Need help with fitting rads

[Alesek]

So I am starting my first loop and I already screwed up. I have fractal design define s case and I was gonna put slim front 360 and slim top 420 rads, which according to the website of fractal define, will fit. However as you can see from the picture it will not fit with fans on. Any ideas how I can deal with this?

[Himommies]

Try flipping the front one the other way(e.g the tubes come from the bottom)if that dosent work then you kinda scrwed and you can do anything without modding.

[Coaxialgamer]

install fans on every spot , except for the location were it doesn't fit ?

[Naeaes]

Looks like the rads fit just. Leave that one position with a fan.

 

Try turning the front radiator around so that the ports are at the bottom. If you can fit it that way, leave it at that. It's better to have the front ports at the bottom near the pump.

[Himommies]

Well also you can cut off the entire top part of where you cant fit the fan and  cut away that part and install the fan on top 

[MorganO]

9 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

install fans on every spot , except for the location were it doesn't fit ?

wouldnt that create hotspot?

[Alesek]

8 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Try flipping the front one the other way(e.g the tubes come from the bottom)if that dosent work then you kinda scrwed and you can do anything without modding.

 

7 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

install fans on every spot , except for the location were it doesn't fit ?

 

5 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

Looks like the rads fit just. Leave that one position with a fan.

 

Try turning the front radiator around so that the ports are at the bottom. If you can fit it that way, leave it at that. It's better to have the front ports at the bottom near the pump.

so I tried to put the front fans in front of the case (it would kinda fit there) but then I am still couple mm short even if i flip the front rad so the ports would be down. I will probably have to keep only 2 fans on the top rad. I guess today is the day when I start hating fractal desgin

[Coaxialgamer]

3 minutes ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

wouldnt that create hotspot?

not really , seeing as the water circulates all around the rad and doesn't stay in that place for very long . Plus , it will still be cooled passively and by your case ventilation somewhat.

[MorganO]

Just now, Coaxialgamer said:

not really , seeing as the water circulates all around the rad and doesn't stay in that place for very long . Plus , it will still be cooled passively and buy your case ventilation somewhat.

oh ok, im now more knowledgeable thanks 

[Alesek]

2 minutes ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

oh ok, im now more knowledgeable thanks 

thinking about cutting part of the fan, maybe it will fit

[Alesek]

27 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

not really , seeing as the water circulates all around the rad and doesn't stay in that place for very long . Plus , it will still be cooled passively and by your case ventilation somewhat.

 

30 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Well also you can cut off the entire top part of where you cant fit the fan and  cut away that part and install the fan on top 

 

35 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

Looks like the rads fit just. Leave that one position with a fan.

 

Try turning the front radiator around so that the ports are at the bottom. If you can fit it that way, leave it at that. It's better to have the front ports at the bottom near the pump.

So now I it "fits" (barely and with half of the screws missing), however the fittings won't fit on the ports, because it's too low. Fml

[Alesek]

oh and i didnt even realize until now that the IO part of the motherboard is gonna block the last fan. HOW DID FRACTAL DESIGN THINK THAT THIS CASE COULD EVER POSSIBLY FIT 420 RAD WITH FANS?!?!

[ApocalypseTugboat]

17 minutes ago, Alesek said:

oh and i didnt even realize until now that the IO part of the motherboard is gonna block the last fan. HOW DID FRACTAL DESIGN THINK THAT THIS CASE COULD EVER POSSIBLY FIT 420 RAD WITH FANS?!?!

Well at least you got to practice your cable management (looks great by the way) 

I had the same issue with an AIO solution (one for video card, one for CPU) and I did what Coaxialgamer suggested, left one fan off. It worked temporarily - there was no issue other than I felt it was cluttered. Cooling was actually better than I expected with AIOs.

 

In the long run I ended up getting a giant case - a Corsair Graphite 760T but I ended up not being able to fit it under a desk so it now sits on a desk behind a couple monitors. But man is it roomy. Half the case looks empty.

 

Life is all about compromises. One less fan on a rad or a giant case that ends up in a weird spot.

[atomicus]

I think you should just get another 360 rad. If you can't return the 420, kick off to Fractal and ask them for some kind of compensation, because you've only followed their guidelines which have totally boned you.

[MorganO]

41 minutes ago, atomicus said:

I think you should just get another 360 rad. If you can't return the 420, kick off to Fractal and ask them for some kind of compensation, because you've only followed their guidelines which have totally boned you.

what fractal case is it specifically?

[MorganO]

for the standard R5

Water cooling compatibility

• Front – 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators of all thicknesses (requires removal of drive bays)
• Top – 420, 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators. (A thickness limitation of 55mm for both radiator + fan applies on 420, 280 and 140 mm radiators) (420 and 360 mm radiators require removal of the ODD bay)
• Bottom – 120 or 240 mm radiator (Use of radiators in the bottom position limits the PSU length to 165 mm)
• Rear – 120 or 140 mm radiator

[Naeaes]

2 hours ago, Alesek said:

 

 

So now I it "fits" (barely and with half of the screws missing), however the fittings won't fit on the ports, because it's too low. Fml

 

I don't suppose you have any elbow joints at hand? EK and Bitspower at least make low profile elbows that would fit in there. 45-degree is best for that.

[dmoney1942]

3 hours ago, Alesek said:

oh and i didnt even realize until now that the IO part of the motherboard is gonna block the last fan. HOW DID FRACTAL DESIGN THINK THAT THIS CASE COULD EVER POSSIBLY FIT 420 RAD WITH FANS?!?!

I thought the same thing and I had two 360s. I could not use the 140 rear case fan that came with the case and the front corner was close like yours. 

[Alesek]

3 hours ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

for the standard R5

Water cooling compatibility

• Front – 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators of all thicknesses (requires removal of drive bays)
• Top – 420, 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators. (A thickness limitation of 55mm for both radiator + fan applies on 420, 280 and 140 mm radiators) (420 and 360 mm radiators require removal of the ODD bay)
• Bottom – 120 or 240 mm radiator (Use of radiators in the bottom position limits the PSU length to 165 mm)
• Rear – 120 or 140 mm radiator

it is define S, it has the same rad support but i call bullsh*t on the 420 on top when you have 360 in front. It just doesnt fit. I've spent couple hours figuring it out but I guess I just need to go without one 120mm fan as I think it is better to sacrifice that than 140mm fan. this is just ridiculous 

 

1 hour ago, dmoney1942 said:

I thought the same thing and I had two 360s. I could not use the 140 rear case fan that came with the case and the front corner was close like yours. 

would be nice if they actually mentioned it

[atomicus]

6 minutes ago, Alesek said:

it is define S, it has the same rad support but i call bullsh*t on the 420 on top when you have 360 in front. It just doesnt fit. I've spent couple hours figuring it out but I guess I just need to go without one 120mm fan as I think it is better to sacrifice that than 140mm fan. this is just ridiculous 

 

That's not going to look very good though, and it will ruin the aesthetic of your build. I'm very OCD with things like that though, so it would totally kill me every time I looked inside my case lol! Not sure what it will do to your temps either, but they certainly won't be improved!

[MorganO]

19 minutes ago, Alesek said:

it is define S, it has the same rad support but i call bullsh*t on the 420 on top when you have 360 in front. It just doesnt fit. I've spent couple hours figuring it out but I guess I just need to go without one 120mm fan as I think it is better to sacrifice that than 140mm fan. this is just ridiculous 

 

would be nice if they actually mentioned it

also show a picture of your motherboard with the rads and fans where they should be

[Alesek]

On 12/3/2016 at 11:17 PM, atomicus said:

snip

 

On 12/3/2016 at 11:29 PM, KOMTechAndGaming said:

snip

sorry for the late response, I was so pissed that I didnt want to deal with it anymore.

 

an update - I did fit it in with only 2 fans on the 420 rad and I had to cut a corner of one of them so my motherboard would not block it. I contacted Fractal Design and too kindly requested a compensation because this is obviously caused by their misleading information. 

 

I have one question about my temps though. If I stress test both GPU and CPU at the same time, I get 50 to max 55 degrees on GPU and 62C on CPU with fans at 20%. However, during BF1 I get 80 degrees on CPU if I dont crank up the fans a bit more. If I put fans on 50%, the temps go down to 60C. I didn't see those temps even in prime with my NH-D15 and fans on 40%. On the other hand, my GPU temp changes only by like 2 degrees depending on the fan speed. I understand that CPU temps will be different in different kinds of loads, but I think this is a bit too much. Do you think I should reapply thermal paste or is this normal?

 

 

[atomicus]

1 hour ago, Alesek said:

 

sorry for the late response, I was so pissed that I didnt want to deal with it anymore.

 

an update - I did fit it in with only 2 fans on the 420 rad and I had to cut a corner of one of them so my motherboard would not block it. I contacted Fractal Design and too kindly requested a compensation because this is obviously caused by their misleading information. 

 

I have one question about my temps though. If I stress test both GPU and CPU at the same time, I get 50 to max 55 degrees on GPU and 62C on CPU with fans at 20%. However, during BF1 I get 80 degrees on CPU if I dont crank up the fans a bit more. If I put fans on 50%, the temps go down to 60C. I didn't see those temps even in prime with my NH-D15 and fans on 40%. On the other hand, my GPU temp changes only by like 2 degrees depending on the fan speed. I understand that CPU temps will be different in different kinds of loads, but I think this is a bit too much. Do you think I should reapply thermal paste or is this normal?

 

 

 

80 degrees is certainly NOT normal for watercooling. Something not right there. You can try reapplying TIM.

[Alesek]

16 minutes ago, atomicus said:

 

80 degrees is certainly NOT normal for watercooling. Something not right there. You can try reapplying TIM.

reapplying means draining, ya know. not fun  

the CPU is at 4.7ghz 1.33V and fans were on 20%. I could explain 80C but I find weirder that the CPU temps change by 20C while cranking up the fans to 50% but GPU temps change barely by 2C

[MorganO]

5 hours ago, Alesek said:

 

sorry for the late response, I was so pissed that I didnt want to deal with it anymore.

 

an update - I did fit it in with only 2 fans on the 420 rad and I had to cut a corner of one of them so my motherboard would not block it. I contacted Fractal Design and too kindly requested a compensation because this is obviously caused by their misleading information. 

 

I have one question about my temps though. If I stress test both GPU and CPU at the same time, I get 50 to max 55 degrees on GPU and 62C on CPU with fans at 20%. However, during BF1 I get 80 degrees on CPU if I dont crank up the fans a bit more. If I put fans on 50%, the temps go down to 60C. I didn't see those temps even in prime with my NH-D15 and fans on 40%. On the other hand, my GPU temp changes only by like 2 degrees depending on the fan speed. I understand that CPU temps will be different in different kinds of loads, but I think this is a bit too much. Do you think I should reapply thermal paste or is this normal?

 

 

how thick are the radiator?