Newbie to water cooling: Dual loop or Single loop

I am new to water cooling and looking for an advice or suggestion regarding my WC build . I am also new to this forum and hopefully I can gain some good insights regarding this project that I am about to undertake. My goal is to overclock the CPU to 4.0 speed and the 2 SLI'd videocards.

My gaming computer which I recently built:
Case: Corsair 800D
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III extreme
CPU: i7 930
Memory: 6gb of Corsair Dominator DDR3
Video Card: 2 X Evga 480 SC
Power Supply: Corsair HX 1000
Storage: Intel SSD 160 gb for O.S ( Win 7 prof) and black WD 750 gb for data.

My original plan was to build a dual loop: 1 loop cooling the CPU and the NB/SB/mosfets of the mobo and the other loop for the dual video cards. Ea The other plan was to go single loop route: reservoir-> pump-> pump->radiator1-> cpu->NB/SB/mosfet block->radiator2-> GPU1 ->GPU2 ->reservoir. Which would be the more efficient loop?

I read somewhere ( forgot where it was) that a single loop can be equal or even more effective than a dual loop. Now I am confuse. Anyway here are the parts I have for the WC project:

2 X XSPC 360 Radiator ( one will be mounted at the rear of the case the other one on top)
2 X DDC 3.25 pumps each will have an EK single top
2 X Danger Den full cover Nvidia 480 copper water blocks for the GPU
1 X EK waterblock EK Supreme full nickel HF
1 X XSPC dual reservoir
1 X EK EK-FB RE3 - Asus Rampage III Extreme - Nickel/Acetal
Syche Gentle typoon 1800 RPM fans for the Radiators
1/2 ID X 3/4 OD compression fittings
Tygon R3603 tubing (1/2 X 3/4)
Distilled water and Petra'sTech PT_Nuke -PHN

TIA.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=253337

I'll let you make that decision for yourself. You seem to have picked good parts, I think your knowledge is enough that you can do that, if you need help interpreting data or anything like that, make a post. Question real quick, for the same rad area you could do a 120.4 up top and a 120.2 down low and have the same rad space, have you considered that?

The reason why I am sticking with the 2 X 360 rads is I do not intend to modify the case. I am not much on how the build looks but more on the functionality.

A single loop can be more efficient because you're applying all of your radiator space to the total heat dump of your system. An inefficient dual loop example is this:

Loop 1: CPU, 3x120mm radiator
Loop 2: Two huge video cards, 1x120mm radiator

In that case, obviously, the second loop is saturated (it can't dissipate enough heat) and the first loop has a little more radiator than it needs. Typically the situation isn't as mismatched as this is, but you can imagine that it's not hard to create some kind of mismatch between loops.

Typically it's a tradeoff. In the example I gave, the CPU temps are going to be great, but your GPU temps will be pretty high. If you combine it into a single loop, your GPU temps should drop considerably, but the CPU temps will probably come up a bit. The advantage of two loops is that you can insulate one set of components from another, but the disadvantage is (almost certainly) less overall efficiency. There are some other pros and cons, but they're less noticeable.

Whether it's worth it to insulate sets of components or whether that lower overall efficiency is measurable (or, if measurable, actually problematic) is the question that's really hard to answer.

After watercooling for a few years now, I lean towards whichever solution is the simplest and least likely to cause a headache. I would go with a single loop for that reason alone. I also think you'd also have a hard time screwing up a single loop - it's not sensitive to heat mismatches. In almost all cases, a dual loop is an over-optimization.

johan851 said:

After watercooling for a few years now, I lean towards whichever solution is the simplest and least likely to cause a headache. I would go with a single loop for that reason alone.

Click to expand...

Words to live by there. A lot of people try to do elaborate systems for their first water cooling adventure and it doesn't always end the way they planned. Buying more pieces or not using ones already bought is never a good day.

I agree with Twigbutt and johan851, i did a dual loop on my first build and I ended up with some extra fittings left over -- some of them rotaries But hey, that's just a reason to go on another WC adventure, right?

Overkill? Nah...PA120.3 for 1 mildy OC'ed q6600 and another BlackIce GTX240 for a stock speed gtx260. The only way to roll...

I've been thinking about ways to add a 3rd rad to my loop as well. Just to see if I can.

Gunlance said:

Overkill? Nah...PA120.3 for 1 mildy OC'ed q6600 and another BlackIce GTX240 for a stock speed gtx260. The only way to roll...

I've been thinking about ways to add a 3rd rad to my loop as well. Just to see if I can.

Click to expand...

Who said it was overkill? Two 120x3 rads seems like a good amount for the OP's situation.