And so it begins...480GTX SLI WC loop build

gpitpitan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
248
Parts just came in from performance pc's today! Should have my 480's WC'ed and running by later tonight. Pics from the build and setup will be added here as time goes by.

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Parts list:
EK - FC480 GTX acetal/nickel waterblocks x 2
EK - FC link SLI serial connector
EK - FC link geforce GPU connectors
EK - Black 480GTX backplates
EK - Coolstream 120x3 radiator
Feser tube red - 8ft
Scythe gentle typhoons @ 800rpm x 3
XSPC dual bay reservoir with MCP-655 housing.
Bitspower black diamond series plugs
Bitspower matte black compression fittings and barbs

Gotta go out and buy some funnels and syringes and then the fun begins!
 
Those fans are crazy slow - I guess it should be near silent at least.

Look forward to seeing the new build.
 
Is that enough radiator for your setup? Also will the xspc dual bay radiator fit in the 800d? I heard somewhere it doesnt.

edit: nm looks like your cpu is already taken care of.

Where are you mounting this second rad?
 
Is that enough radiator for your setup? Also will the xspc dual bay radiator fit in the 800d? I heard somewhere it doesnt.

edit: nm looks like your cpu is already taken care of.

Where are you mounting this second rad?

Second rad is gonna get mounted up on the top of the 800d where the triple 120 mount is.

Your right, the xspc dual bay does NOT fit in the 800d in its stock form. the cut out for the mountain slots is too shallow. But luckily i have a dremel tool and the will to make it fit. And now, it fits. Took me about 10 minutes of slowly grinding away on the acrylic slot. Im not the best with a dremel tool, but it works.
 
another issue? a single stripped screw on the back of my second 480. About to drill it out with my special bits i got from sears a few years ago when i had the same issue on an X800
 
It's a good thing you have the right tools on hand. Stripped screws that won't come out are no fun at all! Put up some pics once you've got it done.
 
Build is done, took all night.

Thought i stripped out the EK SLI link, and caused a leak. Thankfully it wasnt really stripped out and i was able to fix it.

The loop i have in place now looks nothing like what i had planned. Bitspower fittings are worth every penny. Also, ended up using 3 additional fans on top of the case for a push pull config at low fan speed. Edit: almost forgot to mention both the rad setup and corsair H70 are set to exhaust air outside the case.

Bleeding took FOREVER. Between stopping and starting the pump, tilting the case 4 different ways...it took almost 2 hours to bleed it completely. The way the reservoir / pump combo is set up is great, but its not very conductive to bleeding lines well.

Benchmarking now, so far, idles at 33-36C. Overclocked @ 1125mV 850 core, 1700 shader and 2000 memory, im hovering at 72-73 each card running kombustor.

I didnt take as many photos during as i had hoped but pics will be up later today, need to pass out now.
 
How are you finding the res/pump combo. I almost bought that one but read some unfavorable reviews about the acrylic cracking?
 
How are you finding the res/pump combo. I almost bought that one but read some unfavorable reviews about the acrylic cracking?

Well, i took a dremel tool to it to get it to fit to my case and it isnt leaking. Also using 1/2" ID compression fittings on it.

Acrylic is a bitch to work with, last time i used an acrylic res it leaked to all hell. I was hesitant to get this one but the combination res and MCP 655 pump housing was too good to not try.
 
1.125V is a lot of juice for 850/2000.

You might want to start at stock and work your way up from there with slight voltage bumps rather than just jumping to the card's max.

There's a point where no matter how much voltage you give it, the returns are minimal - and I'm guessing you probably passed the point on that curve. I'd try something closer to 800/825 on the core and 2000 on the memory, and see if you can get the voltage down to 1.087 or so and save yourself some heat & stress on the cards.
 
1.125V is a lot of juice for 850/2000.

You might want to start at stock and work your way up from there with slight voltage bumps rather than just jumping to the card's max.

There's a point where no matter how much voltage you give it, the returns are minimal - and I'm guessing you probably passed the point on that curve. I'd try something closer to 800/825 on the core and 2000 on the memory, and see if you can get the voltage down to 1.087 or so and save yourself some heat & stress on the cards.

yeah ill be trying that. I went with 1.125 since the guys at guru3d did it on their 480GTX waterblock review.

If i can get to 900mhz core and 2200 memory, ill be a happy camper.
 
yeah ill be trying that. I went with 1.125 since the guys at guru3d did it on their 480GTX waterblock review.

If i can get to 900mhz core and 2200 memory, ill be a happy camper.

On a single card that's tough enough - not sure how easy it'll be in SLI.

Also keep in mind that the people who spout off random boasts like "975/2300" probably aren't as stable as they'd like to think.

Be sure to test with something that's stressful AND has artifact scanning. OCCT GPU test can be pretty brutal and really help you weed out a bad overclock.
 
Photos from the build and install!

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Must have tool bit set! Stripped screw removers by craftsman. You may only use them once in awhile, but you'll be glad you got them every time.
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And onto the next problem....reservoir does not fit properly into 800d drive bays.

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Nothing a dremel cant fix. It was kinda nice using that tool, hardly has gotten any use since my RC helicopter building days and i paid so much damn money for the cordless model.

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Now fast forward 2 changes to the loop organization, different fittings combinations and you have....

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I really started to like how clean it looks. Im glad i went with this loop config instead of what i had previously planned.

Notes from the build:

In addition to the XSPC dual bay Lian D5/Swiftech MC655 reservoir not fittin in the 800d in its stock form, it is also a pain in the ass to bleed. Maybe it was just because of how everything in my loop was setup and the components used, but it took a good hour of turning the pump on and off and tilting the entire case in different directions to bleed the loop.

EK SLI connectors are susceptible to stripped threads if your not careful. I thought i had stripped one of my block connectors but thankfully it wasnt too bad.

Also, EK loves using M3 size screws and whatnot....its ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to find that size at my large retail local hardware stores (lowes)

The waterblocks were worth every penny of the 109 dollars i paid for each of them. Looks great, does a damn fine job of taming the 480 beasts. More testing on the temps coming later.

Corsair H70 along with my radiator fan setup is set to push/pull config, low settings, and to exhaust outside the case. I figured it was no use blowing the hot air from my OC'ed 930 only to dump it onto the radiator for the 480's

Final thought, as much as i love my Rampage III Extreme mobo, the locks on the PCI'E slots are an absolute PAIN IN THE ASS. Heres why in particular to my setup.

1) i installed the optional NB fan coolerand that stacks up right next to my dominators with their fan setup (as you can see in the picture)
Take those two details and then throw the PCI E x16 slot butted up RIGHT against that area and you have a the graphics card lock tab extremely hard to get to without the use of a skinny screwdriver to push down on the tab. (made slightly worse by the addition of the EK 480 backplate)

2) Even pushing down on the tab to release the cards doesnt work most of the time. Somehow if you dont do it exactly a certain way (which i have yet to find) the card still manages to get stuck.

3) having the cards in adjacent slots to each other makes the release tab for the second GPU and even bigger PITA.

I moved the cards down to slots 2 and 3 (now running as x8/x8 instead of x16/x8). In order to run both cards in x16 i wouldve had to purchase the EK triple SLI connector, then purchase a blank connector to block off the middle card on the block and then i would have been able to run slots 1 and 3 for x16. Or i could just get one of the cheapo SLI connector kits you see.
Not a big deal to be running x8/x8, as we all saw from the recent articles theres a neglible performance difference.


Overall, i think things went pretty well. I tamed the beasts that are the 480 GTX's and i have a very very quiet overclocked gaming/image editing PC to do work on\.

The only thing left to add I think would be possibly some small red internal cathodes, maybe the dual 8" pack that Lamptron sells and a lamptron fan controller along with higher speed silent typhoon fans.

Later this week I should be recieving the new Corsair Air Flow Pro LED kit and ill be posting new photos of that in action as soon as it comes in.
 
You could have also ditched the SLI adapter and gone with old school tubing between the cards if it was causing you issues. Though you're right you're not really losing anything running them in your current config. Course I'm a cheap bastard and don't consider FC blocks for my video cards anyway :)

Still a great looking build, I'd be more than happy with it if I were you.
 
Really nice setup! I'm glad you showed this because I was planning on doing something slimilar in the near future.

I don't mind wc the CPU but from a maintenance stand point, a self encosed set up like the H50/H70 seems so much easier.

I see that you have a pull/push set up for the top radiator. Did you just use some long ass screws to hold everything in place?
 
For both raditor setups are you intaking air on both? Or is one intaking and one exhausting?
 
Really nice setup! I'm glad you showed this because I was planning on doing something slimilar in the near future.

I don't mind wc the CPU but from a maintenance stand point, a self encosed set up like the H50/H70 seems so much easier.

I see that you have a pull/push set up for the top radiator. Did you just use some long ass screws to hold everything in place?

I used almost all the screws that came with the EK rad. it came with 30 and 35mm screws for mounting different size fans. I was just extra careful in making sure i dont go crazy and drive them right into the radiator for the longer screws but they dont stick out at all.

For both raditor setups are you intaking air on both? Or is one intaking and one exhausting?

Both are set to exhaust. Unfortunately, setup this way, i cant run my cpu @ 4.2ghz 1.3v, its too much heat for the fans in low mode. So i had to drop it down to 4.0 @ 1.237v and my temps are much more to my liking.
 
Really like the look of the SLI adapter with those blocks. Curious, why did you go with the H70 initially if you were relatively soon going to water the 480's?

And on the subject of stripped screws, did you try running the cards as normal for a few minutes so they heat up a bit? I've seen more then one post of someone saying it made things much easier.
 
Really like the look of the SLI adapter with those blocks. Curious, why did you go with the H70 initially if you were relatively soon going to water the 480's?

And on the subject of stripped screws, did you try running the cards as normal for a few minutes so they heat up a bit? I've seen more then one post of someone saying it made things much easier.

Well, i suppose i wanted to see how the setup worked with both systems in place. i think i found a good balance of performance and noise. Running full bore the computer barely makes a peep and keeps the temps in check quite well.

As far as the stripped screws go, in hindsight i should have removed the heatsinks a few minutes after removing them from the case after use, that probably wouldve made things a bit easier because i didnt have problems with the first card when i removed the screws.

I did try using my solder iron to heat the screw up a bit but that didnt seem to work well enough.
 
Sucks to see (hear actually) that you got that nasty coil whine on that system. Hope Redbeard takes care of it, that's unacceptable.
 
I pm'ed him about it and he responded pretty quick. Unfortunately its gonna be about a month before i can get a shot at a cross shipped replacement. Great that theyre gonna take care of it, but a little disappointed its going to take so long and that there was an issue in the first place.
 
Nice job :) Though I do think fans on the outside of the case look retarded and ruin the look. Apart from that i likey :)
 
If i had mounted all the fans below, there would be almost no clearance from the bottom fan to the mobo, and it blocks off all the wire grommets at the back. I didnt really intend on having fans at the top but i wanted more air coming through the rad than i had orginally planned. I may just go with a pull setup instead of push pull and just use high speed fans and throw in a fan controller.
 
Ok so i remounted the fans radiator setup, was a bit of a pain and had to take a bunch of things out...but it really does look better this way lol. Not sure if i want or need to mount some black fan grills on the bottom fans. My Corsair Air Flow Pro LED should be in tomorrow and I also have a lamptron FC-6, red cathodes, and red Kobra Cables coming in.

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Awesome!! Much better :D good job!
You could get some grills but so long as there are no cables likely to get sucked into it and you're not retarded enough to poke your fingers in, then dont bother :)
 
Quick question on the red feser tubing.. Is it transparent at all as in can you see air bubbles in it? I want the red lines but only if i can still see the bubbles so i can bleed it easier.
 
As far as the stripped screws go, in hindsight i should have removed the heatsinks a few minutes after removing them from the case after use, that probably wouldve made things a bit easier because i didnt have problems with the first card when i removed the screws.

I did try using my solder iron to heat the screw up a bit but that didnt seem to work well enough.

I had the same problem as you. Once the gtx 480 screws get stripped, even directly applying a soldering iron isn't enough to get them out. Gotta drill em out at that point.

I think your cpu temps look a bit high considering that you did go dual rad. It's probably cos the H70 doesn't cool as well as custom would.

And yeah the fans look a whole lot less ugly once you put them all inside the case. So good call there.
I've just ordered some rad grills but it's purely going to be for the cosmetic look. I don't think it will affect performance at all.
The 800 rpm fans also probably have something to do with your performance as well.. ;)

I've got a dead 1850 GT fan that I'm going to rewire, I think performance-pcs must have done something wrong with the wiring when the resleeved it. Grrr.
At least it gives me an excuse to resleeve everything and do some more cable management.
 
I had the same problem as you. Once the gtx 480 screws get stripped, even directly applying a soldering iron isn't enough to get them out. Gotta drill em out at that point.

I think your cpu temps look a bit high considering that you did go dual rad. It's probably cos the H70 doesn't cool as well as custom would.

And yeah the fans look a whole lot less ugly once you put them all inside the case. So good call there.
I've just ordered some rad grills but it's purely going to be for the cosmetic look. I don't think it will affect performance at all.
The 800 rpm fans also probably have something to do with your performance as well.. ;)

Well, i have higher speed fans pushing through the grill (not sure exactly what RPM but im guessing somewhere in the 1400rpm range) and the 800 rpm typhoons are pulling. i dunno how much more performance id get out of this rad if i had the max speed typhoons on each side (and that would cost me another like another 100 bucks just in fans.

H70 is good enough, just surprised at its higher idle temps at 1.3v for the i930.

Im sure an EK or heatkiller block would blow it out of the water but then id have to think about running a dual loop. Im just hesitant about throwing a CPU in with both 480's...and right now im thinking about adding a third WC'ed 480 soon , so thats even more rediculous heat i need to put somewhere if it comes to it.
 
Quick question on the red feser tubing.. Is it transparent at all as in can you see air bubbles in it? I want the red lines but only if i can still see the bubbles so i can bleed it easier.

yeah its clear enough to see air bubbles inside. Backlighting the tube helps even more if you really need to see whats inside.
 
Well, i have higher speed fans pushing through the grill (not sure exactly what RPM but im guessing somewhere in the 1400rpm range) and the 800 rpm typhoons are pulling. i dunno how much more performance id get out of this rad if i had the max speed typhoons on each side (and that would cost me another like another 100 bucks just in fans.

H70 is good enough, just surprised at its higher idle temps at 1.3v for the i930.

Im sure an EK or heatkiller block would blow it out of the water but then id have to think about running a dual loop. Im just hesitant about throwing a CPU in with both 480's...and right now im thinking about adding a third WC'ed 480 soon , so thats even more rediculous heat i need to put somewhere if it comes to it.

Umm yeah, you'll need another Rad if you add another 480 and hope to get them all to 900;). I think there's room for another 240 on the bottom of your case or maybe even a 360 if you remove that bottom cage/partition thingy.

As for the 800 rpm fans. Yea they are pretty useless as rad fans. They don't generate enough static pressure or cfm for effective cooling. They are better than nothing though.
I made the same mistake as you when i got a scythe low rpm fan to cool... of all things a cpu air HSF because I was concerned about noise..
Boy was that ineffective! Then I went with dual 1200 rpm fans in push/pull on a Megahalem. That worked out much better.
I think I still have that 800 rpm fan laying around somewhere, just nothing I would consider using it on! But at least Iit was only 1 fan. Hehe.
 
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Parts just came in from performance pc's today! Should have my 480's WC'ed and running by later tonight. Pics from the build and setup will be added here as time goes by.


Parts list:
EK - FC480 GTX acetal/nickel waterblocks x 2
EK - FC link SLI serial connector
EK - FC link geforce GPU connectors
EK - Black 480GTX backplates
EK - Coolstream 120x3 radiator
Feser tube red - 8ft
Scythe gentle typhoons @ 800rpm x 3
XSPC dual bay reservoir with MCP-655 housing.
Bitspower black diamond series plugs
Bitspower matte black compression fittings and barbs

Gotta go out and buy some funnels and syringes and then the fun begins!

Wow... This is cool, I will have almost the same exact setup...looking at cooling now, how do you like that CPU cooler - we have near identical systems and I'm trying to cool this stupid thing as no fan really works well with the R3 - What do you guys think of this unit - ERM-2K3UCU (3U) Rev1.1, Copper from Koolance?
 
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GPitPitan weren't you the one I PMed about watercooling? I have started a worklog (I'm not going to rush it at all though - should be 2 weeks before its up and running) with almost the same parts: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1546874 and have a big order coming from PPCS with some EK stuff too. I will also need to dremel away on the XSPC dual bay/res. to fit it in my 800D. Can I see some pics of where the dremelling took place so I have an idea. I tried test fitting last night and though I was able to force it in I'm pretty sure that's not going to fly on the final build.

EDIT: Should have read further before I opened my mouth. Two things: That EK SLI fitting looks SO GOOD I'm considering paying the $80 or so (?) it'll end up being for it. Also great info in this thread, should save me a ton of trouble.

MORE: So I took the dremel to the bay/res. Used a sanding attachment whose thickness was almost a perfect fit for the bay/res channel. But now the problem is wher the very bottom piece of acrylic meets the sides. There is a slight bulge and that is whats causing the problem. It'll slide in, it's just hard as hell. The reason I got caught up in all this, was the test fit of the bay/res in the 5.25 slots was snug, and I was going to use it without any mounting hardware. But then I read this: http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=889&page=8 and they suggested rubber washers on the mounting points to quieten the thing up, which is apparently as loud as a 2000RPM fan. But I can see that's not going work for me. Same with this guy who ditched the things altogether. Now I just don't know whether to sell mine or try to reuse in a future project... Seeing as I just took a dremel to it, I think the resell value may have plummeted
 
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Wow... This is cool, I will have almost the same exact setup...looking at cooling now, how do you like that CPU cooler - we have near identical systems and I'm trying to cool this stupid thing as no fan really works well with the R3 - What do you guys think of this unit - ERM-2K3UCU (3U) Rev1.1, Copper from Koolance?

Couldnt really tell you about the koolance. But as far as the H70 goes. It works well. Looking back i think it was the right decision not to combine the heat output of my i930 (which seems to run hotter than others as it is) with the output of two SLI 480 GTXs. I dont think the 3x120mm EK rad wouldve been able to handle it effectively (meaning quitely, which was the whole point of putting them underwater for me)
 
New pics from its final home (for now lol). FC-6 is mounted to the front, red cathodes and kobra cables added with Air Flow Pro in action under prime 95 blend testing. Also 6 cooler master excalibur fans are in place of my three 800 RPM gentle typhoons and random assortment of 120mm fans i had laying around, one of which was some vantec stealth i bought like 7 years ago.

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Were they kinda pricey? A bit, but have you seen the price of Noctuas and the like? Local frys had a bunch open box that still had all the parts together. They really work well with the FC6 controller. I can undervolt them to about 750RPM before they die. They spin up to about 2100RPM+ as well under max power. Great air pressure too.

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FC-6 is built like a tank. Great power and control. The photos i took do no justice to the LCD clarity and brightness. Only gripes would be the ugly non sleeved cables that come stock with the unit, could I do them myself? Yeah sure, but if lamptron can make such a well machine unit, they could go the extra mile with the cabling. I dont think it would bad for them to charge a few bucks more to have the cables sleeved already. Also, the included 4pin molex power extension cable is so short its borderline useless.

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I have a neat little window ledge in my room of the house. It worked out to where i can see into the computer, the cables run directly to my workstation and i can lower the blinds to creates a barrier from the exhausted rad heat that is SLI 480 GTX's. Also, note the ghetto cardboard shroud to route air from the back exhausting Corsair H70 away coming into the room.


Only thing I have left coming in is a new noiseblocker 140mm high speed fan to mount in the lower section for better intake for the CPU and rads, will be getting that connected to the last 4th channel on the FC6. Also, advanced RMA AX1200 and i7 930 coming in from newegg tomorrow because 1) i couldnt wait 2 to 3 weeks for a possible replacement direct from corsair to fix the coil whine issue. And the i7 930 wont enable Hyperthreading anymore.
 
Looks great man! My XSPC dualbay has been dremeled down to size and though it hits about the last 1-2", that is without the front panel on. So it should be good to go! I also got a FC6 coming looks great on the 800D too! Nice work!
 
Hey Gpitpitan

Can you measure the distance between the front of the card (the part that gets screwed in) to the first fitting? I'm creating a pass through hole on my mid plate and want to line up a future 480 GTX card. Plus on those eK 480 GTX Blocks, is there an (in / out) or it doesn't matter on GPU blocks? Your system looks awesome man...
 
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