Liquid cooling radiators and cases?

[Froger]

Hi, a few questions, im new here by the way. sorry if i dont give you enough information to answer your questions but i have tried.

First, would two, 2x120mm radiators that are 30mm thick be good enough for a graphics card and cpu like i7 3770k and 660 ti? (no push pull) under full load for 6 hours for example in a case with good air flow and using coolmaster 120mm fans at 1500rpm?

secondly, im looking for a case, which i can have enough for at least 4x120mm (dont mind if two 2x120mm radiators or one 4x120mm) radiators in it, without modding the case, and keeping at least 4 HDD bays and 2 optical drive bays, with a good sized window and good cable managment, do you know of any cases off hand that could do all that and look really good? (using standard ATX motherboard and want the case to be able to support 3-way SLI support for 660 ti)

 

[NRG!]

yes that raddage would be enough for a 660ti and a 3770k, but I would advise better fans.

case-wise .. hmm nzxt switch 810 comes close at low price point. otherwise you're looking at bigger cases.

side note: Pointless putting a 660ti under water and epically pointless running tri-sli 660tis.

 

[airdeano]

Hi, a few questions, im new here by the way. sorry if i dont give you enough information to answer your questions but i have tried.

First, would two, 2x120mm radiators that are 30mm thick be good enough for a graphics card and cpu like i7 3770k and 660 ti? (no push pull) under full load for 6 hours for example in a case with good air flow and using coolmaster 120mm fans at 1500rpm?

no, if they have any overclock to them what so ever.
two? im not even asking..

 

[Spiderz]

Why would you even bother with 3x660Ti? With that money go get a pair of 670s or a 690 and fit the water block to it.

As for rads, where possible stick to 60mm thick and fit as big a radiator as you can, why bother with two 30mm ones when a single 60mm would fit and do roughly the same job. I know the switch and stryker can fit 60mm and even 80mm ones in places.

 

[Froger]

thanks for the help first, but what has been brought up is why tri-sli, i am doing it as i do not yet have the money for tri-sli but i will have the money not to sortly for a single 660 ti, so i will get that then get more later on when i ahve more money.
cases, i have decided that i may wnt either a stryker or switch 810 unless i seem something looking better with enough spaces for rads.
new question, how much difference do you think having a 60mm rad have compared to having a 30mm rad, would it be worth it and be that much better?
another question, this is more wondering in case it happens, but if i have two rads and put one ontop of the other, would that be a pointless fail of a waste of time, or would it work in some way?

 

[Spiderz]

thanks for the help first, but what has been brought up is why tri-sli, i am doing it as i do not yet have the money for tri-sli but i will have the money not to sortly for a single 660 ti, so i will get that then get more later on when i ahve more money.
cases, i have decided that i may wnt either a stryker or switch 810 unless i seem something looking better with enough spaces for rads.
new question, how much difference do you think having a 60mm rad have compared to having a 30mm rad, would it be worth it and be that much better?
another question, this is more wondering in case it happens, but if i have two rads and put one on top of the other, would that be a pointless fail of a waste of time, or would it work in some way?

If SLi is in your mind, just wait longer and look at the 670, will save you move in the long run as 2 670s are less than 3 660Ti.

Case choices are both good, some people fit the 60mm in the top of the switch, some don't, depends on the motherboard. Only get one set on fans on though this way. Bottom of both cases support 2.120mm rads as well, up to the 80mm thick Monsta rads. Thicker rads make a hell of a different, more surface area for cooling means lower temps, more cooling headroom, the ability to run quieter fans and in general, the thicker the better.

As for stacking radiators, NO, just no. No point, takes more space and no real benefit. Mostly pointless fail but I have seen two 45mm thick rads in the front of a case before. Other than that, don't bother, get a thicker rad.

 

[airdeano]

ok, may have gotten off on the wrong-foot, here.

welcome to the OC3D forums,
so you are interested in watercooling something.. dunna know what.
lets start out with some easy questions, first..

what kinda rig is this? gamer, office, render?
what kinda rig specs do you have?
is this all a wishlist or do you have the parts already?
is this a 24/7 build?
what kind of budget?
how knowledgable are you in this?

 

[Froger]

This will be a gamer rig.
current spec is i3-2120 (as this cpu came in a bundle deal, but will upgrade to i5 later)
i dont currently have all my parts, im stilll waiting on case graphics card and all the watercooling stuff, and the CPU
it will not be a 24/7 build but i will leave it on 24/7 when i might be rendering something out but dont do rendering very often.
my budget is... well for the watercooling stuff, £300 but might be able to get a bit more. as i dont have all the money for water cooling just yet, i will have the money by late this year.
i have built a computer before, i have seen lots of water cooling guides and tuts but never done water cooling before.
i hope all this has helped you.
sorry for my inexperience.

 

[Froger]

Um, sory about posting again for no real reason but no one has replied and i would like the help and can be impatient sorry

 

[mastercrim]

I have not done a watercooling rig before but in the past 3 months I have been doing tons of research in preparation for my upcoming first attempt at watercooling and what I have learned is a 60mm 360 rad in pull or push pull if you can fit it (the switch 810 has some issues with 60mm push/pull with certain motherboards) and a 60mm 240 push/pull rad is plenty of cooling for the cpu and dual 670s. Save some time and headache do not do sli 660ti's single card options are always better save for a better card if you cannot afford it now. Also from what I learned is the thicker the rad is the better so don’t even consider a 30mm rad.

 

[Jason-CL]

This will be a gamer rig.
current spec is i3-2120 (as this cpu came in a bundle deal, but will upgrade to i5 later)
i dont currently have all my parts, im stilll waiting on case graphics card and all the watercooling stuff, and the CPU
it will not be a 24/7 build but i will leave it on 24/7 when i might be rendering something out but dont do rendering very often.
my budget is... well for the watercooling stuff, £300 but might be able to get a bit more. as i dont have all the money for water cooling just yet, i will have the money by late this year.
i have built a computer before, i have seen lots of water cooling guides and tuts but never done water cooling before.
i hope all this has helped you.
sorry for my inexperience.

If you want some helpful advice: Just wait. Wait until you have all of the funds you need at your disposal to build a really nice rig. If you jump the gun, you may not be able to get waterblocks for your GPUs down the road, and new cases will have come out.

Buying bits now and then later is only going to be frustrating to you. There's no sense in being frustrated. Save your money, then buy everything at the same time and build yourself a system that you love and appreciate every time you look at it.

 

[BCMods]

As much as people will recommend it, I personally hate the NZXT Switch 810. I had one and felt it was way too plasticy, so i sold it

 

[Froger]

I Forgot how to make a new thread can someone help quickly?
my post will be?
if you are overclocking is the way you do it, overclock in small increments running prime after each increment then when prime says that there is something unstable then you increase the voltage, is this basicly the way to overclock a CPU? is there anything else i need to know?

 

[Froger]

ok, basicly, iv been looking at the gtx 670 now, but it seems a bit much, but the main reason why i am thinking of getting it is because there are no gtx 660 ti waterblocks specificaly, so can anyone tell me if a gtx 670 waterblock will work with a 660 ti as they have the same keeplar arcitecture isnt it just a itt just a different gpu proccessor?

 

[Froger]

Another question, after looking at the 660 ti vs the 670, the only difference between these two cards is the bus bandwidth, so is there a way to (overclock, lets say) the bus bandwidth to 256-bit from 192-bit of the 660 ti???

 

[njallday]

Another question, after looking at the 660 ti vs the 670, the only difference between these two cards is the bus bandwidth, so is there a way to (overclock, lets say) the bus bandwidth to 256-bit from 192-bit of the 660 ti???

No

 

[NRG!]

ok, basicly, iv been looking at the gtx 670 now, but it seems a bit much, but the main reason why i am thinking of getting it is because there are no gtx 660 ti waterblocks specificaly, so can anyone tell me if a gtx 670 waterblock will work with a 660 ti as they have the same keeplar arcitecture isnt it just a itt just a different gpu proccessor?

No. A gtx 680 block won't fot on a gtx 650 either

Another question, after looking at the 660 ti vs the 670, the only difference between these two cards is the bus bandwidth, so is there a way to (overclock, lets say) the bus bandwidth to 256-bit from 192-bit of the 660 ti???

No, its an interface, not a clock speed.

It's er, like a tube you stuff crap down. The 670 has a bigger tube so more shit can be shoved down the tube at one time. You can't make the tube bigger but you can try to shove stuff down it faster.

 

[Froger]

No. A gtx 680 block won't fot on a gtx 650 either

well from what i have seen, a 660 ti is just a 670 with a fault bus controller (or something like that) so its the same card so should work the same, just as long as the cooler is right, i dont know what you are talkking about with the 680 onto a 650 (asumming sarcasm) but that is what i have found.

 

[NRG!]

Yes, I was being sarcastic.

The chip difference is irrelevant, the key is the pcb layout. A 670 block may fit but it depends on which 660ti you have.

The best resource is here:www.coolingconfigurator.com/step1

That will determine if EK make a block, they generally make reference blocks for most series. E.G, for a 660ti refeernce which uses a 670 reference pcb you can use a reference gtx670 block (from any manufacturer)

Whereas if you have the kfa2 custom gtx660ti for example, there are no blocks.

 

[Timeless]

If you are on such a tight budget why are you even considering watercooling?

You are not going to get much more performance out of the cpu and gpu you want so it will be just for looks.

Buy a decent cpu and gpu first if you want a good gaming rig then when you can afford it you can still watercool everything.