• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Separate cooling idea

V

Valkhorn

Gawd
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
955
I posted a thread in here a few days ago regarding water cooling questions to which the responses were most helpful. So I mulled it over and thought about doing this:

I'm this close to biting on one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835116017&Tpk=tidewater

For my 8800 card. The reviews are pretty good from what I can tell and it has enough cooling ability to take care of two cards at the same time. Then I can at least take the oven out of my case and work on the CPU.

For the CPU, I want to build a completely separate loop for a possible budget of $100-140 outside of the Tidewater.

I thought about building the whole loop at the same time, but I don't have $200 to spend righ now on water cooling and wanted some way to build it in stages - hence the thought of going for the big gun, the GPU, first and then later the CPU. Keeping loops separate I might keep the CPU cooler as well?

If I'm dead wrong, let me know. My though was that if I wanted to maybe I could replace the block on the tidewater with something else down the road and take it out of the loop?

So many questions, and so much heat is building inside of my case :(
 
I'm still doing research... it appears I don't know too much about this sort of thing :(
 
The tidewater actually has very little cooling capacity. I would say it really isn't worth it to bother with that, especially for dual 8800s. If you want to do it right, you really have to go with a DIY system. You can cut lots of cost by choosing the right components.
 
Furthermore, the Tidewater block doesn't fit the 8800's. TT made a separate block just for these cards, but it's a joke- the actual waterblock takes two slots apiece, plus the tank is an additional two slots.

Pass.
 
I've watercooled a few times before, and you really need to just build the right system the first time. If you are on a real low budget, i'd say your best bet is to just put that money aside, and save until you can afford a good system.

I know swiftech has some packages you can buy for like 200-250 that will be worth your money. They should be able to cool the 8800 and your cpu without much issue
 
dtess17 said:
I've watercooled a few times before, and you really need to just build the right system the first time. If you are on a real low budget, i'd say your best bet is to just put that money aside, and save until you can afford a good system.

I know swiftech has some packages you can buy for like 200-250 that will be worth your money. They should be able to cool the 8800 and your cpu without much issue
Click to expand...

QFT... I'm also a noob in WC setup but after reading and asking questions, the best thing is a DIY with the parts which fit your needs. A average setup will cost around 250$ so if you have not enough money, just postpone and put money aside till you has this amount for a good setup.

Buying inadequate parts which doesn't cool will cost you more in the end becaus you will never stop upgrading parts to cool it better.

A good setup would be :

-Swiftech MCR320 Radiator
-Swiftech DDC or D5 Pump
-D-Tek Fuzion waterblock
-Swiftech MCW60 blocks for the cards + ramsinks or full card blocks like the EK FC8800 (expensive but cool everything on the card).
-Swiftech Microres
-3/8" tubing (1/2" is overrated).

Without GPU blocks, the total cost will be 200-250$ and count a extra 80-130$ for your GPU card depending which block.

 
I know this has been discussed many times, but my personal preference is toward the MCW60 over a full-cover block. The 60 has more life in it because it is not custom-fitted, and it's also generally less restrictive (the rest of your loop doesn't suffer). The tradeoff is that you still have to have a fan somewhere around your card to cool RAM and the auxiliary chip. Oh, and the 60 is under $50. :)
 
mavalpha said:
I know this has been discussed many times, but my personal preference is toward the MCW60 over a full-cover block. The 60 has more life in it because it is not custom-fitted, and it's also generally less restrictive (the rest of your loop doesn't suffer). The tradeoff is that you still have to have a fan somewhere around your card to cool RAM and the auxiliary chip. Oh, and the 60 is under $50. :)
Click to expand...

I second this. Custom "throwaway" blocks just don't fly in my book. I'm using a MCW55 and will continue to do so on a new card. GPU block design has not changed greatly over the past few years, it seems, as compared to CPU blocks.

Also, correct me if I am wrong: don't current memory solutions, GDDR3, run cooler than older types? If so, WC'ing the ram seems like overkill, which is how some feel about chipsets.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I don't want to get a block specific to my card only either. I want to upgrade later and who knows to what. I dont want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as it were. If I spend more than 90 bucks on a water block for my VGA I want to keep re-using it.

I think I'm going to save up for something better though and get everything at once. Massive commission check next month might be the time :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top