Evening ladies and gents, i'm currently scoping out a wc rig. I am the kind of guy who has built his pc to be seen and not heard. With summer temps coming along i'm going to need something more than my air cooling can provide so it has pushed me towards watercooling which is something that i have wanted to do for years. I have most of my parts lined up, i just have one question, will one 360 rad be capable of cooling my q6600 @ 3.54 and my 2900xt without any fans blowing over the rad? Bear in mind that this cpu currently idles at 60C and the gfx card on low fan idles at 55C. I know some people will moan that i should use fans, but part of me using water is to remove fans and make my system quieter. If needs be i'll run 2 360 rads to get rid of the heat. I was just curious if anyone knew whether 1 rad would be enough to do the job without and fan assisstance?! thanks for your reply FATMAN
To be honest, without fans, you're just going to be hearing the pump instead. # Running the rad passive might be quite tough, and depends how much air normally goes through your case, the placement of the rad, etc. Adding an extra rad to the loop probably won't do much good. You're best bet would be to find a radiator with low fins per inch, so there is less restriction for the air convecting through. You could certainly try it passive, but just recognise that unless you use a GIANT radiator setup, you'll probably need some air, even if it's just a 600rpm fan.
you mean something like this http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=1215 I have entertained the idea of a fan, i saw the big boy or something from antec, the one they used on one of their cases - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_2522.html as its low speed and has a half decent air flow....although its not the most effiecent for the job seen as the rad is only 120mm wide, and is 200mm thats alot of waste, but if its the quietest single solution i may move for it, otherwise itll be some noctua ones on a fan controller which can be attached to my pump or i'll buy a switch to turn it on and off as and when needed. thanks for your help though dude, you may here from me again soon peace fatman
Fans are surprisingly quiet. You can have the noctua fans on and not hear them at all. I would certainly recommend using fans, and if you use good ones, the pump will still be the loudest thing.
you can get some silent fans these days, if you combine these with a thermochill rad that works better with low rpm fans that would be a good option otherwise you can get proper passive rads like these
