Radiator Placement

[Hyper]

I just got my new case (U2-UFO Horizon, still in the box, I haven't assembled it yet) and was originally planning on putting the radiator on the exhaust side (to push the heated air out of the case), however I was reading a sticky on another form (gasp, tell no one) about pulling air from outside the case and exhausting the hot air into the case.. letting the case ventilation take care of it

[ebarone]

Disclaimer: I've never liquid cooled, so I'm only speaking from a this-seems-logical-in-my-brain standpoint here.

 

You're water cooling. Why do you care about the air temps inside your case? All the heat will be dissipated through the radiator, so you'd want the air passing through that to be as cool as possible right? Blowing hot air into your case shouldnt matter, because the only air that affects your component temperatures is that which passes through the rad. Physics-ly, the transfer of energy (heat) is very inefficient between moving air and a plastic tube, so the hot air inside your case wont heat up the water in your loop significantly. Obviously, the ideal way to do it would be to have the rad use air that never enters the case, but it seems OK to me to have the rad blowing into the case and letting the case exhaust handle the rest.

[mknwatt]

In theory, the cooler your air temperature the lower your able to cool the liquid. The room temp will be lower then case temp so, pushing air over the rad and exhausting into the case would result in better performance for the rad. This might increase the case temp, causing other components to run hotter but I wouldn't worry about it unless the NB, PWM, or g-card temps start running hot.

 

I have setup my h2o loop both ways and noticed a slightly higher temp (2-3

[Hyper]

In theory, the cooler your air temperature the lower your able to cool the liquid. The room temp will be lower then case temp so, pushing air over the rad and exhausting into the case would result in better performance for the rad. This might increase the case temp, causing other components to run hotter but I wouldn't worry about it unless the NB, PWM, or g-card temps start running hot.

 

I have setup my h2o loop both ways and noticed a slightly higher temp (2-3

[ebarone]

Is there any way to have the rad draw in outside air and exhaust it outside the case as well?

[ccokeman]

Depends on your case and how you duct it. Hardnrg had a solution for that problem in a modding thread a while back.

[hardnrg]

Yup... here's the ducted radiator: http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=62496

 

and here's the external rear mounted one: http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.p...t&p=1564661

[Verran]

Hardnrg's solution to this problem was awesome, but I doubt it's feasible for the average Joe. I'm cooking up a project for a boxed aluminum frame case with a section just for a rad that can cross-flow air from one side to the other so it doesn't interact with any other case air. That'd be an option too, but both routes would be a lot of modding. For most people though, you just have to pick whether you want hot(ter) air going back into the case or hot(ter) air blowing across the rad. In all likelihood, it's probably not going to make a giant difference. I'd go for cold air over the rad and suffer a little hotter ambient temps myself (if possible).