PC fan connections

I'm building a dedicated LTSpice/simulation/GPU coding/messing about desktop PC out of some second-hand parts. Processor is a 6 core AMD Phenom II 1090T, 16GB of 1800 MHz DDR3, 600 watt Corsair power supply, 2 AMD Radeon R7 360 PCI-e GPUs with 2GB of RAM each "crossfired" to work in tandem. Most of this stuff was free except the GPUs which were ~40 bucks each used.

By 2017 gamer standards this would be considered a pretty "lousy" PC. Oh well, the price is right.

The former owner had a liquid cooling system installed on the CPU. It has a heat pump with a 3 pin power connector, and set of send-return tubes that take the working fluid (just water I guess) out to a

100mm-sized radiator designed to be mounted to a 100mm fan.

But the case I have is not the one the owner of the mobo/processor was using and everything is disconnected and in pieces, so I'm not sure how it was originally set up, or if the cooling was even set up optimally before. There are currently 3 100mm fans mounted in the case I have, one at the front bottom, one at the back top, and one mounted on the "roof" of the case blowing out upwards. All the fans have 3 pin connectors for

12V power, ground, and RPM sense, as well as a switch to adjust the speed LMH if its connected to a voltage source that can't be dynamically modulated.

There are three 3 pin headers on the motherboard, labled CPU_FAN, SYSFAN1, and SYSFAN2. The liquid cooling pump also has a 3 pin connector, and the manual suggests connecting that to the CPU_FAN header. However this mobo has a BIOS switch that allows any 3 pin fan connected to the CPU_FAN header to have its speed controlled via modulation of the PSU rail, rather than via a dedicated 4th PWM line as some fans have. I was thinking it would make more sense to connect the pump to one of the SYSFAN headers and connect the fan attached to the heat pump radiator to the CPU_FAN header where the BIOS could control its speed.

How would you set this up for optimal cooling while keeping the fan RPMs low?

Reply to
bitrex
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Usually water with an anti-corrsive additive and fluorescent dye is used (same stuff used in automobiles) the additive reduces corrosion and the dye helps diagnose leaks (if you have a UV source)

Your proposal sounds good.

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Reply to
Jasen Betts

Thanks, I tested it last evening with the processor heat pump connected to SYSFAN1, the radiator fan secured to the 100mm fan at the rear of the case connected to CPU_FAN, the fan at the top of the case connected to SYSFAN2 and the front fan simply connected to constant 12V on its lowest setting.

Processor idles at around 35 degrees C and under full load tops out at around 50 C, which seems pretty good. At idle at least all the fans in the system including the GPU fans aren't spinning much more than 1000 RPM; it's pretty quiet in that state and difficult to hear if there's any other background noise at all.

Reply to
bitrex

Radiator block, rather

Reply to
bitrex

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