Advice for silent water cooling CPU + GPU

[Otonel88]

Hi guys. I am new to water cooling as I haven't done this before so I thought I might ask some of your opinions on this forum.

My current PC: i7 6700k cooler by a beQuite DarkRock 3, MSI Gaming X 1080ti, Maximus 8 Hero, 16GB RAM, beQuite PSU, WD 2TB HDD and 1 SSD everything encased in a Fractal Define C having as fans 3 Noctua fans for cooling. My system is quiet when running at idle, but when starting to game, it gets a bit loud for my liking. Most of the noise comes from the 1080ti, which really gets around 77 degrees while the CPU stays at 64 during gaming. My case it's quite small and there is not a lot of room for heat dissipation. 

Because of the noise while gaming and the high temperatures, I was thinking to go water cooling. The goal is to have a system that is just a quite as now at idle and under load. So most of my components will be based around quietness.  One loop CPU + GPU, 360mm rad, pump, reservoir and because i'm a noob i'll stay with flexible tubing. Obviously I would need to change my case to a Fractal Define S if I want to fit a rad that would be able to cool the CPU and GPU, even tough I quite like the size of the Define C. So maybe you guys can advise me with the rad for my define C. At the moment I found this one, but still looking. http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/11/hardwarelabs-nemesis-360-gts-radiator-review/ In the review the rad seemed to do a decent job when running fans at low speed.

As for the pump I am looking for one of the most silent one out there. Just looking around in the past days I came acrose this one: Alphacool Eispumpe VPP755. Read here that is a quite pump: http://www.xtremerigs.net/2016/10/31/alphacool-eispumpe-vpp755-pump-review/4/

Maybe you guys know a better one that would fit the quite build that I am looking for.

For the reservoir not sure yet.

As for the fans still looking for some silent ones.

For the GPU I would go for a water block, so I would need to replace my MSI gaming x for a reference design.

 

Can I achive my silent ring starting with this components? What would you go for if you would go for a silent system and put temperatures second. Let the ideas flow.

 

 

 

[Paula_The_Butter_Fairy]

Look at Be Quiet! fans and compare them to your current ones they might be quieter.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Otonel88 said:

Let the ideas flow.

Keep the case and mount the rad on brackets behind the pc, outside of the case. (I asume the back end is out of sight)

 

Huge water reservoir as a really big heatsink. It will soak up the heat during gaming, and depending on the amount of water, it could take hours to become too hot. The reservoir will also discipate a portion of the heat, thus it has the potential of running good temps 24/7 under load. You could also just get a large reservoir, put it somewhere under your desk or whatever and add a rad without fans.

 

Few days ago I came up with this idea, and someone already made a system like that in the past. He also had graphs and lots of calculations. Search the boards to find my topic which contains that link. (or try to find that link yourself/ask someone)

[Cyracus]

You can check out ekwb.com reliable watercooling gear, they're planning to have a water block available for the 1080 ti gaming x next month https://www.ekwb.com/news/official-list-ek-water-blocks-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-series/

[RollinLower]

for silent fans i highly recommend EK's vardar fans. excellent static pressure while keeping it super silent!

 

also, doesn;t the Define C also support a rad up top? you could go for a simmilar setup like mine with 2 240mm rads. my temps never exceed 50degrees on the GPU while gaming on ultra 4K, while keeping my fans on near idle RPMs 

my setup:

Spoiler

 

[Otonel88]

4 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

You can check out ekwb.com reliable watercooling gear, they're planning to have a water block available for the 1080 ti gaming x next month https://www.ekwb.com/news/official-list-ek-water-blocks-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-series/

Thanks for the heads up. My card has a bit of coil wine as well, so I tought I could get the referance instead.

[Otonel88]

6 minutes ago, Dutch-stoner said:

Keep the case and mount the rad on brackets behind the pc, outside of the case. (I asume the back end is out of sight)

 

Huge water reservoir as a really big heatsink. It will soak up the heat during gaming, and depending on the amount of water, it could take hours to become too hot. The reservoir will also discipate a portion of the heat, thus it has the potential of running good temps 24/7 under load. You could also just get a large reservoir, but it somewhere under your desk or whatever and add a rad without fans.

 

Few days ago I came up with this idea, and someone already made a system like that in the past. He also had graphs and lots of calculations. Search the boards to find my topic which contains that link. (or try to find that link yourself/ask someone)

It's an interesting idea. I will look intoo that to check temps over time, even tough I would be more keen to go with a more normal water cooling approach (things inside the case)

[Otonel88]

11 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

for silent fans i highly recommend EK's vardar fans. excellent static pressure while keeping it super silent!

 

also, doesn;t the Define C also support a rad up top? you could go for a simmilar setup like mine with 2 240mm rads. my temps never exceed 50degrees on the GPU while gaming on ultra 4K, while keeping my fans on near idle RPMs 

my setup:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I would need to remove the top cover of the case to let the fans push air trough the rad and exhaust outside which will definatelly make the fans more audible with the top cover off.

[Otonel88]

As for the Vardar fans I also heard good things about them. Will look into them 

[Otonel88]

14 minutes ago, Paula_The_Butter_Fairy said:

Look at Be Quiet! fans and compare them to your current ones they might be quieter.

The CPU cooler is quite quiet, so I am happy with the darkRock 3,  just the GPU that get's a bit loud

[RollinLower]

7 minutes ago, Otonel88 said:

The CPU cooler is quite quiet, so I am happy with the darkRock 3,  just the GPU that get's a bit loud

you could do something with the Kraken G10 and a good AIO cooler too then. make it a hybrid card.

[Paula_The_Butter_Fairy]

8 minutes ago, Otonel88 said:

The CPU cooler is quite quiet, so I am happy with the darkRock 3,  just the GPU that get's a bit loud

You could try a water cooling loop with a massive reservoir as stated before and a triple 120 mm rad up front

[Limecat86]

1 hour ago, Otonel88 said:

The CPU cooler is quite quiet, so I am happy with the darkRock 3,  just the GPU that get's a bit loud

If it's only the GPU that gets loud why not only water cool that? Then you won't need a 360mm rad. 240mm would be plenty.

[Otonel88]

2 minutes ago, Limecat86 said:

If it's only the GPU that gets loud why not only water cool that? Then you won't need a 360mm rad. 240mm would be plenty.

I guess if I am building a water cooled system it is worth cooling the CPU as well not just the GPU

[Limecat86]

Just now, Otonel88 said:

I guess if I am building a water cooled system it is worth cooling the CPU as well not just the GPU

True. But since you don't have a lot of space in your case, I was just thinking of a loop with a smaller radiator.

[Otonel88]

12 minutes ago, Limecat86 said:

True. But since you don't have a lot of space in your case, I was just thinking of a loop with a smaller radiator.

Just did some measurements of the front of my case. The radiator from the post would fit, but it would be a tight fit, in high, but more in thickness because of the length of GPU. I would have around 8mm between the rad with the fan mounted and the GPU. Not to mention, where i'm going to mount the pump with the res? Under the GPU maybe, or hanging from the top? Going for the define S would make my life a lot easier. Also there would be more space for the hot air inside the define s

[JHurley7nrx]

On 4/19/2017 at 8:01 PM, RollinLower said:

for silent fans i highly recommend EK's vardar fans. excellent static pressure while keeping it super silent!

 

also, doesn;t the Define C also support a rad up top? you could go for a simmilar setup like mine with 2 240mm rads. my temps never exceed 50degrees on the GPU while gaming on ultra 4K, while keeping my fans on near idle RPMs 

my setup:

  Hide contents

 

 

Wouldnt having a rad on the front cause hot air to become stuck in the case.

[RollinLower]

1 hour ago, JHurley7nrx said:

 

Wouldnt having a rad on the front cause hot air to become stuck in the case.

Not really, if you have proper airflow the hot air from the rad just exits through your exhaust fans.

I have a different setup now, the one you quoted is about 2 years old. 

Tough the same principle applies, if you have proper movement in the air inside your case no heat will be trapped.

[JHurley7nrx]

 

Just now, RollinLower said:

Not really, if you have proper airflow the hot air from the rad just exits through your exhaust fans.

I have a different setup now, the one you quoted is about 2 years old. 

Tough the same principle applies, if you have proper movement in the air inside your case no heat will be trapped.

Would having a 360mm rad on the front of my case with 2 af120 from corsair be a good idea. 

[Mick Naughty]

Temps will still be somewhat high for a water cooled rig with a single 360. But you can make is silent. Just run hot because of it. 

[Evolution Stu]

Oddly, I just replied on another topic with a reply that would suit this topic word for word! Will find it and copy/ paste. 

[Evolution Stu]

Silent computing is exactly why I built my first watercooled system back in 2008. Back then I had 3x AMD 7970 in tri-crossfire config along with a de-lidded 3770k and benching was my thing, with me doing quite well on the HWBot league. 

 

The noise though was enough for me to not want to game at all at night, it was crazy. Those old AMD cards were seriously loud!

 

So, water cooling was just becoming a thing and I knew that if I got a big enough water reserve I could cool it almost passively, but I also wanted some big heat exchangers in there so that I could use large (and thus quiet) fans. So just a big reservoir was not going to do it for me.

 

A large external rad was the key element to this plan. I eventually settled on a 1260 external and a 380 internal to do the job. 

 

It worked really well, with the big rad fans being virtually silent on full tilt anyway, you certainly can’t hear them from the seating position.

 

The fans you can fit on internal radiators are always far too noisy, but I installed three of them on the 380 too and set it up so that they only came on if the large radiator outlet temp got too high, so I could cool a little more before the coolant reached the header tank.

 

This was all set up via an aquaero pro, the aim being to keep the fans off as long as possible. I monitored case ambients, header temp, CPU water out temps, GPU water out temps and 1260 Rad out temps. I had some software delta sensors setup too that would report on cooling efficiency and adjust pump speed accordingly. 

 

Worked perfectly. If I was just browsing the web or working,  the fans NEVER came on. If gaming something light I could game for around 45 mins before they even span up slowly. (@5760x1200)

 

HWBot benching I just enabled them all with an override, because 1c matters when you are geeking... lol