Fans and Radiators for first water-cooled PC (980 Ti and 4670k)

blazinghydra · Jul 13, 2015

Just as the title says, I've been planning to upgrade my current rig and water cool it. I've done my homework, looked at all the forum posts and youtube videos that I could find, and while they were all useful, most of those were somewhat out of date (2014 at newest, 2009 at oldest), so I just wanted others' opinions before committing.
The loop would be cooling a 980 Ti and an i5-4670k, (both of which I intend to overclock) in either a Fractal Design Arc XL or a Phanteks Enthoo Primo (depending on budget). Bear in mind when making recommendations that the whole point of this endeavor to me is silence. Right now, here's what I'm looking at:

CPU Waterblock - Swiftech Apogee XL

GPU Waterblock - EK-FX Titan X Acetal Full Cover w/ Backplate

Reservoir/Pump Combo - XSPC Dual 5.25" Bay Reservoir V2, with D5 Vario pump

Tubing - PrimoFlex PrimoChill Advanced LRT Tubing, 3/8" ID 5/8" OD

Fittings - XSPC G1/4", 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD Straight Compression Fittings

Radiators - XSPC EX360 120.3, 35mm and XSPC EX240 120.2, 35mm

Fans - ???

The first sticking point for me are the fans - I'd love to just say "I'm using Nocua IndustrialPPC's" and be done, but for 5 of them it would be £100 (not counting case fans), which is more than thw two radiators cost together. Which brings me to my second issue: is 120.5 slim ok for what I'm doing, and are those specific rads even any good? I've heard so many conflicting opinions on how many rads you should use, some saying 120.1 per major component + 120.1, most saying 120.2 per component +120.1 (what I've done here) should be perfect, but a few said that that 120.5 should be a bare minimum for a CPU and GPU loop

TL;DR: Are the radiators I've suggested adequate for a 980 Ti and 4670k (both OC), and which fans could I use for silence (or as damn close to it as possible) at load? (preferably cheaper than Noctuas

)

toolmaker_03 · Jul 14, 2015

what you have suggested is the bare minimum amount of radiator for the loop that you have suggested.
https://imageshack.com/i/f7ervgj
https://imageshack.com/i/120plbJ
here are the temps at stock speeds
https://imageshack.com/i/nl1ttdj
https://imageshack.com/i/npuzs7j
to clock this system even a little i would need another 360mm radiator added to the loop to keep it cool, i do not game with this system.
here is a look at my gameing system
https://imageshack.com/i/b50k5lj
https://imageshack.com/i/mvb6v2j
3 X 360mm radiators to cool a CPU ans 2 X GPU's this system can be clocked a little, but even with this, if clocked, it will get hot.
https://imageshack.com/i/0ib40nj
with the CPU only clocked, to 4Ghz, it got to 55C, if i go higher the temps are unacceptible.

toolmaker_03 · Jul 14, 2015

your fans issue, i use carsair SP fans on the radiators, and AF fans for the case, at half speed they are quite, at full speed i am gameing with my headphones on so i do not hear them.
as far as cost, there are 23 fans total on my gaming system, 18 fans for the radiators, and 5 fans in the case, at $15 each, that comes to $345 without tax. so yea, i have more fans now then i did with air cooling. but i have to cool the radiators.

blazinghydra · Jul 14, 2015

toolmaker_03 :

In theory though, would it do for running at stock or maybe with a modest overclock, so that I could add, say, another 240 or 360 rad later if temps are too high, or if I want to go further with the OC in future? Also, the rads I have listed are 35mm thick. What difference would it make to go up to 45mm, or even 60mm?

blazinghydra · Jul 14, 2015

toolmaker_03 :

While I do wear headphones, they are open backed, and hence don't have much noise isolation at all. I really need a solution that will be TOTALLY silent at idle (easy enough, since PWM fans can turn off when the CPU/GPU aren't doing anything), and barely louder than that at load. Bear in mind that I'm not going for wicked overclocks here; first priority is silent running, second is squeezing a little extra performance out.

toolmaker_03 :

Yeah, that's waaaay too many for me

I'd be looking at each rad being push or pull, not push/pull, and then accounting for fans for the case, that would be 5 rad fans, and say, 3 or 4 case fans, tops. In the end, I'll probably need to go look at fan roundups, and noise measurements, and the like, since there''s so much choice here.

rubix_1011 · Jul 14, 2015

980 Ti TDP ~ 250 watts (stock)

4670k TDP ~84 watts (stock)

You are fine on rads, in my opinion. If your loop adds another GPU, you need to consider your radiator options at that point.

EX series XSPC rads are pretty good, just make sure you have fans that work for what you want to accomplish, which is the entire point of this thread, correct? EX rads are in the neighborhood of 15-19 FPI from most reviews that exist on them, so you'll want something with enough static pressure and speed to push through, or simply run fans in pull.

Corsair SP120's (~$15 / 9.60 GBP each)
Corsair SP120's Quiet (~$18 / 11.50 GBP each)
Silverstone AP121's ($15 / 9.60 GBP each)

toolmaker_03 · Jul 14, 2015

the loop you have suggested is fine at stock speeds, even a little overclock for short sperts, to see if it will run and what the temps would be. but if you tried long periods at a clock with high temps, on the for example CPU above or at 65C the CPU life will be shortened.
i water cool to extend the life of my hardware, what that means to me is this, when i first build the system no clocks are needed to run the games on the market, but what about 5 years from now, chances are i will need to take the system to a stage one clock on the CPU and GPU's maybe the memory too. at this point i know the system will burn its self out in a couple of years and before its over i may need to clock it higher to keep up.
my last system lasted for 8 years by doing this, my hope is to get the same or close to it with this system.
my last system was a AMDFX60 CPU a GT6800PRO GPU and two rapter HDD's my memory was OCZ plat2 400Mhz
by the end my CPU was at 3Ghz my GPU was at 700Mhz and my memory was at 500Mhz before it died it ran this way for 3 years.

rubix_1011 · Jul 14, 2015

TDP in watts of energy drawn/used isn't an exact 1:1 to heat in TDP in watts of heat expelled. It's typically accepted that 15-20% of your energy in watts consumed is lost to inefficiencies and therefore not expelled as heat; only 80-85% might be. It could even be less efficient than this depending on a specific system and the actual power draws needed to sustain the hardware. However, it is a violation of physics principles that TDP in heat dissipated in watts can never exceed 100% of watts of energy consumed.

The big question here is - what will be the system loop TDP theoretical total (CPU+GPU including overclocks) and the dissipation potential of the loop (Delta-T) to a value that is acceptable to the user?

http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/13/xspc-ex-360-radiator-review/4/

Pretty decent charting, here. The idea of a 300w load on a single EX360 and a flow rate of 1.0-1.5 gpm shows that fan speeds over 1300rpm puts you squarely in the 10 to sub-10C delta range. Let's assume that for this to scale across a EX360+EX240, we'll use the following equation to keep it simple: 300w+(300w/3)*2 = 500w for 10C delta with 1.0gpm flow and 1500rpm fans.

This means that your CPU and GPU at 100% load with overclocks applied would need to be < (500watt x .85% or ~425w) in order to maintain a ~10C water delta-T to ambient air. I'd say this is easily plausible given the hardware involved.

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Fans and Radiators for first water-cooled PC (980 Ti and 4670k)

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