Your cooling setup and why did you choose/go that route?

[robot zombie]

Right now, I just run a decently spacious case (psu shroud and odd intake layout aside,) with a big tower cooler and a triple-fan midrange card. Simple. Three 140mm intakes on the front, one exhaust on the back. The top of this case is also an exhaust. It has 3 additional fan slots. I figure I have what I need for decent positive pressure. A 3900x gets a lot done and doesn't really consume much on average. It can be a sub-100w CPU. The 3060ti does around 200w. So it's like my ASUS 2060, which could use 180w to do far less. I'm getting my use out of this updated corsair RM650x. Cables are a bitch, but it's a good, quiet unit.

Everything I have is decently quiet, I leave that breathing room and carefully tune my curves and heuristics. This EVGA card might have issues one day and at stock wasn't the quietest. It has auto-stop for its 'efficiency' mode. But the bearings on the fans are those that hate full spiderman orientation and growl a little every time they start. At idle, it teeters around the threshold. So they'll just begin to spin up, stop for a random little moment in time, and try to start again, over and over. I run a more traditional low-rpm idle instead and it ends up being a pretty quiet card. I don't mind the triple fan 1.5-2 slot cards for that reason. My strix 2060 was a hulking beast of a card, just so overbuilt. But because of that it was super-quiet and it would pass 2000-mhz all on its own. I like when things can work out like that on air.

I do generally prefer air. It's just so much simpler and more reliable for parts that run down at middling power levels. Less expensive, too. Clean the dust every now and then - check your filters (use filters.) I don't like to always be tinkering with my gear. After the whole discovery period where I'm feeling out the balance and learning where the performance capabilities are, I kind of see the constant tweaking as a mark of dissatisfaction. Not that it's necessarily true for you, just my conclusion when I look at myself. I discipline myself a little to put serious focus on working it up to an optimal performance niche for my needs so that from that point on, it can just work for me and I can put my full focus on what I'm actually using the system for. I enjoy playing with PC rigs and new parts, too. But I can just seek out the odd commission build for that fix. My main system is why I bother to gain the knowledge in the first place. There's a goal with a start and end point.

It just has to be like that for me. ADHD makes one want to deviate from projects like these at some point, you get pulled in different directions. A system in continual need of refinement and adjustments is a major monkey on my back. It's easier to get to that crystallization point with air.


However, my next build is gonna be a very compact build. Maybe still ATX, but very small. Like, as small as possible, on the SFX PSU standard. I like the Cerberus X a lot. It's a rewarding challenge. Looks well built, giving you quite a lot to work with while being impressively small for something that accommodates a full ATX mobo. It's barely wider than the mobo itself. You could still put it on air, but obviously there isn't going to be much space in it for a good flow pattern.

It has other PSU options, and things like an optional hinged front rack to add mounting spots. Still gonna be a challenge in terms of rad space. It could concievably house at least two 240mm rads as long as they're under 30mm thick. Or something a like a 280 and a dual 92mm rad - slap some noccies on it for extra bottom rad volume to back up a 280 on the front. The way the mounting areas are punched allows for that kind of stuff, which is handy, because being limited to only convetional component forms would make laying out a full loop and leaving mounting space for a 2.5" drive or two much more difficult - I will have to be pretty careful with part selection to make everything work out. I'm honestly not sure what I would do with a case like this, yet. But that's part of the appeal with this side of building and configuring cooling setups.

With current platforms allowing for 2 nvme drives, I can deal with doing just that for system/games and then tacking on a fatter sata ssd for general storage. I came into a dual-chip 10-core xeon dell server, which is going to get packed with drives for both shared network storage and backup. So I can leave pretty much all of my available mounting space for cooling. But in a case this compact, I think I would rather go full custom liquid. It would be an interesting challenge for me, and will likely be the better way to get decent cooling for more power-hungry components.

 

[dgianstefani]

Right now, I just run a decently spacious case (psu shroud and odd intake layout aside,) with a big tower cooler and a triple-fan midrange card. Simple. Three 140mm intakes on the front, one exhaust on the back. The top of this case is also an exhaust. It has 3 additional fan slots. I figure I have what I need for decent positive pressure. A 3900x gets a lot done and doesn't really consume much on average. It can be a sub-100w CPU. The 3060ti does around 200w. So it's like my ASUS 2060, which could use 180w to do far less. I'm getting my use out of this updated corsair RM650x. Cables are a bitch, but it's a good, quiet unit.

Everything I have is decently quiet, I leave that breathing room and carefully tune my curves and heuristics. This EVGA card might have issues one day and at stock wasn't the quietest. It has auto-stop for its 'efficiency' mode. But the bearings on the fans are those that hate full spiderman orientation and growl a little every time they start. At idle, it teeters around the threshold. So they'll just begin to spin up, stop for a random little moment in time, and try to start again, over and over. I run a more traditional low-rpm idle instead and it ends up being a pretty quiet card. I don't mind the triple fan 1.5-2 slot cards for that reason. My strix 2060 was a hulking beast of a card, just so overbuilt. But because of that it was super-quiet and it would pass 2000-mhz all on its own. I like when things can work out like that on air.

I do generally prefer air. It's just so much simpler and more reliable for parts that run down at middling power levels. Less expensive, too. Clean the dust every now and then - check your filters (use filters.) I don't like to always be tinkering with my gear. After the whole discovery period where I'm feeling out the balance and learning where the performance capabilities are, I kind of see the constant tweaking as a mark of dissatisfaction. Not that it's necessarily true for you, just my conclusion when I look at myself. I discipline myself a little to put serious focus on working it up to an optimal performance niche for my needs so that from that point on, it can just work for me and I can put my full focus on what I'm actually using the system for. I enjoy playing with PC rigs and new parts, too. But I can just seek out the odd commission build for that fix. My main system is why I bother to gain the knowledge in the first place. There's a goal with a start and end point.

It just has to be like that for me. ADHD makes one want to deviate from projects like these at some point, you get pulled in different directions. A system in continual need of refinement and adjustments is a major monkey on my back. It's easier to get to that crystallization point with air.


However, my next build is gonna be a very compact build. Maybe still ATX, but very small. Like, as small as possible, on the SFX PSU standard. I like the Cerberus X a lot. It's a rewarding challenge. Looks well built, giving you quite a lot to work with while being impressively small for something that accommodates a full ATX mobo. It's barely wider than the mobo itself. You could still put it on air, but obviously there isn't going to be much space in it for a good flow pattern.
View attachment 259666 View attachment 259667

It has other PSU options, and things like an optional hinged front rack to add mounting spots. Still gonna be a challenge in terms of rad space. It could concievably house at least two 240mm rads as long as they're under 30mm thick. Or something a like a 280 and a dual 92mm rad - slap some noccies on it for extra bottom rad volume to back up a 280 on the front. The way the mounting areas are punched allows for that kind of stuff, which is handy, because being limited to only convetional component forms would make laying out a full loop and leaving mounting space for a 2.5" drive or two much more difficult - I will have to be pretty careful with part selection to make everything work out. I'm honestly not sure what I would do with a case like this, yet. But that's part of the appeal with this side of building and configuring cooling setups.

With current platforms allowing for 2 nvme drives, I can deal with doing just that for system/games and then tacking on a fatter sata ssd for general storage. I came into a dual-chip 10-core xeon dell server, which is going to get packed with drives for both shared network storage and backup. So I can leave pretty much all of my available mounting space for cooling. But in a case this compact, I think I would rather go full custom liquid. It would be an interesting challenge for me, and will likely be the better way to get decent cooling for more power-hungry components.

I recommend the sm580, like my case but 280mm rad support.

Theoretically you could have 2x 240mm in my sm570 case but I've found one thick rad is enough.

Cerberus makes size compromises to accommodate atx psu etc, not needed.

If you do go sliger I recommend custom cables from p slate customs. They do exact lengths premeasured for sliger cases. I have gpu 12pin, cpu, mobo and power cable from them. Silver unsleeved is sexy.

 

[robot zombie]

Hey, thanks for the suggestions! Nice to hear from someone with some experience with Sliger. It's true, I don't need the ATX PSU compatibility. That sm580 looks sick, too. This is planned for spring next year, so there's still a lot of time for me to look at my options. Custom cables are definitely a given though!

 

[Nuckles56]

Summer here is just... not good for existing. Went to the beach, 45C, 100KM/h winds, thunderstorm blowing in which of course felt great - was like being in front of an open oven door.
And the lightning started the bushfires i had to drive through to get home so... yeaaaaaah.

Aussie + high wattage system = learn to undervolt.

I spent some time out in Mildura in the middle of summer and we got a few 47C days which were windy and it was definitely an oven door breeze those days. They can keep it.

I was likely in the middle of one of the fires you're referring to.

 

[Deleted member 177333]

I run a custom water cooling system in my rig. Two loops sharing one larger reservoir. One loop is for the CPU and the other is for the GPU(s).
Reason is two-fold - 1.) Quiet. If I'm not gaming I dial my radiator fans down to the point that they are virtually silent. 2.) The obvious - better temperatures for overclocking and hardware longevity.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I have been thinking about the pro's and cons about air vs. Aio vs. Custom water cooling vs. Face cooling. I don't think I will take dry ice or ln2 in this thread as that is extreme cooling and not very usable for every day use.

So to simply sum it up. This thread is to discuss what cooling you have and why you choose that.

I had gotten a Corsair H100i when it was the new thing to try it with the 3800x when it came out. I still have it and quite frankly it worked well but I didn't like the disposable nature of it and preferred something I could maintain.

Later I had gotten a $280 rx5700 on newegg special (reference card with blower) where the blower cooler was getting pretty loud and annoying after gaming and watching GamersNexus and Jay's 2 cents watercooling videos somewhere between a few months to a year. I decided to give it a try and got an 011D Lian Li case when EK's GPU water blocks went on sale for like 50% off since the rx5700 models were no longer the hot potato everyone wanted. Later again they had a sale on monoblocks where one just happened to be available for my motherboard again for a heavy price reduction - woohoo not breaking the bank. So I ended up with a D5 pump/res combo and CoolStream PE 360 and a really quiet/silent system. I could keep my fans on low, never heard the pump, and always just let the system run a bit warm no problem 24/7 for about 2 years. Just the single PE 360 was all that was needed to satisfy rx5700 and 3800x and I wasn't doing any kind of crazy overclocking just some work and gaming. Even after upgrading to 3950x/5950x temps are just fine for what I do. I didn't need the more elaborate 3 rad setup that you see everyone building so money saved and complexity avoided there.

After a tax refund I decided to try an EK 011D distroplate (unfortunately not on sale) made for my case with some mixed results and increased noise from the pump. First DHS delivered the distroplate to some stranger in east jahunga and took a picture and called it delivered. After some time EK was nice enough to send me another one free of charge after DHS didn't bother to try to retrieve the original package.

After the pandemic hit and I was forced to work from home the noise reduction really paid for itself especially for many remote meetings and I ended up moving my gaming to a new air cooled pc that is also my emergency backup.

Pros: You can run a really cool and quiet system with the right setup. You can even let it run a bit warm to maintain the quietness of low rpm fans while heating your room in the winter.
Cons: Even when stuff is on sale it's still quite expensive overall compared a single good air cooler
Note: Get a good case with good airflow for the things you are not water cooling
Tips: Pressure test your loop and you will be more comfortable that you wont spring a leak
Gripes: Murphy's Law

 

[AM4isGOD]

I had gotten a Corsair H100i when it was the new thing to try it with the 3800x when it came out. I still have it and quite frankly it worked well but I didn't like the disposable nature of it and preferred something I could maintain.

Later I had gotten a $280 rx5700 on newegg special (reference card with blower) where the blower cooler was getting pretty loud and annoying after gaming and watching GamersNexus and Jay's 2 cents watercooling videos somewhere between a few months to a year. I decided to give it a try and got an 011D Lian Li case when EK's GPU water blocks went on sale for like 50% off since the rx5700 models were no longer the hot potato everyone wanted. Later again they had a sale on monoblocks where one just happened to be available for my motherboard again for a heavy price reduction - woohoo not breaking the bank. So I ended up with a D5 pump/res combo and CoolStream PE 360 and a really quiet/silent system. I could keep my fans on low, never heard the pump, and always just let the system run a bit warm no problem 24/7 for about 2 years. Just the single PE 360 was all that was needed to satisfy rx5700 and 3800x and I wasn't doing any kind of crazy overclocking just some work and gaming. Even after upgrading to 3950x/5950x temps are just fine for what I do. I didn't need the more elaborate 3 rad setup that you see everyone building so money saved and complexity avoided there.

After a tax refund I decided to try an EK 011D distroplate (unfortunately not on sale) made for my case with some mixed results and increased noise from the pump. First DHS delivered the distroplate to some stranger in east jahunga and took a picture and called it delivered. After some time EK was nice enough to send me another one free of charge after DHS didn't bother to try to retrieve the original package.

After the pandemic hit and I was forced to work from home the noise reduction really paid for itself especially for many remote meetings and I ended up moving my gaming to a new air cooled pc that is also my emergency backup.

Pros: You can run a really cool and quiet system with the right setup. You can even let it run a bit warm to maintain the quietness of low rpm fans while heating your room in the winter.
Cons: Even when stuff is on sale it's still quite expensive overall compared a single good air cooler
Note: Get a good case with good airflow for the things you are not water cooling
Tips: Pressure test your loop and you will be more comfortable that you wont spring a leak
Gripes: Murphy's Law

I have a PE and a XE in my li li D XL, they work out pretty well, just need better fans really specially for the XE

 

[Pouhon]

I only used air cooling because i never needed more cooling performance. Even if i need more i can go dual tower first for CPU. Currently using Reeven Hans, an average single tower cooler with Arctic P12 fan. It can handle 5600X running p95 SFFT with PBO (no limits) + CO.

 

[AusWolf]

Water cooling better but imo not worth it compared to air.
I think there is more benefit to be had on the GPU and when you add that money to the setup makes it even worse.
If I build a PC at this moment this is what I would go for
View attachment 259564
How I picked it was looked at TPU price/perf and the perf chart. Picked air cooler that is so efficient that goes into water cooling territory and at the same time has great price/perf.

Nice - though it's heavy as F, and you need a big chassis with lots of air space inside of it, so water it is for me.

 

[dgianstefani]

^ Old photo with previous ram kit and a beer bottle for scale.

Current photo in non cable managed, post cleaning state, the empty fan headers are from the side panel ram fans, panels are obviously currently not fitted. Ignore the crappy USB it's just for BIOS flashing, and the multitool is for beer. Thing I love about sliger cases is how perfect they are for flow through chimney designs. Pretty much all I'm going to do with this setup from now is maybe make a custom distro for the front panel (which I removed) and fit the watercooling stuff pump/res etc to that for cleanliness.

 

[AusWolf]

View attachment 259718
^ Old photo with previous ram kit and a beer bottle for scale.

View attachment 259719
Current photo in non cable managed, post cleaning state, the empty fan headers are from the side panel ram fans, panels are obviously currently not fitted. Ignore the crappy USB it's just for BIOS flashing, and the multitool is for beer. Thing I love about sliger cases is how perfect they are for flow through chimney designs. Pretty much all I'm going to do with this setup from now is maybe make a custom distro for the front panel (which I removed) and fit the watercooling stuff pump/res etc to that for cleanliness.

I thought the beer bottle was part of your cooling setup - which makes perfect sense. Even we, people need to be cooled on hot summer days.

 

[dgianstefani]

I thought the beer bottle was part of your cooling setup - which makes perfect sense. Even we, people need to be cooled on hot summer days.

Question is did you notice the liquid metal/thermal paste residue from fingers in the top right side of the frame? Fingers get hot too you know.

 

[ThrashZone]

View attachment 259718
^ Old photo with previous ram kit and a beer bottle for scale.

View attachment 259719
Current photo in non cable managed, post cleaning state, the empty fan headers are from the side panel ram fans, panels are obviously currently not fitted. Ignore the crappy USB it's just for BIOS flashing, and the multitool is for beer. Thing I love about sliger cases is how perfect they are for flow through chimney designs. Pretty much all I'm going to do with this setup from now is maybe make a custom distro for the front panel (which I removed) and fit the watercooling stuff pump/res etc to that for cleanliness.

Hi,
Yep that's thinking outside the box alright
Once you do that might as well put the top rad out there too even mid towers get small fast

 

[dgianstefani]

Hi,
Yep that's thinking outside the box alright
Once you do that might as well put the top rad out there too even mid towers get small fast

Nah, if I wanted more rad space I just put slightly bigger feet on the case, mount fans on one side of grill and second rad on the other at the bottom.

Small is good, better static pressure, easier to maintain fast airflow, CPU and GPU both liquid cooled so don't need space or fresh air for air heatsinks. Just put rad wherever they get cool air.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Think @tabascosauz is one of the masters of small builds

 

[dgianstefani]

Hi,
Think @tabascosauz is one of the masters of small builds

Yeah i'm jealous of his Strix Impact, few years ago they changed the impact form factor from mini to micro ATX, so the best mini ITX board is what I have or the Aorus.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Hi,
Yep that's thinking outside the box alright
Once you do that might as well put the top rad out there too even mid towers get small fast

What kind of quick disconnects are those?

 

[Dirt Chip]

Only air, water is way too loud for me.
I'm going for a silent build with define 7 solid black.
Will add and replace the stock 14mm fan with the upcoming, yet to be released, Noctua 14mm fans (4 of them). If anyone has suggestions on the fan setup I will gladly hear

The U12-A will take care of the CPU (undecided yet).

 

[dgianstefani]

Only air, water is way too loud for me.
I'm going for a silent build with define 7 solid black.
Will add and replace the stock 14mm fan with the upcoming, yet to be released, Noctua 14mm fans (4 of them). If anyone has suggestions on the fan setup I will gladly hear

The U12-A will take care of the CPU (undecided yet).

If water is too loud, you're doing it wrong.

Both can be very quiet, but water can continue being very quiet at much higher thermal loads.

 

[AM4isGOD]

Only air, water is way too loud for me.
I'm going for a silent build with define 7 solid black.
Will add and replace the stock 14mm fan with the upcoming, yet to be released, Noctua 14mm fans (4 of them). If anyone has suggestions on the fan setup I will gladly hear

The U12-A will take care of the CPU (undecided yet).

Water is only loud if it is not set up right. I have 2x 360mm rads, with 6 120mm fans on them, and my PC is silent, barley making a noise when gaming.

 

[Dirt Chip]

I guess I depends on the case.
Also, AIO cost much more and optimally give the same dB level as well optimyzed and quality fans.
It do make it run cooler but that is not my main concern.

 

[tabascosauz]

Hi,
Think @tabascosauz is one of the masters of small builds

Yeah i'm jealous of his Strix Impact, few years ago they changed the impact form factor from mini to micro ATX, so the best mini ITX board is what I have or the Aorus.

I'm not a master of anything, I've just done a lot of builds/wasted a lot of money is all and done a lot of traveling with some of them

Right now I gave up the loop for simplicity's sake. Just couldn't bear to have any more problems with the 3070 Ti after what I already went throgh. I don't like the C14S for CPU cooling performance (somewhere around U12S/U14S), but with two fans there still isn't a single cooler in the world that matches its ram airflow. Also still cannot find a case suitably compact/same layout/build quality with >145mm clearance...

But I do have the old loop on the side. I haven't done anything except remove the 5900X, drives and PSU, it's still there. I should really get around to draining and disassembling the loop before something grows in it. I want to go back to it but the P3 won't fit the new card and the Cerb X isn't doable since I stripped that res. Optimus block/280mm XT45/DDC w/ heatkiller res or iceman res. Class is starting again soon too, can't be messing around.

For the truly small stuff (<5L) I like to keep it simple, as it often gets packed into regular suitcases instead of the old Pelican 1510 (which I only use for camera gear now anyway). So APUs and small downdraft coolers only. There are so many more interesting tiny builds out there, but not many that I would trust to take a beating trip after trip

I really like @dgianstefani 's sandwich layout, it really is great at cooling, but sadly my Impact precludes most sandwich cases as it's simply not compatible

I tried the SS135 and it wasn't exactly competitive (maybe for smaller cases like M1). NH-D12L looks to be about the same, so I guess the wait continues for both cooler and case.

 

[dgianstefani]

I'm not a master of anything, I've just done a lot of builds/wasted a lot of money is all and done a lot of traveling with some of them

Right now I gave up the loop for simplicity's sake. Just couldn't bear to have any more problems with the 3070 Ti after what I already went throgh. I don't like the C14S for CPU cooling performance (somewhere around U12S/U14S), but with two fans there still isn't a single cooler in the world that matches its ram airflow. Also still cannot find a case suitably compact/same layout/build quality with >145mm clearance...

View attachment 259761

But I do have the old loop on the side. I haven't done anything except remove the 5900X, drives and PSU, it's still there. I should really get around to draining and disassembling the loop before something grows in it. I want to go back to it but the P3 won't fit the new card and the Cerb X isn't doable since I stripped that res. Optimus block/280mm XT45/DDC w/ heatkiller res or iceman res. Class is starting again soon too, can't be messing around.

View attachment 259762

For the truly small stuff (<5L) I like to keep it simple, as it often gets packed into regular suitcases instead of the old Pelican 1510 (which I only use for camera gear now anyway). So APUs and small downdraft coolers only. There are so many more interesting tiny builds out there, but not many that I would trust to take a beating trip after trip

View attachment 259763

I really like @dgianstefani 's sandwich layout, it really is great at cooling, but sadly my Impact precludes most sandwich cases as it's simply not compatible

I tried the SS135 and it wasn't exactly competitive (maybe for smaller cases like M1). NH-D12L looks to be about the same, so I guess the wait continues for both cooler and case.

I love hating on EK but their black chrome quantum torque fittings are very nice indeed. Was tempted by the gold plated versions too but i'm not going to tear apart the entire loop just for that aesthetic reason. Admire your cable management and general neatness, I usually get tired of building, tuning and tweaking by the point i'm satisfied with performance, so much that I don't want to spend an extra half hour or so managing aesthetics.

 

[Shrek]

Air, I would not want things leaking or freezing in storage.

I've always wondered what strength of anti-freeze does not expand upon freezing (for the car).

 

[cvaldes]

If water is too loud, you're doing it wrong.

Both can be very quiet, but water can continue being very quiet at much higher thermal loads.

dgianstefani is correct.

I am very much a novice at custom cooling loops and only tackled them when the first shelter-in-place orders were issued for the pandemic. I've done two full loops and reconfigured one of those about halfway, so let's say 2.5 loops and what I ended up with for my primary gaming build is in my System Specs.

As I mentioned back on post #122, one of the really big benefits of custom liquid cooling is fewer fan speed changes which are a particular annoyance to my ears. Custom liquid (and to a lesser extent AIOs) is able to handle quick temperature variances because of water's superior thermal capacity. That's physics.

I know some people like to slag on Noctua fans but they do perform well and are quiet. Whether I run a sustained load on the CPU (Cinebench R23 or a Handbrake encode) or play video games, the CPU and GPU radiator fans top out around 1,000 rpm based on my custom fan curves. That is really, really quiet. And while the factory cooler on the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti OC has pretty quiet fans, they are nowhere as quiet as the ones in my custom loop.

Again as I started in post #122, PC cooling decisions are always a compromise. I set up fan curves knowing that if I run the fans faster, they will shave off a couple of degrees Celsius but generate more noise. It's up to each PC builder to make those decisions thoughtfully.

Remember that ultimately you are getting rid of the same amount of heat. What liquid cooling does is move that heat to a location and thermal transfer system where it can be more quickly and efficiently dissipated.

With my full length waterblock I ended up with a GPU radiator fan curve that tops out at 1000 rpm: two-thirds of the Noctua NF-F12 fan's 1500 rpm maximum speed. That results in a GPU maximum temperature of 63 °C which is maybe 5 degrees less than the stock TUF cooler.

You can't just press the auto sense button in QFan Configuration (or whatever it's labeled for your motherboard brand) and expect to get an ideal fan curve.

Only air, water is way too loud for me

Optimizing your air cooling solutions for acoustics is a very similar process to doing it for liquid. You still need to play around with the fan curves using your BIOS/UEFI, your motherboard monitor software and GPU monitoring software (EVGA Precision X1, Asus GPUTweak, etc.) based on idle temperatures/fan noise, normal load, and peak.