Cooling Which Black Ice?

Hey guys. Another day, another 'wtf' thread

I'm looking at two HWLabs Black Ice 'XFlow' radiators, the Xtreme 3 (which I can't find on the HWLabs site itself) and the GTS 360, for which there's some information about.

Now my questions are these:

Which one does better for outright cooling performance?

AND

The fin density on both seems rather high (compared to my MCR220), so will I be needing high CFM fans, or will my orange Xigmatek 120x25mm fans do the job?

AND

Are they very restrictive?

I don't really think I can afford a second pump at this stage and I have a MCP355 pump, MCR220 radiator, HK 3.0 on the CPU and plans for an aquagratiX 5870 or EK 5870 block for the GPU. Will I need to add in a pump or will the MCP355 do the job on all these components?

Thanks in advance

 

go for the thermochill rads they are very good, a 120.2 thermochill is better than a 120.3 swiftech which is quite impresive so go for the 120.3 thermochill

 

No it isn't. A MCR320 comes within a couple of degrees of a PA120.3. A PA120.2, even with ultra high speed fans, wont beat a triple MCR, it doesn't have the FPI.


As for the BI rads the GTS (GT "Stealth") are thin and useful for smaller cases, the GTX (GT "Xtreme") are HWLabs highest performing rads, considerably thicker (and subsequently higher surface area). Both are high FPI, fins per inch, designs so do require higher speed fans to get the most from them.

At relatively quiet RPM (800-1000) they will be a degree or 2 off the low FPI rads like ThermoChill, Feser and XSPC, but once you go into the 1200-1500RPM region they will start to pull away. They scale well all the way up to 2000RPM+.

Radiators are always the least restrictive components in a water loop (bar the reservoir, obviously), you'll be fine with a single MCP355.

 

As I say every time this stuff comes up, decisions should be made on whether you're wanting "is-it-on?"/performance or "don't-care-about-noise"/performance. Comparing two different types of rads and saying this one is better than that one is like comparing sports cars to pickup trucks; both are useful for what they're made for. It's ridiculous and pointless.

If you want my $.02, you're probably wanting to know about silence/performance since I hate loud loops; I generally avoid high-fin count rads.

First question is what you're trying to cool in this loop, and we can go from there.

A good all-around rad would be the Swifties for either end of the spectrum for cooling considering the price as well, although in my experience they have rather shabby construction in comparison to my beloved Thermochills or even the Chinese-built XSPC RX series. I'd say they're probably on par with Feser rads in build quality; passable. But again, this is all in my personal experience with all those brand rads; nothing personal against the owners of said rads, so don't get your panties in a twist!

 

Thanks all for the replies

D-Cyph3r - the fans I plan on using are the Xigmatek XLF-1253 fans. 1500rpm, 61CFM, 20dBA. Will they yield at least _acceptable_ performance on either radiator? Also, I presume the thinner rad will be slightly more forgiving of lower rpm/CFM fans?

E.E.L. - Cooling really isn't MUCH of a concern. I presume 1 240mm and one 360mm should be enough. As of now, I'm cooling an E8500 and a single 5870. Might upgrade to an i7 920/930 in a few months. As for noise v. performance, I'm trying not to use anything louder than the Xigma's I've mentioned above. The point is, I need to stick with these rads for design considerations more that anything else.

 

I think you should go for more nose, because people without noses look silly.

 

Just some really quick ballpark figures, your current MCR220 is enough as it is. I'm assuming you mean a dual and triple 120mm rad when you're stating "240mm and 360mm". That's overkill unless you really have the room in a case and you're pushing the stuff to the max. Don't get me wrong; I don't think there's ever enough rad... that's obvious looking at my own builds. But from a purely functioning standpoint, your MCR220 can handle both your E8500 as well as a 5870 with a roughly 5-degrees above ambient or so with your 1500-RPM Xigmateks running full-bore on the rad. That's perfectly fine. If you wanted a little more head-room for possible CPU OCing or perhaps wanted to quiet things down even more by undervolting the fans as well as handling a slightly larger heatload, one triple-120mm rad would be perfect for those peripherals. An MCR320 would suffice just fine, but if you wanted to go Hardware Labs and wanted to keep things quiet and space was a premium, the GTS rads are fine for that. They do have a high-fin count, but the fins are really thin so those rads can be used with slow-spinning fans as well as high-speed. They seem to get a bad rap generally, but I've used a triple-GTS with 800-RPM fans on it I think in the past for a commissioned project and it was just fine. I think he was running an E6850 OCed as well as a G92-8800GTS in the same loop. I think the delta was around 6-degrees or so too if I recall correctly; I'd have to dig the info out. Only possible issue I see with the GTS rad is those massive amount of tightly-packed fins could become tightly-packed with dust if it's not regularly cleaned! I really wouldn't go for the X-Flow rads though, unless you can't route plumbing any other way. Personally, I'd rather the water stay in the rad for two passes; you won't get that with the X-Flows since they're single pass. Your Liang DDC 3.2/MCP355 pump is perfect for that kind of loop. It'll easily push water through the rad and your two (possible) blocks in the loop just fine. Hell, if you really wanted to and had the room you could slap your 220 and the GTS in the same loop, but personally I don't think it's worth the hassle. Your temps won't change that much with it versus just a single large rad and your flow-rate will drop a bit as well and the noise will increase from additional fans.

i7 is a different beast. More heat needs more rad, obviously. With your MCR220 with an i7 920 (stock volts) and a 5870, you're going to push 7-degrees or so above ambient at least running those Xigmateks at full-bore. If you start OCing things, it's going to suffer. If you're going to go i7, I would just go one big rad if I were you. And using those fans, take your pick of the rad!

Hope all that crap helps!

 

Sure as hell did!

Thanks a LOT Jeremy I do have to stick with the GTS XFlow because I'm just trying something funky with rad placement, but you're input definitely helped me. Regarding overkill on the rads - well, let's just say I hope to surprise you in a few weeks

 

it does i read it on a different forum. some one had tested it completly fair test and the smaller thermochill came out on top i was really suprised my self