Radiator placement in tower case.

[Mass_Hysteria]

I have an Ante sx1240 full tower case. There is quite a bit of room at the top above the power supply and I intend on putting a dangerden cooling cube there. The pump will go on the bottom front end of the case. Here are my questions:

1) Which direction should the 120mm fan blow with this setup?

2) How much will gravity effect the flow rate of the pump to the radiator and would it matter?

3) Is there anything else that I should be concerned about? (vague I know...just curious as to others experiences)

TIA

 

[William]

Mass_Hysteria (May 27, 2001 01:27 p.m.):


1) Which direction should the 120mm fan blow with this setup?
I would put the rad at the bottom of the case and have the fan suck air in through the rad. The air going in to your case will be hotter, but your temp will be lower. You want lower cpu temps, that is what is more important when it is 1-3C differences.

2) How much will gravity effect the flow rate of the pump to the radiator and would it matter?
Quite a bit actually. You can check the pumps "head" which is its ability to pump water and see what the flow rate is at that height.
3) Is there anything else that I should be concerned about? (vague I know...just curious as to others experiences)
Not really, just make sure everything is sealed correctly and you have some water wetter or antifreeze in your system, and something to kill bacteria(bleach, listerine, etc.)

 

[Badger]

Mass_Hysteria (May 27, 2001 01:27 p.m.):
I have an Ante sx1240 full tower case. There is quite a bit of room at the top above the power supply and I intend on putting a dangerden cooling cube there. The pump will go on the bottom front end of the case. Here are my questions:

1) Which direction should the 120mm fan blow with this setup?

2) How much will gravity effect the flow rate of the pump to the radiator and would it matter?

3) Is there anything else that I should be concerned about? (vague I know...just curious as to others experiences)

TIA

The height don't matter because in a closed loop system the water falls as far as it climbs, the flow rate is more governed by the pressure loss through the system caused by friction losses. Head quoted on pump spec sheets would be better considered as 'Delta P' for closed loop systems.
I have my rad at the top of my case with the fan blowing out, any heat picked up in the case is minimal as with a water cooled system there are not much heat sources in the case to warm the air up.

 

[William]

I think the bottom is better, as the air in your case is 1-2C hotter, maybe more, and that can have a difference with the cpu.

 

[Badger]

dunno260 (May 27, 2001 02:50 p.m.):
I think the bottom is better, as the air in your case is 1-2C hotter, maybe more, and that can have a difference with the cpu.

Maybe theoretically the rad will work slightly better with air blowing in. But have you thought where all that warm air is going? that’s right, straight into your case where is warms up everything such as video card, chipset, hard drives (and to some extent the cpu).
i still maintain it's best to blow the warm air out of the case, even if it is at the expense of a degree rise in cpu temp overall system stability will be improved. This is based on real life first hand experience of water cooled rigs, not just hypothesis.

 

[Slain]

I would not recommed bleach in a system containing aluminium parts as it is slighty corrosive to that metal. You end up with an insoluble particulate (aluminum chloride I think) in the system.

 

[Mass_Hysteria]

Thanks for all of the responses so far you guys are really making some good points. Does watter wetter or equivalent have antibacterial...etc properties or is another solution needed? Also, my case temps are right near room temperature with the air cooling rig I have set up so I am not too terribly concerned about drawing warm air into the system.

More questions..... I intend to (at some point) add a video water block to the system. I realize this will effect the cpu temps but how much so?

 

[William]

Badger (May 27, 2001 04:18 p.m.):

dunno260 (May 27, 2001 02:50 p.m.):
I think the bottom is better, as the air in your case is 1-2C hotter, maybe more, and that can have a difference with the cpu.

Maybe theoretically the rad will work slightly better with air blowing in. But have you thought where all that warm air is going? that’s right, straight into your case where is warms up everything such as video card, chipset, hard drives (and to some extent the cpu).
i still maintain it's best to blow the warm air out of the case, even if it is at the expense of a degree rise in cpu temp overall system stability will be improved. This is based on real life first hand experience of water cooled rigs, not just hypothesis.

yes, i know it. But your case temps are not as important as your CPU and water temps. Those take total priority. In either case, the difference in temps is maybe 3C at most in a well ventillated case. I would much rather have my CPU 3C cooler and raise my case temps 3C than have higher cpu temp for a lower case temp.

 

[Kryten]

The one thing I don't feel comfortable with no one has mentioned is having the radiator over the top of the PSU if you have any leaks you could get a big bang.

 

[Badger]

Mass_Hysteria (May 27, 2001 05:29 p.m.):
Thanks for all of the responses so far you guys are really making some good points. Does watter wetter or equivalent have antibacterial...etc properties or is another solution needed? Also, my case temps are right near room temperature with the air cooling rig I have set up so I am not too terribly concerned about drawing warm air into the system.

More questions..... I intend to (at some point) add a video water block to the system. I realize this will effect the cpu temps but how much so?

I run a water cooled and peltierized gfx card, I find provided that the radiator is up to the job and there is plenty of water flow there is no appreciable rise in cpu temp.

Dunno266,
I run a top radiator in my system (air blowing out). i have experimented and with the side of the case off I get ZERO difference in water or cpu temp over the closed case. As I said earlier there are not really enough heat sources in a water cooled system (esp one with water cooled gfx) to warm the air up.
See the pic of my rig below and you will see I'm talking from real experience (not sure this is always the case, there are more water cooling 'experts' than there are water cooling users!).

 

[bdf24]

When I get time I want to mod my midtower to hold the radiator on the side of the case exhausting air thru the rad. the rad wont fit in the front it's 12" X 5" X 3\4". And it wont fit on top cause of my PSU. So the only option I have is the side. I'll have to cutt the hell out of the side cover, But thats not a problem.
Only thing that I dont like about sticking it in the case is cause of the heat. I'm running a peltier and my case temps right now are around 32c. Although I dont have my side on my case right now cause I never cutt holes in the back to run the hoses thru. So I had to run them thru the side for now. I think that may have something to do with my system temps being so high. My pc is set up to gor from front to back. Pretty much straight thru. I think the intake fans art grabbing some of the hot air inside the case and running them back thru at times.

 

[William]

Slain (May 27, 2001 04:24 p.m.):
I would not recommed bleach in a system containing aluminium parts as it is slighty corrosive to that metal. You end up with an insoluble particulate (aluminum chloride I think) in the system.

actually AlCl3 is water soluble, but yes, it might react somewhat. I will have to think about though. Hmm, maybe just try it out. Aluminum is a very reactive metal, but it forms an atom thick layer of Al2O3 on contact with air for protection. I wonder how long that lasts. Well actually, now that I think about it, i don't think this would be a problem if you used water wetter or antifreeze, and I remember spode saying he used bleach.

 

[William]

Kryten (May 27, 2001 08:11 p.m.):
The one thing I don't feel comfortable with no one has mentioned is having the radiator over the top of the PSU if you have any leaks you could get a big bang.

hmmm, you could build a drip catcher device for this. But really, sealing your system from leaks is not hard, just use silicone and clamps.