Radiator Selection

I am new to water cooling not to cooling.
How do you choose a radiator?
I have a Lancool PC-K58 Dragonlord With A Pair of 140mm fans on top.
So what are good elements of a radiator?
And is this one any good Black ice GTS Two Xtreme 280 http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...duct_info&cPath=59_457_458&products_id=25416?
If you know any useful guides if you could post a link that would be appreciated.

I can post a ton of links. Thanks for asking the question. One that requires a solid answer, more complex than you ever imagined.

A rad cools. A rad has a few important properties. First is heat removal. Second is what fans are required to perform well. Third is thickness to fit in tight setups. Fourth is cost.

Some rads have very restrictive air flow channels. They have MANY fins, able to pull more heat from a setup, but require HIGH CFM LOUD fans to do so. You use a low CFM fan on these, they perform very very poorly.

Some rads have medium Fins per inch, (FPI). Better at medium fans, able to remove good heat, not as much as the really max rads in the above paragraph.

Then we get to my fav. Low FPI, works great with lower speed fans (quiet) and still performs well. Sometimes you need more rad size to accomplish your goal, but you decide. Low temps and a hurricane in your PC? Your choice.

This is where learning begins.

Major links, you gotta dig in and learn to understand. Bookmark these, they are like your bible for undersatnding so much you ned to learn about watercooling.

I will say thats a good radiator. Look at the links about the FPI. You want noise? Perfect radiator.

http://martin.skinneelabs.com/
http://www.skinneelabs.com/

thanks for the links I need a good starting point. Currently I have noise 46db I think and i want to reduce it somewhat.
What would be the cut off for low med and high CFM approximantly?

See ya in a week once you spend a while reading the links. It's all fuzzy, you decide. Links provided, have fun!

Swiftech QP series are a decent overall radiator that works with almost any fan speed. Some thicker radiator like some XSPC requires stronger fan due to more restrictive air flow design but cools better.

If you don't mind noisy fan, go with big and thick rad and get some good high speed fans. Some Delta fan can go over 200 CFM.

In the Links you provided (Conumdrum) is delta the amount of heat the cooling system is able to remove from the components?

Yes, in a way.

Delta T temps is the difference of temperature of the water in a cooling loop compared to the air temps. Since we deal with ambient temps, the water starts out at room temp. The parts make heat, the radiator and fans remove the heat, a stable water temp is reached. It takes about 15-30 minutes for it to stabilize with a steady heat load.

The difference between the ambient temps and the water temps is the Delta T temps. A great loop is 5C or less, a average loop is 10C, over 10C we consider inadequate cooling in a CPU loop. GPU's aren't as sensitive so even a 15C DT is fine, unless your pushing the envelope in overclocking etc.

BTW, the water temp in a loop varies very little anywhere in the loop. Maybe 2C or so max. Even before/after the rad.

4Ghz thanks for the info, and I never heard of Delta fans until I followed the provided links.
And Conumdrum Thanks the explenation of Delta helped a lot.

There seem to be very few 140mmx2 radiators are the 120mmx2 radiators offering similar or better performance.

No, do the math. 120x2 is 240mm 140x2 is 280, so less. If 120x2 isn't avail, most go to a 120x3 once the heatload requirements are determined.

Dig into the links like Martin and Skinnee.

Are shrouds effective?
The links were very effective It never occured to me that the radiators could have much effect on the flow.
But for if and when I build my loop I think I'll use:
Radiator: Black Ice SR1 280 (9FPI)
Block:Koolance Cpu 360
Pump: MCP 655
Res and tubing I'll figure it out later.
My current wattage is around 143 and I might overclock some more not sure.
But while I have your attention what is a good case that can support two raddiators & loops. I'm Building an i7-930 With a pair of 470's which will take a couple pretty big rads.

Shrouds. Remember the links? Martin did test with a shroud and it's very informative. Look on his web page, better you read it than me type it all out.

http://martin.skinneelabs.com/

Dunno about cases, I use a tech station.

Banchetto, they sell it at Sidewinders.

A while back I built this.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=604016

Sorry about the question the second I opened the link I remeberd shrouds work.
By the Way nice build.

Hehe, my old build.

Okay. Shrouds do work. I even got a PA 120x3 shroud for my very first rad. I didn't need it but continue to use it today.

In cases where you need just 10% more cooling, it helps. Remember, 10% is a drop of the DT temps. So if your at 10C DT, you could see from .6C to a whopping 1.3C drop in DT temps. It will help final part temps like CPU/GPU.

It also decreases noise a teeny bit.

Worth it? Nope. Few rads have a premade shroud you can add. Some rads have a bit deeper side (meaning plenum, a shroud) a few mm farther away from the fans than the other side, and needs attention for mounting. Of course, it all depends if your pull or push fans. Pull is normally seen as better, and proved at Martins. Bless the man. And most importantly, the direction of the barbs.

My newer one, just improvements, but maybe some helpful hints, never know.
http://www.overclockers.com/annual-water-cooling-cleaning-rebuild-journal/

Might want to check the typos in your Dr Strange quote, like me ya was drinking I bet.