Custom 640mm External Radiator/Res

[jamesjohnson88]

I just wanted to get a few opinions on a project i'm considering.

What I want to do is house 2 360mm radiators in a purpose built box/case.

It would be cooled by 3 x 120mm fans sandwiched between them. Obviously they'd be powerful fans so I'd most likely have them on a controller.

There would be a small PSU in the case to power the fans, lighting and posibly a small support pump to maintain a healthy flow.

I would mount a resevoir above the radiators so that the height helps flow to the proper pump inside my computers case.

Possible additions include:

+ Fill-port on external case.

+ In-line temperature sensor and LCD.

So basically my main concerns are -

1) I often hear that external systems aren't as good as internal. Is this just because the pump is external?

2) A support pump is just one more thing to go wrong, so would it be necessary or would I be better with just using one decent pump? My intention is to run a single loop to start with (just the CPU and later on, the GPU).

3) With it being external could you recommend and quick-connect fittings so that I can disconnect and re-connect fairly easily?

4) I have never used a fan controller before, do they need to be connected to the mobo in any way, or will they work just with a PSU?

Feel free to offer any other advice too.

 

[Pjalchemist]

1) I often hear that external systems aren't as good as internal. Is this just because the pump is external?

2) A support pump is just one more thing to go wrong, so would it be necessary or would I be better with just using one decent pump? My intention is to run a single loop to start with (just the CPU and later on, the GPU).

3) With it being external could you recommend and quick-connect fittings so that I can disconnect and re-connect fairly easily?

4) I have never used a fan controller before, do they need to be connected to the mobo in any way, or will they work just with a PSU?

Feel free to offer any other advice too.

1) There better normaly as you can run a bigger rad than what you case may allow or more rads ie dual 120.3's

2) One pump pending what you fitting in the loop will do. If you running dual rads say 120.3's i say go dual pump, ether dual D5's or dual DDC.

3) John-Quest i belive is the man that make the best ones, you'll have to Google and check some other forum i think.

4) Fan contoler runs off a 4 pin molex and thats it. Some fancy ones can link to the pc but there costly. So in hshort no, just 4pin molex 12v in

The only thing that will let you down is you rad and fan ideal, passing hot air through both rads, stack the rads, ether 1 flat and 1 on the side having both blowing in the case and have an exhuast cut out with mesh.

Fill port is smaller, neater and easyer, just depends on your setup and size of the box. Res bleeds faster it's said.

In line temop would be cool, can have thus then

Water temp in

Water temp out

Inside case temp

You can add more to that such as

Air temp in (probs on front of rad where air enters under a fan)

Air temp out as above

Then you can work out deltas too for you OC to load and idle temps if you wanted to get fancy!!

I got a few parts here which might be of some use to you. I don't have PM and have registered to use the forsale section but yet to be able to...gay!