Are 420mm + 280mm rads enough?

Dutt1113

[H]ard|Gawd
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I have an overclocked 7820x and 1080ti SLI and was wondering if you guys think 420mm + 280mm rads will be enough to adequately cool this setup? I want the new phanteks evolv X case when it comes out shortly. I currently have a view 71 with a 420 + 360 rads. A 280 rad is within 90% of a 360 for surface area.

Can anyone also recommend a really good 280mm rad without being alphacool Monsta thick?
 
Any of Alphacool's 280mm rads are good, and they have them in X-flow configuration which is very nice for routing lines.

I've got a 7700k and 1080ti, and a single 45mm Alphacool 420 handles my setup well. Going by the "240mm per overclocked competent" rule of thumb, you'd need 86,400^2 mm of cross sectional area on your rads. Five 140mm slots adds up to 98,000^2 mm, so I think you should be fine unless you're going for an absolutely whisper-quiet setup.
 
Any of Alphacool's 280mm rads are good, and they have them in X-flow configuration which is very nice for routing lines.

I've got a 7700k and 1080ti, and a single 45mm Alphacool 420 handles my setup well. Going by the "240mm per overclocked competent" rule of thumb, you'd need 86,400^2 mm of cross sectional area on your rads. Five 140mm slots adds up to 98,000^2 mm, so I think you should be fine unless you're going for an absolutely whisper-quiet setup.

I usually run about 1500rpm fans
 
I think you'll be more than fine, then. That's plenty of rad. =)

Even with a highly overclocked cpu and 2 high overclocked 1080ti's?

It seems that gpu die shrinks with each generation so less heat, but cpu die also shrinks but with more cores so more heat? So is the amount of radiator over time stay the same or go down?
 
Even with a highly overclocked cpu and 2 high overclocked 1080ti's?

It seems that gpu die shrinks with each generation so less heat, but cpu die also shrinks but with more cores so more heat? So is the amount of radiator over time stay the same or go down?
If you rad for your current system, you're not going to be under-cooled for future parts, unless you go dual-proc or triple SLI. Wattage on components will only ever continue downward. Die size has a role in cooling efficiency as it correlates directly to contact area and thus thermal transfer, but 140 watts is 140 watts regardless of die size.

To play devil's advocate to your devil's advocacy - could you even fit more rads in that system if you wanted to? You have more than the rule-of-thumb equivalent of 240mm per overclocked competent already. I think that from this point more radiator won't allow you to cool better, though it will allow you to run slower fans.
 
If you rad for your current system, you're not going to be under-cooled for future parts, unless you go dual-proc or triple SLI. Wattage on components will only ever continue downward. Die size has a role in cooling efficiency as it correlates directly to contact area and thus thermal transfer, but 140 watts is 140 watts regardless of die size.

To play devil's advocate to your devil's advocacy - could you even fit more rads in that system if you wanted to? You have more than the rule-of-thumb equivalent of 240mm per overclocked competent already. I think that from this point more radiator won't allow you to cool better, though it will allow you to run slower fans.

I currently have a view 71 case with the 7820x and 1080ti's all over clocked. I also currently have a 420 + 360 rad. I want to get the new phanteks evolv x case when it count comes out but it only fits a 420 + 280 rads.
 
I currently have a view 71 case with the 7820x and 1080ti's all over clocked. I also currently have a 420 + 360 rad. I want to get the new phanteks evolv x case when it count comes out but it only fits a 420 + 280 rads.
I honestly think you answer your own question in the OP, bud:
A 280 rad is within 90% of a 360 for surface area.
Your existing setup has 102,000^2 mm of rad area, and the new one would have 98,000^2 mm. If a ~4% reduction in rad area is enough to make your cooling setup untenable, you're probably very under-radded to begin with!

You'll be fine switching.
 
A 420+280 setup should be fine for your setup.
If you're going Alphacool, do your measurements for radiator thickness ahead of time.
Only go with the ST30 rads (30mm thick) if you are in an absolute crunch for space. They're going to underperform for heat dissipation.
Likely you're going to want the XT45 series (45mm thick) rads.
If you're worried about thickness, DEFINITIVELY measure your clearances before ordering UT60 (60mm thick) rads.
And yeah, you probably need to swear off the Monsta (86mm thick) rads.
 
So I was looking to getting into the phanteks evolv x when they they come in but there's only 65mm of clearance up top so the 54mm nemesis GTX 280 rad I bought won't fit once fans are on. So the only option is 30-40mm rad max is all that will fit. Is a nemesis GTS 280 (30mm thick) even worth doing or should I look into a different case in order to have enough cooling for 1080ti SLI and 7820x overclocked. I currently have a view 71 with a UT60 360 rad and a coolstream XE 420 (45mm) currently and I don't want to downsize cooling unless it's still adequate and good cooling.
 
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