Thermal Performance

Everything needed—monitor, peripherals, motherboard w/CPU and GPU, radiator, PSU, and so forth—is placed in a sealed, climate-controlled box at 25°C +/- 0.05 °C. Each radiator is connected by Koolance QD3 quick disconnects for easily changing of the fans and radiator. The flow rate is held at 1 GPM constant flow rate. The CPU, an Intel Core i7-4770K at 4.6 GHz and 1.3 V, is held at a constant load using a custom Intel XTU profile, and the GPU, an EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified under load from Unigine Heaven 4.0 at 1080p with extreme HD settings, is overclocked and overvolted in such a way that the total system power draw is 550 W as measured by an external power meter.

A near-constant heat load into the liquid loop by the addition of the CPU and GPU helps quickly achieve stable liquid-loop temperatures as measured by three separate in-line temperature sensors hooked up to an Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 XT. The tubing and fittings are insulated by a sleeve heater, but its heat function is not utilized. Every single measurement is done twice as a means of verification. Any possibility of running a fan outside of its static maximum RPM is minimized by as much as possible by using a comprehensive series of separate fans (Noiseblocker eLoop, B12-1 through B12-4) to cover a broad RPM range while minimizing fan speed variance and, thus, airflow. The results below are the ∆T (coolant temperature - ambient temperature) in degrees Celsius.


I have recently gone ahead and removed the 2200 RPM results because the trend is clearly against much higher speed fans, especially as there are now better performance/noise fans than the NB-eLoops used here. I was curious how the triple-core setup affects thermal performance, knowing already how the Alphacool and Hardware Labs versions fare, and also whether the "red copper" core helps much here. Turns out, not really—at least in the beginning, where the thicker, crowded triple-row core with the louvered fins holds back cooling at low fan speeds. Once you get past the boundary layer formation and into more turbulent regimes, the Bykski 60 mm RC radiator shines brighter than the copper used in the core. It scales very well too, and this is in fact why I keep mentioning the Black Ice radiators since nothing else on the market really scales like those. That is, until now anyway—great job, Bykski!