480 in push or 360 in push/pull ?

[Shadowman]

Most likely will go for a EK XE radiator with EK vardar fans, but my question is which would perform better a 480 radiator in push fan configuration or a 360 in push/pull? Also the fans will be running at the same rpm on both radiators yes am also aware that the 360 will be louder having 2 extra fans.

[ThomasD]

Depending on what particular level of heat load you place upon it the two cooling systems might not perform any differently. 

 

But, if you ask me which one has the better total cooling capacity I'm going to lean towards the 480.  There is more mass and more surface area as compared to the 360 and I do not think push-pull will increase airflow enough to offset that difference.

[Shadowman]

20 minutes ago, ThomasD said:

Depending on what particular level of heat load you place upon it the two cooling systems might not perform any differently. 

 

But, if you ask me which one has the better total cooling capacity I'm going to lean towards the 480.  There is more mass and more surface area as compared to the 360 and I do not think push-pull will increase airflow enough to offset that difference.

 

Yes sorry should have mentioned that and another very important information i actually already have a EK XE 480 in push the case is the Phanteks Primo. Am currently water cooling a i7 5960x and 2x Titan X's Sli (not pascal titans) this will be my  2nd radiator i will be adding.

[NoobCase]

Id do the 480 and single set of fans.  Think it will perform better that 360 + push/pull

[0ld_Chicken]

the 480mm will be better since the rpm's will be the same.  Most rads scale somewhat linearly with size, so if you take a 360mm review for a particular model and add ~30% then you'll get a decent approximation of 480mm performance.

 

 

Take the 1300rpm samples from below, the 480mm would be putting out about 413w @ 10°c temp difference (adding 30% or 95w to the 360mm score of 318w).  The push/pull performance below that is actual 360mm performance and it comes in at 364w.  The interpolated numbers for the 480mm come out on top for all 3 fan speeds tested for the XE360 reviewed by xtremerigs

 

http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/05/31/ek-coolstream-xe-360mm-radiator-review/5/