Need Rad advice for Lian-li pc-p80N

[Akulasc2]

Ok guys, foolish me bought the Lian-Li pc-p80N full tower case, a monster bascially.

Now im 100% new to water cooling, just so happens nobody on the internet seems to have experience with cooling this Case.

From what i've heard this case has trouble fitting in rads at the top, very low clearance between fans and MB.

http://lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/p80n/p80n-04.jpg

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRG5t24CiQUYq5hfPpQPjzPtaBAv8LNUoaGBOfD7FZO9_Y0EswX

The case includes 2 top mounted 140mm fans, 120mm fan at the back and 3 140mm fans in the front door.

I intend to have a Single loop system running, Cooling the CPU and possibly twin GPUS, no real plans to overclock that much, at most i'll push the sandy bridge to 4.5ghz.

Components so far for the build.

ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe Gen3 Motherboard

Intel 2600k

16gig ddr3 gskill

850w corsair PSU

Im really stumped on a position for my Radiator and how many/size i actually need, any advice would help

 

[Bladehawk]

Advice from a newbie

if u want more then only your cpu WCed you'll need more then just a loop.

more like (with modding) 2-3 240mm rads or possibly if your not using make drive bays placing a 360mm rad and a 240mm one somewhere else.

top you may be able to manage with a less thick rad if its that tight

pics of your rig would be usefull.

best thing and easiest may just be getting a 240mm rad up top for a loop with cpu.

and getting some add. fans to help your gpu's

i personally like the :

gentle typhoon

enermax magma

cougar vortex (my favorite)

all good and quiet.

good luck

 

[fcb]

This is such a beautiful case. If you don't use opctical drives, almost the entire height of the front panel's worth of 5.25" bays can accomodate a very large radiator. You have the front x3, 14cm fans on the door pushing the air through the removable front bezel. In place it can push air through a thick radiator. I think you'll have to replace the original fans with fans that have high static pressure as opposed to ones aimed for pure air flow. For this route, you may have to drill holes at the bottom of the chasis to mount the hard drives.

The top panel if it's anything like its predecessor only has x1, 14cm fan. You'll have to cut out another area for a 14cm fan exhaust. Even so, depending on the thickness of the radiator, it may come into conflict with the motherboard. You also have to find room for a pump and reservoir as well.

Like most Lian Li cases, these seem to be aimed towards people who are very skilled with tools and modifying chasis.

 

[Akulasc2]

Well i plan to just have a dvd burner and a ssd.

Would a 280 in the hd bays be adequate for this build? whether or not the Rad would fit in those bays, no idea, perhaps lian-li has some fittings to allow this.

like i said im 100% new to water cooling.

 

[fcb]

Truthfully, I've no experience in this department either.

I would think a 420mm (3x14cm fans) or even a 360mm (3x12cm fans) radiator could fit right at the front, leaving 1 optical bay for the DVD drive, and 2 optical bays free for a pump and bay reservoir perhaps. Of course this is all speculation.

I came across this pretty interesting video by chance, which may be of interest to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWIo_ib_EsA

 

[Akulasc2]

Wow thankyou so much, that has basically solved my entire dilemma, i could basically just mount a 3x120 or even 140 in that front section and use the 3 front mounted fans on the door to cool, correct?

Inside the case there is plenty of room for res/pump.

 

[fcb]

You're welcome.

Yup, it looks to be that way. If you have steady hands and good with measuring and working with tools, you could possibly move the fans so that they're stacked on top of one another. That will surely give you better support for air passing through a large radiator of that size.

It looks like a neat way to have your system water cooled. Wish there was a build log to follow. Maybe some of the members here who are well experienced in the arts of water cooling can guide you through the actions needed and all the parts should you choose, to do something similar of that from the video. Please forgive my lack of knowledge in this department.

 

[Akulasc2]

Ok now the next thing i need help with is, what radiator? Would the Black Ice GT Xtreme 360 Radiator be a suitable choice?