Radiators for a quiet, but performing rig?

Are there any radiators that compare to the Thermochill PA120 in performance, but without the steep $90 price? Something in the $50 or less range hopefully, but able to both cool well and run fairly quietly when need be (like when I try to sleep).

What this will be cooling (for reference):
Fan wise, it'll probably be something with a 50-70cfm max with a fan controller. Cooling capacity, peek it's looking like about 200 - 220 watts of feat to dispose of (a X2 and 7800GT) on a single 120mm radiator, or a 120mm + 80mm, and one of those little swifteck 350 pumps. I'm hoping for CPU load temps of about 40C here, in order to at least keep up with my Koolance Rig's performance on OC'd Barton’s. I'm only planning 2.4GHZ on the CPU and about 500mhz on the GPU here as well.

Thanks!

Edit: This is for an X-Qpack, so any sort of dule radiator is out of the question. There is not even a way to mod one in, unless it was building an external unit for it.

Closest you'll get afaik is MCR120QP

well you just want it all then dont you.

www.dangerden.com

So you have a barton at 2.4. What else do you have? You may be off on your heatload or people with experience with similar setups in the past might be able to chime in with their thoughs.

The Barton is on a Koolance rig (though it IS running at 2.4 and 1.65v), not the setup I'm asking about here. I should probably move my sig over to here because that info is in it... I was just trying to get the same performance as that rig cooling wise, but at this point I don’t think I'm going to quite get there.

In the new one (the one I'm asking about), it's an Athlon x2 3800+ and a Geforce 7800gt. For heat load, I'm just going by what I can find about power consumption of those devises, and figuring out how much of that is going into the water.

To find out how much that is getting dumped into the water-cooling loop, I go over to a handy PSU load calculator (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp), and select my parts and look at the power that they are taking in. Because just about all the power that goes in ends up being converted to heat, I can gestimate how much heat is going to be produced under more normal conditions.

From the Calculator, it shows my CPU will be putting out about 160w max, and my video card 97w max. On the video card, I'd say 1/3 of the power will be used by the memory and voltage converter circuitry, and say that my GPU will be putting out about 65w into the water under full load. Also, I think the CPU power there is probably a little over stated, but I don’t know by how much. Thus, I go with 200 to 220 watts under full load.

There is a difference between wattage requirements from a powersupply vs heat output. a VAST difference.

For radiators you have a couple of choices:
If you like to mod, you can get a 2-342 or 2-302. Both are very nice but you will need a shroud. Weapon in our classifides sells shrouds for both. A major downside is their size, and the fact that they take a fair amount of modding to fit into a case. If you're fine with that, get a heater core.

If you don't like to do a lot of modding, a BIX2 should be fine.

Black Ice Pro...

http://www.cooltechnica.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=R-120mm

29 dollars

one bip won't be able to handle a cpu and vga while keeping "decent" temps.

Er... Ok,, this isnt looking that good now on trying to get by saving money. Heck, I'm only paying for a portion of this rig so I can put a bit more in the radiator if it will help me get the job done on cooling.

New question: Would a Thermachil PA120 perform better, -or- a MCR120QP, BIP1, or BIE1 along with a MCR80QP up front?

sir_pyro said:

Er... Ok,, this isnt looking that good now on trying to get by saving money. Heck, I'm only paying for a portion of this rig so I can put a bit more in the radiator if it will help me get the job done on cooling.

New question: Would a Thermachil PA120 perform better, -or- a MCR120QP, BIP1, or BIE1 along with a MCR80QP up front?

Click to expand...

I would go with MCR120qp

black ice x-flow:

http://www.dangerdenstore.com/home.php?cat=73

Thanks for the help every one. I think I'm just going to go with the Swiftech radiators (using a 120mm and a 80mm), because the seem like a nice compromise between the diffrent design aspects of a radiator, while not beeing extreamly expensive. Hopefully I can cram both into my little X-Qpack... Time to put the good money I'm paying to learn to be an engineer to good use!

It'll make this a 100% Swiftech build though, but I guess that's not nessacarly a bad thing. At least every thing will be designed to be 3/8" tubing from the getgo.

I hate to bring this thread back up, but I don’t want to clutter the place starting a new one for this:

Is it even worth it running the second 80mm radiator, or should I just leave it out and use it else ware?

It's looking like it will add between .45 and .9 PSI drop to my system, but be able to pump out an extra 90w or so from the system at 10c. It probably going to be running between 1 and 1.5gpm of flow in my system, with my GPU block being the most restrictive item. Ideas?

sir_pyro said:

I hate to bring this thread back up, but I don’t want to clutter the place starting a new one for this:

Is it even worth it running the second 80mm radiator, or should I just leave it out and use it else ware?

It's looking like it will add between .45 and .9 PSI drop to my system, but be able to pump out an extra 90w or so from the system at 10c. It probably going to be running between 1 and 1.5gpm of flow in my system, with my GPU block being the most restrictive item. Ideas?

Click to expand...

Well I think you are better off with the 80mm temps wise even though the pressure drop does make it less of an advantage. I bet you can fit anouther 120 into your case with some work.

Going WCing then doing something like throw a little 80mm fan into the mix seems counter productive to me, I WC so I dont have to use 80mm fans....

Just get a Chevette (or something else, just make sure the size and fittings are OK) heatercore at your nearest auto parts store. It'll be very cheap and perform very favorably to these special-built radiators. I don't know what car my heatercore is from, but it's small and has no problems cooling my Barton at 2.33. I got it from a friend (Gautam on these forums if you know him) who used it on an AXP @ 2.5 easily.

Of course, if you feel like spending more money on something less effective... go ahead.

thermochill

BIP3 $50
http://jab-tech.com/Black-Ice-Pro-III-Triple-120mm-Radiator-Black-pr-2985.html