Good idea OR Bad idea?

[kerochi]

okay, i'm obessed on cooling these in my TT-case:

8800GTX x 2

Quad Core

Asus Striker

6HDs

The armour comes with water-cooling kit -

I've dumped that, sold it on ebay BUT I did keep the 120 x 2 fans + rad at the front. Those are staying put and not going anywhere.

HOWEVER these fans not enough to cool everything,

which is why I bought a thermochill PA 120.3 rad.

Unfortunately they will NOT fit in the armour and give me enough bay space so.................

I have this plan:

Cut an opening at the bottom of the TT case, enough to mount the thermochill, with plenty of gap for air to be sucked in from at the bottom of the case.

I must admit, I prefer the rad to be in the case pulling air in, and not outside like some ppl might suggest (like using a swifttech radbox, no thnx)

So will this work? Will there be anything technical issues that I'm not aware about?

Looking fwd to hear what you have techs have to say!!

 

[Allsorts]

Yes, I've seen loads of people mount their PA120.3 rad in the bottom of the case. I can search for some pics if you want. You're right, most people have the fans drawing cooler air through the rad into the case and the warmer air expelled by case exhaust fans.

One suggestion about cutting your case. You can cut a rectangle that's slightly smaller than the rad and have the fans on top of the rad. Or you could cut three circles with a hole-saw and then mount case->fans->rad, if you see what I mean. Oh, and make sure the barbs on the rad point upwards .

 

[kerochi]

I would love to see some pictures, but havent managed to dig any out so far...

Will have fans on the outside for sure so:

mount case>fans>rad

So no real issues having a massive hole at the bottom of the case?

 

[ai_01]

if u want it at the bottom of ur case, it will take out some pci slots maybe even a pci-express. rad + w/ 25mm height fans total height is about 9cm. thats w/o gaskets or grillz.

 

[kerochi]

can live with that knowing that my case is gonna be ice freezer where i can keep a stock of beer lol

will even add block for that

PICS PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ai_01]

ur gonna need to cut those wholes thou or it is pointless, if u dont cut the wholes all ur doing is restricting airflow, thus its performance.

 

[kerochi]

thats what im doing: 3 x 120 holes into the bottom and make it as close to the floor as poss.

and im gonna custom make a block to connect to my beer

 

[Allsorts]

I'm sure i've seen some pics here on OC3D, maybe try looking at peoples 'My Rig Specs' for pics. Anyway, here are some good examples from XS:

One

Two

Three

There are loads more.

 

[Allsorts]

and im gonna custom make a block to connect to my beer

Or you could build a block to heat some hot chocolate, then you wouldn't even need a radiator. You'd have to drink quite a lot to keep your temps down though!

 

[kerochi]

ahahahaha hot chocolate will pwn your PA120

Those pics look sick.

I hope i do as good a job at cutting those holes.

Pump > Radiator (thermaltake?) > CPU Block > Chipset Block > GPU Block > Reservoir > Pump

where would you put the thermochill in that setup?

 

[ai_01]

where the thermaltake rad would be.

 

[kerochi]

Pump > Radiator (thermaltake) > CPU Block > Chipset Block > GPU Block > Reservoir > Radiator (thermochill)>Pump

not too sure where the 2nd rad comes in the setup....

Is that right?

 

[ai_01]

if u want internal i dont think there is space for a second rad. i dont know what mobo u have so i didnt put a chipset sink in.

heres a quick mockup of what would be the most simplest way.

pump > cpu > gpu > res > rad > pump

u can reverse the rad and pump such as.

pump > rad > cpu > gpu > res > pump

 

[FarFarAway]

I'd go for the second config

 

[Allsorts]

Just use your Thermochill PA120.3 radiator on its own, it can handle any heat load you throw at it! Adding another radiator will only restrict the flow of water and may even make your temps worse!

The accepted belief is that you can arrange your loop in any order so long as the reservoir/T-line comes before the pump. The next priorities are avoiding kinks and tight bends (that would restrict flow) and long tube runs. If you want to squeeze out the max performance then the best order would be (all things being equal)

pump > rad > cpu > gpu > res > pump

since the pump dumps a small amount of heat into the water too. Just go for whatever layout suits your case the best.

EDIT: Forgot you stated a chipset block. So either: > cpu > chipset > gpu > OR > cpu > gpu > chipset >

 

[ai_01]

idk if temps would be worse, if anything better, h/e the thermaltake rad would restict flow more than other rads, even if it is added thou id doubt u would see much gain from it. and i would doubt if u could fit that all in there.

 

[kerochi]

so would you take out the radiator at the front and just use the fans to suck air (w/thermochill at bottom of case)

OR

still use radiator for a separate setup. just for cooling gpu or cpu, i.e 1 radiator per block?

will i get lower temps if i use 2 separate setups/pumps or will they be roughly the same as using just the one?

so for ex. use thermochill strickly for cpu only to get lower temps

if i can cool the cpu far enough i can get higher clock speeds you see, which is why im being so anal about all this

BUT i guess if i have 2 fans drawing air in at the front itll help cool everything too, so i dont knwo which is better

 

[ai_01]

i just dont think that u will have enough space for another large rad, yet alone if two loops a second pump. if u go two loops, yes temps will be better, but im more than sure that ur thermochill will be more than enough. the two fans in front of the case will do minimal diference, it would be better to have some fans on ur ram and mosfets. The 2 fans in front will bring the temp case down but u will have 3 fans drawing air from the bottom of the case, which i think will be more than enough, if anything u will need fans pushing out of the case.