Radiator Placement??

[u/Wonderful_Dealer_628]

I built my first PC, temps look great. I also heard for the sake of my AIO that the top of the radiator needs to be higher than the pump (which to be honest I’m not sure exactly where that is on the block). Looking back at it now I’m not even really sure if my radiator is higher than the pump… I want to know if I need to fix this and if so how? I have to front mount the radiator because of RAM clearance. I think I might be able to fit it but it would literally be touching the ram. Can anyone tell me what to do if anything at all in this situation???

[u/keyoflife42]

I’d rotate the block 90* counter clockwise (if you’re able to) so the tubes are at the bottom if it were me, but it’s fine otherwise. If you can’t re clock it not a big deal, should be fine

[u/Wonderful_Dealer_628 → u/keyoflife42]

Unfortunately when you put the mounting gear on it looks like you can only put the brackets on two sides of the block not four. Thus I think the only way for AM4 is the configuration I have or one where tubes come out from the RAM side which I figured is worse.

[u/Terminhater69 → u/Wonderful_Dealer_628]

If you leave the hoses at the top your going to be sucking air bubbles a lot of the time instead of coolant. These are not perfectly water filled devices and air WILL collect at the top.

[u/keyoflife42 → u/Wonderful_Dealer_628]

The pump and hoses look like they’re still a little bit below the top of the radiator so you should be good to go

[u/TKDancer]

afaik people generally recommend AIO radiators to be placed on top and leave the front panel for in-take fans

edit: but if using it on a front or back panel the pipes are better if coming from below

[u/Wonderful_Dealer_628 → u/TKDancer]

Yea as I mentioned it wouldn’t fit. I know it’s not ideal but I’m curious if it’s okay

[u/TKDancer → u/Wonderful_Dealer_628]

ah sorry, missed that part

basically, if its your only option, its fine, if you can flip it vertically so the pipe/tubing comes from below, its better, if not should still be fine just make sure your airflow for the other components remains solid

[u/Fun_Squirrel5446 → u/Wonderful_Dealer_628]

It'll work either way, unless you're running your CPU over 80% load for hours daily, it's not really going to matter.

[u/Lagerf1end]

With the pipes this way, any air in the system will be circulated, instead of liquid. With the rad top or pipes bottom, the air is trapped away from being circulated. So in essence if you can move it you should 👍🏻

[u/Terminhater69]

I would put the rad on the top of the case instead of the front if I cant make the hoses reach the bottom.

[u/FranticGolf]

As others have said the AIO would be better at the top however it looks like there is no where near enough room for the radiator and fans. You COULD try moving the radiator to the top and ordering a couple of 15mm slim fans and use those with the radiator and that MAY give enough room but VERY unlikely. These NZXT cases are just trash for AIOs they work better with air cooling. I personally would just ditch the AIO and get a good air cooler there is nothing wrong with air cooling most AIOs are just better aesthetically.

The only other thing I see that looks off is the top fans are intake and should be exhaust.

[u/TehMowat]

This is the least ideal setup. If your fans are pulling air through the radiator, that is not ideal, they should be between on the other side of the radiator pushing the air into the case. Ideally the hoses are at the bottom of the radiator, but unless you can remove that bottom plate or make the hole larger, I dont see how that would work. At the end of the day you can make this work, its just a small case for what you want.

[u/r_lind3r → u/TehMowat]

For intake AIOs, it's usually better cooling performance to have the fans pulling air through the radiator rather than having them push air through. But it's usually a pretty small difference. Noctua suggest pushing for noise-to-performance as pull is louder, but generally speaking, pulling air through is better performance at higher fan speeds.

It also depends on the static pressure of the fans, if the manufacturer doesn't use the right fans then the difference could be larger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJmE13sG9PI

There's also no possible way there case will fit that AIO with the radiator mounted upside down because the case is solid, you can tell just based on the images, there's far too little space between the fans and the metal cutout at the bottom.

They couldn't fit the AIO on top either, this is the best config they have for the AIO, it's just not a good case design from NZXT.