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Maximum PC Article

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Cobracity

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Ok, so I'm researching for my watercooling setup, and I pick up this month's Maximum PC. Inside, there's a guide to setting up watercooling. In their guide, they run the loop as follows:

Pump to radiator to CPU to GPU to reservoir to pump. Really? Water into the Rad first and then the components? I was under the impression that the correct flow would be reservoir to pump to component(s) to radiator back to reservoir. Am I wrong?

They also describe blowing hot air from inside the case out through the radiator (if I read that correctly). I thought blowing cool air from outside the case over the radiator would be better.

In any case, I plan to run two loops: One for the CPU and chipset, and one for the GPU by itself. Should I reconsider the flow setup?
 
Different people will give you different feedback... However, it's more popular to recommend pulling/pushing cool air over the rad from outside the case. This will often produce temps that are better by a few degrees compared to blowing warmer case air over the rad. Pulling cool air in over the rad will lead to higher internal case temps on average, however this will impact your overclocking performance less, and the better temps on your CPU/chipset/GPU are more beneficial.

The order of components doesn't matter much - temperatures at any given point in the loop vary very little. Before the rad and after the rad is virtually identical, same with before after CPU block, and any other component. Looking at temps at a micro level within the loop at specific points is the wrong perspective - you should consider the water temps on a macro level.

You do want the res feeding the input of the pump.
 
Looks like IMOG has this one handled!

+1 to cool air over your rad(s). Just make sure you have sufficient exhaust to vent it out so you don't make your interior a hot-box. As long as you have adequate air flow, there is no problem at all pulling cool air through the rad into the case.

Also +1 to loop order being irrelevant. The water temperatures normalize over time. Your loop itself will be able to remove a specific amount of heat. The minuscule amount of heat dump a pump will put into a loop won't make a difference. Run the loop however the tubing is either more convenient or looks like you want it to look. The only hard rule is that the res is before the pump - a dry pump is a dead pump.
 
Ok, so I'm researching for my watercooling setup, and I pick up this month's Maximum PC. Inside, there's a guide to setting up watercooling. In their guide, they run the loop as follows:

Pump to radiator to CPU to GPU to reservoir to pump. Really? Water into the Rad first and then the components? I was under the impression that the correct flow would be reservoir to pump to component(s) to radiator back to reservoir. Am I wrong?

They also describe blowing hot air from inside the case out through the radiator (if I read that correctly). I thought blowing cool air from outside the case over the radiator would be better.

In any case, I plan to run two loops: One for the CPU and chipset, and one for the GPU by itself. Should I reconsider the flow setup?


as everyone already said loop order doesn't matter, but most go res>pump>rads>blocks.

and your correct in that outside air is better for the rad vs hotter case air.

as for your loops i would put the chipset in your gpu loop as cpu's are heat sensitive vs a gpu. of course it all depends on what the specs of both the computer and water cooling will be.
 
I've always gone pump, radiator, cpu, gpu, reservoir back to pump.

What CPU and GPU are you running?
 
OK quick proposed specs for the system:

Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard
Core I7 930 CPU
Powercolor ATI Radion 5870 (already has an ek waterblock installed)
EK motherboard blocks for the chipset and mosfets
Danger Den block for the CPU

I was considering the XSPC dual bay reservoir which can support two ddc pumps, thus running two separate loops, one for the CPU and MB and one separate for the CPU.

I was also planning to use a 240 size radiator for the CPU and MB and a 120 for the GPU alone. I'm using a cooler master cosmos case, which would put the 240 radiator up top and the 120 out the back, all internal.

I will be putting this together very soon, like in a week or so, so any input is appreciated, and thanks for the responses!!
 
...I'm using a cooler master cosmos case...

Cosmos...or Cosmos S?

The Cosmos S can fit a 120x3 up top. A single 120 rad will not be much better than air cooling on that GPU.

IMO if you only have limited room for rads, it's better to run a single loop.

In the Cosmos S with a single 5.25" bay used, and non-standard HDD mounting, you could easily run dual 120x3 rads, and two proper loops.

Also, usually I'd recommend max cooling for CPU (nothing else on the loop with the 120x2 rad). And everything else on the second loop (mobo blocks & GPU)...but since your secondary rad is so small, I think your plan is better.

Can you find room for bigger/more rads?
 
The case is the original Cosmos, not the Cosmos S. I have seen mods for the cosmos where people cut an additional fan hole up top and put a 3 x 120 radiator there, so I guess that's possible. I was hoping to do as little modding as possible, since this is my first water cooled build (hence the powercolor 5870 with block already installed).

There are holes in the back of the case which would seem to support maybe mounting a 2 x 120 or larger radiator on the outside of the case, but I haven't explored that yet. Another option would be to just air cool the MB and dedicate the 2 x 120 to the CPU and the 1 x 120 to the GPU. I'll have to look into it more.
 
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