Which 1080ti and Water Block?

Italiano86

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 26, 2008
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252
Hey all. Been awhile since I've been on here. I broke a capacitor off my watercooled 290x and now it only runs at 100mhz unfortunately, so I need a new card. I am wondering which card you would recommend.

Obviously I will be overclocking the hell out of it and take full advantage of my watercooled setup. Still rocking a 2500k @ 4.5Ghz, which I am sure will bottleneck on my 27" asus gysync monitor, but I may upgrade to coffee lake when it comes out.

I would prefer an EK block, unless you know of another killer brand/setup. Also don't need a dvi port, so making the card a single slot would be awesome as well. Looking to pull the trigger on one soon and can spend around 750 on the card and another 150 or so on the block. I can go higher if need be.

Was thinking a founders card would be a good idea but they seem rare. Any input is appreciated!
 
Honestly the 1080ti's seem to be very similar to one another in terms of performance. What you are paying for is quality coolers and LED coolness. If you are looking to swap out the cooler and increase clock speeds you can go with the base version.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_rx_vega_64_8gb_review,33.html This page has a GPU shootout that shows scores of numerous GPU's including numerous 1080ti's. The better cards have a higher out of box clock speeds. I hope this helps!
 
I'll definitely check that setup out. Is that probably as cheap as it gets for a single slot solution? I don't have to go that route and can look at cards with dvi if it will save me some money. If it's not that big of a difference then I will probably go with single. Thanks!
 
I think the MSI 1080ti Armor or any of the Founder's Edition cards will be the cheapest. The MSI armor one has a non-reference pcb, so might be harder to find blocks for. In any case - most of the 1080ti models seem to be very, very close to each other given proper cooling - just get the cheapest one.
 
I think the MSI 1080ti Armor or any of the Founder's Edition cards will be the cheapest. The MSI armor one has a non-reference pcb, so might be harder to find blocks for. In any case - most of the 1080ti models seem to be very, very close to each other given proper cooling - just get the cheapest one.

I just installed this one https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAAZU5Y02118 with an EKWB 1080ti waterblock and EKWB 1080ti backplate. Runs 1911MHz out of the box and OC 2012 MHz.

Keep in mind this card already has a backplate, but I don't know if it is compatible with the waterblock.
The MSI armor is worth a look, same layout than the MSI gaming, so you can use the EKWB MSI gaming waterblock for it.
 
I just took the lazy option myself. MSi Sea Hawk X EK is a Gaming X card with a preinstalled EK fullcover block and backplate. Nice to watercool under warranty for once imho.
 
I wanted RBG (to go with my Maximus IX Formula) and wanted to take the lazy route (especially after [H] glowing review of it).

image.jpg
 
TBH if your going to put a water block on it either get a FE or a top tier AIB card that EK makes blocks for like the Evga FTW3. my watercooled FE blows most cards out of the water in how well it can overclock other people i know with same cards report similar good binning on their cards. http://hwbot.org/submission/3620626_ 30th on hwbot for water is nothing to sneeze at, its mostly LN2 cards / cpus above where i scored in this run for example.
 
I wanted RBG (to go with my Maximus IX Formula) and wanted to take the lazy route (especially after [H] glowing review of it).

View attachment 35108
I have two of these in SLI and they both float at 2012mhz. They are definitely well engineered and top binned. Im still not sure I want to keep SLI.

To others commenting... these are top binned and honestly the only better card would be the kingpin.
 
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I have two of these in SLI and they both float at 2012mhz. They are definitely well engineered and top binned. Im still not sure I want to keep SLI.

To others commenting... these are top binned and honestly the only better card would be the kingpin.

I was running stable 2050 on air with just one card (i've seen some 2100 posiedons in the wild). I'm awaiting on some labor day PPC's packages that I bought with the last of the fittings I need for my hardline loop. I wasn't comfortable with the half a slot gap for SLI air cooling.

I'm hoping that i got some golden cards near ~2100.

I'm keeping the SLI for no other reason that it looks super cool and there will be at least some (Destiny 2 at the very minimum) titles that support SLI 1080ti's.
 
Do not get a zotac non founder edition card. I have the Amp Edition and they dont have a waterblock for it. Really sucks considering I am going to make my next PC full water. Considering just selling it an eating a few bucks to get an FE or one that actually has a WB like that ROG.
 
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I was running stable 2050 on air with just one card (i've seen some 2100 posiedons in the wild). I'm awaiting on some labor day PPC's packages that I bought with the last of the fittings I need for my hardline loop. I wasn't comfortable with the half a slot gap for SLI air cooling.

I'm hoping that i got some golden cards near ~2100.

I'm keeping the SLI for no other reason that it looks super cool and there will be at least some (Destiny 2 at the very minimum) titles that support SLI 1080ti's.

Well yes they are fuckin sick when paired up. I don't eve run my fans. I have 5 120mm rad slots running between my cards and threadripper and none of the 3 pieces gets more than 55c under extreme loads. Well if I don't run all 5 radiator fans ice seen 63 on the top card

cards are parallel with top as entrance and exit. I'm not doing serial crap too ugly. Parallel looks sweet as far as lines and it cools just as well. The top card gets about 3 sec hotter but that's it.

I run my Neochanger pump at 2k rpm in order to get more turbulence I side the blocks. It tends to cool 2 to 3 c cooler than 1500rpm.any faster just makes noise and no cooling difference.
 
I would go with EVGA 1080ti FE or other Ref layout + EKWB... Or MSI Seahawk X EK, but I can't find it anywhere...
 
I have my MSI FE boosting to 1923 at 75 to 76C without flinching. Could probably push it more but I like to keep temps under 80. I'm waiting on EK to release a triple rad for their aluminum kit that has CPU + GPU blocks. Then if I have the cash to spare I'll switch from my H240x over to that.
 
If you are considering waterblocks for the 1080 Ti, EK and Heatkiller both at the moment primarily make blocks that only fit REFERENCE design GPUs.
EK has a compatability list on their website that tells you which designs from which companies are reference designs.

I bought an nvidia 1080 Ti FE right from nvidia. I also bought an MSI Aero (which is a reference design)

I use two heatkiller acetal blocks and backplates. assembly and implementation was simple.

The temperature in the GPUs is about 38-39C under full load. Both are overclocked to the values you see in the H reviews.
 
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Are you running parallel of that Apogee HD? That's a heck of length in your plumbing.
 
Were you that concerned with restriction? A single 35x will run that whole setup.
 
Were you that concerned with restriction? A single 35x will run that whole setup.
it was both restriction/noise and me being new at the whole water cooling setup (also great redundancy). Running 3 pumps I get great flow&pressure at 25-40% PWM and nearly no noise. I leak-tested for 24 hours at 100% and man I didn't realize how much water they would throw until they booted up. At least I know the system can handle the pressure of 3 of those 35x's at 100%
 
it was both restriction/noise and me being new at the whole water cooling setup (also great redundancy). Running 3 pumps I get great flow&pressure at 25-40% PWM and nearly no noise. I leak-tested for 24 hours at 100% and man I didn't realize how much water they would throw until they booted up. At least I know the system can handle the pressure of 3 of those 35x's at 100%

If the future for reference, one 35x can handle your loop with ease. I'd also in the next build if I were you move to a 35X2 top and run a single loop, that way you gain safety with redundancy.

3Q9e3Lfh.jpg
 
Honestly, and not to hijack this, a single MCP 355 will drive all that tubing and could put out a fire to boot.
The build is really nice, but that is alot of pump to worry about.

Ive had my 355 for over 5 years and it is still running fine and pushes a shit ton of water.

I have a heatkiller CPU block and two heatkiller GPU blocks, a 120 x 2 and a 120 x 3 rad plus a reservoir in the loop.....no issues and overall stabalized temp is 41C
running 1080 Tis and a 4790K all overclocked.
 
If the future for reference, one 35x can handle your loop with ease. I'd also in the next build if I were you move to a 35X2 top and run a single loop, that way you gain safety with redundancy.
Sorry this thread hijacked the original post about the Waterblock and turned into a W/C discussion

It is one huge loop.

There is one 35x attached to the radiator pushing water to the top hole in the bay res (frozenQ) and there is an X2 that pulls from the lower port in the bay res and pumps liquid to the Black ice-SR1 in at the top and on to the waterblock for distribution. Both pumps never will not have a prime that way.

So i guess technically I'm only running 2 pumps one just has 2 DDC's attached to one top

I'm using one of the EK DDC heatsinks on the one 35x attached to the swiftech rad and the swiftech Heatsink w/ 80x15mm bequite fan on the X2 top. I read tons of reviews that the DDC's run super hot and reduce the overall lifespan.
 
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Sorry this thread hijacked the original post about the Waterblock and turned into a W/C discussion

It is one huge loop.

There is one 35x attached to the radiator pushing water to the top hole in the bay res (frozenQ) and there is an X2 that pulls from the lower port in the bay res and pumps liquid to the Black ice-SR1 in at the top and on to the waterblock for distribution.

I'm using one of the EK DDC heatsinks on the one 35x attached to the swiftech rad and the swiftech Heatsink w/ 80x15mm bequite fan on the X2 top. I read tons of reviews that the DDC's run super hot and reduce the overall lifespan.

Nah, they run just as hot as a D5, the difference is the 20w-30w of heat gets dumped into the air vs the water as with a D5. The thing is you are placing way too much effort on restriction that isn't there in your loop. Your gpus are run in parallel further reducing restriction... your loop is more low restriction than high restriction with all the parallel setups you have. And 35x pumps love large restriction, it actually keeps their temps down. You should never want to or need to run a 35x greater than 55% DC or duty cycle because the 35x will achieve 95% of its head/power at 52% DC.
 
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