Fractal Design R3 + watercooling questions

[Lonyo]

I'm going to get IvyBridge, and after seeing some threads about how it might overclock, I'm seriously considering getting a watercooling setup (my first ever, never done water before).

Ideally in my mind, I would mount the radiator externally, so that heat is dumped out of the case, rather than internally, because I see that as a big advantage of water.

I have already bought a Fractal R3, and it seems to have a couple of holes in the rear through which pipes could be run outside the case

There are also two 140mm fan mounting areas on the top of the case.

Would it work to mount the radiator above the the top fan holes, and mount fans inside the case to blow out over it (meaning the fans are inside the case, somewhat reducing noise from them).

I'm only planning to do a single block, cooling the CPU, and have the GPU air cooled because I'm not intending to go crazy with whatever I get.

Would it even make that much difference to the general case temps to mount the radiator externally?

The only thing I have at the moment is the case, no watercooling kit.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

so pretty much youre going to get something like a H100.

you could mount it on the inside and do a push pull if you want to

and its not a real watercooling unless you get everything watercooled.

 

[Lonyo]

Well I was considering going custom, and if I mount externally I could get a 360mm rad instead of being limited to 240mm.

And the main reason fro going GPU only to start is because I don't want to risk messing up two components, plus I'm aiming to get a next-gen GPU (HD7k/GTX6xx) and their overclocking potential hasn't been revealed yet.

 

[lsv]

AFAIK you cannot mount an H100 in an R3 without a bit of tweaking, the 120mm holes aren't right beside each other for dual 120 mounting. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Correction - I found these posts concerning a 240 rad+fans in an R3. The rad will fit but the fans will block the IO port and rear fan, you may be good to put the entire rad outside and stick 2 fans inside the case and 2 fans above the rad.

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=97889

http://forums.ncix.com/forums/topic.php?id=2407587

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

A nice h20 custom cooling setup will run in the vicinity of 250-300$ and is something that needs maintenance.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

If you are going CPU only, you might just want to consider a high end air cooler or an H100. Pair the H100 with some excellent fans and you will have great performance.

 

[lehtv]

^ Or just buy Noctua D14 because it performs pretty much the same but costs a lot less. Or the new Phanteks.

Seriously, these contained water coolers are nowhere near the level of performance you get with actual custom built water cooling.