Another "will this be good enough" thread

I'm potentially going to order a water cooling system after Christmas, and I was wondering what would be best for me. I can either get a PA120.2 or PA120.3, I would prefer to get the 120.2 if possible because I'm also getting a new case for the setup and upgrading the the case for the 120.3 is another $130 plus cost of the bigger rad.

The cases are either the MM H2GO for ~$170 or the U2-UFO for ~$300. The H2GO would be fore the dual rad, and the U2-UFO for the triple. What I was wondering is, would a dual rad be powerful enough for a Q6600 (I'll eventually pump upwards of 1.6v through it if I can keep temps under control), G92 8800GTS 512, and potentially my NB?

Would I see a significant difference with the triple rad, enough to warrant upwards of $150 more in price? Would I see a benefit of running a dual-dual rad setup (1 in the front, 1 in the back), or would I suffer from poor flow rate/pressure?

Other components (block, pump, res, etc.) are still undecided, but will definitely be on the higher-end side of things. If it's any help, I don't hate noise, but it's not great. I'm running a 114cfm Panaflo rated at something around 50dBa right now, and on a scale of annoyance (out of 10) it's probably an 8... Something a little quieter than that would be nice

Sorry this is all over the place, but anything you can do to help my decision is greatly appreciated

A PA120.2 is very roughly equivalent to a Swiftech 120.3, so yeah, temps shouldn't be that bad, but if your planning on keeping that 4ghz overclock, the PA120.3 is the way to go.

Cooling your NB is basically unnecessary, especially if your running with a 9x multiplier. 444mhz shouldn't require more than stock cooling and maybe a fan.

Yate Loons are the best fan for noise/cfm/price right now, 4 dollars will get you 40dba/90cfm or 33dba/70cfm or 28dba/50cfm

P.S. How in gods name is your 3DMark06 score so low? you have a quad and a g92!

Oops, I forgot to change the 3DM06 score haha, that's from my old 7600GT

The G92 is still in the mail, it will hopefully be here Friday because that was my Christmas gift to myself... The watercooling is a boxing day/New Years gift


Would it be practical to use the dual 120.2's? I'd kind of prefer having the smaller case for dragging to LANs and such.


Luckily I can get Yate Loons for about $1.25 each and I already have a couple dozen, so I guess those would be quite ideal to use

Thanks, I'll hope to get some more replies regarding my rad issues.

Dual PA120.2s will cool incredibly, but their obviously expensive. Still, they will basically last you a long long time, so it may be worth it,

What pump are you planning on running? - If your going to be doing dual rads i would suggest something high head like a MCP355 with petra's top

Yes, either the MCP655 or the Laing D5, not completely sure yet.


Anyone else? I'd love (well, my wallet would...) if a single 120.2 setup would work. Anyone else have any input? Think a single 120.2 will do it, and if so, how much of a gain would I see with dual 120.2's?

4od said:

P.S. How in gods name is your 3DMark06 score so low? you have a quad and a g92!

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i was gonna say my celeron and 8600GT hit 6098, i thought something was up.


i if the 120.2 is equal to a swiftech 320 then i would just stick with a 120.2 rad.

sa for pump the mcp655 is a great one as said already.

cpu block go with a dtek fuzion or the much sexier Swiftech ApgeeGTX.

as for gpu block the Swiftech MCW60 is a great one that can cool alot of different cards.

^^ you will need the 8800 ram sink set with that heatsink though.

and the yate loons are great i will be getting 10 (88CFM) for my setup in march.

Does anyone think it's worth the difference in price to get the 120.3? Otherwise, I'm ordering on Wednesday

Isn't the 120.3 only like $10 more?

not sure who your going with but jabtech and some nice prices.

ancalime said:

Isn't the 120.3 only like $10 more?

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To fit the 120.3 I'll need to get a case that's over $130 more expensive.

I'm going with NCIX, I have a PP membership there and the prices can't be beat by anyone almost all the time. even when they can, I get to pricematch

david I know how you think if you get the 120.2 you will always be wondering if you could go farther with the 120.3 =) so just get the 3 and save a bit more for the UFO =) you can always put the rad beside or current case till you have the $ =) .

I have a 120.3 and im gearing up an other 140.2 rad to see if i can run passive =)

I just looked on the NCIX website and I don't see the 120.2 listed at all. I only see the 120.3.

You never go wrong by going larger in the rad department. If I was going for a single rad solution, I wouldn't even consider a 120.2. That being said, if you could put dual 120.2 rads into your cheaper case, then you still come out a bit ahead over spending $150 on a UFO case, and if that allows you to keep your case smaller for lan parties, maybe dual rads would be a better solution for you. A single 120.2 should be able to handle your heat load with higher cfms, but if you have to use higher cfms to cool it, then you might as well save your money and buy a MCR220 rad as at higher cfms, the performance gap narrows between it and the 120.2. The PA rads really are optimized for low cfms, and it is with minimal airflow that they really shine.

Would a dual 120.2 be as good or better than a single 120.3? I'll likely be running the 47cfm Yate Loons in a push/pull configuration. I'd like, if at all possible with decent temps, to be able to keep the smaller H2GO case for transport and a smaller footprint. The reason I haven't gone to lans is because I don't want to carry around my 3 foot tall, 50 pound full tower.

I could easily mod a couple handles on to the top of the H2GO, then have a small and relatively light, compared to what I have, case that's easy to transport, plus it's much cheaper than the UFO.

Who knows, maybe I'll end up with the UFO, I really don't know... Please sway me either way a little more

Thanks for th ehelp so far, it's highly appreciated.

If you're going to transport at all I wouldn't get the UFO - that's a real monster of a case. And I agree with voigts - a pair of 2x120s will cool more than a 3x120. The MCP655 will handle dual rads, a CPU, and a GPU as long as you're not putting a Storm in there.

I won't comment on rad choices since I use HCs ...

David_N said:

Would a dual 120.2 be as good or better than a single 120.3? I'll likely be running the 47cfm Yate Loons in a push/pull configuration.

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Yes, dual PA120.2 rads are going to outperform a 120.3, and you could add whatever you want to that down the road and it will handle it just fine. With two dual PA rads, you could seriously undervolt the fans as well. I have an overclocked 8800GT and overclocked E6400 (running just 3.2ghz right now at 1.375v) on a PA120.3, and my CPU core temps while running dual prime are about 40c, with my yate loons barely spinning at about 4-5v. My VC while gaming stays under 40c.

With the PA rads, running fans on both sides of the rad only nets you a few percent improvement at best, and not enough to make a measurable difference at all. The same goes for adding shrouds to them. The PA rads are optimized for lower cfm fans. Just run fans on one side of the rad and save your space.