My "Quiet" Galaxy GeForce GTX 480 SLI Build

DASHlT said:
Nice setup, although I think its a lil too much money to spend just to keep video cards quiet.

Hell in 2 months you will changing up those 480 gtx's
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I see people suggesting water cooling them, certainly that is a shitload more expensive than a chassis. And FWIW, I never suggested buying one for that reason, but if you were in the business of doing a new build, then you would be remiss not to consider the RV02.

And yes, I likely will be changing them soon. For the love of god, I hope it is for something cooler and at least as powerful.
 
I am folding right now on the CPU and all three video cards, and the wattage at the wall is 800w.

My wife just sat down in front of it not knowing anything about it and JUMPED back saying WTF. LOL.
 
jebo_4jc said:
I would love the ability to have some sort of external water system. I could even run hoses through a wall or out a window in the winter :)

I just can't figure out a way to get it done.
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qdemn7 said:
Well, you baiscially just build a box, and mount everything inside. A lot of people just use particle board for the box. It's cheap. The hard part for me, is I don't have the space for the table saw and drill press. to build mine. I live in an apt. I may just have to pay someone to build mine.
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qdemn7 said:
Kyle, have you ever thought about building an external radiator box?

A large one that you could put a 2-3 radiators, pump, reservoirs, fans and the like. Then you place it away from your desk. Bye, goes the heat and noise.

Using quick disconnects like the Colder HFC12 Series (sold by McMaster-Carr btw part # 51545K54 and 51545K34) would be a must. And they don't lower your flow rate very much. Reviewed over at Skinnee Labs.

I just built an external loop with my Thermochill PA120.3, dual Swiftech MCP355 pumps, EK Waterblocks Dual DDC top, and 400mm reservoir, along the Colders, and I love it. Not a rad box, just bolted to a piece of plywood. Rad box is next.



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Kind of off topic, but in regards to using the RV02 and an external water cooling solution.

Here's what I did with mine,

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I had this PCI quick disconnect bracket on the back of that Coolermaster 360 case, and I had velcro around the tubings and on the back of the RV02. So you just disconnected the tubing, attach it to the back of your case, and away you go.

Inside of the Coolmaster 360 case, is the pump (DP1200), two Stealth GTS 360mm radiators, and I cut hole in the top for the fill port. Used a T as the res.

The only thing in the RV02 was the cpu block, and two 90 degree elbows where the tubing enters. Unfortunately the entrance holes are on the bottom of the case. It's the only way to get tubing inside without any kinking (spelled wrong). I had a 4 pin molex adapter that just fits into the PCI slot, and a 30 inch black sleeved molex cable running to the external box. Had to use 2 Y connectors inside the external box. My only complaint is how loud it was, I had some plans to make it quieter but...

This was actually my first serious case modding, I cut out all those parts with a dremel, and covered up the edges with black duct tape. I was planning on going around the edges with some nice black rubber edging to finish off the look, until it sprung a leak. Brought it over to a friends house, and since the tubing comes out of the bottom of the RV02, it pulled too much on the tubing that was on the barbs of the CPU Block. You couldn't even tell that it was pulled off slightly, until the tubing heated up after turning it on. It ran just fine for about 10mins, until I left. I came back and tried to get the computer out of sleep mode, only to see the water dripping out. Lost 4 gigs of ram. I sold off most of my water cooling parts to offset the cost. I still do have enough parts to try another go. I was considering going all internal this time, just need to get another CPU block.

Anyways, enough of rambling. Back on topic.
 
Very nice article.
I read where you had difficulty with the SATA and drive connectors.

I just built a system for my son using the FT02. The design is similar but the drive cages are facing front to back and do not get interference at all from the GPUs or the MB.

I really liked the build I did with the FT02 and for just a few more bucks, would highly recommend anyone take a good look at that case as well.:D Overall, I think the FT02 looks better than the Raven, just a smooth, simple line.Pretty heavy though.

I have two 480GTXs running inside my good ol' Coolmaster Stacker EVO......my case does have alot of fans, but I have to say, I never felt the 480s were that loud in my case, maybe a touch more than my 5870s......they do run hot, no doubt, but again I think that's individual as well.
 
Nice build! I honestly never thought that my current sig rig was any louder than my 3x 280 SLI setup was. I never objectively measured the noise levels but what some were describing just never seemed right to me. At any rate glad this is working for you.
 
Nice looking case. Unfortunately in my case I don't think it'd help too much since the ambient is hovering about 80-85F already (about 70F-75F outside computer room). I use the computers for business though, and they're probably altogether pumping out 1500W of heat so I can't imagine actually going with a SLI 480 on the one meant for gaming.

I'd be able to cook an egg off the ambient temperature with those pumping heat into the room.
 
GTX 470 and 480 are power hungry and hot as hell, the only way to prevent an SLI rig from turning in to a space heater is to water cool them......

With Furmark running and both GPU's at 100% on air they would settle at 94-96C with fan profile set to auto and usually spinning up to approximately 90-95% and even with my Raven 2 case, the noise was intollerable...

With decent watercooling kit, the GPU's hit 57-59C (depending on ambient) with Furmark and 48-50C during FPS gaming and the loudest fan in my rig is the psu fan, the rad fans are running at 28db (Scythe GT's at 1850rpm)..........

All in all for the money I believe that a pair of GTX 470's with water blocks makes more sense than a pair of more expensive GTX 480's on air....... Works out the same cost and trust me for low noise gaming and overclocking potential of 850mhz on the core you will be hard pressed to find better value gaming at high resolutions..... IMO of course :)
 
Now all I have to do is swap out my CM 1200W silent pro gold psu for something quieter at load....

Recommendations please...

BTW nice article Kyle on psu requirements for Fermi, any chance moving forward you can do more in depth testing of noise from the psu's???
 
Try moving the desk an 1-1.5 inches off the wall and see what difference it makes to the temp of the desk. I suspect you'll be pleasently surprised.
 
footman said:
GTX 470 and 480 are power hungry and hot as hell, the only way to prevent an SLI rig from turning in to a space heater is to water cool them......

With Furmark running and both GPU's at 100% on air they would settle at 94-96C with fan profile set to auto and usually spinning up to approximately 90-95% and even with my Raven 2 case, the noise was intollerable...

With decent watercooling kit, the GPU's hit 57-59C (depending on ambient) with Furmark and 48-50C during FPS gaming and the loudest fan in my rig is the psu fan, the rad fans are running at 28db (Scythe GT's at 1850rpm)..........

All in all for the money I believe that a pair of GTX 470's with water blocks makes more sense than a pair of more expensive GTX 480's on air....... Works out the same cost and trust me for low noise gaming and overclocking potential of 850mhz on the core you will be hard pressed to find better value gaming at high resolutions..... IMO of course :)
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Unless you run the tubes outside your home it's still a space heater. Water cooling doesn't make the heat just vanish afterall. ;)
 
vengence said:
Try moving the desk an 1-1.5 inches off the wall and see what difference it makes to the temp of the desk. I suspect you'll be pleasently surprised.
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If was not attached to the wall I would.....I may be stupid, but I ain't dumb.
 
Ualdayan said:
Unless you run the tubes outside your home it's still a space heater. Water cooling doesn't make the heat just vanish afterall. ;)
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Water cooling is more efficient at dumping heat than air cooling, so effectively the fans are pushing out air at a lower temperature with water than they are with air......

Perhaps I'm wrong and my grasp of basic physics is off but if my video cards are hitting 96C when cooled by air they are radiating more heat than they are at 48C when water cooled.....

Granted 48C may still feel like a space heater too but certainly it is not pushing out the same heat as it was when entirely air cooled......

And yes the heat does not magically disappear......

Perhaps someone who has a better grasp of physics can explain???

Cheers,
 
Yeah, water cooling makes heat just disappear! Wattage is relative...

Water cooling simply MOVES the heat somewhere else usually in a somewhat efficient manner. Your GPUs are not as hot because the heat was removed from the GPU quicker than would have happens with air. But it is still using the same amount of wattage.
 
another non-scientific wild ass guess:

water can hold more heat, so more heat gets trapped in the water. Heat, which, with an air cooler, just gets pushed into the ambient air.
 
jebo_4jc said:
another non-scientific wild ass guess:

water can hold more heat, so more heat gets trapped in the water. Heat, which, with an air cooler, just gets pushed into the ambient air.
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In a water cooling system compared to an air cooler, you have a lot more mass for the heat in the system to moved to instead of to just a few fins at the end of a heatpipe. The traditional radiator is much bigger with more fins as well. The entire water cooling system is going to be part of cooling the system itself.

So 130 watts dissipated in a few air cooling fins or the same wattage dissipated in an entire water cooling system.....of course the water cooling system is going to seem cooler, but the same amount of heat is being put into the environment.
 
magictoaster said:
If I'm not mistaken, SilverStone now offers a "red" FT02 with AP181 fans. Supposedly, they provide even better airflow. I think the new RV02 revision (RV02-E) will use the AP181 fans and HDDdrive bays like on the FT02.
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I've got a Raven RV01 (it has two 180mm fans instead of three) and I swapped out the stock fans for AP181's. They cool nicely by creating a focused column of air in front of the fan, plus they have a two-speed switch for 700rpm and 1200rpm operations.

Minimizing any sort of grill in front of an AP181 is a good idea though, since it's pretty counterproductive.
 
All I know is my office feels cooler and sounds quieter with water cooled GTX 470's in SLI than when they were on air...........

Just bought a Corsair HX 850 psu now on your recommendation Kyle and I hope it is quieter than the CM SILENT (haha what a joke to call it silent) pro gold 1200w.........

Hey, won't hold you to it though..... ;-)
 
footman said:
Just bought a Corsair HX 850 psu now on your recommendation Kyle and I hope it is quieter than the CM SILENT (haha what a joke to call it silent) pro gold 1200w.........
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Even at load, HX850 is indeed quiet, sometimes I worry whether it is working... and then I facepalm myself. ;)
 
I have to say that airflow makes all the difference. Mine is very quiet considering, but this makes me want to swap cases. I want to do a direct comparison.

GTX_480_SLI1.jpg

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notsane said:
I have to say that airflow makes all the difference. Mine is very quiet considering, but this makes me want to swap cases. I want to do a direct comparison.


GTX_480_SLI4.jpg
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I do the same thing with SATA cables. I'm glad I did too. I just used the one I had ty-rapped.:D
 
jebo_4jc said:
another non-scientific wild ass guess:

water can hold more heat, so more heat gets trapped in the water. Heat, which, with an air cooler, just gets pushed into the ambient air.
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Actually metal holds more heat (energy) then water, water just dissipates it much faster then metal actually would. Key things here is water can absorb it faster, since it absorbs it faster it dissipates it faster as well.

Oh Kyle, why such a small case? What happened to that BMW case? :D
 
I had my 480s stock in an 800D for a couple weeks in June before moving them to my ground cooled water loop. Dumping four waterblock's heat outside made a huge difference in my marginally cooled SW house corner area.

There's still still room for improvement with the 80+ PSU and gpu only MCW30 blocks. Still, going by the water in/out deltaT, half of the heat generated is collected into the water. That's good in the summer, and bad in the winter. Maybe it can rationalized as canceling each other out. In any case, stable 10c water was fun to play with last winter!
 
Trimlock said:
Oh Kyle, why such a small case? What happened to that BMW case? :D
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I actually built out a system in it and gave it to my mother. :) I have a bunch of pics of the build, I need to put together a quick article.
 
I have a few questions regarding this case/build that have had me thinking:

- Yes, while it's natural physics that dictate that heat rises, this is the same exactly set-up in terms of fan placement, intake and exhaust, as a front-to-rear airflow set-up. Since it's still air cooling, how much of a difference in temps could it actually make?

Even with Fermi, a high-end build doesn't put out that much heat... we're not talking car engines here, and air is air... only so much it can do.

- So, are we talking "soundproofing" being the biggest advantage here? How much of a difference in hardware temps, honestly, would/could there be between this set-up and say an Antec 1200, which is the same exact set-up, except front-to-rear? Or even a HAF932, with side intake directly on components, then vented out the top and rear?

No sarcasm intended here, I just cant imagine there being that big of a difference in hardware temps on air, simply by basically taking an Antec 1200 (same three intake fans, two rear exhaust fans) and turning it on it's side, which is all this design really does; up-end the same set-up as an Antec 1200.

I think the truest test would be to compare an Antec 1200, due to having the same fan placement simply front-to-rear, and directly comparing NB, SB, GPU, CPU and ambient temps. Heat might rise, but I just cant imagine a bottom-to-top air cooling set-up making that much of a difference in hardware temps, regardless of physics. But I'd like to see a comparison, because I'm seriously curious.
 
Major_A said:
I know what you mean about the heat and I don't own an i7 or Fermi. When gaming I can feel the temperature in my room increase two or three degrees (F).
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I had your exact setup - the physx gpu and it would also kick up the heat a bit during extended gaming sessions. Last week I picked up an i7 930/470 setup and its already gone back to fry's. When web browsing on ur new rig bumps the room temp up higher than the previous gear gaming you have a problem. I honestly never even fired up a game. It was that hot. I'm going with an i5 760/460 setup instead. Sure ill moss out on some performance, but I wont be roasting my ass off.
DASHlT said:
Nice setup, although I think its a lil too much money to spend...
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Buying a $150+ case was the best thing I ever did to my PC. Airflow and cable-fu abilities skyrocketed moving from a little lian li to a Stacker 810. Also, wheels are invaluable for a LANner.
 
Excellent review Kyle. My Corsair 800D does a pretty fantastic job at cooling but this case design just makes more sense "thermally" for sure. My GTX 480's are loud as hell but I'll soon be fixing that problem with proper water cooling.

If I was in the market for another case I would give this Silverstone case serious consideration.
 
I don't think I've ever mentioned anything about the use of grammar, but it really jarred me this time. :confused:

The overabundance of pics kicked ass tho.
 
I can't believe Kyle is subjecting himself to that heat just for our sakes. Awesome case BTW, wish I had known about it before I did my last build using a Spedo from TT.
 
qdemn7 said:
Kyle, have you ever thought about building an external radiator box?

A large one that you could put a 2-3 radiators, pump, reservoirs, fans and the like. Then you place it away from your desk. Bye, goes the heat and noise.

Using quick disconnects like the Colder HFC12 Series (sold by McMaster-Carr btw part # 51545K54 and 51545K34) would be a must. And they don't lower your flow rate very much. Reviewed over at Skinnee Labs.

I just built an external loop with my Thermochill PA120.3, dual Swiftech MCP355 pumps, EK Waterblocks Dual DDC top, and 400mm reservoir, along the Colders, and I love it. Not a rad box, just bolted to a piece of plywood. Rad box is next.



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Well unless he could extend that loop so that the radiator was OUTSIDE his room, he'd still experience the heat issues. Watercooling is much more efficient at removing heat from the gpus than air cooling. However the heat still is dumped into the room. The 480 SLI do increase room temps no joke. I usually need to crack a window or door to deal with it. But playing Dirt 2 on surround kicks serious ass so its worth it. :)
 
vjcsmoke said:
Well unless he could extend that loop so that the radiator was OUTSIDE his room, he'd still experience the heat issues. Watercooling is much more efficient at removing heat from the gpus than air cooling. However the heat still is dumped into the room. The 480 SLI do increase room temps no joke. I usually need to crack a window or door to deal with it. But playing Dirt 2 on surround kicks serious ass so its worth it. :)
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It would kick just as much ass using cooler, quieter cards ;)
 
I sold my HAF 932 in order for me to purchase the Raven 2 case, I knew that I wanted GTX 470's in sli and hanging the cards vertically made more sense to me than horizontally, I was always concerned about the extreme weight on the mobo slots, especially when you factor in heavy waterblocks and tubing..... Hot air rises so I also don't have to worry about the bottom video card heating up the top card, for air cooling it is a top notch case, highly recommended especially if you swap out the stock fans for the new penetrator fans that Silverstone are putting in their new Raven 3 case.......

For water cooling it is not so great as space is limited and cool air needs to be pulled from underneath and allowed to exit out of the top of the case......

Nice review Kyle....
 
He's got plenty of Exos 2.5 units if he wanted to put cooling outside the case like that. Honestly the best solution would be to locate the cooling hardware somewhere else, but that's not realistic. You can't get the cooling rads far enough away. You end up with the problem of pumping water far enough to be effective. Your average water pump isn't going to last long like that even if it can pump water that far away. Even more importantly, water cooling fittings and parts are generally designed for fairly low pressure applications. So really that's just not feasible unless he wants to start cutting holes in the walls and start moving hardware into another room. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's unlikely. The problem with water cooling is that unless you go with a chilled setup, ambient room temperature is as low as you can possibly go. Unless he wants to get more extreme his setup is about as good as he can reasonably get.

What he really needs is a dedicated AC unit in his office. That will bring the ambient temperatures down.
 
Dan_D said:
He's got plenty of Exos 2.5 units if he wanted to put cooling outside the case like that. Honestly the best solution would be to locate the cooling hardware somewhere else, but that's not realistic. You can't get the cooling rads far enough away. You end up with the problem of pumping water far enough to be effective. Your average water pump isn't going to last long like that even if it can pump water that far away. Even more importantly, water cooling fittings and parts are generally designed for fairly low pressure applications. So really that's just not feasible unless he wants to start cutting holes in the walls and start moving hardware into another room. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's unlikely. The problem with water cooling is that unless you go with a chilled setup, ambient room temperature is as low as you can possibly go. Unless he wants to get more extreme his setup is about as good as he can reasonably get.

What he really needs is a dedicated AC unit in his office. That will bring the ambient temperatures down.
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Someone at XtremeSystems did just this, tubes from his bedroom through the walls and outside in to his garage where rad and fans were...... Not sure I would want to do this :)
 
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