First time water cooling... with 4 GPU's! Could really use a bit of advise.

My 6990 will be here tomorrow and I will have it all underwater by the end of the weekend. I have to get a few more parts in to do it thr RIGHT way however this weekend will simply be a "Lets see if my triple rad can handle the massive heat of 3 GPUs and a CPU". If it can then it will validate my recommendation to the OP.

I will be quad GPU soon enough as soon as my second 6970 gets back from Sapphire RMA dept.
 
Dude, when and from where did you get your hands on a 6990?? Everywhere I look is sold out most with no indication when they'll have more. I'd happily sell my 6950 to offset the cost of that upgrade. :D

Also, are you going to be cooling your GPUs in parallel as well? Definitely want to see pics since your rig will be up before mine.

tangoseal said:
My 6990 will be here tomorrow and I will have it all underwater by the end of the weekend. I have to get a few more parts in to do it thr RIGHT way however this weekend will simply be a "Lets see if my triple rad can handle the massive heat of 3 GPUs and a CPU". If it can then it will validate my recommendation to the OP.

I will be quad GPU soon enough as soon as my second 6970 gets back from Sapphire RMA dept.
Click to expand...
 
CodeMonkey said:
Dude, when and from where did you get your hands on a 6990?? Everywhere I look is sold out most with no indication when they'll have more. I'd happily sell my 6950 to offset the cost of that upgrade. :D

Also, are you going to be cooling your GPUs in parallel as well? Definitely want to see pics since your rig will be up before mine.
Click to expand...

Hrrm I will parallel the 2 6970s but have to serial the 90 since the 6990 was the overpriced Powercolor card with the EK block (warrantied as such) included and mounted already. I could see paying more since the card was under warranty with the waterblock which was worth the extra price premium.

I subscribed to: nowinstock dot net and setup txt and email alerts. They scan the major vendors such as Newegg, etc.. and as soon as their websites post "in stock" I get an alert within a min or two later.

When I got my card last frdiay I got the text alert, I already had all the cards in my Newegg wish list on my HTC Thunderbolt app, and just had to hit the order button. I literally placed my order and within 7 mins of the alert being sent to me they were sold out. I was lucky I got it while I could.

With the 6990's they are all reference, every single last card out. You just have to be ready to buy whatever card you can get your hands on. The Powercolor warranty is only two years which sucks but in two years when the warranty is up I will be obtaining the 7990 or whatever dually is out at the time. I can probably put an Air cooler on this card and just use it for a (still very very viable) secondary gaming machine card.

Anyways my 6970's will have Swiftech Komodo Blocks and the 6990 came with an EK block attached. There is no rule that sais' you have to have the same brand. I especially have a little leeway since they are two totally different models of GPU.

Although I think 4 GPUs and a CPU might actually start to Tax my triple rad, both in pressure drop and heat. I may have to segment my CPU off to a second loop which I DO NOT want to do. But I have cooled 3 GPUS and a CPU fine on one loop before as well as the watercooling companies who make this stuff also recommend works fine. It does.

Im also going to go to Microcenter and get a Swiftech MCP35X due to the much higher head pressure these little pumps have over the MCP655 which has a higher flow rate according to the charts at swiftech.
 
Man I hate learning about cool sites like that late. Thanks a ton for pointing me to it. Hopefully I can pick one up in the near future.
 
Okay I just got my AX6990 LCS in the mail today. OH YEAH!!!!

Powercolor6990.jpg


After making this post im shutting down to add it my loop for (preliminary testing). I will confirm if my tri-rad is strong enough for this mega hot dual GPU card + a CPU. My dilema that most people NEVER experience is that I like to be video encoding with all 8 threads while gaming. Thats rocking both GPU and CPU space heaters at the same time. My loop is good to go for wide open CPU and 1 GPU but im not sure about 2 GPUs and soon 3 GPUs and CPU while video encoding and gaming.

Just gaming should be good to go as I have recommended but I want to see what true full computer load of everything will do to my loop.

Till later...
 
Nice! Can't wait to see the results. That's precisely the cooling situation I want to know about too.:)
 
Anyone know or have some feedback on whether the EK-CoolStream Radiator XTC (420) would be as good or better a choice than the Koolance HX-CU1320H Radiator? I can't find any info as to whether the EK is dual pass or not. Thanks!
 
CodeMonkey said:
Anyone know or have some feedback on whether the EK-CoolStream Radiator XTC (420) would be as good or better a choice than the Koolance HX-CU1320H Radiator? I can't find any info as to whether the EK is dual pass or not. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hrm im not sure about those. I will do some research and get back when I find some stuff out.

Fow now I like the Swiftech Rads due to the higher Fins per Inch densitiy.

p.s. this 6990 is literally friggin beast. I've never felt crossfire so smooth before. I think has to do with the way there is a true bridge chip in side the card that makes the difference. I will be doing a very very small post later on temps etc....
 
I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'll check out the Swiftech Radiators as well. I think I'm going to stick with the Koolance as my central 4 fan rad, but if I need more cooling then I'll add a one of the Swiftech rads.
 
Just waiting on parts to arrive now. I should be able to put this together in a week or two. :)
 
I'm seriously thinking about taking the CPU out of my loop and cooling it with a Corsair H50. Would this be overkill, purely a waste/pointless, or would it give me a worthwhile bit of added cooling performance?
All of my other components have been ordered so I'm finally nearing being able to put this thing together.
Thanks for any input you guys might have. :cool:
 
CodeMonkey said:
I'm seriously thinking about taking the CPU out of my loop and cooling it with a Corsair H50. Would this be overkill, purely a waste/pointless, or would it give me a worthwhile bit of added cooling performance?
All of my other components have been ordered so I'm finally nearing being able to put this thing together.
Thanks for any input you guys might have. :cool:
Click to expand...

Hrrm I wouldnt go with H50. If you do that I would recommend looking at one of those CoolIT Vantage units. Those are so much cooler (feature wise and probably cooler in the thermal dept.) for the money than the boring corsair H50. Plus I have read many user reviews on this site alone that state the H50 is no different than a good air cooler.

That's just a guess of course. I own neither so I have no direct experience. Also Corsair just released their H100 dual fan rad version.


edit** Holy crap my 6990 is idle'n at 40c right now with my little window unit cooling the room down. DAMN watercooling is EPIC! - Thats only 107f. Try that on Air cooling lol :p
 
The only reason I was even considering it is because I can get it for $40 shipped. :)
I think I'm still a bit nervous about dumping the heat from the 4 gpu's onto the CPU. I understand that
the system will reach an equilibrium temp and so it probably won't matter, but still. :eek:
Guess I'll just skip it. My parts need to hurry up and arrive so I don't keep finding things to buy in the
name of tweaking because I'm impatient. :p
 
Thanks for chiming in so quick tangoseal. Just checked some performance reviews and looks like you're spot on. Guess I'll just try to be patient till my gear arrives. :)
 
CodeMonkey said:
The only reason I was even considering it is because I can get it for $40 shipped. :)
I think I'm still a bit nervous about dumping the heat from the 4 gpu's onto the CPU. I understand that
the system will reach an equilibrium temp and so it probably won't matter, but still. :eek:
Guess I'll just skip it. My parts need to hurry up and arrive so I don't keep finding things to buy in the
name of tweaking because I'm impatient. :p
Click to expand...

Hrrm im also a bit skeptical of 4 GPUs. Earlier in this thread I recommend one rad for GPU and CPU. However that was with consideration of one CPU and 2 GPUs. I dont see how one rad can dissipate 4 GPUs and 1 CPU tbh.

Here is my math ... dumbed down of course

GPUx4 @ 300watt each = + gold PSU somewhere around 900watts of heat to cool (probably not accurate)

CPU - atleast 95watt minmum heat output to cool.

So thats about 1kW of thermal heat that needs to be dissipated in a radiator. Im kinda iffy on a triple rad being able to touch that. A quad might if each fan space is rated for 250 or so watts of heat dissipation. I know a high quality 120mm fan at 100cfm can dissipate 250watts of heat all day long however not sure about the rad. I guess thats the fun of watercooling is step by step trial by trial and its all fun in the process.

I still do not think a dual loop is necessary as much as maybe incorporation of a second single or dual rad for your processor.

Im thinking of doing the following upgrade to my loop which will still leave me with one solid loop:

Res to Pump - 6990 - 6970 - Triple Rad - CPU - Dual or Single Rad - back to Res

I know for sure that a single Swiftech MCP35X has the head pressure to move water through all of that. Its a sick little pump and I also think my MCP655 (Laing D5) can move enough liquid also but just with a lower pressure rate.
 
I've already gone with the MCP655 but I think I may go ahead and get a second one and run them back to back as Tsumi suggested. I also want to add a tri fan rad to my quad and maybe run a similar loop as you. I'll go ahead and test with just the quad though to see what kind of performance it gives me.
 
CodeMonkey said:
I've already gone with the MCP655 but I think I may go ahead and get a second one and run them back to back as Tsumi suggested. I also want to add a tri fan rad to my quad and maybe run a similar loop as you. I'll go ahead and test with just the quad though to see what kind of performance it gives me.
Click to expand...

Quad should easily cool 1000watts of heat.
 
Someone clarify this for me:

tangoseal said:
I know for sure that a single Swiftech MCP35X has the head pressure to move water through all of that. Its a sick little pump and I also think my MCP655 (Laing D5) can move enough liquid also but just with a lower pressure rate.
Click to expand...

Swiftech MCP655
Maximum pressure: 50 PSI
Maximum head: 10ft
Max nominal discharge: 1200 LPH (flow rate?)

Swiftech MCP35X
Maximum pressure: 22 PSI
Maximum head: 14.7ft
Max nominal discharge: 1050 LPH (flow rate?)

So the MCP655 can handle higher total loop pressure at a higher flow rate, but it can't push the water quite as far as the MCP35X? Does the max pressure not mean very much in comparison with the max head pressure? Looking at the max pressure I don't want to use these two pumps in the same loop because of that disparity.
The main question I'm trying to sort out is whether I should buy 2 MCP655s or 2 MCP35X? Oh and I can buy two MCP35X for the price of one of the MCP655s so that makes it even more tempting to switch to the MCP35X. I think tangoseal is right. My 4 fan rad should dissipate 1 kW of heat, but I think increasing the flow rate would help. Besides that, if I get my hands on a 6990 I'm going to add that as my final card and then I'll also want to add another 2 or 3 fan rad to the loop.
 
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I'm in the process of setting something similar up but I was looking at using 2 rads, the PA 120.3 and the PA120.2 with a mcp350 + EK x-res 140mm to cool an i7-2600k, 1x 5970, 1x 5850, and 1x 5870. Think the pump can handle all of that? If not any recommendations on what pump I should use?

CodeMonkey maybe I missed this but what case are you putting all of this in?
 
Not sure if that pump can handle all of that or not so I'll have to leave that to someone else.

As for case I'm using a Cooler Master Centurion 590 ATX Mid Tower. My radiator and res won't be going in the case though. Since this machine if virtually never off I'm going to run the hoses out the window onto the balcony (less than 2ft) and mount my rad out there with 8 push/pull fans (4 each side). I'm not sure yet but I figure I may as well put the reservoir out there too. If some one answers the previous question I posted for clarification that my give you the answer you're looking for as well.

coran007 said:
I'm in the process of setting something similar up but I was looking at using 2 rads, the PA 120.3 and the PA120.2 with a mcp350 + EK x-res 140mm to cool an i7-2600k, 1x 5970, 1x 5850, and 1x 5870. Think the pump can handle all of that? If not any recommendations on what pump I should use?

CodeMonkey maybe I missed this but what case are you putting all of this in?
Click to expand...
 
CodeMonkey said:
Not sure if that pump can handle all of that or not so I'll have to leave that to someone else.

As for case I'm using a Cooler Master Centurion 590 ATX Mid Tower. My radiator and res won't be going in the case though. Since this machine if virtually never off I'm going to run the hoses out the window onto the balcony (less than 2ft) and mount my rad out there with 8 push/pull fans (4 each side). I'm not sure yet but I figure I may as well put the reservoir out there too. If some one answers the previous question I posted for clarification that my give you the answer you're looking for as well.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of getting the 3x120 rad stand and putting the resevoir and the PA120.3 on it and the PA120.2 inside my case. Leaves room for another rad should I switch some cards out to 5970/6990's. Hopefully someone can clarify some of the info about the pumps, really wanting to get all this ordered for next weekend.
 
Sorry to post this again, but I've posted it in another forum as well and still haven't found an answer.
Someone clarify this for me:

tangoseal said:
I know for sure that a single Swiftech MCP35X has the head pressure to move water through all of that. Its a sick little pump and I also think my MCP655 (Laing D5) can move enough liquid also but just with a lower pressure rate.
Click to expand...

Swiftech MCP655
Maximum pressure: 50 PSI
Maximum head: 10ft
Max nominal discharge: 1200 LPH (flow rate?)

Swiftech MCP35X
Maximum pressure: 22 PSI
Maximum head: 14.7ft
Max nominal discharge: 1050 LPH (flow rate?)

So the MCP655 can handle higher total loop pressure at a higher flow rate, but it can't push the water quite as far as the MCP35X? Does the max pressure not mean very much in comparison with the max head pressure? Looking at the max pressure I don't want to use these two pumps in the same loop because of that disparity.
The main question I'm trying to sort out is whether I should buy 2 MCP655s or 2 MCP35X? Oh and I can buy two MCP35X for the price of one of the MCP655s so that makes it even more tempting to switch to the MCP35X. I think tangoseal is right. My 4 fan rad should dissipate 1 kW of heat, but I think increasing the flow rate would help. Besides that, if I get my hands on a 6990 I'm going to add that as my final card and then I'll also want to add another 2 or 3 fan rad to the loop.

I've contacted someone that's supposed to be a bit of an expert as well so if I get answer from them I'll post it here as well.
 
I think I may have said this already, but I'll say it again:

The MCP655 will do better in a low-restriction system, because it can pump the liquid faster (low pressure drops due to low restriction blocks and radiators, and about 3-4 components in the loop excluding reservoir). The MCP35X will do better in a high-restriction system because the high-restriction cuts down the 655's flow-rate dramatically due to its low head, while the 35X will not be affected as much due to its high head.
 
Still waiting for the rest of my equipment to arrive, but I found a deal on an extra MCP655 and 120.2 radiator so I'm thinking of modifying my loop like this:

|--GPU 1--|
|--GPU 2--|_ _120.4 Radiator-- CPU --120.2 Radiator--Reservoir--pump----pump > (loop)
|--GPU 3--|
|--GPU 4--|

I realize this may be overkill, but at least 3 of the GPUs will be overclocked so I'm thinking I should see some cooling gains with this loop. Any thoughts?
 
Had a few issues with parts and one of my gpu water blocks didn't fit so I had to get a generic one. These issues forced me to use a series loop instead of the parallel loop that I had wanted to.

I did end up using this loop:
|--GPU 1--|
|--GPU 2--|_ _120.4 Radiator-- CPU --120.2 Radiator--Reservoir--pump----pump > (loop)
|--GPU 3--|
|--GPU 4--|

Once I got my loop set up I mounted my reservoir next to the window and made a hose pass through out of foil board. Outside I have both rads and the pumps and inside I have the res and power supply. The rads have been shrouded and covered with pantyhose to keep bugs and dust out. The late evening sun shines right on the rad for about 2-3 hours a day so I covered those with a sort of foil board mini roof and I bagged all my power connectors to protect against the occasional heavy rain. Not very pretty, but pretty damn effective. Running all four GPUs at 100% temps max out at 51 degrees C when the out side temp is around 90 F. The CPU will usually be a degree or two lower. When idle the temps go down to the low 20s or teens (degrees C). Once it starts to get cold out I'll do 70/30 distilled water and antifreeze. At the moment it's just distilled water.

Stripped down and cleaned before adding components
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/508/dsc4596.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/845/dsc4598.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/dsc4601.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/26/dsc4607t.jpg/

Once the loop was complete I had to cut some crude holes in the case to run all four hoses out.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/97/dsc4810q.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/dsc4830v.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/dsc4831n.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/153/dsc4834d.jpg/

Had to keep a slight bend out and I saw someone else use this trick
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/dsc4833j.jpg/

After that I just mounted the res next to the window and passed all the heat and noise outside :)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/dsc4803v.jpg/
(I ended up using a bit of hose to insure that what just arriving from the 120.2 rad was pushed in much higher than my intake out to the pumps)
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/823/dsc4820l.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/dsc4822.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/dsc4823u.jpg/

Outside
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/dsc4835e.jpg/
space behind mini foil board roof
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/638/dsc4844w.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/dsc4845b.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/808/dsc4846s.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/dsc4847h.jpg/

pump is underneath the shelf that holds the rads
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/638/dsc4850o.jpg/

all power connectors bagged and zip tied
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/691/dsc4852e.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/191/dsc4853a.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/dsc4855i.jpg/

Horrendously amateur I know, but I learned a lot and I'm happy with the results. I will probably do more upgrades and tweaks later but for now I'm done. Thanks to everyone for the input and advise. I really appreciate it. :D
 
spitter said:
Antifreeze and an acrylic res does not sound like a good combo!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warning, but what's the alternative? A metal res will cause corrosion in my water blocks and with glass I can generally only find warnings not to use it. I still have a few months so if I know what to look for I can do some hunting. Also, would using alcohol be a better option than antifreeze to keep the water from freezing? I'll have to do some research tonight to see how well alcohol transfers heat and what's the best mix
 
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Looks like using alcohol will greatly reduce my heat transfer. Need to find a res that won't have issues with antifreeze. -_-
 
Distilled water. Always use distilled water with a silver killcoil or PT nuke.

Does outside get below 0 C? Is your computer on 24/7? If it is, then I doubt you have to worry about freezing
 
Tsumi, I'm running with distilled water and PT nuke now and I'd like to do that through the winter as well. Save for a power outage the PC is always on, but temps here in Maryland we do get temp drops below zero pretty consistently in winter. That being said it typically doesn't get much lower than -6 C at the coldest point in a day and the winter minimums usually average around -4 C Nov - Feb. With the constant water flow and heat generated by the PC do you think I'd still be ok with the distilled water and PT Nuke? Thanks for all the solid advice.
 
With an absolute low of -6 C, I wouldn't really worry about it too much. I suspect that the computer would dump the heat into the loop faster than the radiators can vent it out to get the water to freezing, and if you are really worried, have the fans on the radiators on a switch nearby your computer, so you can turn them on and off as necessary.

However, there is another risk you will run into here, and that is condensation occurring on the waterblocks, due to the water temperature being lower than the ambient temps.
 
put the fans on a thermostat switch so they only come on if the temps get above 25 C. With no fans on the radiators, even sub freezings temps shouldn't cause condensation let alone freezing.
 
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Perfect! Omegas and Tsumi you guys rock. I was going to do as simple on off switch for the fans but I think the thermostat switch will be perfect. I'll be sure to post a pic of that once I've set that up as well.
 
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