Planning out a SFF custom build and trying to find what the limits of water cooling are with a few different setups. I still might go full air cooling but like the challenge and the option to go water cooling. hardware I am looking to cool will be i5 or i7 broadwell "if they ever release" and a gtx 970-980ti setup one- single- 240mm rad , 2 gentle typhoons 1850rpm <-- not sure this will fit. setup 2 2x 120mm rad with a GT 1850rpm in the middle of them setup 3 2x dual 80mm rads with 4 fans. not sure on what fans I would use yet. any thought suggestion would greatly help case size is 12x4x10 inches
The thickness of the radiators will have a big effect on how well they cool. Generally though you're going to be close to the limit trying to cool that hardware with 240mm of radiator, but with decent rads and powerful fans it should cope. Do you have any pictures of the case you can show us?
Unfortunately no. Kinda top secret until I start the build I might make the case 5" wide so I don't have to lay down the GPU should yield me some more room that way. Broadwell is out also, I picked up a i7 4770k for next to nothing so that more than likely will be the cpu now.
Yes fine, but how thick does a radiator have to be before it has the equivalent cooling potential of a thin rad twice its size.
Approximately twice as thick (so you could look at it as two rads stacked one in front of the other). However, a thicker rad will be more restrictive to airflow, so you'll need a more powerful fan, but if it's a longer rad then you'll need more fans so... Eg a slim 240mm radiator will cool about(ish) as well as a 120mm that's twice as thick. Of course, then things like fin density and how restrictive they are to the water start playing a part. Personally I've always had to chose radiators based on the available space first, and other considerations later.
It gets tricky though doesn't it. Not only does the restriction increase for a rad half the width and twice thickness of another, but the air is also a bit warmer once it goes through 50% of the radiator. Anyway I'm derailing 8-bit's thread. Sorry
I am sick as a dog ,got some type of summer fever. I'll get some of measurements done and get back to you guys when I feel better. Thanks for you help