SFF Radiator decision.

Im looking at a few ways to go about this watercooling project. The goal is better temps with lower noise than air, but my air is already brutally quiet as it is on this rig.
I have a 80mm ripped ocz fan blowing at a all copper 1U sink that keeps my 2.3ghz winny running at around 45 degrees. Ive wanted to watercool this sucker for a while in this case, since its a small mini tower. The kind you might expect from a oem maker that sells systems with onboard graphics.



My main question is about rads. there are a bunch to choose from and althoug i hoped i could use a heatercore on this, it isnt gonna happen.

Ive been looking at the possibility of getting a single 120mm rad to go in the front. then i would have enough room to put the pump behind that. If i did this, would a coolrad 12T do the trick? or should i go for a new blackice gt120? the extra surface area might help in the smaller size. Also Xflow or 2 pass? Im gonna be using a RBX and Fusion HL in this loop powered by a D5 and 7 volt 120mm fan.

alternativly, I have considered getting myself a 120x3 bip equivilant rad to go on top but then im faced with the logistics of building a external res ect and getting the water back inside effectivly. Pump mounting isnt a challenge then, i can put it in the front where the rad was gonna go.

I guess im just concerned with acceptable performence without noise. one of my evercool fans is really quiet at 7 volts and that worked great on my chevette core. would a BIX sized rad match my chevette? higher fin density, but more air resistance.

Its kind of funny how im limited more by the size of my pump than the size of my rad heh. i can fit my chosen core in there, but i would give up drive capacity. then, with a shroud and fans, there is nowhere to put a pump ^^;;
External 120.3 seems ideal, but im worried it would be noisy and buttugly. if a 120.1 will do the trick for a only mildly overclocked system, ill totally do that.

I had a lot less room in my shuttle and I watercooled the 6800gt and newcastle 3500+ (both overclocked) on a single bix with the mcp350 pump and had fairly decent temps (low-mid 30's under load) Even with my fan running at a lower voltage for silence my temps were still fine.

What size fan is that on the back there? You may be able to get extra cooling out of it as well.

Any way, for what you're cooling a single 120mm will do just fine. I ran a [email protected] along with a 7800GT in my X-Qpack with a 120mm rad and an auxiliary air starved 80mm in the front. That's a bit more then you're pushing heat wise, so you should be fine.

You can fit a single 120mm rad up front of your case, and possibly a 80MM cross flow on the back (wont cause that much restriction, but will help a little).

For your front 120, I'd say the 120gt (or any of the black ice ones), the Thermochil P120.1 or P160, or the swiftech rad. Go duel pass on it as well, no need for cross flow here. If you do put on one on the back, get one of the swiftech cross flow ones and put one of those crazy Artic Cooling fans on it.

Fans: get something that's 38mm thick! There is a low speed panaflow that will probably do the job quite well, and will be really quiet. That or you might want to think about using two thinner ones in a push-pull setup.

Oh, one last thing. Nice job on the wire organization there!

its a 92 mm fan in the back, but it will take a 80mm rad, or one of the 92 mm thermochill ones. Glad to know the bix wont let me down too much. Frankly im not overclocking this rig too much since the winchester is ******** for it. 2.6 is about its max and im pretty sure this board wont handle that, even with the pinmod to get 1.6 volts.

the video card is a 90nm 7600GS that is cooled just fine with a fan blowing over the passive sink, so if i watercool that or not is still in the air.
I would like to spend as little money as i can on this which is why im thinking the single bix, but the bip3 is pretty cheap from dangerden.

Thanks for the confirmation. i know the 120 mm rads perform at high speed, but its nice to know i wont have to tollerate the high speed fan noise to get resonable temps.

well if you dont mind the rad mounted out side then get the dual 80mm micro. You could also simply mount a single 80mm micro in front and back. If i was to do it, i would get a 240gt mounted outside in the back 3/8 with mcp-350/355. For fans either push/pull yateloons undervolted or single 120 denki 5v or 7v. lots of options just depends.

You can also mount a PA120.2 or a BIPro II on the back with a Swiftech "Radbox". The more rad you have the lower your temps with slower, quieter fans such as Yate Loons.
You have lots of room in that case to make this a reality.