How to maintain a good airflow for 3 radiators in pc case

[Zgiera]

Hi Everyone,

I'm gonna to build watercooling in my PC and I need to find someone with experience of builiding this kind of cooling systems to find an answer to my question
I have 3 radiators which is in my PC case CORSAIR 900D Obsidian.
One of those radiators is 4x120mm fans HARDWARE LABS BLACK ICE NEMESIS 480GTX on the top of PC case,
second 4x120mm fans HARDWARE LABS BLACK ICE NEMESIS 480GTX is on the bottom left hand side and
third 2x120mm fans HARDWARE LABS BLACK ICE NEMESIS 240GTX is on the right side of my case.
Waterloop is for one water block on motherboard EK-Supremacy K-FB ASUS R4BE, 2 water blocks for 2 x GTX980 graphic cards.
Please, advised me is that airflow is good for waterloop I'm worry about these two radiators on the bottom of my pc case. Should I change intake and outake destination on that 2x120mm fans radiator on the right hand side?



Thank you for any advise or help with building my PC watercooling.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Hi Everyone,

I'm gonna to build watercooling in my PC and I need to find someone with experience of builiding this kind of cooling systems to find an answer to my question
I have 3 radiators which is in my PC case CORSAIR 900D Obsidian.
One of those radiators is 4x120mm fans HARDWARE LABS BLACK ICE NEMESIS 480GTX on the top of PC case,
second 4x120mm fans HARDWARE LABS BLACK ICE NEMESIS 480GTX is on the bottom left hand side and
third 2x120mm fans HARDWARE LABS BLACK ICE NEMESIS 240GTX is on the right side of my case.
Waterloop is for one water block on motherboard EK-Supremacy K-FB ASUS R4BE, 2 water blocks for 2 x GTX980 graphic cards.
Please, advised me is that airflow is good for waterloop I'm worry about these two radiators on the bottom of my pc case. Should I change intake and outake destination on that 2x120mm fans radiator on the right hand side?

View attachment 168384

Thank you for any advise or help with building my PC watercooling.

Nice rig you got there. Give us a more run down list of what PC components you have and water cooling even though you have more than enough. Some pics of your system when all is said and done would be great as well.

To answer you questions, I have a very similar water cooling setup as you.

The best way to configure your air flow in this mammoth case is as follows:

- Have both bottom radiators and the front as INTAKE (Filtered)

- Have the top radiator as INTAKE (Filtered)

You could have the fans in push or pull but that is up to you. I specifically have mine set as Push.

- Use the rear (Unfiltered) as EXHAUST along with the rear fan.

In this end, this should create some positive pressure which should keep the dust internally at a minimal.

Also, to assist the air flow internally, you'll need cable management done as well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Zgiera]

thanks, that tower makes me busy for the last couple months and would take another months I think.
Many parts of PC case I'm building by myself and there is a lot of manual work to do.
Basically, there is a couple components of that rig that I'm still waiting to receive.

there is a weblink to some of photos which I taken during building PC (still updating with new photos)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.808190575956977&type=1


There is some components which I have used to build

PC CASE :CORSAIR Obsidian 900D
RADIATORS :HARDWARE LABS Nemesis Black Ice GTX480
:HARDWARE LABS Nemesis Black Ice GTX480
:HARDWARE LABS Nemesis Black Ice GTX240
FANS :13 x COUGAR 120mm LED Blue 1200rpm
:1 x COUGAR 140mm LED Blue 1000rpm (rear fan)
FAN CONTROLLER :AQUACOMPUTER Aquaero 6XT
FAN CONTROLLER HEATSINK :AQUACOMPUTER Passive Heat Sink
POWERADJUSTMENT :2 x AQUACOMPUTER Poweradjustments 3 Ultra
POWERADJUSTMENT HEATSINK :2 x AQUACOMPUTER Poweradjustments 3 Ultra
PUMP :2 x AQUACOMPUTER D5 Pump Module with RPM signal
PUMP MOD KIT :BITSPOWER D5 Mod Kit
PUMP MOD TOP :BITSPOWER D5 Mod Top S-Model
PRESSURE SENSOR :AQUACOMPUTER Pressure Sensor Delta 1000
FLOW SENSOR :AQUACOMPUTER Flow Sensor High Flow
FLOW INDICATOR RIMOCHILL Vortex Flow Indicator Clear-Smoke
RESERVOIR RIMOCHILL 240mm AGB CTR System Phase II Clear
ACRYL TUBE :MONSOON Hardline Acryl Tube 13/10mm
FITTINGS RIMOCHILL Revolver Connection G1/4 Black
:BITSPOWER L-Adapter Shape Crystal
:BITSPOWER 90 Angle Adapter, etc.
TEMPERATURE SENSOR :AQUACOMPUTER Internal/External
MAINBOARD :ASUS ROG Rampage Extreme V / U3.1
PROCESSOR :INTEL Core i7-5930K, 6x 3.50GHz
PROCESSOR WATER BLOCK :XSPC Raystorm
MOTHERBOARD WATER BLOCK :EK-FB ASUS R5E Monoblock - Nickel
MEMORY :CORSAIR Dominator Platinum DIMM Kit 32GB, DDR4-3000, CL15-17-17-35
POWER SUPPLY :CORSAIR Professional Series Titanium AX1500i 1500W ATX 2.4
GRAPHIC CARD :2 x GIGABYTE GTX980 SLI
GRAPHIC CARD WATER BLOCK :2 x XSPC Razor GTX 980


Thanks for your advice but I think it's not too much if I put all radiators as intake and I leave rear fan as outake only.
There would be too much air comin' into the case like baloon This configuration would cumulate a lot of hot air into the case
and only small amount hot air comin' out behind the PC case.
All radiators have dust filters so I don't mind about too much dust in the case.
Cable management is very immportant to me so I won't see any cable on the loose in case

 

[EarthDog]

I think you need to stick with tried and true advice...or as you had it in your image.

Top/rear = exhaust
front/sides = intake

I would have the top rad as exhaust as well as the rear so you are not building up your total heatload inside the case...I don't understand the point of having the front as intake when the top is blowing in as well...what is it cooling (the warm air from the rad up top???)? That makes no sense to me personally. It is worth my CPU being up to a couple of C warmer to have cooler internals for the case.

 

[Zgiera]

I think you need to stick with tried and true advice...or as you had it in your image.

Top/rear = exhaust
front/sides = intake

I would have the top rad as exhaust as well as the rear so you are not building up your total heatload inside the case...I don't understand the point of having the front as intake when the top is blowing in as well...what is it cooling (the warm air from the rad up top???)? That makes no sense to me personally. It is worth my CPU being up to a couple of C warmer to have cooler internals for the case.

Hi,
thanks for your advice.
I think the best solution is if I keep TOP/exhaust, SIDE and FRONT/intake as I have at the moment.
I bought steam machine so I'm sure I will find weakest points of airflow in case

 

[EarthDog]

LOL, that is a lot of effort for little returns...

 

[Zgiera]

I'm curious of how airflow looks like in the case.I think this tool will be handy to find out will post a photo when taken.

 

[EarthDog]

It will be cool to see the pictures!

 

[Zgiera]

also I was wonder myself how to connect in the best way, two pumps and two reservoirs in one waterloop or better to keep two separate waterloops for GPU's and CPU to keep more efficiency?

 

[EarthDog]

For this type of loop a single one is fine with a good pump.

So, are you not cooling the CPU? I see a block for the motherboard and GPUs, but not the CPU... Truth be told you could have used the 2 480s and not worried about a 3rd rad.

 

[Zgiera]

CPU will colling as well with
MOTHERBOARD WATER BLOCK :EK-FB ASUS R5E Monoblock - Nickel
or I can use separate waterblock for motherboard southbridge, CPU and mofset?
what would be more efficient of these two solutions?what do you think?

 

[EarthDog]

I would never cool my motherboard in the first place because there are no gains from doing so in this case (AMD with an FX CPU, sure!). It looks good, but that is about it.

 

[Zgiera]

I was thinking to connect RADIATOR left on the bottom > GPU's > CPU >top radiator >reservoir >radiator on the bottom left side if it is one waterloop or if it is two waterloops so two radiators on the bottom left & right side connect to GPU and one radiator on the top connect to CPU

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Just CPU and GPU cooling is all you need unless you're doing extreme OCs. Other than that, its not needed. Save the funds and purchase something else like better radiator fans.

You also don't need a flow indicator if you have a Aqua flow meter. I think you're over purchasing some of the Aquaero 6 products. Not sure if you'll need power adjusters unless I'm missing something here. The Aquaero 6 should be able to handle everything in your listing with no issue. To be 100% sure, I'd go over to Aquaero and let them know what you're connecting to it as they should give you a great idea on how to go upon this.

As for the fog machine, I think its fairly a cool idea to see your airflow in the 900D. Respectfully, I will have to disagree with ED when it comes to having the top as exhaust because the top cover of the case is a massive filter which will just add more resistance as I believe some if not most of the air being exhausted out of the radiator will not escape and just rotate internally and or make the fans work even harder. If the fans were placed on the outside of the cover, I can see it working as exhaust but in the mean time, the best configuration for the 900D as I have tested shows that front, bottom and top as intake work best with the unfiltered and not so resistant rear as exhaust.

Keep us up to date OP.

 

[EarthDog]

Remove the filter. I would to maintain airFLOW instead of jamming up the inside of my PC with heated air through a rad. But again, there are many ways to skin this cat. There isn't a right or wrong per say. Some just have different preferences on what should be kept cool. I personally could care less if my GPUs and CPU went up a couple of degrees if the inside of my case was that much cooler.

 

[Zgiera]

I will try all of your ideas and will take a look at air flow in the case when I use steam machine. Will take some pictures of it and post it as well.
thought aquaero 6xt can use only one waterpump and also I need another additional fan socket for memory fans so that is why I bought x2 poweradjsutment 3 ultra
I will have a post on aquaero forum as well due to how to use aquaero 6xt with all features
that flow indicator is more like aesthetic thing
thanks a lot for your suggestions, I will keep update with all changes I taken with pc case on my facebook group (weblink is below)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.808190575956977&type=1

 

[EarthDog]

Fans for the memory? Not remotely needed...

 

[Zgiera]

Just CPU and GPU cooling is all you need unless you're doing extreme OCs. Other than that, its not needed. Save the funds and purchase something else like better radiator fans.

You also don't need a flow indicator if you have a Aqua flow meter. I think you're over purchasing some of the Aquaero 6 products. Not sure if you'll need power adjusters unless I'm missing something here. The Aquaero 6 should be able to handle everything in your listing with no issue. To be 100% sure, I'd go over to Aquaero and let them know what you're connecting to it as they should give you a great idea on how to go upon this.

As for the fog machine, I think its fairly a cool idea to see your airflow in the 900D. Respectfully, I will have to disagree with ED when it comes to having the top as exhaust because the top cover of the case is a massive filter which will just add more resistance as I believe some if not most of the air being exhausted out of the radiator will not escape and just rotate internally and or make the fans work even harder. If the fans were placed on the outside of the cover, I can see it working as exhaust but in the mean time, the best configuration for the 900D as I have tested shows that front, bottom and top as intake work best with the unfiltered and not so resistant rear as exhaust.

Keep us up to date OP.

what do you mean better radiator fan?
shape?airflow?
thought these fans which I used are good enough.
would you tell me what fans might be better then these?
thanks

- - - Updated - - -

you right with memory fans and its better to use waterblock on the memory or keep the fans?

 

[EarthDog]

There is zero need for fans, and negative need for water cooling on ram.

 

[Otter]

The problem with having one radiator on intake and one on exhaust is that the exhaust radiator will get already heated air. If they're both on the same loop, this is like having a single radiator that's twice as thick. Unless you use fairly powerful fans, you may find that the exhaust radiator has little effect.

The main point of watercooling is to move the heat to where you can get rid of it with a flow of air that has a large cross section. In order to do that, you need as much additional vent as the area of your radiators (or at least the area of your fan blades). Otherwise, your air flow will have reduced cross sectional area, and you'll be missing some of the benefit of cooling with water. You can pile on killer fans to compensate, but that's how high end air works, and if you wanted to go that way, you'd presumably have stuck with air.

I'd start by making sure that each radiator has enough vent. I'm not familiar with that case; can you do that with two in the bottom compartment? Some modification of the floor or side panel may be necessary. Don't worry about intake or exhaust yet, just match up vents and rads. And keep in mind that you need as much area as you have radiator all the way from vent to rad. If your PSU or pump blocks 75%, then the vent only counts for 25%. It's an oversimplification, but treat the narrowest point as the weakest link in a chain and you won't go wrong.

In case I don't make it back this week, intake or exhaust on the lower radiators won't matter all that much, but you'll want them both going the same way. Also you want the air to leave the case through a fan so that it is thrown clear of the intakes for the upper compartment. Hence, if your radiator fans are pulling air into the case, it will help to have fans on the exhaust vents. If you don't need that much fan, put the radiators on exhaust.

If you can get the bottom of your case up off the floor a few inches, that will keep your machine from sucking in fully grown dust bunnies. I don't use filters, but you might want them if your fans are going to be cranked up most of the time and the air is dusty to begin with. An air cleaner in the same room can make a big difference, but the more effective ones are big, move a lot of air, and are not silent. Forget the electrostatic ion marvel mystery machines, they don't do much. If you're not going to mine or fold 24/7, dynamic fan control will do a lot to reduce the amount of dust going into your machine or filters. Less air coming through means less dust.