I decided to watercool my CPU and GPU since I was not happy with the temps I was getting on air. I bought all the parts and am ready to assemble my computer.
Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X³ GTX 690 "Hole Edition" Ni-Bl with Backplate
Koolance CPU-380I
10 x Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12-3 Bionic fan 1900rpm for Push/Pull (top 360 rad will only fit 5 fans, fan #6 goes on the back of the case)
Loads of copression fitings
UV blue Tubing 19/13mm
Now, I am not sure anymore if the rads will be able to give me the cooling performance I was looking for...
I wanted to overclock my CPU to arround 5ghz as it did 4,5 no problem with a noctua nh-d14. I'd also want to overclock my GPU's a bit.
Based on a little bit of math P = C*V^2*F and the fact that your system without gpu(a rough estimate here) is going to be drawing a little over 500w you should be fine. I would say though make sure you have those rads in push pull configuration and have every fan mount filled. However, this is not something I have ever done personally and as much as I would like to say I have the solution experience will always be more correct than going based off of how something will probably work. You may want to wait for someone who has more experience doing this to answer.
Based on a little bit of math P = C*V^2*F and the fact that your system without gpu(a rough estimate here) is going to be drawing a little over 500w you should be fine.
Thanks for taking some time to check out the wattage of my cpu. I looked at the links, but doesn't it say that my psu would be drawing a bit over 500 watts but the actual cpu would be using arround 350 watts? (due to AC/DC conversion)
I'm going to go with 300 watts for my GPU giving me 650 watts for CPU and GPU together (If my assumption above is correct). I think my rads will only do 530 with push fans at 1800 rpm... Can anyone confirm that those numbers are correct?
I'll be having a Push/Pull configuration wherever I can, but I will only be able to mount 2 fans on the top of the 360 rad and 3 on the bottom. (Phantom sucks for watercooling)
I'll try to figure out a way to place another radiator somewhere in the case tonight. I really do not want a rad haing off the back of my case.
Sorry I should have clarified a bit. In the article it says that the power usage readings were taken with a kill-a-watt meter at the wall. This means that the meter is measuring the power draw of the entire system. Also the PSU run in those tests was 87-91% efficient(lets call it 89%). Therefore you must take the power usage and multiply by .89 to cancel out the ac/dc conversion loss. Even after all that that is the total system usage not just cpu usage as in these tests there was no gpu.
Assuming you were planning on two separate loops or something close to that you should be completely fine. There is no reason why those two radiators would not be able to dissipate the required amount of heat. As for mounting those two rads in an NZXT phantom that will be a bit more challenging. If you cannot do a full push/pull config you should still be fine. I will check your math tomorrow regardless as it is 4:13 AM here now and i can also figure out exactly how much just the cpu would be drawing if you like.
I was actually planing on runing the pumps in serial in this configuration:
Pump - Bay-Res - Pump - Bottom 240 Rad - GPU - Top 360 Rad - CPU - (Maybe adding tubing reservoir) - back to pump
I believe you that the rads will handle the temps fine, so you don't have to do the calculations. The system will hardly ever use more than 530 watts on gpu and cpu only, correct? Could do when benchmarking but that's not too important to me.
I would do pump-> bay-res->pump->CPU->top 360 rad->GPU->bottomg 240 rad->back to bayr-res. Also assuming you do in fact over clock the CPU to 5Ghz you will actually be using more than 500w and that doesnt even count the GPU. A gtx 690 has a max TDP of 300w if memory serves correctly so add about 300w to that 500w(this is under max load) and you will be pulling around 800w at max load. Now, if you dont overclock at all under max load you are looking at about 300w + 300w for 600w total system load.
So basically the entire loop but backwards, what's the benefit of that?
And that's right that I'd be using up 500 Watts or more for the CPU, but the actuall CPU would only be using, let's say 350 watts (that's an estimate based off the charts from your [H] link) for a 5 ghz overclock.
That means that only 350 watts of heat would go into my loop, leaving the other 150 watts of heat for my psu to handle for the AC/DC conversion.
When not overclocked the 3960x uses 253 watts in prime95 (so @ 100%)
link: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-3960x-x79-sandy-bridge-e,3071-19.html
Now those numbers added up (350 for cpu + 300 for GPU) give me 650 Watts of heat that my rads would have to take care of, should my system be at 100%...
Like I said, I'll hardly ever go to 100% load on CPU and GPU while playing something like BF4. I'd say (rough guestimate again, sorry) it will use 80% of my system giving only 520 Watts of heat into my loop.
Pleas correct me if anything of the above in not correct. But at the moment I feel quite confident this will work just fine
I checked my case again to find some more space for another rad, but I'd really have to mount one at the back should temps be too high, oh well...
I went back and thought about it and I like your cooling setup better. Usually you dissipate the heat from the component you cool immediately after you leave the component. So for example CPU rad or GPU rad, it is just an attempt to keep the coolant running through as close to room temperature as possible. Also depending on how you lock your cpu clock speeds you might have one or three or six physical cores running at max overclock. The main point is you have plenty of radiator for your heat. As for fitting those two rads in there you might have to get creative.
I'll do as soon as I'm done with all the fancy looking stuff. (UV LED's for the reactive tubing, side window, sleeved cables and 2nd SSD mounted on the side of the 5.25" bay)
You deffinatly have enough rad space. I'm cooling dual 690s and an i7 in my build with absolutely amazing temps using hwlabs gtx and ek xtx rads with nb eloops on them. Check it.
Btw might you be interested in trading those dominator gts for some dominator plats? I've got an ek ram monarch block I've been dying to use...the ram in my amd rig is watercooled but not in this beast... can't wait to see the rig when it's done best of luck!
You deffinatly have enough rad space. I'm cooling dual 690s and an i7 in my build with absolutely amazing temps using hwlabs gtx and ek xtx rads with nb eloops on them. Check it.
Btw might you be interested in trading those dominator gts for some dominator plats? I've got an ek ram monarch block I've been dying to use...the ram in my amd rig is watercooled but not in this beast... can't wait to see the rig when it's done best of luck!
This is correct. They do not work as a pull fan. Only a push fan.
Notice the fan design. If you were to use them for pull, the blade would hit the radiator. You would need 32mm of clearance rather than the normal 25mm.
Either that or a different fan. I'd recommend considering getting some AFB1212LE fans off AliExpress or alternatively, trying to source some Gentle Typhoons. They offer superior performance anyways, from a noise to performance standpoint.
Now, I am not sure anymore if the rads will be able to give me the cooling performance I was looking for...
I wanted to overclock my CPU to arround 5ghz as it did 4,5 no problem with a noctua nh-d14. I'd also want to overclock my GPU's a bit.
The bottleneck will be your luck with the silicon lottery. Unless you are willing to run the CPU in excess of 1.5V, there's a large chance that you may luck out and end up with a CPU that cannot sustain 1.5V even with a high voltage.
Rad space should be adequate with what you have, although again - the silicon lottery may be the bottleneck. One thing you may want to consider is cooling the VRMs of the motherboard as Sandy Bridge E ran pretty hot with high overclocks.
This is correct. They do not work as a pull fan. Only a push fan.
Notice the fan design. If you were to use them for pull, the blade would hit the radiator. You would need 32mm of clearance rather than the normal 25mm.
Either that or a different fan. I'd recommend considering getting some AFB1212LE fans off AliExpress or alternatively, trying to source some Gentle Typhoons. They offer superior performance anyways, from a noise to performance standpoint.
Rad space should be adequate with what you have, although again - the silicon lottery may be the bottleneck. One thing you may want to consider is cooling the VRMs of the motherboard as Sandy Bridge E ran pretty hot with high overclocks.
Thanks guys, I had a look into it before I bought the fans back then. Noise and performance was not too bad in push pull after all.
Anyways as I posted earlier I am on a new build in a SMA8 with new fans more rads etc. I diched the few e-loops for a ton of low rpm fans and much more rad space
No need to give me further advice for my old build, check the OP date.
I went back and thought about it and I like your cooling setup better. Usually you dissipate the heat from the component you cool immediately after you leave the component. So for example CPU rad or GPU rad, it is just an attempt to keep the coolant running through as close to room temperature as possible.
This isn't exactly true, due to the fact that the water in such a comparatively small system as watercoolers typically use flows around the loop so fast, the temperature throughout the loop tends to average out, so having a rad immediately after a certain component actually doesn't make a difference. Design your loop so that the tubing runs are as short/neat as possible, the only order that matters is that your res is before the pump, so that your pump won't be running dry when you're filling the loop.
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