Thinking of moving to a custom loop. A few questions.

mord

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
377
TLDR: loop for 2700x and two 1080ti in a thermaltake P3? Radiator size and fans to stay fairly quiet?


My current setup:
Ryzen 2700X OC'd
SLI 2x 1080TI OC'd (one is a EVGA black with 2 fans, and other is a founders)
Asus Crosshair VII Hero
16GB ram
a few SSD and spinning rust
EVGA 1000 G3 power supply
All in a Thermaltake Core P3
I use a Sammy 4K 40" screen and a Vive to game on.

Currently the GPU's are on air, and the CPU is cooled by a Corsair H115i pro.
I'm happy with the cooling for the CPU. The GPU's get thermal throttled and get FREAKING LOUD still. I have messed with settings a good bit, but it's a compromise between running the fans at 100% or getting thermal throttled. In an open case, sound is more of an issue.

I'm open to suggestions. I am thinking I need to go to a custom loop and cool both GPU's and the CPU. That's a good chunk of change. I don't know if I'll run SLI after my next upgrade or not. So few new games make use of it now. Depending on how DX goes, may die off, may get easier. I'm betting on dieing off. I'll probably keep the 1080TIs for a bit longer. I don't see enough of a reason to upgrade to the 2xxx series. Maybe the next.

If I do go with a custom loop, how big of a radiator? I can fit a 420mm in the default radiator slot, but I'm iffy on that being enough. The 2700x isn't a power hog, so that helps. On the other hand, I'm doing this mostly to get quieter, not silent, while still having a healthy OC. So I don't want to be pushing fans on a borderline sized radiator.

Can one thick 420 cover that heat? seems push pull fans can run a bit quieter than just one set of fans. pondering running a 420 and a 280 or two 360s. Not sure how to mount that.
 
A few things to keep in mind.

1.) Always always always do a single loop and put all radiators and blocks in it. Never do separate loops in the same build. You'll spend less money AND get better performance.

2.) CPU blocks are usually reusable, but full cover GPU blocks are usually GPU specific, so don't count on keeping them if you upgrade or change your GPU's.

3.) Radiator capacity is very system dependent, but in general more is better. The more swept area you have the slower you can run your fans, and the quieter the system is. Area is MUCH more important than thickness. A thicker radiator is generally only marginally more effective than a thinner one, but adding more radiator area has a huge impact. I have a super thick radiator up front in mine, but I got it before I realized this.

I have 3x140mm fan slot radiator (45mm thick) up top and 2x140mm Monsta (87.5mm) thick radiator up front and it is good for my system, most of the time not needing th efans to spin fast enough to get loud, but I also have a Sandy-E hexacore overclocked at 4.8Ghz. 1.445v going through 32nm REALLY produces a lot of heat. You can probably get away with less. The general rule of thumb for a minimum is one 120mm slot radiator per block in your loop. So, with your CPU and two GPU's 3x120mm should be the minimum. Anything above that will either allow you to get cooler temps or to run tour fans slower and quieter.
 
A few things to keep in mind.

1.) Always always always do a single loop and put all radiators and blocks in it. Never do separate loops in the same build. You'll spend less money AND get better performance.

2.) CPU blocks are usually reusable, but full cover GPU blocks are usually GPU specific, so don't count on keeping them if you upgrade or change your GPU's.

3.) Radiator capacity is very system dependent, but in general more is better. The more swept area you have the slower you can run your fans, and the quieter the system is. Area is MUCH more important than thickness. A thicker radiator is generally only marginally more effective than a thinner one, but adding more radiator area has a huge impact. I have a super thick radiator up front in mine, but I got it before I realized this.

I have 3x140mm fan slot radiator (45mm thick) up top and 2x140mm Monsta (87.5mm) thick radiator up front and it is good for my system, most of the time not needing th efans to spin fast enough to get loud, but I also have a Sandy-E hexacore overclocked at 4.8Ghz. 1.445v going through 32nm REALLY produces a lot of heat. You can probably get away with less. The general rule of thumb for a minimum is one 120mm slot radiator per block in your loop. So, with your CPU and two GPU's 3x120mm should be the minimum. Anything above that will either allow you to get cooler temps or to run tour fans slower and quieter.


Thanks, good info. I may start with a single 420mm, and run 6 fans on it. From a few testing data posts I saw running fans on both sides lowers tempts by up to 15-20%, particularly when the temp deltas are on the high side. In my case, I'd use that for lowered db. Maybe get 2 or 3db less. If it's not enough, I'll add another rad and use the extra fans on it.

Just gotta figure out where to mount another rad on a core p3 if I do.
 
Thanks, good info. I may start with a single 420mm, and run 6 fans on it. From a few testing data posts I saw running fans on both sides lowers tempts by up to 15-20%, particularly when the temp deltas are on the high side. In my case, I'd use that for lowered db. Maybe get 2 or 3db less. If it's not enough, I'll add another rad and use the extra fans on it.

Just gotta figure out where to mount another rad on a core p3 if I do.


Yeah, that's a tricky one. Maybe you can have a really long radiator stick out the top of the case? :p


Or maybe you can find a creative way to mount one of those massive Phobya Mora 1080's?
 
My brother Dremeled the snot out of his P3 to get a 420 to fit properly, so keep that in mind.

My 7700k and 1080ti were on a loop were on a single 420. It was certainly quieter than air cooling, but it was not "watercooling dream" quiet until I added a 480 to the top of my P7 with a custom bracket.

I have made 3D models of printable brackets to mount rads across the top posts of Core P5s. They work, but I've yet to get a good measurement on a P3.

If you can get me the center-to-center distance of the corner post mounting holes, I can make my first P3 model, and I'll design it for whatever radiator you'd like to use!
 
I think a good rule of thumb is 120mm per water block. So a good 360 rad would cool your loop just fine. I always go 120 per block plus 120. So for me 420mm worth of rad would be the way to go. Thickness does not always mean better cooling. I would take a HWLabs gts nemesis over thicker rads any day. I have had push/pull in a couple of builds and noticed no significant difference in temps, and it is louder. I think that if you are at the limit of your radiator capacity it may help? This of course is anecdotal, however all charts are not created equal.
 
My brother Dremeled the snot out of his P3 to get a 420 to fit properly, so keep that in mind.

My 7700k and 1080ti were on a loop were on a single 420. It was certainly quieter than air cooling, but it was not "watercooling dream" quiet until I added a 480 to the top of my P7 with a custom bracket.

I have made 3D models of printable brackets to mount rads across the top posts of Core P5s. They work, but I've yet to get a good measurement on a P3.

If you can get me the center-to-center distance of the corner post mounting holes, I can make my first P3 model, and I'll design it for whatever radiator you'd like to use!

Was the dremel work to remove the grate and drive mounts for better airflow? Seems a 420 would bolt right onto the p3.
 
Was the dremel work to remove the grate and drive mounts for better airflow? Seems a 420 would bolt right onto the p3.
IIRC, he had to do something funky because he was using a X-flow 420mm and placed his single side of fans on the inside of the case - an unusual config for sure, I just couldn't remember if the P3 supports a 420 natively or not.
 
Well TT list that the P3 supports 420 radiators, on their web page and manual. Problem is xflow rads generally add more length for the extra ports and that could cause the compatibility issue.
 
IIRC, he had to do something funky because he was using a X-flow 420mm and placed his single side of fans on the inside of the case - an unusual config for sure, I just couldn't remember if the P3 supports a 420 natively or not.

Ah, yeah, that would explain it. There are 3 drive cages right behind the rad mount. I've thought about doing the same thing.
 
From a few testing data posts I saw running fans on both sides lowers tempts by up to 15-20%, particularly when the temp deltas are on the high side.

I think this is the case only on very specific scenarios; a thick radiator, lots of heat and fans with bad static pressure running at high speed.

Get the thinnest radiators you can with fans on one side for the best noise profile. Avoid vardar fans, the have an awful noise profile. Noctua have Ok performance but the trade off is the noise profile and excellent pwm control.
 
Back
Top