SOLVED How much radiator do I need?

I have a small form factor case, so there is very limited space, but I also have (relatively) low power components and will not be overclocking. I'm using an i5-3350P (69W) and a GTX 750 (55W).

What can I get away with? Would a 40mm triple be okay? That would be the easiest for me to work with. I could probably make an 80mm double fit with some modding.

The reason I'm considering water cooling at all is because I need my video card to be single slot to fit in the case, but the cooler currently makes it a dual slot. My CPU fan happened to burn up before I even had a chance to install an OS on this new computer too (Thanks, Staples!), so that got me thinking about a possible water cooling solution.

What exact case it this? Also a dual 120 should be more than enough for your setup and at low noise if you will even with some OCs.

The case is an Antec ISK 300-150. I don't think I can even get a single 120 in this. I would have thought a dual 120 could handle a 100W+ CPU and a 170W+ video card and was hoping my 124W need would mean I could get away with much less.

Rule of thumb is 125w per 120mm rad. You need a 120.2.

That rule of thumb is for a 10-12c delta with low to medium speed fans. If you are willing to run a higher delta or louder fans you can easily get away with less radiator.

An 80.2 has almost as much surface area as a 120.1, so you could get away with that if you didnt plan on overclocking. The real issue here is that you would be spending a good chunk of money for only slightly better than stock cooling due to limited space.

If it were me personally, i would just move up to a larger itx case like the bitfenix prodigy or evga hadron or try to find a way to make/buy a single slot cooler for a 750. They made 8800gt coolers that were single slot, and that used a heck of a lot more power than the 750 does. Because i cant see how you can get the watercooling gear needed inside of that case, and if its external it ends up defeating the purpose of the ultra small build.

I mean, i wont say its impossible to get an internal watercooling rig in that case, but you have nowhere to put the pump or the radiator. From the looks of it, an apogee drive II would be too tall as well as block what looks to be the spot for the slim rom drive. And you might, mabye have clearance for 25mm fans on the vents above the mobo. No combination of radiator and fan worth mentioning will fit there because it would overhang the mobo so far it would hit the apogee pump (if it fit) and the ram slots. And the tubing runs would be nightmarish, not to mention you would have virtually nowhere to even put a t line for filling and bleeding, nevermind a res.

TLDR: buy or make a single slot cooler for the 750 like seen here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/single-slot-geforce-gtx-750-ti,3761.html or buy a bigger case.

Supertrucker said:

That rule of thumb is for a 10-12c delta with low to medium speed fans. If you are willing to run a higher delta or louder fans you can easily get away with less radiator.

An 80.2 has almost as much surface area as a 120.1, so you could get away with that if you didnt plan on overclocking. The real issue here is that you would be spending a good chunk of money for only slightly better than stock cooling due to limited space.

If it were me personally, i would just move up to a larger itx case like the bitfenix prodigy or evga hadron or try to find a way to make/buy a single slot cooler for a 750. They made 8800gt coolers that were single slot, and that used a heck of a lot more power than the 750 does. Because i cant see how you can get the watercooling gear needed inside of that case, and if its external it ends up defeating the purpose of the ultra small build.

I mean, i wont say its impossible to get an internal watercooling rig in that case, but you have nowhere to put the pump or the radiator. From the looks of it, an apogee drive II would be too tall as well as block what looks to be the spot for the slim rom drive. And you might, mabye have clearance for 25mm fans on the vents above the mobo. No combination of radiator and fan worth mentioning will fit there because it would overhang the mobo so far it would hit the apogee pump (if it fit) and the ram slots. And the tubing runs would be nightmarish, not to mention you would have virtually nowhere to even put a t line for filling and bleeding, nevermind a res.

TLDR: buy or make a single slot cooler for the 750 like seen here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/single-slot-geforce-gtx-750-ti,3761.html or buy a bigger case.

Click to expand...

+1

That case is godly small. Never seen a case that small in my life. On second thought I thought that was a external HD/CD-ROM enclosure.

GTXJackBauer said:

+1

That case is godly small. Never seen a case that small in my life. On second thought I thought that was a external HD/CD-ROM enclosure.

Click to expand...

L.O.L

Buy another case. There is really no point to water cool in that case.

In my honest opinion, you'll probably be better off cutting space for your tubing and mounting a radiator on the side of the case, or something like that.

Just my two cents.

-Fri

Supertrucker said:

That rule of thumb is for a 10-12c delta with low to medium speed fans. If you are willing to run a higher delta or louder fans you can easily get away with less radiator.

An 80.2 has almost as much surface area as a 120.1, so you could get away with that if you didnt plan on overclocking. The real issue here is that you would be spending a good chunk of money for only slightly better than stock cooling due to limited space.

If it were me personally, i would just move up to a larger itx case like the bitfenix prodigy or evga hadron or try to find a way to make/buy a single slot cooler for a 750. They made 8800gt coolers that were single slot, and that used a heck of a lot more power than the 750 does. Because i cant see how you can get the watercooling gear needed inside of that case, and if its external it ends up defeating the purpose of the ultra small build.

I mean, i wont say its impossible to get an internal watercooling rig in that case, but you have nowhere to put the pump or the radiator. From the looks of it, an apogee drive II would be too tall as well as block what looks to be the spot for the slim rom drive. And you might, mabye have clearance for 25mm fans on the vents above the mobo. No combination of radiator and fan worth mentioning will fit there because it would overhang the mobo so far it would hit the apogee pump (if it fit) and the ram slots. And the tubing runs would be nightmarish, not to mention you would have virtually nowhere to even put a t line for filling and bleeding, nevermind a res.

TLDR: buy or make a single slot cooler for the 750 like seen here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/single-slot-geforce-gtx-750-ti,3761.html or buy a bigger case.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed explanation. My case would be a little different from the pictures, only because I don't need the bracket that extends all the way across the case just for two 2.5" drives. So there's more room there, and the optical bay is clear.

This is what I had found for the res:
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1..._Top_Reservoir_-_Installed.html?tl=g30c97s152

But you're right. This is getting way too expensive for someone who doesn't even want to OC. I was thinking I would put an 80.2 where the case fans would go and figure something out from there, or maybe some kind of external 40.3 on the mobo vents or something ridiculous like that. But I'm going to just call this project off and try to get a replacement stock CPU fan under warranty and wait until a single slot low profile GTX 750 is released (or a heatsink that will fit it). I was thinking the FirePro V4800's cooler should work, but the mounting holes on the low profile Galaxy card I have aren't the same was the reference 750 ones, and it requires boring out the screw holes anyway, which I wouldn't want to do unless I was certain the cooler would work.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm just going to put the full size bracket on this card and consider it an upgrade to my old PC and let my new one sit for now.

GTXJackBauer said:

+1

That case is godly small. Never seen a case that small in my life. On second thought I thought that was a external HD/CD-ROM enclosure.

Click to expand...

That's what I like about it. I just wish they had added an extra 20mm to fit a dual slot video card.

Also, this was my first choice for a case, back when I thought AMD's Kaveri APUs were going to actually perform as promised. I'm old enough now that I was still happy with the performance of my ~5 year old PC (the specs are still in the About Me of my profile here) and was excited to upgrade to a quad core i5, 8 GB of RAM, and a GTX 750, while downsizing to a little box that I can mount under my desk.