Is there a significant difference between a single140mm and 120mm rad?

[Neutronman]

Perhaps this is a dumb question on its own, let me explain.
Currently I replaced the bulk of my old watercooling solution with the Swiftech H20-x20 Edge HD with the new Apogee HD and have seen a tremendous improvement in cooling compared to my older triple rad, MCP 350 and EK waterblock solution. Kudos to you Gabe (and your R&D teams)...

The only change I made was to substitute the stock Swiftech chosen fans for a pair of Gentle Typhoon 1850's. I have the pump connected to pwm and the fans spinning at 7v and have a virtually silent solution. I have space at the back of the case for either a single 120 or single 140mm rad and fan combination and am looking for some suggestions.

I have not purchased any WC equipment for almost 2 years and excuse the pun, am out of the loop. The only extra component I want to add to my OC'd 2500K is an OC'd 7970. Perhaps a single 2 x 120mm rad will be sufficient for both the cpu and gpu.

Suggestions for a single 120 or 140mm rad and fan combination will be appreciated, also is a 140mm rad worth buying over a 120mm rad in terms of efficiency??? I just don't know. Any links to reviews will be appreciated also.

Thanks guys.

[aerial]

The larger radiator is, the better 140mm version becomes. A single 1x120 vs 1x140 is not that much difference.
Overall, most people here claim, that 120mm radiators are better, because 120mm fans are better, you have better noise/cfm/static pressure ratio on 120mm fans such as gentle typhoons, that makes 120mm rads perform close to 140, despite having less surface area.
In my opinion, based on results of people on various different liquid cooling communities, a 140mm radiators are quite a bit better than 120mm, they use space in your case with better efficiency (as they are wider). So in large system with multiple rads (for example 3x120 + 2x120), I'd say a 140mm version make quite substantial difference.
What I think is very important factor here, there is big group of users that use their setups at very low fan speeds, and that is the area where 140mm fans shine (or rather, are not outperformed by gt's). A 1850RPM GT is not really inaudiable for every user, so for really extremely quiet setups (600rpm fans), a 140mm rads start to shine.

In your case if you just plan to add one rad, just take what is cheaper, difference won't be big.

[Neutronman]

Usually I run my GT at 7v so 1850rpm becomes around 1200rpm. At this level it is hard to hear them. I have a couple of Thermalright 140mm fans that spin at 1300rpm and were being used on my Silver Arrow HSF. My guess is they will make pretty good rad fans as long as the fad is not too tightly packed (fpi).

If the 140mm rads are in theory better heat exchangers than the 120mm rad then it makes sense to buy on and stick on the Thermalright TY140 at 1300rpm....

Magicool make some pretty cheap 140mm rads, I wonder how they rate compared to others???

[aerial]

Magicools are pretty good actually, take a look at this build:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...y-Malik/page78

there are exactly 140mm magicool rads used there

[ea3ot]

And what about de Airplex Revo???

[DarthBeavis]

20 mm

[Martinm210]

Assuming exact fan dimensions:

12cmx12cm=144 Sq cm
14cmx14cm=196 Sq cm

So the difference is really 52 square centimeters or 52/144 a 36% increase in frontal area. Practically it is more complicated than that though because many rads are overly wide and long. A lot of 120mm rads are over in width while fewer 140mm rads are much wider than 140.

Then there is the fan issue where most 140mm fans are poor compared to really good 120mm fans.

Nothing stopping you from building or buying a 140>120mm shroud though.

Just like the airplex revo and TFC monsta rads, you can build a 140mm core width rad with 120mm shroud. Just takes a little extra sheet metal in the shroud.

[jayhall0315]

The exact difference in cooling is very small. This is due mainly to moving water's capacity to release heat (ie hydrogen bonding and enthalpy content), and as Martinm points out to the fact that many 120mm rads are almost as wide as 140mm rads in some cases. I already covered this before in a previous Showdown at High Noon type article, but here are the main data points reprint:

Swiftech MicroRes -> 120mm XSPC RX 120 (58.5 mm thickness and 8 fpi) or 140mm HW Labs SR1 140 (55.9 mm thickness and 9 fpi) with Scythe S-Flex E fans -> i7 920 at 4 GHz with Prime 95 on a Swiftech Apogee XT Version 1 -> Laing D5 pump on setting 5 (4800 rpms)

At 800 rpms -

XSPC 120mm - 69.3 C
SR1 140mm - 68.9 C

At 1200 rpms -

XSPC 120mm - 68.5 C
SR1 140mm - 68.2 C

As you can see, despite the 26.6% difference in frontal area (36% increase over the area of a 120mm rad), the differences are pretty small. 140mm rads are much like a $4000 set of chromed wheels for a monster truck. Much more e-peen than performance peen

(Edit - Read from incorrect line previously - fixed.)

[Annoyingmouse]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1476023

Pay attention to Magicool's slim 240 (120*2) vs slim 280 (140*2)

[Annoyingmouse]

edit: oops, guess a double had to happen sooner or later.

[aerial]

If we are talking about larger rad, the real new trend are 180mm rads, these fill entire case, using witdh to maximum. They are so much larger than 120 and 140, the difference there really starts to kick in. They are relatively new, so there is lack of reliable tests, but these rads in my opinion are future of efficient internal water cooling systems.

[jayhall0315]

I suspect Aerial that 180mm will not become the standard. 90% of cases on the market have a tough time just fitting a 360mm rad, much less something larger. Everything outside of the MM and Devil cases and a few of the largest Lian Li cases, also cannot be fit with 280 or 420 mm rads. I would put my money on 120mm staying the standard with extreme folks going for 140mm stuff for e-peen.

[aerial]

Depends, larger fans, thus larger rads in future may become more popular. Look at the cases, all these >200mm fans in cooler master cases, or a newer corsair 650D. It is good selling feature, most casual users sees "big fans", so it looks like an advantage, "must have better cooling". Whatever the reasons are, there is a lot of new cases that support larger fans, larger than a 140mm, at least I can see that tendency.

[Neutronman]

Interesting stuff, perhaps I'll just stick with an extra 120mm rad, double at the top and single at the back. Should be fine. I have 5 GT's so decent 120mm fan will not be an issue and the 1850rpm at 7v should be nice and quiet and still be good for low fpi rad.

Thanks for the information.