Hello all, I have been a long standing observer of these forums and I have read the water cooling sticky but had a few questions regarding my loop plan. I'm currently using a Fractal XL R2 with a 2500K CPU. My GPU is not currently relevant to the loop as I am hoping to build a loop with enough radiator space to deal with a high end GPU but I intend to cool the CPU first and then when I upgrade the GPU in 6 months add it to the loop. My main interest is silence, over extreme cooling/overclocking.
My apologies if I could have found my answers elsewhere but I have been researching this for ages and haven't yet found a specific enough answer.
I currently have a mild OC to about 4.5GHz on the CPU and would proably overclock whichever GPU I get (I'm assuming it's likely to have a TDP of 250-300W) by 10-20%. What I am looking at doing is getting a Nexxxos Monsta 240 for the front of the case and something smaller for where the rear exhaust fan is. I can at a push remove the noise reduction foam from the top of the case and put a slim 240 rad there but I think that I may be better off (in terms of noise) getting a thicker rad at the back (as the mounting points are slightly higher here), having a lightly louder fan and leaving the foam in.
My main questions:
1a) Is this likely to be enough radiator space for the setup I have described? Bear in mind I want <1000 RPM fans, but also consider that temps are not an issue really. I'd be happy probably with 60-70 (that's probably a generous estimate of delta of about 40C).
1b) If this is not likely to be enough would I be better off either: adding a slim double rad at the top of the case. In this case my consideration would be if the advantage of more lower RPM fans outweigh the lack of noise insulating foam. Or alternatively blowing off water cooling my CPU and having a GPU only loop and going back to a quiet air cooler.
2) Where/how do I mount a reservoir/pump? i do not have a spare drive bay for a bay mount and rearranging drive cages is not an option due to either losing the front rad space or losing four hard drives/my optical drive which I'd rather not do. I would rather minimise (read avoid) case modding but I am prepared to accept it as an option. I have been looking at http://www.ekwb.com/shop/reservoirs-and-acc/res-pump-combo/ek-d5/ek-d5-vario-x-res-140-incl-pump.html but have no idea what to do with it.
3)How much clearance will I need in front of my fans? If I get the large rad at the front of the case I will have about 2cm clearance between the fan and the HDD cage in front. Is this something I should be concerned about?
Here is the current layout of my case
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
My apologies if I could have found my answers elsewhere but I have been researching this for ages and haven't yet found a specific enough answer.
I currently have a mild OC to about 4.5GHz on the CPU and would proably overclock whichever GPU I get (I'm assuming it's likely to have a TDP of 250-300W) by 10-20%. What I am looking at doing is getting a Nexxxos Monsta 240 for the front of the case and something smaller for where the rear exhaust fan is. I can at a push remove the noise reduction foam from the top of the case and put a slim 240 rad there but I think that I may be better off (in terms of noise) getting a thicker rad at the back (as the mounting points are slightly higher here), having a lightly louder fan and leaving the foam in.
My main questions:
1a) Is this likely to be enough radiator space for the setup I have described? Bear in mind I want <1000 RPM fans, but also consider that temps are not an issue really. I'd be happy probably with 60-70 (that's probably a generous estimate of delta of about 40C).
1b) If this is not likely to be enough would I be better off either: adding a slim double rad at the top of the case. In this case my consideration would be if the advantage of more lower RPM fans outweigh the lack of noise insulating foam. Or alternatively blowing off water cooling my CPU and having a GPU only loop and going back to a quiet air cooler.
2) Where/how do I mount a reservoir/pump? i do not have a spare drive bay for a bay mount and rearranging drive cages is not an option due to either losing the front rad space or losing four hard drives/my optical drive which I'd rather not do. I would rather minimise (read avoid) case modding but I am prepared to accept it as an option. I have been looking at http://www.ekwb.com/shop/reservoirs-and-acc/res-pump-combo/ek-d5/ek-d5-vario-x-res-140-incl-pump.html but have no idea what to do with it.
3)How much clearance will I need in front of my fans? If I get the large rad at the front of the case I will have about 2cm clearance between the fan and the HDD cage in front. Is this something I should be concerned about?
Here is the current layout of my case
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
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