Question about radiator placement

[lmonds]

Just ordered the swiftech 120 rev3 kit for my a64.

This is going into a lite on fs020 case. 2 120xmm in the back and 1 120mm in the front. I have the front bezel ported out for free flow into the front fan.

Im wondering should i put the radiator at the front fan to feed it fresh cool air or just hang it off one of the back 120's? I want to run as few fans as possible so im leaning towards putting it in the rear. Anybody know what kind of temp difference there would be between the 2?

 

[HardWarrior]

Front mount would get you the best overall temps. A rear case mount would get you slightly less than optimal temps but wouldn't exhaust warm air into your case. There isn't going to be a huge difference between the two.

 

[HeaterCore]

Agreed, shouldn't make too much of a difference. Since the CPU (and GPU?) release heat into the water rather than into the air, for the most part, your case won't heat up nearly as much as it does now. For the sake of keeping everything else cool, I'd recommend putting the rad at the back of the case.

Better yet, why not try it both ways and see if there's a difference?

-HC-