So my biggest concern with the cooling set up in the Louqe Ghost with the set-up I'm running has always been the poor case airflow. I don't have fans actively exhausting hot air. So I decided to jerry rig something up to see how much improved air flow matters:
[MEDIA=imgur]a/8JMnoCM[/MEDIA]
It's two spare Noctua NF-A12x25's I have from a previous setup just tossed on top to simulate a medium top hat. The fans are just connected to a rear USB port with a USB to 3 pin fan header adapter. The adapter is a step-up version to convert to 12V that I use for my external rad/pump set up for when I fill or bleed my loop. I also added a Noctua LNA in there since the noise of the fans at 100% was a little much.
Here are the same temps from that previous post but with a new row for the "top hat":
| GPU TDP | Liquid Temp | Fan Speed |
| GPU + CPU in Loop | 180 W | 48°C | 82% |
| GPU only + CPU on AXP-90 | 180 W | 48°C | 76% |
| AXP-90 and "Top Hat" | 180 W | 44°C | 64% |
| GPU TDP | CPU PPT | CPU Temp | Liquid Temp | Fan Speed |
| GPU + CPU in Loop | 195 W | 105 W | 95°C | 54°C | 100% |
| GPU only + CPU on AXP-90 | 195 W | 76 W | 95°C | 47°C | 100% |
| AXP-90 and "Top Hat" | 195 W | 76 W | 88°C | 43°C | 97% |
So if there was ever a question about whether or not case air flow matters for water cooled loops - I think the answer is definitely.
I don't know if I'll end up running a medium top hat like this but it's good to know that improved airflow has bring temps into a good spot for a RTX 3080 upgrade. I may look into squeezing a few 40 mm Noctua's and switching the bottom rad to exhaust first.
If the added 40 mm's aren't enough, I'll probably go ahead and put the GPU back on water then add 240 mm radiator on top. Plan would be to go with a medium top hat to hide the fans and leave the top 240 mm radiator exposed - I think the new Heatkiller 30 mm thick radiators look pretty sleek. Would also need to switch out the DC-LT for a stronger pump. The Alphacool 1U DDC pump top and reservoir would be the way to go and it would fit nicely on the GPU side.
