Best radiators

M

Modder man

[H]ard|Gawd
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i currently have a black ice II extreme 2x120 not sure if this is any good or not, but i am thinking of getting a new one to cool an overclocked i7 i may need more. what rad would fill this role well.

also if i get a new one should i run both rads or just one
 
if all you are going to cool is the CPU, pretty much any radiator will do.
 
a MCR220 with decent fans (Scythe S-Flex would do the trick) Black Ice, not so sure. Black Ice's are pretty restrictive in terms of air flow aren't they not? You'd need some nice high pressure high RPM fans to achieve good temps (Think Kaze 3000s)
 
There is no such thing as a "best radiator"

Only "best radiator for a certain situation"

For example, if you want low fin counts which will give lower air restriction and allow you to run slower fans, you can go with the XSPC RX or the famous Thermochill PA series. The Feser Xchangers also work well for this. The Swiftech MCR series work well with medium to low CFM fans, allowing for a lot of flexibility. The BIX is a good rad (in fact, at high RPM/CFM they are very good), but you will need a lot of rad for an i7 and some very high pressure (ie. loud) fans to accomplish the same level of cooling.

For a CPU-only loop with an i7, you might get away with a 240 rad with a Feser/XSPC RX/Thermochill 2x120mm and some medium speed fans. It also depends on the rest of your system and how good your airflow is, as well as ambient temperatures. If you have the space for it, a 3x120 would be better as it would allow you to use lower fan speeds (if noise is a concern). More surface area on rads is never bad.

My suggestion?

Probably an MCR 320 by Swiftech or a 240 by Thermochill, Feser or the XSPC RX line.
 
zlojack said:
There is no such thing as a "best radiator"

Only "best radiator for a certain situation"

For example, if you want low fin counts which will give lower air restriction and allow you to run slower fans, you can go with the XSPC RX or the famous Thermochill PA series. The Feser Xchangers also work well for this. The Swiftech MCR series work well with medium to low CFM fans, allowing for a lot of flexibility. The BIX is a good rad (in fact, at high RPM/CFM they are very good), but you will need a lot of rad for an i7 and some very high pressure (ie. loud) fans to accomplish the same level of cooling.

For a CPU-only loop with an i7, you might get away with a 240 rad with a Feser/XSPC RX/Thermochill 2x120mm and some medium speed fans. It also depends on the rest of your system and how good your airflow is, as well as ambient temperatures. If you have the space for it, a 3x120 would be better as it would allow you to use lower fan speeds (if noise is a concern). More surface area on rads is never bad.

My suggestion?

Probably an MCR 320 by Swiftech or a 240 by Thermochill, Feser or the XSPC RX line.
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great post! very balanced and informative and ZERO fanboi content. Should be a sticky IMHO!
 
craigbru said:
True enough. Quality postings are little hard to come by anymore...
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People PM me instead

(I kid, kinda :p)

I second that great post above though - OP. MCR220 with two 1200rpm yate loons would provide fantastic cooling, up till about 4.1ghz or so.
 
Arcygenical said:
People PM me instead

(I kid, kinda :p)

I second that great post above though - OP. MCR220 with two 1200rpm yate loons would provide fantastic cooling, up till about 4.1ghz or so.
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I can say from personal experience that I had a tough time getting things below 80C at 4GHz on my i7 920 C0 at 1.35v with a PA 120.2, MCP-655 and EK Supreme with SFlex G's at 1900 . I was blown away by the heat these bad boys put out because my E8600 was brought to its knees by that same cooling setup :D

I am in the process of moving to a 120x3 rad for just that reason. I've also ditched the Supreme for a the less restrictive Heatkiller block.

As always, experience will differ from user to user and setup to setup, so we can give the benefit of our experience and knowledge (hopefully with a healthy dose of common sense and respect thrown in :cool:)
 
i will probably be using the dtek v2 i am using a xaser VI case.....the thing is internal temps are going to be high because i am running tri-sli 260's

i would also like to keep this computer as quiet as possible...my original idea was a 3x120 on bottom and my black ice on top of the case
 
I have always been a proponent of Thermochill radiators. This was due to the fact they have always been a top preformer and they are built like an Abrahms tank.

Now that Thermochill has been bought out by XSPC and a watercooling reseller, I will be not be buying their rads anymore. I have heard directly from too many people regarding the poor quality of XSPC rads. That is a tell-tale sign of poor management of a company if they do not have a handle on QA/QC.

I find the Watercool MO-RA to be very interesting.

There will soon be a new player in the low speed fan / low fin density per inch radiator market. I know they will be well built and have a high quality paint job. The radiator market is about to get interesting.

The biggest gains in liquid cooling can be had by adding more rads, it's that simple.
 
yes but the problem with more rads is that is lower pressure and forces you to use more tubing which is bad
 
A mcp355 w/ top or MCP655 with handle loops with 3 rads + blocks.

Unless you have some info you shouldn't make statements like that Modder man.
 
thanks sorry for being misinformed @ss.........ive been told by many people multiple rads and lots of tubing is a bad idea most of the time. Im sorry aparently im an idiot ive only been doing this type of stuff for around a year.
 
No one ever called you an idiot. You have just been misinformed.

follow this link and download/install this Flowrate Estimator.

Play around with it a bit and you will learn alot, I promise.;)
 
thanks guys sorry i got a bit defensive.....im just looking for pointers and different ideas.....do you think the xspc 360 and my black ice two 120x2 would do well

with dtek v2, and mcp655
 
For a CPU only loop, that would be a wonderful combination.

I just won't spend my hard earned money on XSPC though.

What case are you installing these rads in? Will either of the two rads be mounted horizontally? If you mount a rad horizontally, then be sure to stay away from sleeve-bearing fans. A sleeve-bearing fan will fail prematurely if stored or operated horizontally.

I would recommend Scythe S-Flex fans they are available at www.sidewindercomputers.com
 
Stay away from sleeve-bearing fans then, unless you like problems.

That means specifically Yate-Loons.;)
 
Not wanting to get into a debate, as everyone has their own view of what is a good radiator. I'll just say that I've had good performance from both the Swiftech MCR and XSPC RX radiators.
 
shazza said:
Not wanting to get into a debate, as everyone has their own view of what is a good radiator. I'll just say that I've had good performance from both the Swiftech MCR and XSPC RX radiators.
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I'm glad to hear that you actually received an XSPC RX radiator that must have had the fan holes aligned.;) You might have one of the few running around in the wild.

Ol' Mcoffey, he couldn't even get fans screwed onto each of the four holes, for each 120mm fan, on his XSPC RX 360 radiators.
 
RedRaider said:
I'm glad to hear that you actually received an XSPC RX radiator that must have had the fan holes aligned.;) You might have one of the few running around in the wild.

Ol' Mcoffey, he couldn't even get fans screwed onto each of the four holes, for each 120mm fan, on his XSPC RX 360 radiators.
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Yep, musta been lucky. Paint and finish is fine, and had no issues with the holes aligning in my Mountain Mods case. Have heard of others having the alignment issue as well.

@ Modder Man ... as to which is best for you, it really depends on budget and space in your computer. If you want bang for buck, I'd go with the Swiftech, and preferably a triple if you can fit it in.
 
im getting a triple i just have to decide which one i will use one with my black ice II 120x2
 
does anyone know anything about the black ice pro III, i think its down to it and the switech 3x120
 
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Honestly if it is only a cpu loop almost any 2x120 rad should do the trick with the right fans.

I am keeping a 4.2ghz i7 cool with a single MCR220 and temps did not differ more then a few degrees on load with fans between 12v and 7v, 7v is much much quieter too.
 
k i used a black ice 2x120 on my quad and temps sucked....my friends arctic freezer 7 pro did better
 
RedRaider said:
Stay away from sleeve-bearing fans then, unless you like problems.

That means specifically Yate-Loons.;)
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Never had a problem in 3 years with my Yates so far. The nice thing is, even if there is a problem they are dirt cheap to replace.

I agree that sleeve-bearing are worse than the other bearings out there ... but they aren't horrible, and they are markedly cheaper.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Never had a problem in 3 years with my Yates so far. The nice thing is, even if there is a problem they are dirt cheap to replace.

I agree that sleeve-bearing are worse than the other bearings out there ... but they aren't horrible, and they are markedly cheaper.
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I've had a mixed experience. I had one die very quickly in the top of my old P180, but I've got 3 in the top of my Cosmos S and they've been running for about 3 months with no issues, so we'll see. Like you said, dirt cheap if they ever do crap out on me.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Never had a problem in 3 years with my Yates so far. The nice thing is, even if there is a problem they are dirt cheap to replace.

I agree that sleeve-bearing are worse than the other bearings out there ... but they aren't horrible, and they are markedly cheaper.
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How are they mounted?

RR was referring to sleeve bearings, if run in a horizontal rather than vertical position, will fail faster than ball bearing fans.

I've had yates die in 12 months - when horizontal... And others that spend 4 years at a 24/7 duty cycle on vertically.
 
I'm really impressed by the XSPC 1x120mm. I've got it cooling my e8400 at 4ghz with a Fuzion v2 on it. Temps are 45c-50c load. I wasn't sure if it would cool enough, but it does a great job.
 
Modder man said:
which will perform better swiftech or BIP both 120x3
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I seem to recall that BIP was intended for high CFM applications and would perform very well in that configuration while the Swiftech QPs intended for low CFM and may not perform as well as high CFM BIP, but silent. Not sure what the difference would be exactly but I would prefer the silence.
 
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