Last night I finally ordered an RTX 2080 Hybrid, finally giving my venerable 980 Classified a couple days until retirement. I built my new PC in September with space and plans for a hybrid AIO cooling graphics card, planning to place the fan/radiator at the bottom of my case, taking air in through the front.
 
However, in doing some additional research and seeing videos and manuals from EVGA, I find that it's instead recommended that the fan/radiator be placed level with the card or above it, to prevent water bubbles in the loop.
 
How likely/how much of a risk is that to happen if the fan/radiator is placed below the card? Is it a high likelihood, because of the way the pump works, or is it just something that may have a slightly larger possibility of happening if placed below?
 
I ask because, while placing it higher would be doable, it would require moving my EVGA 240mm CLC radiator that I would have had above it, probably moving it lower. The CLC has been working great since September for no problems at all, but would placing it a little lower cause any problems?
 
I took a picture of my computer for reference, to show how my CLC is currently installed (pardon the dust, I'll give the glass a good clean when I install the new card in a couple days). My original plan is to place the GPU radiator below where the CLC is now, and the revised plan would be to put the GPU radiator up top and move the processor CLC down instead. Would that work okay? Or would there be another possible issue I'm unaware of?
 
Thank you very much!

Cool GTX
Nice Rig
 
Easiest place on your PC would be the rear exhaust
 
You do not want to run the pump dry & if air enters the pump - the pump cavitates - making noise & reducing or stopping circulation of coolant
 
You want gravity feed of coolant to the pump & to make sure the suction line - [coolant to the pump] - does not pull in air
 
 
 
My AIO Folding Rig
 

Thanks for the reply! Your computer looks incredible!
 
That's what I was considering the position might have to be, the rear exhaust. That'd be disappointing, since I think it wouldn't look quite as good, and the fan that's there is more optimized for case flow as an exhaust and I don't know if it'd be as good as a radiator fan, but if that's the best position, it'll be what I have to go with.
 
However, to visualize what I would want to attempt to do, it would be to move my processor's CLC down one slot, and then make room for the GPU radiator so that it's above the GPU. Here, the green lines are the processor tubes (leading to where the radiator will be moved), and the yellow lines are the tubes that will come out of the GPU.
 

 
Would this cause any problems as opposed to mounting it at the rear exhaust/would that achieve the same gravity feed to the pump? Would it cause any potential problems for my processor CLC?
 
Thanks again!

I could put the CPU AIO on top, as there are the typical two exhaust fans up there. The trouble with that is that those two fans are 140mm, whereas the radiator and its fans are 2x120mm, so I would have to move a bunch of fans around, since the AIO's fans are 120mm. So that's the least optimal solution, requiring the most amount of work for the least amount of benefit.
 
When I designed the build and put it together back in September, the idea was that the whole front would be the radiator block (1 240mm for the CPU and 1 120mm for the GPU), since the case was designed to be able to fit a 360mm radiator in the front, so I figured this way I'd be able to watercool both my processor and GPU, so everything looks and runs nicely.
 
The discovery that you need to place the GPU radiator level with or above the GPU itself threw a bit of a wrench in that plan, though it'd still be salvageable if it can be placed at the top of the front of the computer, like in my diagram (which, judging from how you have your pumps/radiator set up for your GPU's, would be fine), as that would only require a bit of work and still match everything else in my setup.
 
The question then becomes if lowering my CPU's tubes/radiator would cause any issues. Does the CPU AIO require the same gravity feed? I don't recall seeing anything about that in the manual when I set it up. Perhaps because it's a bigger unit with a bigger pump or something, it doesn't require the help of gravity that much? It hasn't had any issues in the 7+ months I've been using it where it is, so lowering it 120mm shouldn't disrupt things, I wouldn't think.

tattude69
Please keep in mind that a 240mm rad and 120mm together are bigger then a 360mm Rad.(two sets of hoses vs one) i just ran into this problem on my rig. So take measurements if theirs a question. My case can fit 3 140mm fans in front. But due to a 280mm rad having tanks that stick past fan mounts i can fit a 120mm fan but not the 120mm radiator because the tanks make it bigger then 120mm

Yuuuup, had that problem last night. Took a rough measurement, it looked like there was enough clearance, took a long time moving the radiator down, then found that the radiator of the GPU wouldn't fit because of the tanks, so I had to spend even more time putting the CPU radiator back where it was before, then put the GPU radiator on the back as the rear exhaust. Altogether, for that and a variety of other odd reasons, putting the GPU in took like three times longer than it should've but everything's done and working now.
 
Which is disappointing, because the fan that was there was a really good caseflow fan, and not a good static pressure fan, so I had to remove that fan which was doing a good job of exhaust and put it down in front of my case (where I'm sure it's doing good with the airflow too) and take the fan that was originally there in the front (which is a better static pressure fan) and put that in the back to use with my radiator.
 
So, lessons learned. The vision is dead, but the dream lives on. I might be having some small issues with GPU temperature, though, but that's another thread for after I've done more thorough investigation.
 
Thanks for the help, everybody!