NZXT Switch 810 w/ 360mm rad with push and pull

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 4, 2015

I'm buying an NZXT Switch 810 and I'm outfitting it with a ThermalTake Water 3.0 Ultimate. The ThermalTake has a 360mm radiator which does fit into the 810 and it has 3 120mm fans. There is a slot on the top of the 810 that has a place for 3 fans, either 140mm or 120mm fans. I'm doing a push pull system like this

Fan1 Fan2 Fan3
---------------------- < metal bracket on case
============= < ThermalTake 360mm rad
Fan4 Fan5 Fan6

Fan4, Fan5, and Fan6 come with the ThermalTake and are 120mm fans and the radiator only supports 120mm fans.

I want Fan1, Fan2, and Fan3 to all be 140mm fans but I'm not sure they'll mount with the radiator and the three 120mm fans.

My question is, can I mount the ThermalTake with it's 3 120mm fans to my case AND have 3 140mm fans on top of the case? Or do I have to put 3 120mm fans on top of the case to be compatible?

My second question is how would I go about mounting this? What do I mount first with what screws? Thank you in advance.

nooneinparticular · Aug 4, 2015

Hi,

I mounted a radiator to the top of my Switch 810 recently and I while I'm away from the case at this time I'm pretty sure that the three 140mm fans will fit on the top.

I think you should be able to access the 140mm mounting holes after installing the radiator because the 140mm fan screws are wider than the 120mm ones. So if the radiator is less than (say) 130mm wide I should imagine you could mount the radiator first and then install the 140mm fans. You should do this before installing the motherboard though, since the motherboard would interfere with access to the fan mounting holes on the motherboard tray side.

In case the radiator is too wide to access the 140mm mounting holes from its sides, you could use some rubber (silicone?) fan mounting thingies. Just put then in the 140mm holes first and then install the radiator. You should then be able to attach the 140mm fans to the rubber bits which are already in place.

There is one thing I can think of that could cause trouble. That is that if the radiator mounting screw heads are tall (i.e. they extend too high from the metal surface they are screwed on) they might interfere with the 140mm fan blades. There is little extra room vertically between the top plastic cover and the metal the fans and the radiator are attached to. You might still get away with a 1-2mm spacers for the fans to accommodate the radiator mounting screw heads though.

I actually installed a custom 420mm radiator to where your 140mm fans are to be. The radiator is 31.5mm thick at it's thickest point, so I ended up sanding the plastic roof for a few millimeters in order for the rad to fit. In a pinch I guess you could do the same to gain some more vertical space. It made the roof somewhat more flimsy, but sanding off a few millimeters to gain space is doable and it still works as it should. I don't plan on using the roof of the case for hitting anything anyway

nooneinparticular · Aug 4, 2015

I took a quick peek at the ThermalTake Water 3.0 Ultimate and it looks like it's no wider than 120mm. So in the end I think I would mount the radiator like this:

1st mount the radiator to the metal bracket using the short mounting screws that come with the radiator. The screws are of course screwed through the metal bracket holes so that the screw heads are visible from the top of the case.

2nd use whatever mounting mechanism to attach the 140mm fans to the metal bracket. It looks like there will be plenty of space on either side of the radiator to access the 140mm mounting holes from below. Use small (about 2mm high) spacers to add just a little bit of a gap to have clearance so the fan blades do not touch the radiator mounting screws.

3rd use the longer mounting screws that come with the radiator to attach the 120mm fans to the radiator... Be very careful though, since if the screws are too long, they will puncture the radiator. Be sure to read the manual to see if the spacers that come with the radiator should be used between the 120mm fans and the radiator! If they aren't needed here, you could maybe use them in 2nd step.

Obviously you could do the 3rd step first if you want.

However, I don't think there will be too much benefit for using 140mm fans as the pull fans. They might draw some air out of the case from either side of the radiator, but I don't think there will be any cooling benefit to the radiator vs. just using all 120mm fans. I suppose the 140mm fans would look slightly better on the case though, since you can sort of see them from the open slits at the top of the case.

If you go with 120mm fans on the top, there is one more thing to consider. At least with my rad the longer mounting screws were too short to go through the fan and the metal bracket and reach the mounting holes on the radiator. I had to cook something else up to securely mount the radiator.

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 4, 2015

nooneinparticular :

Hi,

I mounted a radiator to the top of my Switch 810 recently and I while I'm away from the case at this time I'm pretty sure that the three 140mm fans will fit on the top.

I think you should be able to access the 140mm mounting holes after installing the radiator because the 140mm fan screws are wider than the 120mm ones. So if the radiator is less than (say) 130mm wide I should imagine you could mount the radiator first and then install the 140mm fans. You should do this before installing the motherboard though, since the motherboard would interfere with access to the fan mounting holes on the motherboard tray side.

In case the radiator is too wide to access the 140mm mounting holes from its sides, you could use some rubber (silicone?) fan mounting thingies. Just put then in the 140mm holes first and then install the radiator. You should then be able to attach the 140mm fans to the rubber bits which are already in place.

There is one thing I can think of that could cause trouble. That is that if the radiator mounting screw heads are tall (i.e. they extend too high from the metal surface they are screwed on) they might interfere with the 140mm fan blades. There is little extra room vertically between the top plastic cover and the metal the fans and the radiator are attached to. You might still get away with a 1-2mm spacers for the fans to accommodate the radiator mounting screw heads though.

I actually installed a custom 420mm radiator to where your 140mm fans are to be. The radiator is 31.5mm thick at it's thickest point, so I ended up sanding the plastic roof for a few millimeters in order for the rad to fit. In a pinch I guess you could do the same to gain some more vertical space. It made the roof somewhat more flimsy, but sanding off a few millimeters to gain space is doable and it still works as it should. I don't plan on using the roof of the case for hitting anything anyway

Thanks for the input! When I get everything in next week, I'll post an update.

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 4, 2015

nooneinparticular :

I took a quick peek at the ThermalTake Water 3.0 Ultimate and it looks like it's no wider than 120mm. So in the end I think I would mount the radiator like this:

1st mount the radiator to the metal bracket using the short mounting screws that come with the radiator. The screws are of course screwed through the metal bracket holes so that the screw heads are visible from the top of the case.

2nd use whatever mounting mechanism to attach the 140mm fans to the metal bracket. It looks like there will be plenty of space on either side of the radiator to access the 140mm mounting holes from below. Use small (about 2mm high) spacers to add just a little bit of a gap to have clearance so the fan blades do not touch the radiator mounting screws.

3rd use the longer mounting screws that come with the radiator to attach the 120mm fans to the radiator... Be very careful though, since if the screws are too long, they will puncture the radiator. Be sure to read the manual to see if the spacers that come with the radiator should be used between the 120mm fans and the radiator! If they aren't needed here, you could maybe use them in 2nd step.

Obviously you could do the 3rd step first if you want.

However, I don't think there will be too much benefit for using 140mm fans as the pull fans. They might draw some air out of the case from either side of the radiator, but I don't think there will be any cooling benefit to the radiator vs. just using all 120mm fans. I suppose the 140mm fans would look slightly better on the case though, since you can sort of see them from the open slits at the top of the case.

If you go with 120mm fans on the top, there is one more thing to consider. At least with my rad the longer mounting screws were too short to go through the fan and the metal bracket and reach the mounting holes on the radiator. I had to cook something else up to securely mount the radiator.

You do have a good point if I put 120mm on top it'll be a challenge to get them to mount with the rad and the rad fans. I'm going to go with 140's on top.

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 11, 2015

I should get the case and parts on Thursday but I have another question. Because I'm going to use a triple rad with a push and pull set up, I'm guessing I'm not going to be able to use the top expansion bay, and I'll have to push my CD/DVD drive to one lower correct?

nooneinparticular · Aug 12, 2015

Shining_KoW210 :

Update: I measured the space from the top of the optical drive to the bottom of my fan, and it is less than 27mm. So, if you want to install the radiator and a fan there the topmost expansion bay probably cannot hold a optical drive.

I can't measure the clearance at the moment, but since your rad is very thin, it might just fit in the gap along with the fan. I suppose you can try and see if it'll fit, but it looks like if fits there will be only millimeters to spare. That might impede the airflow somewhat.

I only have a 25mm thick fan above the optical drive on the top expansion bay, and there is some clearance, but not very much. I could maybe measure the clearance once I get home.

Here is a page on Tom's Hardware showing what a 34mm radiator and 25mm fan look like when installed. Since your setup should be about 7mm thinner, it might just fit with an optical drive... it looks fairly tight though.

I personally like the panel to hide the optical drive, so if it were me, I would probably not install the fan and just use pull for that part of the radiator if it doesn't fit

Note that if you decide to go with pull only, you should insulate the pull fan so, that it will draw air through the radiator and not from any gaps between the radiator and the fan. I suspect the metal bracket will not make the insulation too easy though.

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 12, 2015

nooneinparticular :

I think I will just leave the section above the expansion bay a pull only so I can use the case's white door. It's a shame, this case is nearly perfect except that the other expansion bays besides the top most have to be mounted so the unit is flesh with the front of the case, and that metal bar that's underneath the top expansion bay is non removable. If I really wanted to I suppose I could cut it out with some tools. It's not really a big deal though especially since I will be putting my CD/DVD drive on the top expansion. Now to figure out what to do with an extra fan... I bought 5 extra 140mm NZXT fans. Thank you so much for your help and input! I will update tomorrow as all the parts will arrive.

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 14, 2015

So I spent all day today putting together my computer. A few interesting things happened. First, I can open my CD/DVD drive with the cover, and the door opens, but when I press the button to close the drive, the drive closes but the door doesn't close with it. Is this a flaw with the door? I ended up not installing one of the fans that came with the radiator so I can use the cd drive cover. Without taking apart the front of the case, the top fan closest to the front can only be installed with two screws towards the back, the front two are inaccessible without taking the top off which I didn't really want to do. The fan hub on the back is very very nice. I got most of my fans hooked up to it. The case is large and having extensions for the fans would have come in handy but all in all it looks great. One other thing, the pictures of the case shows that it comes with 4 regular NZXT 140mm fans, mine came with 4 version 2 NXZT 140mm fans, so I had to move 2 of the fans that came with the case, one from the top and one from the front, and put one of them on the swivel stand, and the other on the bottom, and the 5 regular NZXT fans I put filling in every other spot in the case. The only place that I did not fill a fan with besides one on the radiator is the slot just underneath the bottom harddrive cage. Without removing the bottom cage and a bracket underneath that, a fan won't fit. Other than that it looks amazing. I'll post some pics tomorrow. Thank you so much!

nooneinparticular · Aug 14, 2015

Shining_KoW210 :

I'm glad you got your system running.

I have vague recollection that I had to fiddle with the optical drive panel door on my case (black version). It might have been ever so slightly misaligned or the spring was caught somewhere. I don't remember what I did, and my memory might be confusing this with something else... It works fine now, however. Maybe you should contact NZXT regarding the problem if poking around trying to free the spring (or something) doesn't help.

My case is fairly old (about two years or so), and only came with (what I think are) version 1 fans (I had to look up what the V2 fans are.) Though to be honest I'm not happy with the NZXT fans. I water cool for silence and two of the four NZXT fans have bearing noise which I find annoying. The next time I'm ordering something I will replace them with Noiseblocker fans or something else that don't have sleeve bearings. Too bad none of the local resellers are not well stocked with fans, so I have to pay high shipping costs for anything out of the "bog standard".

My radiator on the top of the case is only attached with two screws , but I figured that since it's just resting on top of the case, it doesn't really need to be more securely attached. I guess the two screws for the fan at the top front will be fine... unless it rattles of course. I suppose you could try those anti vibration fan screw replacements there if you're worried.

I'm curious about whether you had trouble with the screw radiator screw heads clipping the fans on the top?

Shining_KoW210 · Aug 14, 2015

Thanks for your response, so far, the only thing that is squeaking is the rear NZXT fan sometimes squeak a little. I'll figget with the CD/DVD door and see if I can fix it.

I actually didn't have any trouble with clearance with the fans. First I installed the two fans with the long screws to underneath the rad, then used the small screws, six of them to mount it underneath the top. The screw holes were lowered a tiny bit so the fans on top had enough clearance to where I didn't have to raise them. They mounted on top with no problems.

Here are some pictures of it https://imgur.com/gallery/jMG6A I still have to do some cable managment in the back but it still looks great.

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