mkosem

I'm toying with the idea of water cooling my GTX280 with its own dedicated loop. I'll probably also WC the cpu at some point, but I'd rather quiet the card down for noise reasons in addition to the obvious cooling advantage. Is a PA160 with the 120mm shroud and a Noctua NF-P12 enough to keep a GTX 280 at bay? I see that the 120mm radiator is rated at 250w with 10C temp drop (which is probably the limit on the low side of what I'd want), but I don't see similar ratings for the 160. Would it be adequate?

--Matt

ChielScape

it would, but wouldnt you rather go for a somewhat cheaper 240 or 360 rad?

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DaCrusader

I doubt it... 240 rad would be better.

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p0isonapple

I'd say go with a MCR240 or 320 if you have the room, you could probably chuck your CPU in the 320 as well

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ChielScape

exactly, the lower price of the rad would make up for the added cost of the CPU block.

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mkosem

I'm just shy of having enough room for a tripple 120 rad. I can fit a double, but I don't think that would be enough for my cpu and vid card together. I've also got enough room for a heater core with 2x 120s up front, but I'm not sure how much better that would be than the offierings from thermochill, black ice, and swiftech. Maybe I need a different case...

mkosem

Would using a dual 120mm Feser X-Changer or a ThermoChill PA120.2 make any improvement on the feasibility of a double 120 rad for the cpu and GPU together? They seem to perform pretty closely to tripple 120 rads. If not, perhaps I just aught opt to stick an additional 120 out behind the case with a swiftech mount to run alongside a 240 up front.

Either that or I'd need to move to a case that fits 3x 120s up front, like the Stacker 810 or Antec 1200.

--Matt

SergeRY

If you are considering outboard, why not get a triple rad. The mcr320 which has been suggested will perform great and is pretty reasonably priced. @ ~$57 it is roughly half of a PA160 - unless you found some amazing deal.

The MCR320 can dissipate 300-500 watts, depending on what you consider an acceptable fan setup and temp delta.

admittedly the thermochill is probably better, but the xspc 120 can only dissiapte ~100 watts. I can't imagine the thermochill is more than 50% better.

Having said that the GTX280 consumes in the neighborhood of 240 watts. This means it has to dissipate that heat somehow, although some of it will go through components other then the gpu. I might guess 180-200watts stock through the gpu. What block are you getting? Full cover?

So, recommend bigger rad.Why were you considering a single rad out of curiosity?

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mkosem

A 320 would hang down too low on the back of my case, and prevent me from reaching my video connections. I was only considering the single rad as an addition to a double(both in one loop with the CPU and GPU. I'll have to look around and spread out my options more it seems. The only place that I could fit a tripple 120 inside the case is on the bottom, which I've done before with only limited success. Air intakes on the bottom of PCs clog with dust too quickly! They work well for a while, but need cleaning every couple of weeks in a carpeted room.

--Matt