Best way of watercooling GFX if you're a n00b

[dbh]

Hey all,

Kind of following on from this thread:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ideo-work.html

I was wondering if there are any GTX460/470 cards out there that are water cooled ready or nice blocks you can get to cool these cards what would I have to look out for in particular? It's not really for overclocking the card but mainly to prolong the use of the cards if they get put through GPU rendering.

Are there n00b proof ways of doing a setup that would require very little maintenance?

[Hicks12]

Watercooling doesnt really require much maintenance tbh, just every so often check no connectors are loose and the coolant should be changed every 6 or 12months i think. I havent got round to watercooling my gpu simply because my last attempt one part of the block had a leak .

Only people that seem to do blocks predone are EVGA, but they change way way to much for it tbh. EK make some good blocks for the gpu though, should be around £60 i believe. If you do get one just take extra precaution while fitting, fit the block up to the loop without the gpu, check for leaks and stuff then connect it to the gpu and leak test for 12hours.

Dont POWER THE GPU, just power the pump using the psu paper clip method and disconnecting anything else bar the pump because well if a leak does happen you will want to reduce risk of damage. I know 12hour is generally a very long time, but i had a leak on my gpu appear 4 hours in (i.e very very slow leak, it was just unlucky that i had just powered it on after that time).

[dbh]

If you do get one just take extra precaution while fitting, fit the block up to the loop without the gpu, check for leaks and stuff then connect it to the gpu and leak test for 12hours.

Dont POWER THE GPU, just power the pump using the psu paper clip method and disconnecting anything else bar the pump because well if a leak does happen you will want to reduce risk of damage. I know 12hour is generally a very long time, but i had a leak on my gpu appear 4 hours in (i.e very very slow leak, it was just unlucky that i had just powered it on after that time).

What's the PSU paper clip method? I guess 12 hours is long but if it's worth doing it right might as well invest the time to doing so. Had a quick gander could only find 480's pre waterblocked. Be nice to see if some GTX5XX series come out with 2GB on board and cost under £150! getting 2 of those together would cain it for rendering but I guess one thing at a time. So if the device / board is off and a bit of water gets on it... chances are it'll be ok? I'd always worry about things like this!

[Hicks12]

http://www.overclock.net/faqs/96712-...upply-psu.html that should show you how to do the paperclip thing, all it does is jump start the psu so basically means you dont need to have your computer connected (power button on case). Very good method to check your loop as you can leave your pc off and disconnected.


If its off and some water gets on it, generally it would be ok. For example, my motherboard has had a good few drips from when i had to attach new tubing and an inline temp probe in the loop, this extra temp thing managed to cause a leak, saw splashes on my motherboards pcie line and on my sound card and some other parts of the board. Quickly dabbed it with some paper and a cloth, fixed the problem with the connector (moved the temp to the other side instead) and let it dry for like an hour and it all works .

The main thing to do if you get water on something, dry it as gently as you can (dab it dont rub etc etc) and let it dry naturally. Dont rush it at all, if it was a substantial amount then a fair few hours may be needed to let it be bone dry.

[Pob255]

You could happly submerge a pc as long as it's not plugged in and you leave it to dry off fully before trying to plug it back in.

Main thing to watch out for if you get a spill is getting liquid in slots, esp if you've got a card or memory in there or the cpu/socket.
Make sure to remove cards if you do get a spill in a slot, water not much problem, coolant there's a chance it could leave residue on pins which could end up causing partial connection.

evga did do a water cooled 470, strangely it seems to have gone from their product list. Why do companies do this? just because something goes EOL and you are not making any more of them, does NOT mean you should take it off your website like it never existed!
Sorry that's something that drives me round the bend and I expect far better from a company like EVGA.

However they do do a water cooled 580 http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...s%20Family&sw= (well unless they've taken that down already)
Not going to be cheap, but water cooling is not cheap.

Ps don't know what this block is like but it's a good basic guide to fitting a water block (although I think they go a bit heavy on the thermal paste)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2iEOmA7FRk

[piggin23]

EK products come with a very good instruction manual.

[Jasp]

Another option would be a CoolIT Omni Alc 470, its a sealed unit much like the corsair H70 that fits onto the GPU, as such you don't require a pump/tubing etc and takes up less space in the case, a review of one fitted to a GTX480 is here http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24299&page=1

Their not the easiest of things to get hold of in the UK though.

[Pob255]

Here you go, but not cheap http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cust...roductid=12402

[dbh]

Thanks guys will have a read on these later. The Omni ALC looks interesting seems to be less faff... hexus say it's decent at cooling too only thing is price

[scaryjim]

... only thing is price

To get a decent block, pump, rad, fan, tubing etc is going to be not far short of £170 anyway, tbh. Watercooling is *not* a cheap option: even buying everything second hand and getting an incredibly good deal on some waterblocks from a Hexus member (cheers GoNz0!) I've spent well over £200 on my watercooling plans, and I still need to put in a big specialtech order for finishing bits before I can complete the work on it...

[dbh]

Reckon those ALCs are a good option then or would a dedicated (or should I say more thought out) route of getting all the bits separately work out better? I'll spend the £££ if I have to but if there are other options that involve less faff I'd consider them.

[scaryjim]

The ALC route is great if you definitely only want to water cool one graphics card and that's going to be the end of it.

A component-wise loop will let you expand the water-cooling in the future, so you could just get a GPU block, rad, fans, pump and res for now, then add in a CPU block, a second graphics card, another rad, motherboard blocks etc. as you went along.

So really it depends what you want to do with the water cooling:

If you're absolutely sure you won't want to water cool anything else in your system, them the ALC is by far the easiest way to achieve that and is pretty much risk free. It's simple to fit, it's theoretically transferable (using different interposer plates), it only uses a single 120mm rad so it'll mount in pretty much any case with a 120mm fan mounting. But it is a single sealed loop, so there's no expansion, and no flexibility: it is what it is.

If you think you might fancy the idea of water cooling other components in your PC, then it could be worth running separates. It's more complex to set up, but you have a much wider range of components to choose from, can theoretically achieve much better cooling (using more powerful pumps and bigger radiators), and it's expansible, so you can add a second graphics card, your CPU or even your motherboard chipset to the loop. But to realise all of those benefits it will be more expensive to start with, you'll end up with a lot more kit in your case (so make sure it'll all fit), and risk becoming addicted and never having any spare cash again

As far as waterblocks go, GTX470 blocks seem to start from ~ £70. Ebuyer have an Inno3D iChill GTX470 but it's £290, so I guess ~ £70 for the waterblock then a £30 premium just for having it pre-fitted! But, whilst I'd never normally recommend it, they also have the Inno3D GTX465 iChill for only £176! At that price you're virtually getting the waterblock free, and while it's not as good a graphics card as a GTX470 or 480, it's potentially worth a gander at that price...

[Pob255]

only for the fact it's got built in water cooling and then only just, the gtx465 is not a great card.

On the ALC, nice for a single card, atm they only produce interface plates for the gtx470, gtx480, 5870 and 5890, so the range of cards is very limited, they should be bringing out new interface plates for newer high end cards as they come out.
but I can see it getting messy inside a case quickly if you had two cards with ALC's and a cpu sealed water cooler (eg corsair h50) finding places for the rads and dealing with the pipes will get tricky the more of them you put in, normal watercooling is not such a problem as you can cut pipes to length and get rads of the correct size for your case.

[dbh]

Hey peeps was wondering what your recommendation on cases for watercooling are?

I currently have a Antec P180 which is housing my Q6600 etc but I think I might just go for a full rebuild if I decide to venture down the watercooling route. Heard TJ07, CM690 v2, and the xigmatek utgard are pretty good (utgard decent but ideally wouldn't want to modify the cases) ... looking at fitting 2 x 240 rads + maybe external 120 rad + pumps etc without modification apparently the utgard can do this but with slight modification.

Any ideas as it will be for watercooling dual gfx + cpu! if it's going to be for rendering!

EDIT: Ohhh forgot to ask any decent cases with USB3 ports now? (just for future proofing sake ... also USB2 ports can't run USB3 due to the extra wiring and voltage going down them!)

[scaryjim]

You can watercool in any old case if you're willing to take a jigsaw and a multitool to it: have a read of Project Cunning Plan to see what I mean

But I wouldn't recommend that route unless you have patience, dedication, and plenty of money (you may have noticed that there haven't been any updates in that log for a while ).

2x240 rads should be more than enough for one CPU and two GPUs, without messing about with a single 120 as well: frankly you could go with a single 360 but they're much harder to fit into a case without some modding, and you'd be running closer to the limit of the cooling loop (you'll notice that I'll be cooling a Q6600 and two 880GTXs on a single 360). There should be plenty of cases that'll take 2x 240mm rads, I'd've though (although obviously I've gone for the big mod option so I've not really looked into it...).

[dbh]

Interesting options ideally would like to keep the CPU out of the GPUs loops but due to case size might be a better option then... or maybe 1 x 240 and a single 120 for the cpu? but then I'm thinking along the lines of 2 x GTX570 when they come out (and drop in price!!)