Cooling a tri-SLI configuration

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spugm1r3

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 28, 2012
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So my third EVGA 780 SC arrived in the mail yesterday, courtesy of some sweet deals on the forums here. Due to some short-sightedness and impulse purchasing on my part, I have two with ACX coolers and one with the awesome Titan-style blower.

Obviously, right off the bat, the wheels start turning (about $1000 too late), "I'm going to have cooling issues."

Just as I expected, the top card, which is also the workhorse, gets pretty toasty, pretty quick, while gaming.

I have a 200MM fan exhausting from the side panel, right at card level (for reference, this is in a HAF XM). But it doesn't seem to be up to the task. I didn't worry about the coolers when I bought these cards for two reason: 1) I didn't initially plan to SLI, and 2) I figured I would eventually water cool. Now it's looking like "eventually" is going to be "immediately", or I'm going to have to pull the third card out and wait until I can get all the pieces together.

Long story short, does anyone have any personal experience cooling tri-SLI or tri-Fire configurations and, if so, is water the only way to make this work? I know I could always roll back settings and reduce the load, but really, whats the point if you can't crank everything up?

So let me know; pictures of your setup, explanations of your cooling methods, etc... Anything is helpful at this point. I'm staring at another $500+ in hardware (blocks, fittings and backplates) and I would like to not go in as half-cocked as I did spending the first $1000.
 
I had a trifire R9 290 with the stock coolers, nothing helped except opening the case and directing a big fan blow directly at them.

For you I imagine you'll be fine if you got the stock Titan coolers for all of them.
 
yeah...tri-sli is the trigger puller for a water loop for most people (myself included) :p

1. you have to live with aggressive fan profiles on the gpu
2. focus on feeding the gpu's as much air as possible - the reference cooler will do the exhausting, no need to help it

On my titan tri-sli, I had 2 front 120's and a side 200 blowing aggressively at the gpu's and I managed to hold @ 80C under load for a while. Doesn't really get better than that
 
I've looked all over the place for those coolers. I've found one in ebay for 100 bucks, but at that price I may as well start collecting water blocks. :(

I appreciate the input. I've been fooling with my fan configuration today and I was able to get the temps down, but not enough to be comfortable. I may just have to eat it the cost and go full tilt.

That said, would an rx240 rad be enough to keep 3 cards cool?
 
spugm1r3 said:
That said, would an rx240 rad be enough to keep 3 cards cool?
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semi mini-rant

people saying ___ is enough radiator are usually people on WAY lesser setups (usually one gpu) that have no perspective. I followed their advice, and I wasted hundreds of dollars on cases/builds/setups that should have been "good enough"

You have to accept the fact that:

Three 780's (and probably a CPU in the same loop) are no joke. This is not a small amount of hardware. This is not a lightweight, low power draw setup. This is not a low heat output setup. You are powering and cooling a serious amount of hardware at this point.

If you want this to be quiet? (the big second motivator in going water cooling in the first place) Then completely ignore what other people say on "_____ should be enough". You need as much radiator as possible to cool with low rpm/quiet fans.

There's a reason why CaseLabs cases are getting popular with big builds - there comes a point where a lot of mainstream cases just don't cut it anymore. I wasted my time and money on making a build in a Thermaltake Urban T81 - but to cool 3 GK110's and a 4930k AT A QUIET LEVEL, there wasn't enough radiator. Again - this is a serious amount of hardware.

end mini-rant, but hope my point gets across
 
Completely appreciate the mini rant. I've had the beginnings of a mini loop sitting in the closet for about 6 months. My case is too small for what I have and was pretty sure what I have isn't enough. But I was hesitating to pull the trigger on more.
 
I had two 3x120mm Swiftech radiators cooling my CPU (2600K at 4.8GHz) and two 6970 at 1GHz each, using six Gentle Typhon AP-14 fans. Full cover blocks on the GPU.

CPU would load around 60C and the GPUs from 42-45C during full mining load. System pull around 650 watts from the wall, so even if all of that was heat into the radiator, then 6x120 was just enough.

You'd be putting even more than that in, so I'd look at using three triple or two quad radiators. Go big or go home, this is [H]ard :)
 
Exyia said:
semi mini-rant

people saying ___ is enough radiator are usually people on WAY lesser setups (usually one gpu) that have no perspective. I followed their advice, and I wasted hundreds of dollars on cases/builds/setups that should have been "good enough"

You have to accept the fact that:

Three 780's (and probably a CPU in the same loop) are no joke. This is not a small amount of hardware. This is not a lightweight, low power draw setup. This is not a low heat output setup. You are powering and cooling a serious amount of hardware at this point.

If you want this to be quiet? (the big second motivator in going water cooling in the first place) Then completely ignore what other people say on "_____ should be enough". You need as much radiator as possible to cool with low rpm/quiet fans.

There's a reason why CaseLabs cases are getting popular with big builds - there comes a point where a lot of mainstream cases just don't cut it anymore. I wasted my time and money on making a build in a Thermaltake Urban T81 - but to cool 3 GK110's and a 4930k AT A QUIET LEVEL, there wasn't enough radiator. Again - this is a serious amount of hardware.

end mini-rant, but hope my point gets across
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This post makes me lol, and it's so true. Every week I see people posting in the WC forums saying that "my AIO 120mm cpu cooler works great for my cpu only, so I'll just get a triple radiator for cpu, and SLI GPU's, should work great." I just let people find out for themselves these days. 90% of the time they ask for help, then when you offer advice, they tell you "well on another forum, there's a guy using a double radiator for 3 gpu's and a cpu loop, and his temps are great, so i should be fine" type of shit. More often than not, people fudge their watercooling temps. And what most people dont realize, is that winter temps are alot cooler than summer temps. So if I give you the temps that my loop gets in the winter, they are usually 5-8C cooler than what they would be in the summer.
 
I have a tri-fire setup but I believe I may have gone overboard.

My tri-fire setup is cooled with 2x rx480 radiators paired with AP-15 fans. I have two d5 pumps in case one goes out. I believe this was a waste though. One is pretty much all that's necessary.

My gpu's at full load settle around 42c. I'm not great with a dremel so I have a Caselabs case to fit this all in there. I will post pics tonight.

296nrjt.jpg
 
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Have you tried using the 200mm side fan as intake instead of exhaust? A bit of googling seems to indicate that using the side as exhaust is not as effective (or does jack) compared to using it as intake. Might be a short term workaround while you set up your loop.

Exyia said:
There's a reason why CaseLabs cases are getting popular with big builds - there comes a point where a lot of mainstream cases just don't cut it anymore. I wasted my time and money on making a build in a Thermaltake Urban T81 - but to cool 3 GK110's and a 4930k AT A QUIET LEVEL, there wasn't enough radiator. Again - this is a serious amount of hardware.

end mini-rant, but hope my point gets across
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Any opinion on the Enthoo Primo? Seems to be the most watercooling-friendly case to date.
 
This was kind of what I expected/feared, but I wanted to field some opinions before I decided to stop mucking in the mud and dive in headfirst.

Courtesy of all this devil's advocacy, I have a Caselabs S8 on the way. I will be filling it up with 2 ax360 rads and a photon 170 for the gpus. The cpu will be on a single rx240 kit that I picked up a while ago and couldn't fit in my haf xm without some more modifications than I cared to do.

So thanks jerks, I'm now in it another $1300 or so. At least the build will be fun.
 
LOL

Honestly, I would just run a single loop. Dual loops are cool and all, but if you've got a large GPU load and little CPU load, wouldn't you rather have that extra 240 rad cooling the GPUs instead of sitting basically unused?

That's my thoughts on the subject, anyway. :)
 
jedimasterben said:
LOL

Honestly, I would just run a single loop. Dual loops are cool and all, but if you've got a large GPU load and little CPU load, wouldn't you rather have that extra 240 rad cooling the GPUs instead of sitting basically unused?

That's my thoughts on the subject, anyway. :)
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I guess I didn't think an overclocked 5820K was going to be a little CPU load. The power consumption of a loaded, overclocked 5820K @ 4.3GHz works out to be almost 340W according to this review. I haven't done measurements myself, so I can't attest to that.

I won't argue that 2 360s may not be up to the task, but I figured that separating the loops would help me identify the weak spots sooner. Plus, maintenance/upgrades/etc... can be done without draining everything, every time.

I appreciate the feedback though!
 
n=1 said:
Any opinion on the Enthoo Primo? Seems to be the most watercooling-friendly case to date.
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Enthoo Primo supports a little less radiator than the Thermaltake Urban T81

It's a great case otherwise though - blows the T81 out of the water in features, build quality, and execution.

Shannon at Thermaltake tried to criticize my loop setup and parts selection like I was an idiot when I said the T81 wasn't enough for 3 GK110's and a 4930k (even after I did extensive modding to it to fix the dumb design decisions they made on that case).

Don't let anyone fool you - quietly watercooling THREE GK110's and a CPU is not a "small" build - especially if/when you overvolt the GK110's. Give the setup/loop as much respect as the hardware it's housing. I'm stuck with probably over $500 in parts and a T81 sitting around because I listened to kids who said "____ is more than enough". Even the best fans at quiet noise levels don't move much air

spugm1r3 said:
This was kind of what I expected/feared, but I wanted to field some opinions before I decided to stop mucking in the mud and dive in headfirst.

Courtesy of all this devil's advocacy, I have a Caselabs S8 on the way. I will be filling it up with 2 ax360 rads and a photon 170 for the gpus. The cpu will be on a single rx240 kit that I picked up a while ago and couldn't fit in my haf xm without some more modifications than I cared to do.

So thanks jerks, I'm now in it another $1300 or so. At least the build will be fun.
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simpsonsexcellent.jpeg :)
 
I have just one loop. My processor is overclocked to 4.5ghz. Dual 480 radiators keep it cool. I stress tested the system by mining with the cards and only one of the radiators were warm. The 2nd radiator was fairly cool. I also tried playing BF4 and only just one radiator is warm.

I think two 360 radiators should do the trick. It should be plenty sufficient for what you want to do. I'm assuming you'll be running slower fans so a slightly thicker 360 radiators would work.
 
spugm1r3 said:
I guess I didn't think an overclocked 5820K was going to be a little CPU load. The power consumption of a loaded, overclocked 5820K @ 4.3GHz works out to be almost 340W according to this review. I haven't done measurements myself, so I can't attest to that.

I won't argue that 2 360s may not be up to the task, but I figured that separating the loops would help me identify the weak spots sooner. Plus, maintenance/upgrades/etc... can be done without draining everything, every time.

I appreciate the feedback though!
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During gaming the CPU isn't going to be a constant load, especially not to 100% of its TDP, games just don't do that. If you were folding on it or something like that, then yes, it would be using 100%.

Also, there really isn't much 'maintenance' you'll be needing to do. I haven't opened my loop since I put it together 6 months ago, and before that it had been, what, three years? And it looked and performed like the day i put it together.
 
jedimasterben said:
During gaming the CPU isn't going to be a constant load, especially not to 100% of its TDP, games just don't do that. If you were folding on it or something like that, then yes, it would be using 100%.

Also, there really isn't much 'maintenance' you'll be needing to do. I haven't opened my loop since I put it together 6 months ago, and before that it had been, what, three years? And it looked and performed like the day i put it together.
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You should change the water in there every 6-8 months. The weakest point in all the builds that I have ever seen is the rubber o-ring on the D5 pump. I have to replace one like every year or so.
 
spugm1r3 said:
This was kind of what I expected/feared, but I wanted to field some opinions before I decided to stop mucking in the mud and dive in headfirst.

Courtesy of all this devil's advocacy, I have a Caselabs S8 on the way. I will be filling it up with 2 ax360 rads and a photon 170 for the gpus. The cpu will be on a single rx240 kit that I picked up a while ago and couldn't fit in my haf xm without some more modifications than I cared to do.

So thanks jerks, I'm now in it another $1300 or so. At least the build will be fun.
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Haha, the power of computer hardware forums. This discussion went from "just point a couple fans at them" to dual WC loops in a Case Labs chassis. Wonderful work all; this is how it's supposed to be!

I'm actually just about to order an S8 myself and my first custom loop, getting very close to having a my setup nailed down. Post up a build log or at least a few pics for us.
 
jedimasterben said:
And this is because?
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It's used as a check to see if anything's gone bad with the loop. Maybe a growth started and you need to clean it or fittings might need to be replaced. It's more of a safety check. But yes I agree, you don't have to do it. It's one of those best practices when doing a watercooled setup.
 
XViper said:
It's used as a check to see if anything's gone bad with the loop. Maybe a growth started and you need to clean it or fittings might need to be replaced. It's more of a safety check. But yes I agree, you don't have to do it. It's one of those best practices when doing a watercooled setup.
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IMHO best practice is to clean the parts you're using with distilled or deionized water, do not use dyes or any additives other than copper sulfate to prevent unwanted growth. My system is not enclosed and uses a large acrylic cylinder reservoir that receives sunlight at one part of the day and strong light from an aquarium for the rest, and the water is still as clear as it was on day one (at like six months now) and the three year loop before that one was the same way.

If you're using any other kind of additives or dyes, then yes, I'd imagine that there would be maintenance necessary very often, but that would just suck :)
 
Right now I air cool my 2 Titans, but with my previous Tri SLI setups I used switftech waterblocks, BlackIce GTX 360 radiator, and 2 MCP655 pumps with mod tops. I also used 1/2" tubing and metal fittings including 90 degree bend fittings. I tried to keep the tubes as flat as possible without bending. I got pretty decent flow and steady temps with that setup. Thermochill PA radiators were pretty good as well. I haven't been as much into the watercooling these days because it hasn't been necessary.

The most important thing generally when cooling is flow and heat dissipation. Whether it is liquid or air, you need good solid contact on your heat sinks, and you need good air flow over your radiating fins.
 
Tych-0 said:
I'm actually just about to order an S8 myself and my first custom loop, getting very close to having a my setup nailed down. Post up a build log or at least a few pics for us.
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This was my plan. This being my first foray into proper water cooling, and in a case worth the attention, I'd like to keep this build from being a rush job. Plus, all you jerks can revel in the opportunity to tell me "you're doing it wrong!" :D
 
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spugm1r3 said:
This was my plan. This being my first foray into proper water cooling, and in a case worth the attention, I'd like to keep this build from being a rush job. Plus, all you jerks can revel in the opportunity to tell me "you're doing it wrong!" :D
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building in a case labs is unlike any other

I giggled to myself as I was finishing my tubing on my SMA8. even a caselabs can start to feel cramped and hard to work on when it's absolutely LOADED with radiators/fans :p so glad I stepped away from "mainstream" cases for a build of this level
 
All this caselabs talk. If I have issues with CPU temperatures on my tri-Titan loop with 2x360 rads, I'll be getting the SM8 myself and going dual loop. Last time I did 2x Titans with a 360+240 and my 3770K temperatures weren't too great (70-80C) while the Titans were loading at 55C. Now it's going to be 3x Titans and a 5960x. I've upgraded the entire loop, have got dual pump running, moved away from bay res (very difficult to bleed those and I wonder if too much air got trapped in the rads). We'll see!

Haha, the power of computer hardware forums. This discussion went from "just point a couple fans at them" to dual WC loops in a Case Labs chassis. Wonderful work all; this is how it's supposed to be!
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Finally a thread worthy of being called [H]!
 
When I bought my TH10 Caselabs case, I vowed I would never buy another case ever. This holds true as I've gone through numerous setups and I'm still using the same case.

Oddly enough, I never run out of space. Guess it's just me. I can literally put another computer in there. I've been playing with the idea of upgrading to the Bitspower 250 upgrade kit so I can have the res as part of the pump.
 
A phoyba 1080 is great for three cards and a cpu. Its also very cheap considering the size, really good quality too. I had to crank the fans to keep my 7950s cool at very reasonable clocks on a 60mm thick 420 and 80mm thick 240 with fans in push/pull on the both.

As said before three cards is no joke, thats a lot of heat to dissipate.

That said, I was still using the two large rads with the 1080 but I never had to touch the fans. Always kept them at silent speeds, less than 1000rpm. I would think that a 1080 alone would be fine especially if you can put it somewhere where it can get good airflow. Another great thing about an external rad is that you can mount it further away from you than the case and keep your desk area cooler.
 
BababooeyHTJ said:
A phoyba 1080 is great for three cards and a cpu. Its also very cheap considering the size, really good quality too. I had to crank the fans to keep my 7950s cool at very reasonable clocks on a 60mm thick 420 and 80mm thick 240 with fans in push/pull on the both.

As said before three cards is no joke, thats a lot of heat to dissipate.

That said, I was still using the two large rads with the 1080 but I never had to touch the fans. Always kept them at silent speeds, less than 1000rpm. I would think that a 1080 alone would be fine especially if you can put it somewhere where it can get good airflow. Another great thing about an external rad is that you can mount it further away from you than the case and keep your desk area cooler.
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You know, I considered this, but I had two qualms. 1) I have a 2 year old, with more to come. As anyone with kids will attest to, if it spins, it's begging to have something shoved in it. 2) A case is self-contained. Every external addition is an opportunity for an external cause. Plus, wires/tubes.

As with every problem, there are fixes, and the two issues I listed above are by no means insurmountable. We all have to find answers that aren't just right, but also that fit. We'll see how the S8 works. Worst case scenario, I stick it on a pedestal and add some more cooling capacity.

Plus, if my wife doesn't see it, she doesn't question it. A 1080 is hard to hide ;)
 
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