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Length vs Thickness

Moress
By Moress
in Custom Loop and Exotic Cooling
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So I've been looking into custom water cooling lately and was curious on the effectiveness of various radiators. Say a case only supports only one 240mm radiator, but has room for that radiator to be super beefy. How thick would a 240mm radiator need to be to perform an average 360mm or even 480mm rad? (If its even possible)

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6 minutes ago, Cela1 said:

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Couldn't help myself when I was thinking of the title

CPU: I5 4590 Motherboard: ASROCK H97 Pro4 Ram: XPG 16gb v2.0 4x4 kit  GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 PSU: EVGA 550w Supernova G2 Storage: 128 gb Sandisk SSD + 525gb Mx300 SSD Cooling: Be Quiet! Shadow Rock LP Case: Zalman T2 Sound: Logitech Z506 5.1 Mouse: Razer Deathadder Chroma Keyboard: DBPower LED

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13 minutes ago, Moress said:

Couldn't help myself when I was thinking of the title

Haha lol. I think a 360 will almost always be better than 240, but a really thick 240 could prob beat a slim 280. It all depends on fin density as well...

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7 minutes ago, Cela1 said:

Haha lol. I think a 360 will almost always be better than 240, but a thick 240 could prob beat a thin 280. It all depends on fin density as well...

 

7 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

Thickness doesn't effect cooling performance that much. You'll get much better cooling by having more radiator space (240 -> 360 -> 480 etc.)

Alright that's good to know. How much radiator room would a 1080 + 6700k need to stay cool (below 70) with max stable overclocks? 

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Thickness will improve cooling (larger surface area) but you won't be able to get the same performance as a larger rad. You can do a rough calculation of surface area (assuming same fin density) by calculating the volume of the two but keep in mind there's more at play than just surface area. Thicker rads are more restrictive and require the fans to run at a higher pressure to push the air through. There's also the liquid pipe to fin surface area to consider which would be larger on a larger rad but may not be larger on a thicker rad.

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Having issues with a Corsair AIO? Possible fix here:

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Are you getting weird fan behavior, speed fluctuations, and/or other issues with Link?

Are you running AIDA64, HWinfo, CAM, or HWmonitor? (ASUS suite & other monitoring software often have the same issue.)

Corsair Link has problems with some monitoring software so you may have to change some settings to get them to work smoothly.

-For AIDA64: First make sure you have the newest update installed, then, go to Preferences>Stability and make sure the "Corsair Link sensor support" box is checked and make sure the "Asetek LC sensor support" box is UNchecked.

-For HWinfo: manually disable all monitoring of the AIO sensors/components.

-For others: Disable any monitoring of Corsair AIO sensors.

That should fix the fan issue for some Corsair AIOs (H80i GT/v2, H110i GTX/H115i, H100i GTX and others made by Asetek). The problem is bad coding in Link that fights for AIO control with other programs. You can test if this worked by setting the fan speed in Link to 100%, if it doesn't fluctuate you are set and can change the curve to whatever. If that doesn't work or you're still having other issues then you probably still have a monitoring software interfering with the AIO/Link communications, find what it is and disable it.

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7 minutes ago, Moress said:

So I've been looking into custom water cooling lately and was curious on the effectiveness of various radiators. Say a case only supports only one 240mm radiator, but has room for that radiator to be super beefy. How thick would a 240mm radiator need to be to perform an average 360mm or even 480mm rad? (If its even possible)

From my experiance thickness will make little to no difference, unless we are talking 24mm-80mm then u will drop a degree or too! Radiator space will make the most difference. Also tailoring the fin density to what fans you are running will make a big difference as well. If you have decent SP then you can go for a higher fin density and then vice versa. The more fin density then the more surface area to dissipate heat for the same thickness and size. I would personally go for a thinner RAD of whatever size u choose (bigger is better in the size department;) )  and go push pull!! Hope this helps! 

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8 minutes ago, Moress said:

Alright that's good to know. How much radiator room would a 1080 + 6700k need to stay cool (below 70) with max stable overclocks? 

A rule of thumb I heard once was 1x120 for each component and another 1x120 for each overclock (so at least 480). This can drastically differ though depending on the components and their TDPs, soooo..... take it with a lump if salt.

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3 hours ago, Moress said:

 

Alright that's good to know. How much radiator room would a 1080 + 6700k need to stay cool (below 70) with max stable overclocks? 

 

What case do you have? 360 mininum as said, ideally more if your case can allow it. Also you need to factor in noise and how quiet you want it. Thinner rads with lower RPM speeds would be ideal. Rig in my sig I have x2 360 thin rads and it runs super silent, as all fans are below 1000RPM.

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The more radiator you have the more you can get away with. Can't do a single 360 and low fan speed of the fpi is high. Unless you like high water temps. 

 

Everything will depends on the case and airflow. I would get a different case before throwing two components on a 240, regardless of thickness. 

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