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Alienware ALX- Switching Watercooled GPUs.

G

Gel214th

n00b
Joined
Jun 21, 2005
Messages
22
Hello all,

I bought an Alienware ALX system, it is watercooled apparently with some form of Koolance EXO kit.

I've never dealt with Watercooling before, but I have reached the point where the two 7800GTs in SLI aren't cutting it in modern games. So I want to swap both of them for a single 8800GTX.

Suggestions have ranged from completely redoing the cooling loop, which I don't think I have the experience for, to simply removing the cooling blocks from the 7800GTs and leaving them hanging in the case negating the need to deal with somehow redoing the loop to only include the CPU.

Installing a Watercooling kit is one thing, there's no water already in the loops. However in this case I have to deal with the water already being there.

What is the procedure for removing the loops without leakage and spillage? Is this something that should in any way be attempted by a novice?

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Nice setup, well i think you don;t need 8800 yet. You can wait for R600 too.
 
Those compression fittings make removing the tubing a snap...

I'd personally take out the top card, remove the waterblock, then take the block off the bottom card.

With the waterblocks just hanging in the case, unscrew one of the fittings (on 1 of the GPU blocks) and hold it over the sink/tub/tupperwear container or something.

Prepare for a flood :D

Drain the entire loop, and unscrew all the compression fittings, to take out the tubes.

Cut the tubing as necessary, and reform the loop. Refill it with the coolant you drained, or get some new stuff.
 
should be a fillport on the EXOS unit. BTW buy some compressed air and dust that machine...
 
Hmm...I can't see anything resembling a 'fill port' on this thing. I also can't see a way to access the top of the case where the 'radiator' is.

Performance...in what sense?
I can overclock the graphics cards to about 480 core and 1040 Memory. Moderate overclocking I suppose. I have not tried overclocking the processor yet, but there are options in the Bios for that.

The LED temperature readout hovers between 38degrees and 42 degrees and I am currently in the tropics.

The graphics cards hit a high of 55 degrees.

I have no idea if that level of performance is good or bad :)

Here is my most recent 3DMark2006 score after overclocking the cards:
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=1309356
 
since it's a koolance system chances are it's 1/4". all the koolance supplies that i've seen are 1/4".
 
GaBeRuLeS said:
since it's a koolance system chances are it's 1/4". all the koolance supplies that i've seen are 1/4".
Click to expand...
I would think it is 3/8"

these systems, stock cool a CPU and an SLI setup (2 high-end video cards).

I just don't see that being 1/4"
 
1/4"

they don't make waterblocks with the outlet/inlet parallel to the cooling surface of the block in 3/8"
 
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