- Joined
- May 8, 2011
- Location
- Darlington, South Carolina
First I would like to introduce myself to you, I am Ryan, I have been overclocking before the pencil trick to unlock the multiplier of the AMD Thunderbird days, I have air and water cooled and to gain the knowledge to write this thread for your use.
There are many questions regarding after market air and water cooling especially relating to those new to getting into it, many are new to the overclocking world and are concerned regarding just how much cooling they actually need to reach their goals.
Hopefully this information will help you make your own decision of just how to proceed.
Question 1; I have no intentions of overclocking at all, do I need an aftermarket air or water cooler?
No, your AMD or Intel stock air cooler is all the cooling you need and was designed to cool your CPU with a limited 3 year boxed warranty. The exceptions being the new Intel Skylake CPUs that do not come with a boxed Intel cooler, even though you can buy the Intel cooler for Skylake separately, some of the better aftermarket coolers may be the better choice, as long as they can handle the CPUs TDP (Thermal Design Power), rating, and do not exceed the clamping pressure of the thinner substrate of the Skylake CPUs. The AMD Vishera 8 core CPUs also do not come with a boxed cooler and a liquid cooled AMD suggested product should be used to cool them, as they are 220w TDP CPUs.
Question 2; I want to overclock just a little, can I do this with a stock cooler?
Some have in the past and were proud of it, but with todays higher TDP range of CPUs, it is not recommended.
Simply because most that want to overclock just a little, have no long term desire to learn how to manually overclock and want to use the motherboards auto overclocking features.
Some of the motherboards auto overclocking features of today could possibly take you to a much higher CPU voltage range and resulting temperature, than a stock cooler could even begin to handle over a long period of time!
To be on the safe side you need to invest in an aftermarket cooling solution, especially when using the motherboards auto overclocking features, as some motherboards to maintain stability push much higher voltage spikes out in the operating system than manually set BIOS settings will reach.
Question 3; I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO but my load temperatures are scary on the high side will adding another fan in push/pull drop my temperatures a lot?
No, unfortunately you may see a 1c ~ 3c load temperature drop, even if you completely change the stock fan setup to two 110cfm fans in a push/pull setup. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is already at it's pinnacle of cooling performance with the fan it comes with, if not, Cooler Master would already have it available with 2 fans in push/pull setup.
For adding an additional fan, or completely changing to higher speed, higher cfm fans, to make a significant performance difference with a heat pipe air cooler, that air cooler has to be of high enough quality to be used as a passive air cooler. (Passive meaning, the heat sink itself has cooling capability, without any mounted fans, just case airflow!)
Question 4; Before I seriously consider water cooling, can the cooling performance be increased on the high quality air coolers, like the Noctua, Phantek, Thermalright, etc.?
Almost all of the high end heat pipe air coolers are passive coolers, which means you can go to higher performance cooling fans and increase the cooling performance, but at the same time seriously increase the noise level.
The manufacturers of these coolers are not just competing in cooling performance but are trying to stay within acceptable noise levels, so the cooling fans they come with are the highest performance they can add to the cooler and still be in an acceptable customer sound levels.
So if you already own one of those coolers and do not mind an increased noise level you can improve their cooling performance by changing out the fans to higher speed and higher cfm cooling fans than the ones they come with.
Question 5; High quality air coolers vs AIO water coolers?
Many are under the disillusion that AIO water coolers are the cure all, yielding higher cooling than the air coolers, and lower noise as well, and that is not true.
Some of the cheaper AIO water cooling solutions do not out perform the air coolers at all and even some of the more expensive cannot best the cooling performance of some of the high quality air coolers running the higher speed cooling fans mentioned in question 4.
AIO water coolers are not a silent option either as some of the cooling fans are tolerable but loud as well. You have to remember whether air coolers or water coolers they both are ambient air cooled!
The radiator of the AIO water cooler has everything to do with it's cooling capabilities, it will take the larger sized radiator AIO water coolers to begin to pass the performance levels of the high quality air coolers.
AIO coolers also have their limitations because they are designed to fit into the cheaper mainstream cases so in most situations 95% of them run actual radiator cores 12mm ~ 20mm thick with high FPI count needing high speed fans to get the job done, high speed fans equals higher noise levels.
In my research I only found one AIO that I would actually spend my money on, it is one of the expandable models and has a radiator core thickness greater than 30mm, if you are considering getting an AIO cooling solution, I urge you to research the specifications of the cooling units before you spend your money.
Reviews and testing comparisons will give you some idea of where the temperature performance of each type cooler crosses paths, but pay attention to whether the ambient temperature was controlled in the reviews, and how does that tested ambient compare to your ambient.
Question 6; Does mounting position matter with Heat Pipe Style Air Coolers?
Absolutely Yes!
First you need to understand how a heat pipe cooler actually works, and the links below are the best explanations I have found.
http://www.1-act.com/heat-pipes-a-basics-demonstration/
http://www.electronics-cooling.com/1996/09/heat-pipes-for-electronics-cooling-applications/
Once you gain an understanding of how the individual heat pipes work you need to understand that all the heat pipe coolers are designed for their maximum cooling efficiency mounted vertically on a horizontal surface.
So what happens when they are mounted in a tower case, and the heat pipes themselves are horizontally mounted on a vertical positioned motherboard?
Many have asked what's the best performance mounting in a tower case front to rear alignment or bottom to top alignment, well actually it really depends on what type of heat pipe air cooler you have.
How the pipes have been formed and arranged in the air cooler directly affects the efficiency of the cooler vs the position it is mounted in.
The link below is to Zarcons Idea Page so you can get a good understanding of what's going on inside of those heat pipes regarding how they are mounted.
http://www.zarcondeegrissom.org/ideas/012Heatpipes.html
The information above should bring you to a better understanding of the best possible mounting for the heat pipe cooler you own, or are contemplating buying.
The link below covers some tests of different mounting of a mid quality 3 heat pipe air cooler and the load temperatures of each test with the cooler in different positions.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/which-is-the-best-position-for-a-tower-cpu-cooler/1/
It was brought to my attention that if it was important enough manufacturers would be recommending mounting positions themselves, here's one..
http://noctua.at/en/nh-c12p.html?faq=1#4
Hopefully the information you gained from the links above will aid your understanding of why the different mountings yielded different temperature results, and will aid you in deciding the best mounting for your heat pipe air cooler.
Question 7; I want to do some serious overclocking and I'm considering going to a custom water cooling setup, what do I need to know?
Overclocking performance water cooling requires enough radiator cooling area to bring your water temperatures as close to ambient room temperature as possible, which means you will not have the radiator cooling area you need inside a mid tower case, and even the majority of the full tower cases.
So many of you want the best overclocking water cooling performance you can possibly get, but want it all crammed inside some teeny tiny case, well I am sorry but that's just not going to get the job done.
Many that are after serious overclocking cooling performance headroom mount radiators on the side, top, rear, or even completely independent as a stand alone radiator, or multiple radiators mounted in a RadBox. Some have built their own RadBoxes, some have just modified a separate case dedicated to the radiators, pumps, and cooling fans and usually a fan controller as well.
It is all about having enough radiator cooling field to do the job!
So if you really want overclocking water cooling performance you start with finding a case that can fit your radiator mounting needs, some cases that are designed from scratch just for water cooling are the MountainMods and Caselabs lines of cases.
If your goal is high performance water cooling for the maximum overclocks you can safely run don't cut short when it comes to the radiator cooling field area, or prepare yourself for some gut punching serious disappointment after a major monetary investment that falls way short of your hoped goals.
If you are only considering water cooling for looks, or just to be water cooling because you think it's a neat cooling solution, and could care less about overclocking head room, then pretty much any case will do, and any loop configuration will do, because overclocking heat is not an issue to you.
Question 8; I want to overclock my CPU and GPU much further than my present cooling allows, can I do it all in one loop?
Of course you can as long as you're complying with Question 7 and having enough radiator cooling field to handle the heat load, can it be done with a single or maybe two 240 radiators, NO!
This is the most common mistake made today and most make this mistake because of old information from old stickies and reviews that do not fully address the heat load of the CPUs and high end GPUs presently on the market today.
If you are overclocking your CPU and are expecting high overclock results approaching 5ghz and also running multiple GPUs, you'll get better results and higher CPU stable overclocks, by running 2 separate loops and keeping the GPUs and CPU overclocked heat, from combining the CPU and GPU deltaT into the same loop. (Note: DeltaT is explained very well by Conumdrum in the 2nd link at the bottom of the page.)
However those of us even intending on pushing your CPU overclock to 5ghz are a minority, so the traditional CPU overclock target seems to be around 4.5ghz, and may well work with a single loop problem free.
Looped together the GPUs will affect your CPUs overclock top end, it won't be as bad on the GPU because water cooling is much better on the GPU than air cooling is, and the GPU runs much cooler water cooled.
Adding the GPUs heat even idling to the CPU, will add overclock limiting heat to the CPU, much less when the GPU and CPU are under a heavy gaming load, and you then reach game crashing temperatures.
It seriously depends on just how far you intend pushing that CPU overclock!
Question 9; Since I'm water cooling do I still need case fans running?
Absolutely Yes! Case airflow is still a critical need to cool system memory, and other motherboard connected components still relying on air to cool them!
Caution:
When the stock CPU air cooler is removed from the socket and replaced with a CPU water block or a CLC water pump block, you just removed the stock air cooling around the CPU socket that was cooling the motherboard voltage regulators!
The stock air cooler was not designed to cool the CPU only!
It was designed to cool the surrounding heat producing motherboard voltage controlling modules, that is the reason the VRs are positioned on the motherboard clustered around the CPU socket, so the stock air cooler can cool them, at the same time the CPU is being cooled.
So unless you have a motherboard manufactured with water or dedicated fan cooled VR heat sink blocks, the volume of airflow that was cooling those VRs has got to be maintained, or you will seriously shorten the life of your motherboard, whether you overclock or not.
Just because you are water cooling does not mean you no longer need case fans, but you need to be extremely aware of what still needs air flow to remain cool on that motherboard.
You need to supply any air you completely removed with some type of dedicated air cooling, even if it takes adding an additional fan mounting bracket, to support a dedicated fan to replace that cooling you removed, or suffer the consequences of the neglect.
Regarding Radiators:
Your water cooling is still air cooled with fans mounted on your radiators and if fresh air flow is not supplied to them, no matter how many fans you have on the radiators, the cooling performance is seriously compromised, you have to have good case air flow!
The best overall cooling results are accomplished by fresh ambient air getting to the elements that need cooling, and if a radiator is pulling in preheated air, the cooling capabilities are diminished.
Question 10; Will adding additional fans to my radiator increase it's cooling performance?
It depends on whether the radiator in question is a low FPI (Fins Per Inch) or high FPI radiator.
Low FPI radiators are generally 8 FPI or lower and are specifically designed to use low fan speed, low cfm, which equals low noise, cooling fans.
Adding additional fans to those radiators don't add cooling performance, as most are fully factory tested especially in a kit or CLC, and are already either pre-fitted, or supplied in the kit, with the best performing cooling fan or fans, out of the factory door.
This rule of thumb only applies to the thinner core thickness radiators it does not apply to Low FPI radiators with a core thicker than 30mm ~ 40mm, once a radiator core thickness is greater than 40mm you are in the higher static pressure fan zone.
The cooling fan of choice has to have static pressure high enough to push the airflow through the entire radiator core, many think low speed fans in a push pull directly mounted to the radiator will resolve this but it will not.
The fans have to have the static pressure to get the job done on a thicker core radiator even if the static pressure is split between the 2 fans in a push/pull configuration to get an even air flow through the entire radiator core.
High FPI thinner core radiators around at least a 12 count will benefit from adding fans of higher speed, higher cfm, which equals higher noise levels, as the more airflow through the fins they get, the better they cool.
The tighter fin grouping also requires higher static pressure cooling fans as well and that even with the thinner core radiators, as they are designed for high performance cooling, the tighter the fin grouping the higher the static pressure needs to be, you have to supply the needs or requirements of the radiator in question, or you will not get it's maximum designed cooling capability.
Traditionally, High FPI radiators and now today Low FPI radiators with thick cores, are for the more serious overclockers after the lowest DeltaT they can possibly achieve, DeltaT meaning the sustained system actual operating water temperature above ambient room temperature.
The more serious overclockers are also not concerned with higher levels of cooling fan noise, as higher cfm and higher static capable fans are also higher noise rated.
Fan designs have seriously improved as of late, with blade pitch and angle being able to increase static pressure at lower fan speed, with not too much of noise increase, but whether they do the best job or not, well that's up to you to discover.
When you compromise your cooling, you compromise your cooling performance!
I hope this answers at least some of your questions, some of these topics are things I have already learned the hard way, at my own monetary expense, from air and water cooling!
Some have been researched to find answers relating to common questions and gather them as an information resource.
I am in hopes that these questions and answers will help some of you in your purchasing decisions.
Any of you that may be considering custom water cooling, I suggest you start your adventure reading and studying these resources:
http://www.overclockers.com/guide-deltat-water-cooling/
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky
http://www.overclock.net/t/1415725/a-guide-to-water-cooling-multiple-gpus
http://www.swiftech.com/Resources/White_Papers/Dual Loop versus Single.pdf
http://www.overclockers.com/beginners-guide-water-cooling/
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t355358.html
Some of you that are considering overclocking your CPUs whether by air or water, or even past that, this Overclocking study contains some very valuable information, not only backing some of what I've tried to share with you in this thread, but can seriously open your eyes to what's actually possible or not, with the cooling you decide to use.
http://lab501.net/intel-core-i7-4790k-intel-pentium-g3258-overclocking-study/
Note: This thread is the result of a lot of research besides my own experiences, so if you the reader sees something questionable or you feel needs to be changed to make it better, please respectfully submit it to me, and if it is viable, I will gladly make a change to the thread giving you the credit for the discovery.
Thank You! Ryan
Edit: Thread amended Thanks to Mr.Scott, Blaylock, suggestions.
Edit: 7-27-2016 New information added.
There are many questions regarding after market air and water cooling especially relating to those new to getting into it, many are new to the overclocking world and are concerned regarding just how much cooling they actually need to reach their goals.
Hopefully this information will help you make your own decision of just how to proceed.
Question 1; I have no intentions of overclocking at all, do I need an aftermarket air or water cooler?
No, your AMD or Intel stock air cooler is all the cooling you need and was designed to cool your CPU with a limited 3 year boxed warranty. The exceptions being the new Intel Skylake CPUs that do not come with a boxed Intel cooler, even though you can buy the Intel cooler for Skylake separately, some of the better aftermarket coolers may be the better choice, as long as they can handle the CPUs TDP (Thermal Design Power), rating, and do not exceed the clamping pressure of the thinner substrate of the Skylake CPUs. The AMD Vishera 8 core CPUs also do not come with a boxed cooler and a liquid cooled AMD suggested product should be used to cool them, as they are 220w TDP CPUs.
Question 2; I want to overclock just a little, can I do this with a stock cooler?
Some have in the past and were proud of it, but with todays higher TDP range of CPUs, it is not recommended.
Simply because most that want to overclock just a little, have no long term desire to learn how to manually overclock and want to use the motherboards auto overclocking features.
Some of the motherboards auto overclocking features of today could possibly take you to a much higher CPU voltage range and resulting temperature, than a stock cooler could even begin to handle over a long period of time!
To be on the safe side you need to invest in an aftermarket cooling solution, especially when using the motherboards auto overclocking features, as some motherboards to maintain stability push much higher voltage spikes out in the operating system than manually set BIOS settings will reach.
Question 3; I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO but my load temperatures are scary on the high side will adding another fan in push/pull drop my temperatures a lot?
No, unfortunately you may see a 1c ~ 3c load temperature drop, even if you completely change the stock fan setup to two 110cfm fans in a push/pull setup. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is already at it's pinnacle of cooling performance with the fan it comes with, if not, Cooler Master would already have it available with 2 fans in push/pull setup.
For adding an additional fan, or completely changing to higher speed, higher cfm fans, to make a significant performance difference with a heat pipe air cooler, that air cooler has to be of high enough quality to be used as a passive air cooler. (Passive meaning, the heat sink itself has cooling capability, without any mounted fans, just case airflow!)
Question 4; Before I seriously consider water cooling, can the cooling performance be increased on the high quality air coolers, like the Noctua, Phantek, Thermalright, etc.?
Almost all of the high end heat pipe air coolers are passive coolers, which means you can go to higher performance cooling fans and increase the cooling performance, but at the same time seriously increase the noise level.
The manufacturers of these coolers are not just competing in cooling performance but are trying to stay within acceptable noise levels, so the cooling fans they come with are the highest performance they can add to the cooler and still be in an acceptable customer sound levels.
So if you already own one of those coolers and do not mind an increased noise level you can improve their cooling performance by changing out the fans to higher speed and higher cfm cooling fans than the ones they come with.
Question 5; High quality air coolers vs AIO water coolers?
Many are under the disillusion that AIO water coolers are the cure all, yielding higher cooling than the air coolers, and lower noise as well, and that is not true.
Some of the cheaper AIO water cooling solutions do not out perform the air coolers at all and even some of the more expensive cannot best the cooling performance of some of the high quality air coolers running the higher speed cooling fans mentioned in question 4.
AIO water coolers are not a silent option either as some of the cooling fans are tolerable but loud as well. You have to remember whether air coolers or water coolers they both are ambient air cooled!
The radiator of the AIO water cooler has everything to do with it's cooling capabilities, it will take the larger sized radiator AIO water coolers to begin to pass the performance levels of the high quality air coolers.
AIO coolers also have their limitations because they are designed to fit into the cheaper mainstream cases so in most situations 95% of them run actual radiator cores 12mm ~ 20mm thick with high FPI count needing high speed fans to get the job done, high speed fans equals higher noise levels.
In my research I only found one AIO that I would actually spend my money on, it is one of the expandable models and has a radiator core thickness greater than 30mm, if you are considering getting an AIO cooling solution, I urge you to research the specifications of the cooling units before you spend your money.
Reviews and testing comparisons will give you some idea of where the temperature performance of each type cooler crosses paths, but pay attention to whether the ambient temperature was controlled in the reviews, and how does that tested ambient compare to your ambient.
Question 6; Does mounting position matter with Heat Pipe Style Air Coolers?
Absolutely Yes!
First you need to understand how a heat pipe cooler actually works, and the links below are the best explanations I have found.
http://www.1-act.com/heat-pipes-a-basics-demonstration/
http://www.electronics-cooling.com/1996/09/heat-pipes-for-electronics-cooling-applications/
Once you gain an understanding of how the individual heat pipes work you need to understand that all the heat pipe coolers are designed for their maximum cooling efficiency mounted vertically on a horizontal surface.
So what happens when they are mounted in a tower case, and the heat pipes themselves are horizontally mounted on a vertical positioned motherboard?
Many have asked what's the best performance mounting in a tower case front to rear alignment or bottom to top alignment, well actually it really depends on what type of heat pipe air cooler you have.
How the pipes have been formed and arranged in the air cooler directly affects the efficiency of the cooler vs the position it is mounted in.
The link below is to Zarcons Idea Page so you can get a good understanding of what's going on inside of those heat pipes regarding how they are mounted.
http://www.zarcondeegrissom.org/ideas/012Heatpipes.html
The information above should bring you to a better understanding of the best possible mounting for the heat pipe cooler you own, or are contemplating buying.
The link below covers some tests of different mounting of a mid quality 3 heat pipe air cooler and the load temperatures of each test with the cooler in different positions.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/which-is-the-best-position-for-a-tower-cpu-cooler/1/
It was brought to my attention that if it was important enough manufacturers would be recommending mounting positions themselves, here's one..
http://noctua.at/en/nh-c12p.html?faq=1#4
Hopefully the information you gained from the links above will aid your understanding of why the different mountings yielded different temperature results, and will aid you in deciding the best mounting for your heat pipe air cooler.
Question 7; I want to do some serious overclocking and I'm considering going to a custom water cooling setup, what do I need to know?
Overclocking performance water cooling requires enough radiator cooling area to bring your water temperatures as close to ambient room temperature as possible, which means you will not have the radiator cooling area you need inside a mid tower case, and even the majority of the full tower cases.
So many of you want the best overclocking water cooling performance you can possibly get, but want it all crammed inside some teeny tiny case, well I am sorry but that's just not going to get the job done.
Many that are after serious overclocking cooling performance headroom mount radiators on the side, top, rear, or even completely independent as a stand alone radiator, or multiple radiators mounted in a RadBox. Some have built their own RadBoxes, some have just modified a separate case dedicated to the radiators, pumps, and cooling fans and usually a fan controller as well.
It is all about having enough radiator cooling field to do the job!
So if you really want overclocking water cooling performance you start with finding a case that can fit your radiator mounting needs, some cases that are designed from scratch just for water cooling are the MountainMods and Caselabs lines of cases.
If your goal is high performance water cooling for the maximum overclocks you can safely run don't cut short when it comes to the radiator cooling field area, or prepare yourself for some gut punching serious disappointment after a major monetary investment that falls way short of your hoped goals.
If you are only considering water cooling for looks, or just to be water cooling because you think it's a neat cooling solution, and could care less about overclocking head room, then pretty much any case will do, and any loop configuration will do, because overclocking heat is not an issue to you.
Question 8; I want to overclock my CPU and GPU much further than my present cooling allows, can I do it all in one loop?
Of course you can as long as you're complying with Question 7 and having enough radiator cooling field to handle the heat load, can it be done with a single or maybe two 240 radiators, NO!
This is the most common mistake made today and most make this mistake because of old information from old stickies and reviews that do not fully address the heat load of the CPUs and high end GPUs presently on the market today.
If you are overclocking your CPU and are expecting high overclock results approaching 5ghz and also running multiple GPUs, you'll get better results and higher CPU stable overclocks, by running 2 separate loops and keeping the GPUs and CPU overclocked heat, from combining the CPU and GPU deltaT into the same loop. (Note: DeltaT is explained very well by Conumdrum in the 2nd link at the bottom of the page.)
However those of us even intending on pushing your CPU overclock to 5ghz are a minority, so the traditional CPU overclock target seems to be around 4.5ghz, and may well work with a single loop problem free.
Looped together the GPUs will affect your CPUs overclock top end, it won't be as bad on the GPU because water cooling is much better on the GPU than air cooling is, and the GPU runs much cooler water cooled.
Adding the GPUs heat even idling to the CPU, will add overclock limiting heat to the CPU, much less when the GPU and CPU are under a heavy gaming load, and you then reach game crashing temperatures.
It seriously depends on just how far you intend pushing that CPU overclock!
Question 9; Since I'm water cooling do I still need case fans running?
Absolutely Yes! Case airflow is still a critical need to cool system memory, and other motherboard connected components still relying on air to cool them!
Caution:
When the stock CPU air cooler is removed from the socket and replaced with a CPU water block or a CLC water pump block, you just removed the stock air cooling around the CPU socket that was cooling the motherboard voltage regulators!
The stock air cooler was not designed to cool the CPU only!
It was designed to cool the surrounding heat producing motherboard voltage controlling modules, that is the reason the VRs are positioned on the motherboard clustered around the CPU socket, so the stock air cooler can cool them, at the same time the CPU is being cooled.
So unless you have a motherboard manufactured with water or dedicated fan cooled VR heat sink blocks, the volume of airflow that was cooling those VRs has got to be maintained, or you will seriously shorten the life of your motherboard, whether you overclock or not.
Just because you are water cooling does not mean you no longer need case fans, but you need to be extremely aware of what still needs air flow to remain cool on that motherboard.
You need to supply any air you completely removed with some type of dedicated air cooling, even if it takes adding an additional fan mounting bracket, to support a dedicated fan to replace that cooling you removed, or suffer the consequences of the neglect.
Regarding Radiators:
Your water cooling is still air cooled with fans mounted on your radiators and if fresh air flow is not supplied to them, no matter how many fans you have on the radiators, the cooling performance is seriously compromised, you have to have good case air flow!
The best overall cooling results are accomplished by fresh ambient air getting to the elements that need cooling, and if a radiator is pulling in preheated air, the cooling capabilities are diminished.
Question 10; Will adding additional fans to my radiator increase it's cooling performance?
It depends on whether the radiator in question is a low FPI (Fins Per Inch) or high FPI radiator.
Low FPI radiators are generally 8 FPI or lower and are specifically designed to use low fan speed, low cfm, which equals low noise, cooling fans.
Adding additional fans to those radiators don't add cooling performance, as most are fully factory tested especially in a kit or CLC, and are already either pre-fitted, or supplied in the kit, with the best performing cooling fan or fans, out of the factory door.
This rule of thumb only applies to the thinner core thickness radiators it does not apply to Low FPI radiators with a core thicker than 30mm ~ 40mm, once a radiator core thickness is greater than 40mm you are in the higher static pressure fan zone.
The cooling fan of choice has to have static pressure high enough to push the airflow through the entire radiator core, many think low speed fans in a push pull directly mounted to the radiator will resolve this but it will not.
The fans have to have the static pressure to get the job done on a thicker core radiator even if the static pressure is split between the 2 fans in a push/pull configuration to get an even air flow through the entire radiator core.
High FPI thinner core radiators around at least a 12 count will benefit from adding fans of higher speed, higher cfm, which equals higher noise levels, as the more airflow through the fins they get, the better they cool.
The tighter fin grouping also requires higher static pressure cooling fans as well and that even with the thinner core radiators, as they are designed for high performance cooling, the tighter the fin grouping the higher the static pressure needs to be, you have to supply the needs or requirements of the radiator in question, or you will not get it's maximum designed cooling capability.
Traditionally, High FPI radiators and now today Low FPI radiators with thick cores, are for the more serious overclockers after the lowest DeltaT they can possibly achieve, DeltaT meaning the sustained system actual operating water temperature above ambient room temperature.
The more serious overclockers are also not concerned with higher levels of cooling fan noise, as higher cfm and higher static capable fans are also higher noise rated.
Fan designs have seriously improved as of late, with blade pitch and angle being able to increase static pressure at lower fan speed, with not too much of noise increase, but whether they do the best job or not, well that's up to you to discover.
When you compromise your cooling, you compromise your cooling performance!
I hope this answers at least some of your questions, some of these topics are things I have already learned the hard way, at my own monetary expense, from air and water cooling!
Some have been researched to find answers relating to common questions and gather them as an information resource.
I am in hopes that these questions and answers will help some of you in your purchasing decisions.
Any of you that may be considering custom water cooling, I suggest you start your adventure reading and studying these resources:
http://www.overclockers.com/guide-deltat-water-cooling/
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky
http://www.overclock.net/t/1415725/a-guide-to-water-cooling-multiple-gpus
http://www.swiftech.com/Resources/White_Papers/Dual Loop versus Single.pdf
http://www.overclockers.com/beginners-guide-water-cooling/
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t355358.html
Some of you that are considering overclocking your CPUs whether by air or water, or even past that, this Overclocking study contains some very valuable information, not only backing some of what I've tried to share with you in this thread, but can seriously open your eyes to what's actually possible or not, with the cooling you decide to use.
http://lab501.net/intel-core-i7-4790k-intel-pentium-g3258-overclocking-study/
Note: This thread is the result of a lot of research besides my own experiences, so if you the reader sees something questionable or you feel needs to be changed to make it better, please respectfully submit it to me, and if it is viable, I will gladly make a change to the thread giving you the credit for the discovery.
Thank You! Ryan
Edit: Thread amended Thanks to Mr.Scott, Blaylock, suggestions.
Edit: 7-27-2016 New information added.
Last edited:
