Radiator Up-Side-Down ?

[Ya2]

Hello, New to LQ.

Buying Antec 1200 + Black Ice 560.

The radiator will be taller than the case (Since I won't place it behind the bottom PSU).

I couldn't find here in the site after weeks of browsing -- My logic tells me I should place the intake-outake radiator holes facing "down" to earth.. And not have it placed "up" and have to use more tubing..

Am I right? any suggestions please ? :welcome:

[Ya2]

And If I already made a thread, I should place the buying list which is 90% based on what I read in this forum, thanks all :)
Watercool HEATKILLER® CPU Rev3.0 1366 CPU Water Block
Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump Liquid Cooling System
Black Ice® GTX Gen Two Xtreme 560 Highest Performance Radiator
5.25" Bay Reservoir POM Version - Black
SCYTHE "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm 3000 rpm X4 + 120mmto140mm + Fan controller
Koolance Radiator Mounting Bracket with Quick-Release

And few more small tools, Does the list hide any fatal error I dunno of ?

[voigts]

Air of course rises to the top. If you mount this beast vertically with the inlet/outlet on the bottom, you are going to have issues with air staying trapped in the top of the rad.

Depending on your case, you could also look at either a horizontally mounted top or bottom mount setup. Mounting under the case with the barbs facing up would be ideal if possible. No matter how you mount this thing, you are going to need a larger case.

Will that Koolance mount fit the GTX560 since it uses 140mm fans? The specs I saw on the mount says it is for 120mm fan hole spacing.

[Ya2]

Air of course rises to the top. If you mount this beast vertically with the inlet/outlet on the bottom, you are going to have issues with air staying trapped in the top of the rad.
So according to what you said, I'm "lucky" for buying a radiator mounting bracket which make space between the radiator and the case for the tubes, and not cause a totally ugly case..


Depending on your case, you could also look at either a horizontally mounted top or bottom mount setup. Mounting under the case with the barbs facing up would be ideal if possible. No matter how you mount this thing, you are going to need a larger case.
But if I got it right , those radiators were designed to better work vertically.., with strong fans..
I already thought about other options , but this radiator is just too big for all of them, maybe I'll build a small balcony for it.. :)


Will that Koolance mount fit the GTX560 since it uses 140mm fans? The specs I saw on the mount says it is for 120mm fan hole spacing.
I figured I'd need to buy some metal 120mmto140mm that will be strong enough to hold the whole thing.. , that's because there are no 140mm fans as strong..

[millertime359]

As Vogit stated, the holes faced down toward earth allow for an air bubble to get trapped in the top section of the rad. During bleeding you will need to pick up the case and flip it side to side to help break up that air bubble. You can mount it that way, but it will be a hassle to bleed it.

The other way will have more tubing, but it won't effect restriction much and it will be a bit easier to bleed the rad.

[Ya2]

Thanks guys :)

[pcnazz]

Thanks guys :)
I run my XSPC RX480 rad with barbs on the bottom , mounted to the back of my antec 1200 . I have no issues at all bleeding the system . I used to run it with barbs up top with the extra tubing . After doing much research I have found that running the rad with barbs at bottom is okay . I've had mine now for over two months running with barbs down and have had zero issue's . I am glad I got rid of all the extra tubing from the way it was mounted before .

[Ya2]

I run my XSPC RX480 rad with barbs on the bottom , mounted to the back of my antec 1200 . I have no issues at all bleeding the system . I used to run it with barbs up top with the extra tubing . After doing much research I have found that running the rad with barbs at bottom is okay . I've had mine now for over two months running with barbs down and have had zero issue's . I am glad I got rid of all the extra tubing from the way it was mounted before .

But If I got it right from first 2 repliers , bubbles are like an heart attack, u can't really know when it's gonna come..

I think I have an idea for you to truly check if you got bubbles in, just run your computer , disconnect the radiator from the case (don't dis tubing) and 180* turn down to earth, when you do it, look closely if you see ANY bubbles.. cause 1 bubble means there will probably be more later...

[meanmoe]

I ran an MCR220 vertical with barbs down for awhile. Swiftech recommends against this. I just bled it extensively allowing adequate time for the air to settle out of the water prior to putting it in that orientation.

[DarkCow]

I put a mcr-320 vertically with outlet holes down. I just filled it up horizontally, let the pump spin and kept tilting it at extreme angles and changing the pump speed. took a few hours to bleed but there's no air it it now

[voigts]

Of course you "can" mount the rad with the holes down, just like you "can" run a system with nothing but distilled water and no biocide. The question is whether or not this is the best thing to do. You can do an initial bleed all you want to and get the air out, but common sense will tell you that if air is going to collect anywhere in the loop, it is going to get trapped in the radiator. A little bit of extra tubing isn't going to hurt anything.

I prefer the KISS approach. Don't fight air, work with it. The easier your system is to bleed the better. I set up my loops so that I don't have to do any weird case tilting, etc. to get it to bleed. And I try to have my res at the top or as close to the top as possible in my loop. The easier your loop is to fill/bleed, the better for you.

[PiLsY]

Vertical with barbs down bleeds really quickly if you have a small expansion chamber at the bottom of the rad. Im finding Magicool XTs harder to bleed "right way up". The air gets trapped above the barb outlet when theyre right way up, upside down the expansion chamber at the base of the rad is small and "ridged" so clears air pretty quick. A quick tilt forward and back is all it really takes. Its my pump that takes ages to clear, I have it intake vertical up and impeller vertical with impeller blades horizontal. There's always loads of small air bubbles that get trapped in the volute for days. Sounds like its running on gravel for the first week :(.

Reservoir at the highest point is really good practice, and make sure its directly before the pump intake too with no blocks or anything in between. If possible try and get the water out barbs on your water blocks higher than water in, this helps you bleeding the system.

You can save a bit of money in the pump area - The OCZ HydroCool 800 and 500 pumps are good and cheap (rebranded DangerDen CPX-Pro and CPX) at half the price of a DDC/D5. 3 Pin power (with yellow rpm sensor) and so the option is there to use bios to control pump rpm - start voltage 8v max voltage 13.2v. Performance is comparable to a DDC 3.2. Downside is no aftermarket tops available.

Keep your tubing runs as short and smooth as possible. Avoid tight turns and 90 degree barbs if possible.

Any connection accessories you get make sure theyre high flow - check for 10mm+ID on a 1/2" loop.

If using multiple full cover gfx blocks then if possible go for parallel flow to equalise temps across the cards and reduce flow restriction.

2 loops are better than one but take up a lot more room in your case. The difference is not huge if you design your single loop well though.

[Ya2]

Thanks alot for the info !

PiLsY, about the pump, I want this to last for at least 5 years if not more , that's why I buy overkiller.. they seem to last more :)

About your idea for double-looping, I'm only going for a cpu cooling for now (RIP 8800ULTRA) , so i'm not gonna buy a new card probably in the next year..

But let's if - if I bought 2 cards for LQ, and had 1 radiator like I'm buying (560),
CPU running on air for this example...
Did you mean that in order to keep the 2 cards temps equal, I still can use only 1 radiator but buy some "Cross" parts.. (bad English , sorry) - placed right after the pump and right before the radiator ?
BTW - 2 cards are just an example for "equal" cooling...

[PiLsY]

This should help explain what I mean - please excuse the lack of drawing skills :) (http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u235/matt08071975/ParallelFlowGfx.jpg).

[Nanometer]

no issues running the radiator with the water ports on the bottom, just takes longer to bleed.