Putting together a quiet 560 loop

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DanNeely

Supreme [H]ardness
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Aug 26, 2005
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I'm building my loop with now with the goal of being able to support a 4790K CPU and eventually 2 GPUs (whatever is best in a year or two when I buy a 4k panel); although in the short term I'll only have one in the loop. Initially a year old GTX770 since it's still doing well enough and I don't want to buy a new card this close to when TSMC is finally going to start shipping 20nm parts.

From my old loop I have a Swiftech MCP 35X pump and a GTZ CPU block.

The pump is essentially unused; I bought it as a replacement when my old loop ran into trouble but the procrastination monster struck and kept me from reinstalling the it after leak testing; so unless it's going to be underpowered I'm planning to reuse it for my new loop.

The CPU block is old enough that I'm not sure how well it stacks up to current blocks. If I can still get competetive results with it great. If not, buying a new block isn't a problem.

I don't have a GPU block, so I'll need to buy one of them + ram/mosfet sinks. I need recommendations here.

Since I want nearly silent operation I want a 560 rad, but don't know which one to buy or what fans to pair it with.
 
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The Monsta series are perfect for silent builds. My Monsta 280 has some 800rpm 140mm fans and the pump is louder. The fans are hardly audible. A 560 version would cool just about everything you could throw at it.

The fin density is super low, we're talking like 5-10 FPI, which means there is no restricted airflow noise or high pitch whining... Honestly, I've never been happier with a rad.
 
Some generic cooler master fans that came from the front of a couple of mid-range cases. It was meant as a temporary solution until I got me some good quality fans, but honestly, they've been so quiet and effective, I haven't really felt the need to replace them.

To give you the idea of the effectiveness of the 280 Monsta I have: I used to run a CLC thermal take Water2.0 Extreme, which was one of the better 240 CLCs out there. My Phenom 1100 at 1.45v and 4.0GHz would push over 60° With the fans on full bore (which sounded like a brass band inside my case. I switched to the Monsta, and now with my phenom at 1.5v, and running at 4.2GHz, I can't get the temps over 40° if I try, reminding you that I'm running SILENT 800rpm generic fans. With a 560 version of the Monsta, you would be hard pressed to max out the thermal capacity with an quad SLI setup.
 
I wouldn't bother with universal gpu blocks. I started the same way and eventually went to fullcover because of how much better fullcover is.

35x is definitely enough pump.

I would probably upgrade the CPU block. Check out Stren's roundup.
 
KazeoHin said:
The Monsta series are perfect for silent builds. My Monsta 280 has some 800rpm 140mm fans and the pump is louder. The fans are hardly audible. A 560 version would cool just about everything you could throw at it.

The fin density is super low, we're talking like 5-10 FPI, which means there is no restricted airflow noise or high pitch whining... Honestly, I've never been happier with a rad.
Click to expand...

The slower the fan speed, the more the thickness of the radiator becomes a detriment. For the quietest setup you want a slim radiator with the largest surface area you can manage. See the testing here: http://martinsliquidlab.org/2012/04/14/360-radiator-shootout-summary/

The Alphacool ST30 outperforms the XT45 and UT60 at the lowest fan speed. However once you increase the fan speed the thicker radiators start to outperform the thinner ones. Also notice that the difference between them really isn't all that big. I think that for a quiet build you are better off getting the thinner radiators than the Monsta, you simply aren't going to see any benefit from the thicker radiator and at worst will actual see your performance drop slightly. Not to mention that the Monsta 560 is about 70$ more expensive than the 30/45/60. That money would be better spent towards upgrading the CPU block.


I will say that I have 2 Alphacool UT60 480 radiators and I think they are a great product and I would highly recommend one of the Alphacool range, just one of the slimmer ones that will save you money and be better suited to a quiet setup.
 
Not to be argumentative, but the only time the ST30 tops the UT60 in those charts is at 600RPM, then it starts to fall like a rock in the charts, after which the UT60 is firmly planted at the top. That and the ST30 has a much higher fin density, so I would guess that noise from air resistance becomes an issue. I say this working with radiators with high(ish) densities (15-25 FPI) and the difference in noise levels using identical fanspeeds is noticeable, especially once dust becomes a factor. The amount of heat dissipated at the 600 RPM level is not much, though a 560 ST30 would pretty much cool any dual GPU system so, you may not need the brute force of the Monsta, but in my own experience the Monstas just left an unforgettable impression on me. Noise, cooling power, quality: I just can't stop recommending them.

The Monstas are a pain to work with and mount, and they aren't cheap, but I don't think you can find radiators that are more quiet.

Though, the above post is right on one thing: with a 560 rad, unless you have an EXTREMELY high-TDP system, any rad will cool you down at 800 RPM.
 
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I've thought about full cover; but I really don't like the way they add an extra $100+/card to the cost of the upgrade treadmill. Nor does being forced to either buy reference design cards right at launch time to get one before they're replaced with custom PCBs; factory watercooled is limited to the absolute top of the line cards and I'd like a bit more flexibility in selecting what I buy.
 
I'd also be more interested in test graphs showing delta T at fixed heat loads; so I could see how well my setup would perform under given loads; even the 2200 RPM test is a lot less heat than a CPU+2GPU loop would be loaded with.
 
KazeoHin said:
Not to be argumentative, but the only time the ST30 tops the UT60 in those charts is at 600RPM, then it starts to fall like a rock in the charts, after which the UT60 is firmly planted at the top. That and the ST30 has a much higher fin density, so I would guess that noise from air resistance becomes an issue. I say this working with radiators with high(ish) densities (15-25 FPI) and the difference in noise levels using identical fanspeeds is noticeable, especially once dust becomes a factor. The amount of heat dissipated at the 600 RPM level is not much, though a 560 ST30 would pretty much cool any dual GPU system so, you may not need the brute force of the Monsta, but in my own experience the Monstas just left an unforgettable impression on me. Noise, cooling power, quality: I just can't stop recommending them.

The Monstas are a pain to work with and mount, and they aren't cheap, but I don't think you can find radiators that are more quiet.

Though, the above post is right on one thing: with a 560 rad, unless you have an EXTREMELY high-TDP system, any rad will cool you down at 800 RPM.
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ST30 has the same fin density as the Monsta. And the XT45 and the UT60. All four radiators are identical except for the thickness, which makes them suitable candidates for comparing the effects of thickness on cooling. Which is, an extremely thick radiator does not work well in low RPM situations (less than 1000 RPM). A thinner radiator works better at low RPMs.

The UT60 pulls away at 1400 RPM, but no fan is silent at 1400 RPM. And at 1000 RPM the UT60 and ST30 are virtually identical. The Monsta probably cannot match the UT60 or the ST30 at 1000 RPM.
 
I've personally owned both my current Monsta and an XT45 360 radiator, an the XT45 had a MUCH higher fin density than the Monsta. I would imagine this to be the case as the radiators get slimmer as the Monsta's advantage is that it can have a super low fin density and still have tons of surface area.

The ideal range for silence is between 600 and 1000 RPM, you're correct in that nothing is silent at 1400 RPM. Though the noise range above 800 really depends on what fans are used and airflow blockage.

Anything by Alphacool (or Phobya, a sister company I'm sure) is going to be awesome. But my money is on the Monstas being pretty much unparalleled at any fan speed, though finding a review on them with scientific testing methods is difficult...
 
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KazeoHin said:
I've personally owned both my current Monsta and an XT45 360 radiator, an the XT45 had a MUCH higher fin density than the Monsta. I would imagine this to be the case as the radiators get slimmer as the Monsta's advantage is that it can have a super low fin density and still have tons of surface area.

The ideal range for silence is between 600 and 1000 RPM, you're correct in that nothing is silent at 1400 RPM. Though the noise range above 800 really depends on what fans are used and airflow blockage.

Anything by Alphacool (or Phobya, a sister company I'm sure) is going to be awesome. But my money is on the Monstas being pretty much unparalleled at any fan speed, though finding a review on them with scientific testing methods is difficult...
Click to expand...

Again, I disagree that any potential performance improvement (if it is even there) is going to justify the added cost. For the 560 size the Monsta radiator is $70 more expensive over any of the other thicknesses. As I showed, the thicker radiators don't really perform much better in the 600-1000RPM slow speed range. So factor all of that together with the added hassle of trying to fit an 80mm thick radiator and I just think the ST30/XT45/UT60 are a better choice. We are talking a very small margin of difference between these radiators, look at the chart and the difference is on the order of a few watts dissipated for the same 10C delta, which would equate to a fraction of a degree lower coolant temperatures.
 
That's why I'm thinking of the air resistance more than overall performance. If you can find a lower fin-density 30-45mm radiator than that will be MUCH less hassle than the Momsta, but I have yet to see a rad with as much open flow as the Monsta.

Like I said before, at 600-800 RPM, the noise from air resistance is negligible. Once you go to the 800-1000 than it can really make a hissing noise.

But I think I'm rambling needlessly: ANY 560 radiator is going to get the job done at 600-800 rpm.

I'll give you a tip:


AVOID the Laing DDC pump. It emits a high-pitched whine and is a bitch to work with.

As far as I'm concerned: there is only one pump for PC water cooling. Laing D5.
 
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