360mm radiator in CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE

[Dom-M8]

Hello all,

I am looking to configure a PC with the CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE case and a 360mm AiO (which I know the case supports when mounted to the front). However, when I try this the configurator pops up saying that the case can only support a 280mm radiator (which I presume it is referring to mounting on the top of the case).

I am wondering why I am getting this message? I assumed that if I specified a 360mm radiator it would go through fine and the technician fit it to the front of the system. Does the configurator only check compatibility on it being mounted to the top of a case? Is this how they will all be assembled?

As a side note, I did a lot of reading on CPU AiO on front vs. top but found conflicting views. Interested to hear if anyone else has 2 cents on the matter.

Thanks!
Dom

 

[AgentCooper]

I’m of the opinion that it’s a better move to have the radiator top mounted as it’s a more efficient way of dissipating and removing heat from the system.

If you were convinced that you wanted to have a H150i in there you might need to phone PCS and speak to one of their operators in order to for them to be able to accommodate your request.

But the real question is… do you actually need this particular cooler? It’s difficult for us to offer any sound advice when we only know two of the components that you’re considering. Why not post your proposed system specification and let us cast our eyes over it? 🙂

How to Post Your Specification to the Forum - Check this Spec

Just a first note, if you've been provided this link, don't amend your first post as it won't update the queue, please add an additional comment to the thread, that way it will go back to the front of the queue. Otherwise we don't know it's been updated. When creating a forum post looking to...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[Dom-M8]

Hello Agentcooper,

Thanks for the reply - I have been back and forth on radiator positions and your view does make sense.

Below is the PC build I am considering:


Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight-Core Processor i9-11900K (3.5GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z590-F GAMING WIFI (LGA1200, USB 3.2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products

(I've put the H115i AiO instead of the H150i AiO due to compatibility as previously mentioned).

Planned use is for high end gaming (4k, 144Hz), and potentially video rendering. It is likely over the top in a few areas but I have some extra budget and wanted some higher end components to future proof it for at least the next 5+ years.

Many thanks for your reply, and any advice appreciated

Regards,
Dom

 

[AgentCooper]

You wouldn’t need the H150i, the H115i Elite would be sufficient. Got a bit more reading for you, this thread may alter your perspective on the build…

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

 

[Dom-M8]

Thanks for the link, it was an interesting read!

I've updated my spec:


Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products

A few notes:

1. Went with CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 500D SE CASE as it has always been a favourite for looks
2. Went with the 5900x over the 5800x for a bit of future proofing (though not sure how much value 12-core over 8-core is for gaming which is primary use?)
3. Went with the 3080ti over 3080 due to availability
4. Went with Strix GPU over regular as I prefer the looks
5. Went with 3600MHz ver 3200MHz RAM as I've heard faster RAM really makes a difference with Ryzen?

Any further feedback would be most welcome!

 

[AgentCooper]

Nice build, it’s a monster. The 5900X is the ‘have it all’ solution, it’s probably not of that much benefit in a gaming environment at this stage, but more titles are coming out that’ll make use of all available cores so it’ll stand you in good stead.

The Strix 3080 cards tend to be somewhat of a rarity, I’m not sure about the Ti version so will have to have a nosey about and see what impact it’d have on your waiting times.

3600MHz RAM won’t make that much difference in a gaming system over 3200MHz but if you have the budget, go for it.

Regarding the storage, I’d personally change the 1TB Samsung 980 to the 2TB Intel 670. It’s only about £20 more, gives you a whole bunch more capacity, and the speed of that second M.2 drive isn’t as important as the primary drive 🙂👍

 

[salg04086]

I have the Corsair 500d se case- nice case. Although an extra fan is not needed for airflow at the rear of the case, its a nice have for the ARGB and does assist with additional cooling in your case. I would call PCS after you have placed any order, and they can add this to the order for you. I would wait and check to see from others first to see if your above build is optimal for your needs. The community spirit is great here, and you will always get great advise here in the forums.

PS once you have placed your order ...you can look forward to the cakes that @AgentCooper provides whilst you wait for your new beast!!!

 

[Dom-M8]

Thank you Agentcooper for the super useful feedback - I've updated the order with your recommendations!

I am curious about the lead times - 3080 vs. 3080ti vs. 3080 Strix vs. 3080ti Strix. Lead times will likely influence my decision. Is there anyway to find this out short of a phone call?

Completely agree Salgo - I've looked at several builds with that case and they look complete with that extra rear fan. I couldn't find a way through the configurator to do this but glad a phone call to PCS can have it done 😁

 

[Dom-M8]

Quick question: Given it is only an extra £60, would it be potentially better to have a single 2TB 980 pro instead of 500GB 980 pro and 2TB Intel 670? Faster game load times and only 500GB in storage lost with scope of adding another M.2 in future if 2TB somehow becomes not enough.

 

[AgentCooper]

Quick question: Given it is only an extra £60, would it be potentially better to have a single 2TB 980 pro instead of 500GB 980 pro and 2TB Intel 670? Faster game load times and only 500GB in storage lost with scope of adding another M.2 in future if 2TB somehow becomes not enough.

I’d suggest against it, having just your OS and programs on the smaller drive keeps it running snappy, even NVMe drives can slow if they’re bogged down with lots of files. It’s also a good safety net as if you ever get a virus or need to do a clean install of Windows, you don’t lost everything with that separation of the two M.2s. Your games will remain safe on the secondary drive.

2TB is a lot of space, are you planning to have that many games downloaded? If you want your entire Steam library available, it’d be worth considering a large capacity SSD later on. Load times for your games won’t be that different between an M.2 / SATA SSD. Not like with a HDD, where the difference is night and day. Check out the vid below for a demonstration:

 

[Dom-M8]

Good advice, and I'm surprised on the M.2 vs. SSD performance.

I currently have a 1TB drive for games and media which has only got ~150GB left, so a 2TB should set me up nicely for some additional games.

Given the ~£40 difference between the M.2 and SSD, I'll probably keep the M.2 😊

 

[Dom-M8]

Ordered! Thank you everyone for the comments, great community

 

[AleTax]

I’d suggest against it, having just your OS and programs on the smaller drive keeps it running snappy, even NVMe drives can slow if they’re bogged down with lots of files. It’s also a good safety net as if you ever get a virus or need to do a clean install of Windows, you don’t lost everything with that separation of the two M.2s. Your games will remain safe on the secondary drive.

2TB is a lot of space, are you planning to have that many games downloaded? If you want your entire Steam library available, it’d be worth considering a large capacity SSD later on. Load times for your games won’t be that different between an M.2 / SATA SSD. Not like with a HDD, where the difference is night and day. Check out the vid below for a demonstration:

Man HDD's are so slow.! Really not worth anything, they're currently only good for standard file storage as music, pictures etc...

 

[ubuysa]

Man HDD's are so slow.! Really not worth anything, they're currently only good for standard file storage as music, pictures etc...

And backups.

A lot of users have tons of music and videos they want to keep and an HDD is absolutely the best medium for those - and backups.

BTW pictures should not be on an HDD at all, you risk the screen painting delay if you put pictures on an HDD. They are in fact one of the few user data types that do need to be on an SSD.

It's important to realise that there is a storage hierarchy. A RAM disk is the fastest drive you can have, followed by M.2 NVMe SSDs, M.2 ACHI SSDs, SATA SSDs and SATA HDDs. In a properly configured system you install the drives with the optimal performance characteristics for the programs/data you have. Windows and programs on an M.2 NVMe SSD, pictures and other large files needing a fast loading time on an M.2 ACHI SSD, other user data on a SATA SSD and music, videos, archives and backups (did I mention backups already?) on a SATA HDD.