Water cooled Corsair Carbide Series Air 540

[Pepe]

maniac, sheroo, tom - thank you for kind words. You actually convinced me - I will post fresh pics of my modding actions and final build, probably in a fresh thread.
Currently I'm doing a lot of planning, thinking and mock-ups, also waiting for some fittings to come.

Feedback will be welcome - I promise I will be more patient, and If I feel I'm really fed up (like with 'this is awful' guy) I will ask moderators for help

 

[tinytomlogan]

My saying about cables was meant to be advice dude as it was an easy fix in my eyes that would make a big difference.

If people jump on the bandwagon just be polite, only Im allowed to go nuts around here

 

[You_What?]

If you get any problems just PM me or Josh.

Im always looking for someone misbehaving to rip chunks out of

Too much time on ya hands then Guv, give us some more reviews and all then!

@Pepe: Good to hear you'll put the mod pics up again.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Too much time on ya hands then Guv, give us some more reviews and all then!

@Pepe: Good to hear you'll put the mod pics up again.

Thats a joke.... right :mellow:

 

[You_What?]

Thats a joke.... right :mellow:

You know it is mate, it sort of got lost in translation.... :mellow:

Got enough readin' as it is to catch up on the content you've all put up at OC3D over the last couple of months!
I'm not gonna get one of these: :whipping:

Am I?

 

[Pepe]

This stuff is going inside

On the right 3x phobya distribution board with 5V mod to run SP120 ~950rpm - with my HW and 3x240 rad space this is more than enough to have good temps plus I'm a silence freak

 

[sheroo]

Lookin' good.

 

[Chris230291]

Looks great man!
What are the temps like at idle and under loud? Im looking at a similar loop setup.

 

[Pepe]

Looks great man!
What are the temps like at idle and under loud? Im looking at a similar loop setup.

I have now:
240 rad with 4 SP120 @5V
240 rad with 2 SP120 and 2 GT AP15 @7V

HW:
--i5-750 @4.2Ghz, 1.37V - this is +1.5Ghz OC and quite high volts (but needed)
--GTX 670 from ASUS @ stock

ambient ~22C

Idle (browser and a few apps open):
cores 34-37C
GPU 28C

'Load' (a few hours of gaming session)
cores max temp 55C
GPU max 45 (on air I was in 70 range after a few minutes of gaming)

I'm curious to see what the impact of 3rd rad will be.

 

[Chris230291]

Wow thats great thanks! I'm planning a 45 240 and a 65 240, and i was worried how the temps would sit. I'd be happy with the temps you're getting though.

Thanks.

 

[Pepe]

Wow thats great thanks! I'm planning a 45 240 and a 65 240, and i was worried how the temps would sit. I'd be happy with the temps you're getting though.

Thanks.

You're welcome. Which fans and at what rpm do you plan to run?

 

[Chris230291]

You're welcome. Which fans and at what rpm do you plan to run?

I plan to use the SP 120's PWM (quiet edition) controlled by the CPU fan header (controlled by header, powered by PSU) I was going to go push-pull, but i heard that it makes little to no difference, so i'll use the extra 25mm of space on the rad thickness.

Chris.

 

[Pepe]

I plan to use the SP 120's PWM (quiet edition) controlled by the CPU fan header (controlled by header, powered by PSU) I was going to go push-pull, but i heard that it makes little to no difference, so i'll use the extra 25mm of space on the rad thickness.

Chris.

PWM is convenient, I wish Corsair had introduced PWM fans a bit earlier. But on the other hand I have no need to control rad fans. I'm using PWM to control my 655 PWM drive pump - works great for bleeding the loop - going up and down with speed is very effective and it's fun to do with a mouse or keyboard

For some rads (confirmed for Alphacool ST/XT/UT) you will see very little gain @1500rpm going from 30mm to 45mm or 60mm (based on results provided @ martinsliquidlab). Thicker rads will be less restrictive, but unless you have a crazy loop with 3GPU etc. it should not be a problem. For me ST rads are the most cost effective - you get a great 240 rad for ~$50, which performs excellent @ low RPM.

This is just my view, check with some other more experienced guys.

@Chris

I've just checked my CPU @ stock (2.8Ghz, 1.2V) - Prime95 small FFTs 10 minutes - I'm below 40C max core. High OC/voltage impact: +20C

 

[Pepe]

I don't like Corsair fans doing this:

So I came up with this (maybe I've seen it somewhere - no clue):

What do you guys think?

 

[Feronix]

Nice, simple solution. Good looking too!

 

[NeverBackDown]

Same thing happened with my rubber grommets on my Sp120s, not a big deal really just annoying. Blue stands out against the lighter blue looks little weird. If you can't see it in the rig then it's fine. IMO i would run only run pull and have thicker rads.

 

[Pepe]

Same thing happened with my rubber grommets on my Sp120s, not a big deal really just annoying. Blue stands out against the lighter blue looks little weird. If you can't see it in the rig then it's fine. IMO i would run only run pull and have thicker rads.

Thanks for feedback - I'm also not entirely convinced. Good thing is that it would match tubing, so probably looking a bit less weird in whole rig. I still have to decide

Thicker rads.
Looking (at martinsliquidlab) at max heat dissipation @ delta 10C @ 1000 rpm - I would gain (or even loose) a few Watts switching to XT (45) or UT (60) - I assume similarly negligible delta in temps.
http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/05/01/alphacool-nexxxos-st30-360-radiator/4/
Slim rads are very flexible - I can squeeze them in various places in various rigs On top of that push-pull looks great to me Anyway I have (target setup - 3x240 rads) so much cooling area that I could probably switch to 2011 platform with 2 GPU's and still be OK (witch higher rpm of course).

Why do you think going with thicker rads for this rig would make sense?

 

[JR23]

I plan to use the SP 120's PWM (quiet edition) controlled by the CPU fan header (controlled by header, powered by PSU) I was going to go push-pull, but i heard that it makes little to no difference, so i'll use the extra 25mm of space on the rad thickness.

Chris.

Hi Chris, I found it odd that you said quiet edition PWM's as when I was looking they seemed a little pointless, if your a massive silence freak I see where you might just be coming from but I wouldn't be fooled by 'quiet edition' entirely :mellow: I asked a Corsair rep and this is what he had to say...

The only difference between the two are the default RPM of the fans. The performance edition is at a higher speed (2350) than the quiet edition. If you are controlling the fans with voltage the quiet edition will have lower RPM's at 7 volts than the performance editions. If you are controlling the fans with an H100i the performance fans will go down to about 700 RPM. They will not go to the 500 - 600 range.

From this I assumed the High Performance would run from 700-2350 and the Quiet Edition 600-1450 so off the back of the massive range I went with the high performances and true to his word they will idle to 700rpm. There are no other differences to my knowledge so a Quiet and Performance at the same given RPM will make exactly the same noise, airflow and static pressure. They are well quiet enough for me anyway if you think you could hear the difference between 600 and 700rpm and don't need to ever go beyond 1450 then obviously get the quiets. I'm not guaranteeing quiets will go down to 600, that's just what the rep implied, i've not seen it stated or tested.

I don't like Corsair fans doing this:

What do you guys think?

I don't like that either! But I just don't tighten mine down that much as I figured it will not help the vibration damping properties of the silicon. If they would of performed better with a solid piece i'm sure Corsair would have used that. Just my theory.

JR

 

[Pepe]

I don't like that either! But I just don't tighten mine down that much as I figured it will not help the vibration damping properties of the silicon. If they would of performed better with a solid piece i'm sure Corsair would have used that. Just my theory.

JR

Yes - less tightening helps, but they start doing it even when not tighten much (as the the 2 parts are pushed inside by any pressure from a screw).
My theory is that this enables assembly (if it was solid it would be almost impossible to assemble). With rubber between fan and rad vibrations are handled very well. For me less than ideal design - minor aesthetics issue.

 

[Chris230291]

PWM is convenient, I wish Corsair had introduced PWM fans a bit earlier. But on the other hand I have no need to control rad fans. I'm using PWM to control my 655 PWM drive pump - works great for bleeding the loop - going up and down with speed is very effective and it's fun to do with a mouse or keyboard

For some rads (confirmed for Alphacool ST/XT/UT) you will see very little gain @1500rpm going from 30mm to 45mm or 60mm (based on results provided @ martinsliquidlab). Thicker rads will be less restrictive, but unless you have a crazy loop with 3GPU etc. it should not be a problem. For me ST rads are the most cost effective - you get a great 240 rad for ~$50, which performs excellent @ low RPM.

This is just my view, check with some other more experienced guys.

@Chris

I've just checked my CPU @ stock (2.8Ghz, 1.2V) - Prime95 small FFTs 10 minutes - I'm below 40C max core. High OC/voltage impact: +20C

Arh right cool.

Hi Chris, I found it odd that you said quiet edition PWM's as when I was looking they seemed a little pointless, if your a massive silence freak I see where you might just be coming from but I wouldn't be fooled by 'quiet edition' entirely :mellow: I asked a Corsair rep and this is what he had to say...



From this I assumed the High Performance would run from 700-2350 and the Quiet Edition 600-1450 so off the back of the massive range I went with the high performances and true to his word they will idle to 700rpm. There are no other differences to my knowledge so a Quiet and Performance at the same given RPM will make exactly the same noise, airflow and static pressure. They are well quiet enough for me anyway if you think you could hear the difference between 600 and 700rpm and don't need to ever go beyond 1450 then obviously get the quiets. I'm not guaranteeing quiets will go down to 600, that's just what the rep implied, i've not seen it stated or tested.




I don't like that either! But I just don't tighten mine down that much as I figured it will not help the vibration damping properties of the silicon. If they would of performed better with a solid piece i'm sure Corsair would have used that. Just my theory.

JR

Thats really good to know, thanks. I think i may as well get the performance ones then.