Have I got enough cooling ability? 4770k + dual 290X

[Davva2004]

Hey all,

Just a quick query regarding how much cooling I'll need.

Planned build is an i7 4770K @ 4.7ghz, plus two R9 290X GPUs. Plan to OC the GPUs as high as possible, as this is going to provide a triple monitor 5760x1080 setup.

As for cooling, I'm going XSPC throughout - using the dual bay X20 750lph pump / res combo, Raystorm CPU block, two full coverage 290X blocks and backplates, an AX240 radiator and an AX360 radiator with ten Scythe Gentle Typhoon fans on both rads in push/pull. I've chosen XSPC as they did really well in the group test against EK, Alphacool and Phobya and are great value for money.

Mobo is the ASUS Maximus VI formula and I'll be watercooling the board with its built in heatsink.

Case will be the NZXT Phantom 820 with the 240 rad in the bottom and the 360 up top, along with the front 200mm and rear 140mm fan.

Power supply will be the Corsair AX1200i.

So the question is - will a 240 and a 360 AX series rads in push/pull be enough to dissipate up to 1200W? (Yeah I know it'll never actually pull 1200, but ya know what I mean...)

Open to suggestions, I'm a long time air cooler but this is my first water cooled build.

Thanks all!

Dave

 

[WYP]

i think you would be better off using thicker radiators, the AX series are 45mm deep i believe and i would personally go no thinner than a 60mm thick rad for such a loop (well even the moster 80mm thick rads sound good).

I say this because you are better with a thicker rad in push than a thinner rad in push pull, temperature wise.

 

[Davva2004]

Appreciate the reply, I think the reason I chose the AX360 is that I can buy it in a kit with the pump / res combo and Raystorm block and then add on the AX240 and GPU blocks separately. I'll get hold of XSPC and see if they do a kit with a thicker rad, and then halve the fans for less noise.

Cheers!

 

[WYP]

wait for a few more replies before making a decision, you may come across other users of you case with a few tips and tricks.

i'll also have a deeper look into this myself tomorrow, it's quite late where i am ATM.

 

[Cru]

pretty sure that pump-res-combo doesn't use a D5. I really wouldn't get anything else
those bay combos also tend to vibrate quite a bit, i'd recommend a tube res + pump instead

rad space should be good, although as said 60mm would be better

 

[Davva2004]

Cheers guys,

Looking into alternative pump / res combos I've just found XSPC do a D5 vario pump attached to their 170mm photon reservoir. Such lust. So I've rethought the loop and case, and decided to go for the HAF 935 Stacker case with two AX360 radiators in the smaller section (mounted below the main section) using Corsair SP120 fans in push.

It'll look like this, but full of glowing red awesomeness. Maybe I'll call it Sith...

So even though I'm spending more on the pump and rads, I'm saving £50 on the case.

Plus, AFAIK nobody has done a watercooled build in the HAF 935 Stacker on here yet... could I be the first???

 

[S_I_N]

The X20 750lph pump / res combo is not designed for that many blocks/rads. It suffer severe flow loss. Its designed to handle the kit it comes in and maybe one more block. As said go for the thicker Rx series rads and with as hot as the 290's are I'd do a min of 260 and 240 but would recommend dual 360's because of the added mobo. And 60mm thick min. I'm running 2600k and dual 7970's on a 420mm and 280mm 60mm thick rads and have very decent temps with no oc on the cards and a 4.5 2 1.36 vcore on cpu. Idles are 32cpu 31 on both gpu's fans on med speed. with an ambient around 24c. For what your wanting to do with oc'n higher on your stuff you'll have to have fans on full or more rad space to aide in dissipation. And even on hgh fans its going to be about the same temp wise imho as good air.

Asking if what you plan will handle 1200w (I'm assuming you mean as in 1200w psu) that leads me to think maybe your a tad bit confused between what your cooling lol. While yes your cooling the cores of your components theres a difference between HEAT watts and POWER watts. The cpu and gpu's have a TDP listed for them in watts but its not the same as the watts from your psu. You'll need to handle aprox. 750-900 watts of heat. assuming 300w per 290 100w for the cpu and 50w for the mobo. I went up to 900 for oc'n. Now with that info in hand

 

[NeverBackDown]

The 290 series card don't run hot under water.. they only run hot with the stock coolers because they suck so bad. Under water it performs like any other GPU would.

For a 4770k, 2x 290x, and mobo i would suggest at least a total of 2x360mm rad. A combonation of 360 and 240 would work but going to need 60mm thick rads.

 

[tinytomlogan]

The reason why people are saying use thicker rads is it will mean you can run the fans slower and thats meant to be the point.

GPU's always run cool on water but youll need good cooling to tame ~any high clocked CPU - my CPU in Orca still hits 70c

 

[WYP]

The reason why people are saying use thicker rads is it will mean you can run the fans slower and thats meant to be the point.

GPU's always run cool on water but youll need good cooling to tame ~any high clocked CPU - my CPU in Orca still hits 70c

^THIS^ Good old TTL

As i said previously go for as thick of a radiator/s as your case will allow (thinking XSPC Rx series as you seem to like xspc) and slap on some quiet pressure optimized fans, Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition fans are a good shout.

I believe the gentle Typhoon fans are no longer in production so they will be very hard to find, also the corsair fans can better match any colour scheme with those rings.

When planning out your loop i would recommend looking at a few build logs here on the forums as you can learn a few tips and tricks without even realizing it. Also TTL's watercooling videos on youtube will also help.

 

[Davva2004]

All advice very much appreciated, back to the drawing board

Thanks guys!

 

[Surfie]

Well I'm not running a phantom 820 in my build, but you may want to give it a look over in a day or so once I get the photos up. .. might give you an idea of what you can do.

My case is the phantom 630 windowed edition.

 

[Greenback]

If I remember correctly the AX360 and RX360 performed virtually the same only about 0.5 degrees difference with the same fan speed when compared together

 

[Davva2004]

Greenback you're right, in every benchmark the AX rads from XSPC perform just as well as the 60mm thick ones.

So I've decided to use two AX360s with Corsair SP120 quiet fans in push, both mounted in the bottom of a HAF 935 Stacker, with a D5 vario and photon reservoir pushing the juice around.

Huge thanks to everyone who gave excellent advice here, you've saved me from making a big mistake!

 

[NeverBackDown]

They perform the same because the FPI is much higher giving it more surface area. So naturally it creates more resistance against the air making it sound louder, RX rads will perform just as great while remaining more quite due to less air resistance; which is what we hear most from fans anyway-- the air being moved quickly.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Greenback you're right, in every benchmark the AX rads from XSPC perform just as well as the 60mm thick ones.

So I've decided to use two AX360s with Corsair SP120 quiet fans in push, both mounted in the bottom of a HAF 935 Stacker, with a D5 vario and photon reservoir pushing the juice around.

Huge thanks to everyone who gave excellent advice here, you've saved me from making a big mistake!

Not qith quiet fans though, the AX's are designed for faster fan speeds are thus MORE NOISE

The RX's are significantly better at lower fan speeds and quieter.

They perform the same because the FPI is much higher giving it more surface area. So naturally it creates more resistance against the air making it sound louder, RX rads will perform just as great while remaining more quite due to less air resistance; which is what we hear most from fans anyway-- the air being moved quickly.

+1 spot on - the point in watercooling is looks AND quieter - building a loud watercooling rig is something any n0000b can be proud of and something Ill happily pick fault in.

 

[B NEGATIVE]

The AX will perform well at lower fan speeds,not as well as the RX but well enough so as you wouldnt notice the difference.

As with all things rad related,there is no substitute for rad face,thick rads allow for lower FPI to perform like thinner high FPI rads..a thicker rad doesnt automatically guarantee you better performance as some recent UT v Monsta tests showed with the UT beating the thicker (by 20mm!) Monsta.

Match you rad choice with your desired characteristics,ie Silence or all out performance,the differences are slight for performance but are poles apart for noise level.

The rule of thumb for acceptable rad face is 120 then add a 120 for every block in the loop,mobo and RAM count as a single 120. Anything over this will allow you to lower the noise levels as you will be able to run lower fan speeds yet retain cooling power.

 

[Davva2004]

Again, thanks for all the advice, and I've decided to add more rad face by going for two XSPC AX480s mounted top and bottom in a Phanteks Enthoo Primo case. Rad fans will be Corsair SP120 quiet edition in push, and two AF140s handling case airflow with speed reducers. Pump is XSPCs D5 Vario pump / Photon 170 reservoir combo, and blocks are XSPC Raystorm for the CPU and XSPC Razors and backplates on the 290Xs.

That'll give me the best of both worlds - quiet and cool.