioned, really hard to say - also depending somewhat on what fans you use. Crap fans = more rad versus better fans = less rad, for same temps. Are we running thick versus thin? All that will come into play. How many of the fans are intaking fresh air (front and bottom mount) versus "intaking" heated air (such as top or rear mounted rad's) and then exhausting?

Lot of variables... personally, I have gone with the 120mm per block + 120mm. I think in the case of something like a SM8 and cooling a CPU, and couple of GPU's, the old thumb in the air, 480 would be a minimum. Maybe another 240 for clearance and headroom? After that I wonder how much cooler you could get it? Going with a second 480 instead of a second 240 - maybe a degree?

But, more rad would mean a lot less fans needed, so nice and quiet system....

For reference and benefit of others this is how complicated it is: http://hw-lab.com/phobya-g-changer-420-review.html/3

:D

[Whaler_99]

As you mentioned, really hard to say - also depending somewhat on what fans you use. Crap fans = more rad versus better fans = less rad, for same temps. Are we running thick versus thin? All that will come into play. How many of the fans are intaking fresh air (front and bottom mount) versus "intaking" heated air (such as top or rear mounted rad's) and then exhausting?

Lot of variables... personally, I have gone with the 120mm per block + 120mm. I think in the case of something like a SM8 and cooling a CPU, and couple of GPU's, the old thumb in the air, 480 would be a minimum. Maybe another 240 for clearance and headroom? After that I wonder how much cooler you could get it? Going with a second 480 instead of a second 240 - maybe a degree?

But, more rad would mean a lot less fans needed, so nice and quiet system....

Ya, I read some of the stuff at Skinnee Labs, makes my head hurt... just throw uber rads at the problem = solved. :D

[Ghost]

As you mentioned, really hard to say - also depending somewhat on what fans you use. Crap fans = more rad versus better fans = less rad, for same temps. Are we running thick versus thin? All that will come into play. How many of the fans are intaking fresh air (front and bottom mount) versus "intaking" heated air (such as top or rear mounted rad's) and then exhausting?

Lot of variables... personally, I have gone with the 120mm per block + 120mm. I think in the case of something like a SM8 and cooling a CPU, and couple of GPU's, the old thumb in the air, 480 would be a minimum. Maybe another 240 for clearance and headroom? After that I wonder how much cooler you could get it? Going with a second 480 instead of a second 240 - maybe a degree?

But, more rad would mean a lot less fans needed, so nice and quiet system....

That's what I'm doing. Slightly worried about killing off my pump though. :(

[Guest]

Hmmm - thanks for that guys. :)