Radiator Size Selection

[airdeano]

ok, i'm a spread sheet kinda guy.

i've calculated rad size by width (fan size), length (single, double, triple and quad) and thickness (38, 45, 50, 60mm)

i know that these are volumes and not capacities. do any of the rad manufacturers offer the capacity of the radiator?

some rate watts, some btu, some just say cooler.. there has got to be a correlation between capacity and

object volume. i'm seeing a 120x240x60 radiator has 1728cc volume and a 180x180x60 has 1944cc.

so is the 180x180x60 a cooler radiator to run? more is better? isn't there any standardization on rating how the radiator

performs or how much heat is absorbed (removed)?

a man can spend boo-coo bucks and wads of time waiting on shipping to find out they are under raddin' their system.

and the same could be said about cases, but the variables are almost endless. am i asking for too much? a database of

systems (validated) with components and what their registered temperatures are at the time of submission. i now some

of the folding members have these items memorized and can collate that info to useful data to share.

when i was modding car horsepower we had recipes for different levels for a customer to choose with a price-point to

sell on. and when they "deviated" then they could expect a different outcome.

some helpful comments or suggestions..

airdeano

 

[tristan]

First i feel i should say that i am by no meens a watercooling expert but i will try to be helpful with my limited knowlege

.

I do not know of any database like the one that you are looking for, however a bigger rad will result in lower temps up to a certain point. For instance on a cpu loop a 120x240x60 will be cooler than a 120x120x60, but after a certain point adding more radiators will not result in cooler tempatures, so choosing the size of your rad(s) will depend on how many components you are cooling because after a certain point you will be wasting money on radiators that you dont need, although i should note that if you are going for a silent build then the more radiators you have meens the slower you can run your fans. One more stat to keep in mind while looking for radiators is "fins per inch" (fpi)

I hope this helps a bit.

Also if you havent already i recommend checking out TTL's youtube channel, lots of usefull tips on watercooling there.

 

[magicc8ball]

Hey Air, I have also been looking for this type of data for awhile and well as far as I know it just does not exist. Anyways going off of what Tristan said there is a point where you do go overboard and you are just wasting money to cool whatever you might have in your loop. I am about to do a build with the nzxt switch 810 with a Alphacool 420mm monsta radiator and also a 280mm monsta radiator. These are 80 mm think and will be optimal with super low speeds due to a low number of FPI (Fins Per Inch) and how thick it is. It will be overkill only until I get both my 7970 or 680's in there. A good range for FPI for low rpm fans are anywhere from 7 to 12 fpi anything above that you will need to get some higher rpm fans. When we talk about low rpm fans we are talking about 600 to around 1500 rpm anything above that is just to loud and well to me that defeats the purpose of water cooling.

There are some rads out there that are like 100mm thick, these rads to my knowledge did not perform well at all. They were just to thick and the lower rpm fans would not cool it down just due to the thickness. The trick to cooling your rad down is to get some fans that have a high static pressure which is the amount of air pressure that is pushed through a radiator or duct work at a given CFM. The higher the static pressure the better performance you will get. From what I have seen the bigger the fan the lower the static pressure so you have a trade off there. One of the best 120mm fans is the noctua NF-F12, which is a 120mm fan . This fan has a high static pressure making it ideal for cooling down your radiator Noctua NF-F12. These fans will most likely be going on my rads unless I can find a good 140mm fan that has an high static pressure like this one.

You will also find different radiator fan setups like fans either pulling air through or pushing the air through or both. These are known as push or pull or push/pull. I will be doing a pull or push function on my rads, yes you do get better performance if you do a push/pull but when you have say an 80mm rad with some good fans you will not notice a huge difference. The cost of fans out weighs the benefit.

I hope this helps.