Can one of those XSPC 5.25" pumpres combos handle a 50mm thick 3x120 and a normal 1x120 rad with the CPU, a single GPU and possibly the mobo in the loop? Or should i downgrade to a normal 3x120 and a 1x120? I'm not particularly fussed about near-room temperatures, i just want it to work and i want it to work quietly. The smaller rad is mainly for the looks. TIA
It'd be able to pump the water around but the flow rate isn't that great (although I once ran a small Eheim pump with a cpu, 2xgpu's & nb, sb, VRM cooling and it worked). The bay pump/res combos are a bit noisy though
My bayres/pump is nice and quiet, but I have bolted it straight into the frame of the computer, so the whole thing vibrates through the entire case; being a full tower there's plenty to damp it.
I would say you would be pushing it trying to get it to pump the water around such a loop. It could work but you'd get better performance and temperatures from a better (yet more expensive) pump.
Well i couldn't really stand having something like this bolted to the bottom of my case, my main reason for a bay-mounted pumpres is, again, the looks. That, plus that way the wc gear would take up most of the top half of the case which would be empty otherwise (Chieftec Bravo bigtower cheesecake)
Heh, I have exactly that case Dragun - great minds think alike it seems! I have a Swiftec bayres in the top 5.25", with a Laing DDC/Swiftec MCP350. It's not a showpiece, but it does the job fantastically well, and it makes filling the loop dead simple; just put it on a couple of phone books and let the airlocks work themselves out. Where are you putting your radiators? I've got 2x120.1's on each of the 120mm exhausts which works quite well, but I keep getting tempted to put a 120.2 in the roof as well. XSPC are doing a decent range of bay resevoirs which take a Laing DDC internally, that's exactly what you want apart from being slightly too pricey. I don't know what the performance of their own-brand pump is like, probably not that great, but there's only really one way to find out.
Hahah, pics pls! A bay mounted DDC, i like that idea. In my last loop i had a 2x120 in the top (damn that panel is thick) and a 1x120 in the top rear fan position. This time around i'll have the same 1x120 in the back and the 3x120 in the top. Some more dremel time. Only problem is that the top rad blocks a 5.25" bay. I could put my fan controller there except i didn't think of this at the time so i made the cut too far forward. Duh. But then again i did have a future expansion to 3x120 in mind so it wouldn't matter anyways - with a 3x rad i'd either block the rear rad or the drive bay.
Well the bay res' tend to be quite shallow, mine is much shorter than a normal DVD-RW, so I reckon I could get a 120.2 in the top, a 120.1 in the upper rear (with the fan outside) and another down below. I'll get some pics of my current setup this afternoon, it doesn't look much but it works nicely and meant I didn't have to take a Dremel to my shiny case.
Cutting up my Bravo is one of the things i regret sometimes. The other is insulating it. I doubt it actually did much to reduce noise, but i didn't know better at the time. EDIT: Here's mine with the old 2x120 still mounted, if that helps with your planning. At this point it's nearly as forward as it can go, but there's plenty of room to push it back without it hurting your rear rad.
The drivebay has slack enough to come out the front for level checking and top-ups, otherwise I could've made it neater. Doesn't really matter though because I don't have a window. At the back the 120.1 is sitting on 2 120mm's, one being gutted to make a shroud type thing. The lower one looks like it'll interfere with mobo's, but it's actually alright as long as you don't have big add-in boards right at the IO. Thankfully DFI have had removable audio cards for several generations, which is useful.
Wow that's neat compared to mine. I'm starting to miss my gray insides.... i wonder if i could peel off this insulation.
Heh, it's not that neat, but it's bloody hard work to get it looking decent. I see so many people who barely have a visible cable and get rather jealous! I need to get some new fans in it really, one of my 92mm Zalman's down behind the drives seized the other day, so the flow out is now >> in. So it gets really dusty, really quickly.
I just did some googling after looking at that pic and found a set of Chieftec Rollers in stock. Why didn't i think of that for all these years!!
I've had them from day one - they both came from overclocker.co.uk. Being a floor-only case I knew casters were absolutely vital.
Yeah, this is one heavy bugger of a case. What is it, 20kg empty? Ah well at least it made me stronger.
