GPU water cooling worth while when upgrading every generation?

T

Tych-0

Gawd
Joined
Jul 7, 2010
Messages
545
I've been thinking about jumping into custom water cooling for some time now and am currently trying to decide the parts for my new X99 SLI GTX 980 build.

My question is for somebody like myself that is likely to upgrade GPUs every generation: is it too much hassle? It looks like the 980s do great on water, but when I'm looking at an extra $120 just for each of the blocks and am not likely to recoup any cost from the stock coolers, and there is a 50% chance I'll jump for the 980Ti or whatever comes next. I'm thinking it may be more hassle than it's worth. Maybe I'm answering my own question, I'm trying to convince myself to give it a try, but having trouble justifying it.

To those of you that both upgrade regularly and water cool your graphics cards, are you finding you are easily able to sell your old cards w/blocks easily and for a reasonable price?
 
If you want to do watercooling with the latest and greatest, and you're worried about value, you shouldn't be watercooling. And if you're also concerned about value, I also question why you would always go with the latest and greatest.
 
You can always slap the fans back on the GPUs. Just make sure to keep everything you take off around.

Water can have a pretty steep learning curve, make sure you're dedicated. A good GPU/CPU loop can cost over $1k.
 
If I upgraded every Gen I sure as hell wouldn't be able to afford new blocks every Gen

:(
 
Tsumi said:
If you want to do watercooling with the latest and greatest, and you're worried about value, you shouldn't be watercooling. And if you're also concerned about value, I also question why you would always go with the latest and greatest.
Click to expand...

As you already figured out form the fact that I like to upgrade my GPUs often, I am less concerned with the value of it than I am the hassle involved with the swapping of video cards and their respective water blocks every time. That said the blocks aren't cheap, and with my desire to upgrade often, I'm starting to think the hassle and the extra money might have me in a little deeper than I'd like to be.

I was hoping somebody would convince me otherwise by telling me how awesome their gear runs on water, how quick and easy they are to swap out, how much fun it is to build, and how great the resale is on water blocked graphics cards. No dice I guess, hah.
 
Well ... You can usually recoup a nice chunk of the cost of the block on resale to someone like me. When lookign for a GPU I look for one with a WB 1st (Meh @ buying new anymore). Buy new ones, install blocks. use some Quick Disconnects and you have a quick swap of your GPUs, then pull / replace the old ones with new ones, and sell old ones
 
If you are going for the price conscious measure, then water cooling can be effective if pushing a lower end card past the higher end cards performance.
But you need to be clear how much the cards clock generally when water cooled to know if it is worthwhile.
And watch out for memory size differences.

A 970 water cooled + clocked might be a better option than an overclocked 980.
If you want to be sure, wait for the 980 OC results and WC 970 OC results to come in and keep an eye out for problem overclocks in case there is a dodgy batch.


To reduce hassle:
Sell the old card with its water block then get a new water block for your next card.
The price difference between the cards will cover the cost of the new block.


If you need the performance of the fastest cards with fastest overclock then you have to swallow either the cost or the hassle.
Its not much hassle to "run" a loop if you approach water cooling with good products and loop design.
 
You'll take about a 50% loss on reselling waterblocks. Installing and uninstalling the block itself isn't hard. I've blown out a half dozen 680's going for extreme overclocks and have had to swap the block + stock heatsink on and off for each warranty return. Just put some ball valves on your loop to isolate the gpus from the cpu.
 
QDCs (quick-disconnects, expensive stuff) would make swapping constantly a non-issue. Removing ~15 screws and putting them back in isn't that big of a deal either. So with the proper hardware, you can make the hassle of replacement a non-issue. The real question is whether or not you're willing to take the loss each time. Which, if you're constantly buying top-end cards every generation, you probably are willing.
 
I'd never do this as I always go for full cover blocks and don't change GPU's that often, but you might want to consider universal GPU blocks that only cool the core. e.g. http://www.ekwb.com/news/488/19/EK-Thermosphere-a-new-universal-GPU-water-block/

EK-Thermosphere_right2_12001.jpg


That way you keep the same block even when you upgrade. All you do is change the heatsinks on your vrams when you change GPU. And if you've got a big case, you could get away without even having to disconnect your loop. But you'll need some airflow around your GPU's to keep the vrams cool.
 
echn111 said:
I'd never do this as I always go for full cover blocks and don't change GPU's that often, but you might want to consider universal GPU blocks that only cool the core. e.g. http://www.ekwb.com/news/488/19/EK-Thermosphere-a-new-universal-GPU-water-block/

EK-Thermosphere_right2_12001.jpg


That way you keep the same block even when you upgrade. All you do is change the heatsinks on your vrams when you change GPU. And if you've got a big case, you could get away without even having to disconnect your loop. But you'll need some airflow around your GPU's to keep the vrams cool.
Click to expand...

Wished I knew about these before, would keep cost down when upgrading the video cards. But does EK still have that issue with if the nickel plating still flaking off?
 
I usually just buy one below the top end card + full cover waterblock and overclock it past the top end card. So I basically pay for the lower end one, spend a little more money on the block, and get the performance of the top end card while saving $100+.

The 970 is just to tempting to pass up imo. I'm currently using a watercooled gtx 480 (ancient I know) and I think with the 970 + waterblock, ill finally be able to jump to one of those 120hz 27" korean ips monitors that everyone talks about. Hopefully heatkiller comes out with the 970/980 blocks soon, as they are the best ones by far imo.
 
The universal blocks have been out and about for a long time. I've got an old MCW-60 from swiftech that I'm still using. I think it's 7 years old now. Still cools my 670 better and more quietly than any air cooling solution. The only issue at this point is that the mosfets on newer cards need cooled well too. I almost went with a full cover block this time but managed to stick on a bunch of sinks on all the mosfets and the card stays stable and cool.
 
Hmm, interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about the VRMs with no cooling on them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top