Watercooling my 4850

[Million]

Hi all,

I was lucky enough to recently get hold of a very cheap Gigabyte 1Gb HD4850. I ran it for a day in my rig with the stock cooler, and found that it idled at about 70-75C, and under load was about 85C - now I have of course read that these are very hot cards, and can cope with this happily (I had an X1900XTX, that ran almost as hot before I watercooled it).

I had to look for ages to find somewhere with a reasonably priced waterblock for this card, but finally found one (EK 4850 cooler from watercooling UK: http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/cata...oducts_id=1087) that I liked. It has a plexiglass top which looks awesome with Feser UV blue liquid running through it, and it's now in my system idling at... 20C!

The loop consists of CPU (currently an E6600, very soon to be a Q6600) and HD4850, with a 3x120mm rad, and an XSPC bay res. It's all fitted into a modded P180, so it's VERY quiet, which was always my main aim.

So, I will put pics up when I have more time, but I wanted to post something that people in the same situation can use to get themselves set up. Hopefully this will show up on Google for them!

Million

[moogle]

Not bad with a CPU in the loop too
The bigger expensive rads can cool shedloads,

[Million]

Just done a few rounds of BF2 on highest settings - GPU 25C, CPU 28C - I'm happy with that!

Moogle, I don't remember the rad actually being very expensive, but it works very well. The real pain is fitting it into a case - A friend loaned me an angle grinder to get through the P180's composite shell

[ConTRo13R]

Id like to see pics!

What thermal paste did you use? on both cpu an gpu.

[Million]

Id like to see pics!

What thermal paste did you use? on both cpu an gpu.

Bear with me on pics...

Thermal paste is Arctic AC-MX-2 THERMAL PASTE from SCAN

[moogle]

Bear with me on pics...

Booooooo

MX-2 is good isn't it? Just getting it out at a steady pace was hard though with the tube I had.

[Million]

Here we go then, it's all dirty and messy, but it's got the new card

[moogle]

Looking good
I see you're missing the IO plate

[Million]

Looking good
I see you're missing the IO plate

indeed, forgot to put that in after installing the CPU block a while back, and could never be arsed to get it all out just for that! It will go in when I put my new CPU in though

[ConTRo13R]

awesome! is your D5 fixed down at all or just loose?

[moogle]

awesome! is your D5 fixed down at all or just loose?

Looks loose to me. Better than using that nasty sticky pad.

[ConTRo13R]

Looks loose to me. Better than using that nasty sticky pad.

hmm yea, I'm trying to mount mine upside down in my V2000 but the sticky pad was too weak, so brought some uber strong Velcro pads and the sticky on them wasn't strong enough to hold this pump up! i need some real strong double sided tape to hold it

And cannot bolt it on as directly above it is my hard drive cage

[moogle]

hmm yea, I'm trying to mount mine upside down in my V2000 but the sticky pad was too weak, so brought some uber strong Velcro pads and the sticky on them wasn't strong enough to hold this pump up! i need some real strong double sided tape to hold it

And cannot bolt it on as directly above it is my hard drive cage

Yeah velcro method is the best. Got an L bracket from B&Q to help mount mine with the inlet facing up (res feeding it etc).

[Million]

it's actually just loosely taped down with insulation tape. I decided hard fixing would transfer too much vibration so be too noisy, so I fashioned a cushion pad out of sound insulation material, and it seems to work OK. I've now installed the Q6600, and it's all running happily fingers crossed! Did some braiding and tidying too, since I had the afternoon off, and will post pics of the much tidier case shortly...

[Oobie-]

Could you show some full case shots too please?

Just want want to see what you've got setup as Im looking into watercooling my new system. (I HATE NOISEEE!) Even this damn laptop is loud! (im in a completely silent room, mind)

[Million]

Could you show some full case shots too please?

Just want want to see what you've got setup as Im looking into watercooling my new system. (I HATE NOISEEE!) Even this damn laptop is loud! (im in a completely silent room, mind)

The people ask, and I deliver:

Case closed


Showing the Akasa Fan-Mate (for under-volting the fans), XSPC bay res (looks good with lights off - UV glow)


Full guts shot (I need to get some mesh or something to cover up the front section with pump and wires in)


Looking up towards the 3 120mm Noctua fans that cool the rad


The beautiful and sadly hard to see EK full cover block on the 4850


I went for watercooling after obsessing about noise, and trying to use air cooling as quietly as possible (lots of zalman products, case insulation, rubber grommets etc) but nothing beats liquid at being quiet and efficient. So much headroom for OCing too. The P180's in-built soundproofing obviously helps too