i prefer single 16:9 Large Monitor, my Brother likes 24 / 27 Inch Tripple Monitor Setup and you seem to be into 21:9. one of the greatest Things about PC Gaming is you don't have to deal with just one Standard.
The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything:
Carbon Based Lifeform wrote:
... one of the greatest Things about PC Gaming is you don't have to deal with just one Standard. ...
Totally agree with this!
In the end, it's PC gaming. It's a hobby, so go with what you like. Every argument of something being better is invalid for you at the moment you don't like it.
You can talk about the topic liquid CPU cooling all day long, and still not come to no perfect solution. Sure, you can optimize a lot of things here, heat transfer is a science in itself (trust me in this part, I have a degree in process engineering ).
But in the end, you pump a cool liquid over a heat exchanger in contact with your CPU. The liquid gets warm, and in this way, it cools down the CPU. Then the liquid runs through the radiator (another heat exchanger) and it gets cooled down again by the air that flows through the radiator. So no witchcraft required at all.
Overheating problems for the CPU are much more likely based on simple things like bad contact between CPU and cooler or a clogged radiator than on an underachieving OEM liquid cooling.
As long as you have no problems with the OEM cooling (especially strange noises from the pump come to mind), my opinion is to leave it as it is. But I "only" run a 5930K at factory overclock level 2 (that's around 4,0 GHz), so if you are plan to do much more, you should ask someone with more experience in this.
What I recommend is to change the CPU fan. You can actually do this without disassembling the cooler from the CPU, so it is not a big deal.
For the CPU fan, Dell again went with a belt AND a pair of suspenders (and a parachute). The fan is the same Nidec model they use as a case fan, WAY overdimensioned: it runs with almost 1200 rpm in idle and can go up to over 4000 rpm. But no stress test I ran on my CPU got me over 1600 rpm for the fan at all.
I replaced it with a Corsair ML120 PRO LED (everything is simply better with LED):
Tried a Noctua first, but it had some weird clicking in the bearing (it is almost unnoticeable, but once you heard it for the first time, you can't ignore it anymore). The new fan runs under 800 rpm in idle, and CPU is around 35 °C (by Core Temp). Stressed the CPU only first and than the system at whole, no problems. (I'm too lazy to run another stress test for the exact CPU temperatures, but I would say around 60 °C was the maximum. Ran the 3DMark Fire Strike stress test again: it's a Maximum of 59 °C for the CPU, Core Temp logged a maximum of 58 °C. I think I could add some clocks and volts here and there ...)
Some thoughts on radiator / fan configurations (and this is nothing more than my personal opinion):
I prefer pull. Push or pull is cooling wise a tie (if someone says push wins by a close vote, here you go). But in push the dust settles between the fan and the radiator, so dismounting the fan to clean the radiator is necessary. In pull just swipe over the radiator from time to time ...
As for push/pull: if you have to overcome a lot of resistance (dustfilter, thick radiator, narrow air outtake) while running high air speed, this configuration might get you an edge. For almost all "normal" applications, it has no real benefit (other than the possibility to cramp more LED fans in your case, which is ALWAYS justified ).
I personally think that you don't need a push AND pull configuration. And it should be a push fan on top of the radiator, but the wording could be misleading. To make it clear: All fans on the CPU radiator have to be oriented the way that the air flows OUT of the case.
In your position, I would just use the extra fan you added on the radiator to replace the existing (Dell) radiator fan.
It's no big deal, just unplug the fan. (It's the sleved cable, four colored wires, the one plugged in right outside of the leftmost RAM slot. The flat one, three black wires, plugged in between the RAM and the VREG, is the cooling pump.)
Then unscrew the four screws that hold the fan (and that way the radiator in place). They are located on the outside of your case, you can see the holes in the picture above right around the fan. The fan will come lose, and the radiator is mounted to the fan. Just be gentle with hoses ...
And be sure to memorize the orientation of the radiator when you mount the fan. If you are me, and you end up with the fan logo not upright, you have to do it all again to be able to rest easy. (I mean, we are talking about a fan logo that you can only see through a fan grill if you look at the computer case from behind. As I mentioned, this is not an OCD, these things have simply to be right ... because of reasons!)
Has anyone ever tried to install a Corsair H 80i V2 in there Area 51 R2? Will it fit? And will it work with the Alienware Command Center? Upgrading the oem system by adding 2nd fan push/pull work better than using a 49mm radiator?
i didn't try it, but i'm familiar with the Corsair H80I Cooler.
the H80I + 2 Fans measures 99 mm and would probably cover the CPU Socket. in my Case it would collide with the Crucial RAM Coolers. the Hoses are very long. i believe it was 430 mm or something like that. the Cooler is connected via USB 2.0 Header and you don't have one. all USB Headers are taken by A51 Case Lights. without the USB Connector you can't control the Pump and the Fans. it is also possible that the EPSA Test and Command Center would end up throwing an Error.
Still not sure why you want to change the OEM cooling so badly. Look, lithio runs his 6850K at 4,3 GHz with the standard cooler here (he changed the fan, however, this is what I recommend also).
Your push/pull fan config should be way more than enough. As I stated, I run a 5930K @ ~4 GHz with the OEM cooler and a smaller than the original fan in a single pull config, and I end up at 59 °C for the CPU at maximum load.
Even W8lifts states here that the OEM cooler is okay, and he has almost no original part left in his case ...
I don’t have that much experience in CPU cooling, but from my professional background I would say this could be one of the reasons. The higher the temperature difference between the medium to cool (liquid) and the cooling medium (air), the better the efficiency. The technical term is “temperature gradient” for a reason.
In a long hose the cooling unit loses more heat on its way to the radiator, and it loses it to the air in the case. But this air is your cooling medium, so you lower the temperature gradient from both sides. Also you have to overcome more resistance with your pump in a longer hose.
Optimizing the cooling unit is in fact a complex task, where temperatures, dimensions, geometry, fluid dynamics and so on have an influence. You can take on these problems mathematically, but as often, in reality there are much more factors then in your mockups.
And remember: you have a lot of moving parts in a cooling system (you can count in moving liquid and air as well). So everything you add, make bigger and/or go faster GENERATES more heat itself. Your fans, your cooling pump and so on, simply your whole cooling system generates a heat load by itself. Not to mention the increased power consumption (every Watt you pull from your socket will end up as heat in your system). So a bigger cooling system is like a bigger engine in your car: yes, you get a faster car, but you waste a part of the gained horsepowers to move the now heavier car.
So maybe it’s good engineering (with for me is math AND know-how), experience or pure luck or a combination of it all, the cooler clearly works well with this case.
JKTRRT
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June 24th, 2017 20:00
Thanks!
Carbon Based Lifeform
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872 Posts
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June 25th, 2017 04:00
each to his own....
i prefer single 16:9 Large Monitor, my Brother likes 24 / 27 Inch Tripple Monitor Setup and you seem to be into 21:9. one of the greatest Things about PC Gaming is you don't have to deal with just one Standard.
you are right about the Stand. it's Ugly.
Roladin
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June 25th, 2017 04:00
Hate to disagree with you but I will take UWQHD over 4k every day.
Acer Predator X34 ... Join the 21:9 master race!
Or the ASUS ROG Swift Curved PG348Q, if it has to be ASUS. I personally can't stand that asymmetrical stand
.
Roladin
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June 25th, 2017 08:00
The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything:
Totally agree with this!
In the end, it's PC gaming. It's a hobby, so go with what you like. Every argument of something being better is invalid for you at the moment you don't like it.
JKTRRT
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52 Posts
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June 25th, 2017 08:00
Whats you opinion on upgrading the oem liquid oem cooling system on the Alienware Area 51 R2 and if so what is the best to get?
JKTRRT
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June 25th, 2017 09:00
That's why they invented chocolate and vanilla ice cream!
JKTRRT
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June 25th, 2017 11:00
I replaced my oem top fan with a Corsair 120mm PWM fan added a middle fan
and replaced the PCIE fan with a Corsair fan. I also added a pull fan to
the inside of the radiator. The outside radiator fan is own should I
replace it too?
Roladin
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June 25th, 2017 11:00
Personally, I'm happy with the OEM cooling.
You can talk about the topic liquid CPU cooling all day long, and still not come to no perfect solution. Sure, you can optimize a lot of things here, heat transfer is a science in itself (trust me in this part, I have a degree in process engineering
).
But in the end, you pump a cool liquid over a heat exchanger in contact with your CPU. The liquid gets warm, and in this way, it cools down the CPU. Then the liquid runs through the radiator (another heat exchanger) and it gets cooled down again by the air that flows through the radiator. So no witchcraft required at all.
Overheating problems for the CPU are much more likely based on simple things like bad contact between CPU and cooler or a clogged radiator than on an underachieving OEM liquid cooling.
As long as you have no problems with the OEM cooling (especially strange noises from the pump come to mind), my opinion is to leave it as it is. But I "only" run a 5930K at factory overclock level 2 (that's around 4,0 GHz), so if you are plan to do much more, you should ask someone with more experience in this.
What I recommend is to change the CPU fan. You can actually do this without disassembling the cooler from the CPU, so it is not a big deal.
For the CPU fan, Dell again went with a belt AND a pair of suspenders (and a parachute). The fan is the same Nidec model they use as a case fan, WAY overdimensioned: it runs with almost 1200 rpm in idle and can go up to over 4000 rpm. But no stress test I ran on my CPU got me over 1600 rpm for the fan at all.
I replaced it with a Corsair ML120 PRO LED (everything is simply better with LED):
Tried a Noctua first, but it had some weird clicking in the bearing (it is almost unnoticeable, but once you heard it for the first time, you can't ignore it anymore). The new fan runs under 800 rpm in idle, and CPU is around 35 °C (by Core Temp). Stressed the CPU only first and than the system at whole, no problems. (I'm too lazy to run another stress test for the exact CPU temperatures, but I would say around 60 °C was the maximum. Ran the 3DMark Fire Strike stress test again: it's a Maximum of 59 °C for the CPU, Core Temp logged a maximum of 58 °C. I think I could add some clocks and volts here and there ...)
Some thoughts on radiator / fan configurations (and this is nothing more than my personal opinion):
I prefer pull. Push or pull is cooling wise a tie (if someone says push wins by a close vote, here you go). But in push the dust settles between the fan and the radiator, so dismounting the fan to clean the radiator is necessary. In pull just swipe over the radiator from time to time ...
As for push/pull: if you have to overcome a lot of resistance (dustfilter, thick radiator, narrow air outtake) while running high air speed, this configuration might get you an edge. For almost all "normal" applications, it has no real benefit (other than the possibility to cramp more LED fans in your case, which is ALWAYS justified
).
Roladin
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53 Posts
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June 25th, 2017 12:00
I personally think that you don't need a push AND pull configuration. And it should be a push fan on top of the radiator, but the wording could be misleading. To make it clear: All fans on the CPU radiator have to be oriented the way that the air flows OUT of the case.
In your position, I would just use the extra fan you added on the radiator to replace the existing (Dell) radiator fan.
It's no big deal, just unplug the fan. (It's the sleved cable, four colored wires, the one plugged in right outside of the leftmost RAM slot. The flat one, three black wires, plugged in between the RAM and the VREG, is the cooling pump.)
Then unscrew the four screws that hold the fan (and that way the radiator in place). They are located on the outside of your case, you can see the holes in the picture above right around the fan. The fan will come lose, and the radiator is mounted to the fan. Just be gentle with hoses ...
And be sure to memorize the orientation of the radiator when you mount the fan. If you are me, and you end up with the fan logo not upright, you have to do it all again to be able to rest easy. (I mean, we are talking about a fan logo that you can only see through a fan grill if you look at the computer case from behind. As I mentioned, this is not an OCD, these things have simply to be right ... because of reasons!)
JKTRRT
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52 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 03:00
Has anyone ever tried to install a Corsair H 80i V2 in there Area 51 R2? Will it fit? And will it work with the Alienware Command Center? Upgrading the oem system by adding 2nd fan push/pull work better than using a 49mm radiator?
JKTRRT
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52 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 04:00
Looks like I am just going to have stay with the Corsair push/pull setup
On Jun 29, 2017 7:39 AM, "Carbon Based Lifeform"
Carbon Based Lifeform
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872 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 04:00
Hi JKTRRT.
i didn't try it, but i'm familiar with the Corsair H80I Cooler.
the H80I + 2 Fans measures 99 mm and would probably cover the CPU Socket. in my Case it would collide with the Crucial RAM Coolers. the Hoses are very long. i believe it was 430 mm or something like that. the Cooler is connected via USB 2.0 Header and you don't have one. all USB Headers are taken by A51 Case Lights. without the USB Connector you can't control the Pump and the Fans. it is also possible that the EPSA Test and Command Center would end up throwing an Error.
Edit:
removed some Stuff.
Roladin
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53 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 05:00
Still not sure why you want to change the OEM cooling so badly. Look, lithio runs his 6850K at 4,3 GHz with the standard cooler here (he changed the fan, however, this is what I recommend also).
Your push/pull fan config should be way more than enough. As I stated, I run a 5930K @ ~4 GHz with the OEM cooler and a smaller than the original fan in a single pull config, and I end up at 59 °C for the CPU at maximum load.
Even W8lifts states here that the OEM cooler is okay, and he has almost no original part left in his case ...
Carbon Based Lifeform
2 Intern
•
872 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 06:00
yep. i like the OEM Cooler too. i'm surprised how well it works TBH. i am wondering, could the short Hoses be the Reason for this Kind of Efficiency?
i would buy those Coolers if i could. it's a perfect Fit for Cases like Silverstone Fortress or Deepcool Tristellar because of the short Hoses.
Roladin
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53 Posts
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June 29th, 2017 07:00
I don’t have that much experience in CPU cooling, but from my professional background I would say this could be one of the reasons. The higher the temperature difference between the medium to cool (liquid) and the cooling medium (air), the better the efficiency. The technical term is “temperature gradient” for a reason.
In a long hose the cooling unit loses more heat on its way to the radiator, and it loses it to the air in the case. But this air is your cooling medium, so you lower the temperature gradient from both sides. Also you have to overcome more resistance with your pump in a longer hose.
Optimizing the cooling unit is in fact a complex task, where temperatures, dimensions, geometry, fluid dynamics and so on have an influence. You can take on these problems mathematically, but as often, in reality there are much more factors then in your mockups.
And remember: you have a lot of moving parts in a cooling system (you can count in moving liquid and air as well). So everything you add, make bigger and/or go faster GENERATES more heat itself. Your fans, your cooling pump and so on, simply your whole cooling system generates a heat load by itself. Not to mention the increased power consumption (every Watt you pull from your socket will end up as heat in your system). So a bigger cooling system is like a bigger engine in your car: yes, you get a faster car, but you waste a part of the gained horsepowers to move the now heavier car.
So maybe it’s good engineering (with for me is math AND know-how), experience or pure luck or a combination of it all, the cooler clearly works well with this case.