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SLI plumbing??

S

skypine27

Gawd
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
734
Ok, Im about to build my 1st custom loop ever (dumping my AIO).

Have a question about SLI (2 x Titan Xs w/ required 3 slot spacing for x99) plumbing. Here is my system now:



Why does this guy use 2 x little tubes connecting his cards:


My question is, how does that actually work?? Plumbing wise.



vs this guy: (I thought they would have to be connected like this)


Is the top guy just doing it for visual effect and in fact one of the connecting tubes is "blocked" (like pushing water against a dead end) so to speak? Or it almost even looks like one of the little tubes is blowing water straight through and not passing through the GPU block??


Thanks!
 
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The dude with the white coolant is basically feeding both cards cooled coolant from the rad at the same time, left is IN top IN bottom, then both outs are feeding out the same line into the next rad. People do this to avoid feeding the bottom card warmer coolant from the previous card. I've read that if your flow rate is fast enough it doesn't matter, and I've read the contrary too.

I haven't water cooled my GPUs since the 7800gtx's so I'm not up to speed anymore on liquid cooling GPUs, but for what it's worth, I had them like the bottom pic, and my temps were always within 1-3 degrees of each other.
 
The first loop using two little tubes is called a parallel loop, the second one using a single tube is a serial loop.

In a serial loop the water flows from block 1 then exits the block then flows through block 2, you double the restriction an therefore reducing flow but it's a simpler loop.

In a parallel loop water flows to both blocks at the same time. Instead of the two tubes connecting the cards together think of the water supply tube splitting off into a "Y" pipe then feeding each GPU separately and the same for the return. The restriction is halved resulting in higher flow rates.
 
Ok guys, thanks for the info. Im likely going to run mine like the first guy then. Just think it looks better :)

Are all water blocks capable of running both ways? Because when I checked out SLI connecting "blocks" those are sold as parallel or serial. However, I have yet to see an actual water block that is labelled that way.

Thanks!
 
The waterblock itself can take flow in any direction. The only thing that matters is how you set up the inlets and outlets.
 
Went with the simple way. Thanks for the advice. Finally done!!

Build time was approx 12 hours (it is my first custom loop so I did a lot of things wrong the first that had to be fixed).

Show off pics in 3..2..1....













 
Hi there. Nice build.

Just wandering, how long have you had that loop running? Why is there so much air in the res?
 
That res pic was 5 minutes after I filled it with a pet type squeeze bottle the first time.

The bubbles all bed out after running the system with the res uncapped all night (seems to be what the net recommends doing after you fill a loop)
 
Well that's alright then.

Squeezing the hoses, tapping the rads gently with a screwdriver near the outlet, resting the case on each side for 30 minutes (but not so pump is upside down) all help too. But the res filled to the brim with one of the plugs released will get most of it out.

I like those see-thru EK GPU blocks (I've got the same ones). You can visibly see if any air is trapped within when you put the case on it's side and can then angle the case to move the bubbles toward the outlet ports.

Well done. Nice build. What are your deltas like for each of the rads?
 
Cozumel:

Heres a couple of pics with the bubbles gone. By far the easiest method was one we already mentioned, I just left the system running idle for the evening with the res cap off, and by morning all the bubbles were gone. Required no effort:





(one pic if flash bulb on, one is off. Its hard for me to take good pics in my PC room without moving things around because its pretty small)

As for temps, they take a back seat to 1. Silence 2. Looks. I went for what I considered a good looking but silent gaming rig. All the fans are set really low using Asus Fan Xpert 500-800 RPM at idle and 800-1000 rpm under extended gaming.

Warm idle temps (ie after system has been on a long time and water has reached equilibrium) are CPU 42-44 and GPUs 37 top 35 bottom.

Heavy gaming temps are CPU 60 and GPU 52 top 52 bottom.
Running Asus RealBench video encoding bench (maxes all CPU cores at 100%) for an extended period ends up with the fans modulating to maintain a cpu max temp of 63C

While I realize many might say a CPU load temp of 60 isn't anything to write home about for a custom loop with 3 x radiators, you have to remember this thing is nearly totally silent under full load which was my main priority.
 
Lets face it people don't build these elaborate water cooling rigs becasue it makes sense. It is expensive and can be a serious pain in the butt, but it looks really cool.

I say great job!
 
zaniix said:
Lets face it people don't build these elaborate water cooling rigs becasue it makes sense. It is expensive and can be a serious pain in the butt, but it looks really cool.

I say great job!
Click to expand...

This +100

As an example, I recently saw a little news blurb on TomsHardware that covered EKs announcement of discontinuing some old RAM water blocks and introducing some new RAM water blocks.

The comments from other readers were all predominately "What a waste!?!? Who needs to watercolor their ram??" "If your ram is overheating because you over clocked it so much you have much bigger problems..." etc.

Most people don't understand we do this because we want to BUILD something that ISN'T necessary. This isn't about what I NEED, it's about what I WANT :)

Build on!
 
skypine27 said:
As for temps, they take a back seat to 1. Silence 2. Looks. I went for what I considered a good looking but silent gaming rig. All the fans are set really low using Asus Fan Xpert 500-800 RPM at idle and 800-1000 rpm under extended gaming.

Warm idle temps (ie after system has been on a long time and water has reached equilibrium) are CPU 42-44 and GPUs 37 top 35 bottom.

Heavy gaming temps are CPU 60 and GPU 52 top 52 bottom.
Running Asus RealBench video encoding bench (maxes all CPU cores at 100%) for an extended period ends up with the fans modulating to maintain a cpu max temp of 63C

While I realize many might say a CPU load temp of 60 isn't anything to write home about for a custom loop with 3 x radiators, you have to remember this thing is nearly totally silent under full load which was my main priority.
Click to expand...
I wasn't asking about CPU idle, gaming or load temps as they are pretty much irrelevant as long as they are stable and stay well within throttling range. And yours are definitely fine in that regard! (I'm the same btw. Primary goal is low noise. I don't care about the 'bling factor')

I was asking about your deltas (difference between the ambient air temp and water rad outlet temp), as that is an important number to make sure the loop is working properly. ie Functioning within expected parameters
 
skypine27 said:
This +100

As an example, I recently saw a little news blurb on TomsHardware that covered EKs announcement of discontinuing some old RAM water blocks and introducing some new RAM water blocks.

The comments from other readers were all predominately "What a waste!?!? Who needs to watercolor their ram??" "If your ram is overheating because you over clocked it so much you have much bigger problems..." etc.

Most people don't understand we do this because we want to BUILD something that ISN'T necessary. This isn't about what I NEED, it's about what I WANT :)

Build on!
Click to expand...


Ehhh, somewhat of a bad example. For watercooling the CPU and GPU, while not necessarily cost effective, it does something that you can't do with other options. Namely you can get a system that cools better and has less noise than with air cooling. This can have tangible results in the amount of overclock you can get. With RAM watercooling really has no effect, hell you don't even need heatspreaders for RAM. Watercooling RAM is therefore 100% cosmetic. It really makes no difference from a performance or noise perspective. So custom watercooling can have functional reasons, even if it is expensive.
 
skypine27 said:
I don't know how I would accurately measure water temp in the loop??
Click to expand...
It's actually really easy.

Firstly though, here is a link for you to read:
Guide to Delta-T in Water Cooling

The loop in my sig was only built a couple of months ago. After the leak test and bleed of the system, the first thing I measured was the deltas for the two rad. I immediately knew something was wrong with my loop as my delta for my top rad was 4c higher than the bottom one. I then also took a reading for the CPU under load (somewhere in the 60s). I checked the connections for the top rad and discovered their was an issue with my inlet port to this rad and needed to partially drain the loop to correct. Once that was done, my deltas for the rads were almost identical (just 0.5c difference). Measured CPU temps under load and it was now 7c lower. All because the flow the water flow through the top rad was poor and it was this rad that was supplying the H2O to my CPU.

I use one of these for each rad. To be accurate, it needs to be fitted in a port on the outlet flow side of the rad.
Bitspower G 1/4" Silver Shiny Temperature Sensor Stop Fitting

Ambient air temp is measured from a digital temperature control for the room

The difference between the temperatures of the ambient air and the water flowing out from a radiator represents the delta-t. A reading is required for each radiator. A healthy system will have near identical deltas and should never be above 10c. In a really good system it will always remain below 5c for typical real-world use.
 
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What's a good temp monitor to go with the temp sensor stop fittings?
 
Starrbuck said:
What's a good temp monitor to go with the temp sensor stop fittings?
Click to expand...

That part looks like it already has the standard (at least for Asus motherboards) temp probe already included in the plug:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/medi...b429363ea37f466aff726535/b/p/bp-wtp-ct_01.jpg

So you would just plug that into one of your 3 x temp sensor headers on your mobo (again, I'm talking Asus here, they have all had 3 x temp sensor headers on every ROG model for a long time, not sure about other brands) and the use any motherboard software that came with your board and/or a program like AIDA 64
 
skypine27 said:
That part looks like it already has the standard (at least for Asus motherboards) temp probe already included in the plug:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/medi...b429363ea37f466aff726535/b/p/bp-wtp-ct_01.jpg

So you would just plug that into one of your 3 x temp sensor headers on your mobo (again, I'm talking Asus here, they have all had 3 x temp sensor headers on every ROG model for a long time, not sure about other brands) and the use any motherboard software that came with your board and/or a program like AIDA 64
Click to expand...

I had read somewhere that the ASUS ports weren't compatible, but I don't remember where and of course it could've been wrong.

I'm thinking of something that displays it on the front like a 5.25" slot display such as:

http://www.xs-pc.com/temperature-sensors/525-bay-temperature-display-frame

I think it will be more useful to me if I can see it while I am gaming, rather than having to drop out to some software..

EDIT: Just found a post on another forum that says the 10k sensors work fine with the ASUS onboard headers.
 
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Although I haven't got a ROG board, I'm pretty sure that a 2-pin temp header is pretty much an industry standard across all manufacturers. What I don't know is whether Asus have software that allows you to monitor your deltas from within Windows. Be good if they do. Maybe start a thread on their ROG forum to clarify the situation? I reckon it would be a bit daft if their software did not support their 2-pin temp sensor headers from within Windows.
 
They have ASUS Ai Suite III but I don't care for it.

I ordered that display plate with two sensor stop fittings for $40 and I'm going to try that.

Thanks for your help & advice!
 
Measuring water temps is really completely unnecessary to tell if the system is "functioning within expected parameters". You can tell that just by monitoring CPU temps, as those temps are directly dependent upon how the watercooling system is working. As long as your CPU temps are stable, your watercooling system is just fine.

That said, I love data and have no problem with capturing more data :) It is just not a necessary thing to do.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Measuring water temps is really completely unnecessary to tell if the system is "functioning within expected parameters". You can tell that just by monitoring CPU temps, as those temps are directly dependent upon how the watercooling system is working. As long as your CPU temps are stable, your watercooling system is just fine.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but you are incorrect. Having stable CPU temps does not mean "your watercooling system is just fine." Monitoring CPU temps is not a definitive method to determine loop health and efficiency. Having good CPU temps does not equate to a waterloop that is running efficiently. That is why checking deltas is the best way to confirm loop health. Please see the example I gave in my earlier post #16. In that instance, I reduced CPU load temps in their 60s by a further 7c as my deltas identified a problem with my top rad that required a partial drain to resolve. If I had only monitored CPU temps and accepted them as evidence of a loop that is healthy, then I would have missed out on cooler temps and may also have had further issues further down the road. :)
 
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Erasmus354 said:
Measuring water temps is really completely unnecessary to tell if the system is "functioning within expected parameters". You can tell that just by monitoring CPU temps, as those temps are directly dependent upon how the watercooling system is working. As long as your CPU temps are stable, your watercooling system is just fine.

That said, I love data and have no problem with capturing more data :) It is just not a necessary thing to do.
Click to expand...

That I guess would depend upon why you are monitoring them. All my pwm fans are controlled based upon water temperature, my pumps are controlled based upon CPU temperature. This way I never have to deal with the fans spinning up and down wildly with cpu load, so except in the cases of lengthy cpu or gpu loading the fans all sit at about ~650rpm.
 
YBS1 said:
That I guess would depend upon why you are monitoring them. All my pwm fans are controlled based upon water temperature, my pumps are controlled based upon CPU temperature. This way I never have to deal with the fans spinning up and down wildly with cpu load, so except in the cases of lengthy cpu or gpu loading the fans all sit at about ~650rpm.
Click to expand...

that's the way mine has been setup as well. two fans per rad each with their own temp probe stuck in to the top portion of the rad they are covering. they idle at 50%, never heard them cycle up, but my CPU normally only climbs 10c under full load, the gpus maybe 20c, and with close to 2l of coolant in my loop, I doubt my coolant temp is moving much more than a few degrees. I know in the morning, it is below ambient mobo temp (open to air).
 
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