Help with watercooling loops

[ImInNeedOfHelp2]

i have the Thermalltake Armor LCS VE2000 and i wanted to add my 2 Evga 8800gt Superclocked video cards to the loop. well if i make it just 1 loop its going to have to much residual heat transferring to all the other components and as seeing as i want to OC my computer to its limit, this is not very good for me, what would you think the be solution for me would be? i heard that adding another radiator would be the best, but i wanted to make sure before i add anymore money into the equation.



Now the manual says that the radiator can handle the high end graphic card, but i want to know if they meant SLI too.

in the end im hoping for maybe a break down of items or a simple answer on how i might be able to accomplish this.

any help or reasonable suggestions are welcomed.

 

[BillParrish]

OK, first, that is not a top end water cooling solution, do not expect to set any world records. See my sig. It is a decent system that will give good performance. I suggest you do not use the Tt gpu blocks, swifttechs MCW60s would be much better. Unless you are going to drop a fortune in full coverage blocks remember the ram sinks and mosfets. Consider too that a strategically place fan moving some air across the entire card(s) will help with long life and reliability and stability when highly overclocked.

Remeber too with the waterblock on the cpu all the fan blowby cooling for the cpu power supply circuitry around the cpu socket is gone.

A pair of 8800GT in SLI actually do not use all that more power (which is used by the card and released as heat) than the previous generation of top end cards and much less than the previous generation of cards in SLI.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=13

You can see that 2 8800GT in SLI do not eat much more power (released as heat) than a single ATI2900.

In short, you are fine, get it set up and see where you are, it is fairly easy to add an additional rad into the loop later. Unless you run two completely separate loops with absolutely no common point you cannot eliminate the thermal load of the cards from adding to the thermal load of the CPU and vise versa. It is amazing how much heat a rad can dump. At worst you loop temps will be up a few deg C due to the SLI video cards but It is highly unlikely that would have a major effect on the OC of the CPU. Or you run your fans faster/louder. We are talking about bragging rights on idle temps for the most part and with that Tt system you are not going to be doing much bragging that will impress other WCing people who for the main part disdain Tt because they do not realize that in a few very special cases a Tt setup is an extraordinary value for the money. However mainly most of Tt WC is crap, but getting better.


Also the hold down mechanism for the Tt cpu block is junk. order a maze4 hold down kit from Danger Den or visit a hardware store and fabricate your own spring loaded clamping method.
http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=111&cat=42&page=1
(the picture just shows the rods but you get the springs and nuts etc. everything you need.

If you have fabrication skills it is easy to replace that metal hold down bracket that covers the "see thru" top on the water block (wtf where they thinking!) with one made out of 3/8 clear acrylic. Jigsaw and drill and use the metal bracket as a template. Touch up with wet/dry sandpaper.
http://mysite.verizon.net/ressdxka/id3.html

 

[ImInNeedOfHelp2]

thanx for the input! i have already purchased the 2 ek Full waterblocks for my 8800gt's so im in it for sure, no tuning back :-P

ive read alot of reviews today about the Tt blocks sucking kinda disappoints me after spending the extra cash on a WC system thinking it was gonna be good.

so pretty much for me its a break down:

imma add 1 more rad into the loop between the cpu and the Video cards

CPU -<>- Rad -<>- Video Cards -<>- Res

imma keep hold onto the Tt block for now to see how well it performs, then think about moving to a swiftech.

just got off the phone which Tt and the tech swears that if i add in one more rad there it will significantly cool it down and temps should be fine.

Now my real question is, should i sequence the video cards, or use a y-spliter. Everyone ive asked has givin me different answers but i believe the sequence which end up being better, due to the equilibrium the water will be at after a few hours. what do you think?

 

[ImInNeedOfHelp2]

hm on another note i started thinking, how much big of a difference is it from making the GFX on there own loop, to jsut adding in a radiator to the first loop cant be that much difference correct ( im only asking because i confused myself to what you said about a rad dropping temp significantly)

 

[Wshmaster0]

The radiator determines the overall capability of the loop to get rid of the heat. The general temperature of the water will remain the same throughout the entire loop.

The benefits of getting a larger (or more that one) radiator is to support more components and keep the temperatures controllable.

Getting more radiators allows you to plan accordingly to your case style. Two fan or single fan radiators are much easier to mount than three fan radiators which requires a little more planning or even modifying your case.

There are other benefits but the main rule of thumb is that the less complicated your loop is the easier it is to cool and maintain.