Cooling my old Nvidia 7800GTX's

[banzai77]

Hi,

I'm thinking of overclocking my old XFX Nvidia 7800GTX SLI setup and to cool the pair down and keep the noise down from stock HSF I'm looking at the Coolermaster Aquagate Duo Viva Liquid CPU/VGA cooling kit - it's on clearence special over at Scan for £23.49.

I read some reviews and they seem to work ok on 7600 GT, but has anyone used in SLI config and also with 7800GTX or much higher? I realise these coolers are pretty old now, and a cheap solution.

I'm aiming to get better cooling and more silence, does anyone have any thoughts or experience?

Thanks in advance.

Banzai

[Flewis]

tbh you could probably sell the 2 7800's and spend the money on buying a new graphics card which would be faster and possibly quieter.

If you do plan on getting that cooler I think it would cool the cards you have quite effectively as standard gpu coolers aren't that great. When I water cooled my 2900XT (custom setup tho) the temps dropped significantly (100C to 45C).

[banzai77]

Thanks Flewis.

I doubt I'd get anything much for them tbh! - I've not been playing any PC games for 2yrs, now doing most gaming on PS3...

I'll give them a try on stock cooling first - with my new case, then monitor sound and temps - before trying out the water cooling!

I've never taken apart the HSF on a GPU card before! Hope it's easy!
Sounds like you've sorted out your cooling proper with amazing results!

Banzai.

[scaryjim]

My thoughts:

if you're doing this as a project in watercooling then go for it, it should be fun! The review linked ot from scan had it reducing the temps of a X1900 when compared to an Accelero X2, so it should keep 2 x 7800GTX to safe temperatures at the very least.

If you're genuinely looking to get better graphical performance, save yourself a lot of time and effort and buy a 9800GT or higher, or a HD48x0 / 57x0, selling the 7800GTXs to help finance it (if they're a working pair that you are using in SLI you should be able to get a reasonable price on them).

[scaryjim]

I doubt I'd get anything much for them tbh!

I've been looking to buy a 7800 / 7900 for a while - they tend to go for at least £20 on ebay, sometimes a lot more...

[Pob255]

I've been looking to buy a 7800 / 7900 for a while - they tend to go for at least £20 on ebay, sometimes a lot more...

Depends on the card, but generally it's the AGP ones that still go for some serious money.

[GoNz0]

every pound you spend cooling those cards is a pound wasted as the performance compared to modern day cards isnt worth it, have a play on stock cooling and save the money for an upgrade.

[scaryjim]

Depends on the card, but generally it's the AGP ones that still go for some serious money.

True, the AGP ones go for a lot more, but the PCIe ones can still make some reasonable moolah!

[jim]

I paid £200 for an AGP 7800 shortly after it came out

Sold it on about 2 years later for about £60 IIRC, they seem to have still held their value even now. Guess it shows how reluctant people are to change motherboard.

[banzai77]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I think out of all PC components the graphics card probably depreciates the most, the new GPU's seem to come out quicker than CPU's!!!

I paid full price for these 7800GTX's when they first came out, it was an act of laziness not to upgrade them within the life cycle.. I'll check out how much they go for on ebay and will look to experiment a little and maybe sell the pair as a water cooled kit for a little more than standard pairs.

Will post back later to let you know how it's going!

[banzai77]

Ouch! That's probably why I still got my Socket 939 mobo with FX60 still!... cost me a small fortune those days (£350 ish).

I'll just have to see if it copes with my non-gaming demands... it means a complete new system if I go the upgrade path £££ £££ !

I paid £200 for an AGP 7800 shortly after it came out

Sold it on about 2 years later for about £60 IIRC, they seem to have still held their value even now. Guess it shows how reluctant people are to change motherboard.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ouch! That's probably why I still got my Socket 939 mobo with FX60 still!... cost me a small fortune those days (£350 ish).

I'll just have to see if it copes with my non-gaming demands... it means a complete new system if I go the upgrade path £££ £££ !

You do realise that the AMD FX-60 still fetches between £150 to £200 on Ebay??

I would probably sell your motherboard,CPU,RAM an graphics cards TBH.

For around £400 you could get a Phenom II X4 955BE,a 770 based motherboard,4GB of DDR3,a new PSU and an HD5750 512MB.

[banzai77]

You're right... Am watching one that will end in 15hrs, the outcome of this may influence my next decision!

I thought I bought the best Socket 939 CPU and Mobo at the time... then a baby came a long and gaming went all PS3 shaped!

Thanks for your suggestions Cat-the-Fifth!

It's probably a good idea to sell the complete system or bit by bit... with that water cooler!

You do realise that the AMD FX-60 still fetches between £150 to £200 on Ebay??

I would probably sell your motherboard,CPU,RAM an graphics cards TBH.

For around £400 you could get a Phenom II X4 955BE,a 770 based motherboard,4GB of DDR3,a new PSU and an HD5750 512MB.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You're right... Am watching one that will end in 15hrs, the outcome of this may influence my next decision!

I thought I bought the best Socket 939 CPU and Mobo at the time... then a baby came a long and gaming went all PS3 shaped!

Thanks for your suggestions Cat-the-Fifth!

It's probably a good idea to sell the complete system or bit by bit... with that water cooler!

I would use the Ebay completed listings option using the search terms FX-60 and FX60 and you will see that using a different name gives a large difference!!