noob cooling 2 480's and a i7-965

S

SlikRig

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
130
Just wondering if someone can shed some light on the difference betwen hi-flow vs. hi-pressure pumps and 3/8 tubing vs.1/2 inch....fyi..im working with a dual 120 rad and a single 120 rad.....any input is most welcome !
 
I have a feeling you are going to need more than a 1x120 and a 2x120 to cool all that power.
 
Not a lot of info to go on but I'll give it a shot...

First off, you may want to reconsider the number of rads you will be using if noise is a concern. At stock settings an i7 cpu will put out 130w of heat and two 480s will put out around 500w of heat. So 630 is your bottom margin. An equivalent 3x120 rad would need 2000 rpm fans running just to dissipate that much heat.

http://skinneelabs.com/assets/images/Radiators/TripleV2/triples-v2_heatdiss-10dT.jpg

If you plan on overclocking any of the processors then you are "probably" going to need more/bigger radiators. That or substitute the ones you have with BIX setup and slap some Ultra Kaze 3000's on em'.

As for the pressure vs flow issue it all depends on your waterblocks. If you have a highly restrictive cpu block you will need a pump or series of pumps that can give you adequate performance. Most modern Radiators aren't very restrictive. The only other consideration is where your waterblocks are in relation to your pump. Placing your most restrictive waterblock somewhere at the beginning of your loop, near the pump, will provide better performance. Flow rates are generally only of concern if it goes below 1 gallon per minute. Very low flow will cause problems because the heat source may not be able to dissipate heat quick enough.

http://martin.skinneelabs.com/

Check out the flow and radiator estimator. The info is old and may not be exactly what you have in your system but you can "guestimate" what you will need from both.
 
Last edited:
ok so if I step it up to the triple 120 rad, what are the pros and cons of those pump and tubing choices?
 
Pros of using 3/8 over 1/2 is managability. My first time watercooling I followed the 1/2 ID craze like a lemming and regretted it. The tubes are simply too fat and immovable to do any sort of work in the case. This includes cable connections, ram upgrades, etc..

The pro to using 1/2 ID is flow. However with what you are wanting to cool a single laing ddc 3.2 (swiftech 355) with 3/8 should suffice. The laing 3.2/3.25s are powerful enough to tackle most any simple setup. Two to three medium to low restriction blocks and two rads should be no problem.

The differences in temps between 1/2 and 3/8 tubing will be minimal if you see any at all. However, as I stated before it all depends on your waterblocks.

Hope it helps.
 
We should all aspire to have our first builds be as good as that. Seriously, besides the protruding power supply that is so clean and sweet looking.
 
Mounting the oversized psu with the lian li bracket allowed me to increase case air flow dramaticaly when I was more dependent on airflow.....thanks for the compliment...runs great and I could not be happier !!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top