Third party cooling for my Crossfire 6850's?

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vagabond142

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 11, 2007
Messages
138
Well, I am loving my crossfire 6850's. I don't love, however, the noise that the make when I'm gaming for long periods. It's like a harrier jet is hovering in my system. The top card gets as hot as 74 C and the bottom card ~68-70 C.

What I'm looking for is a third party cooling solution that is a) effective and b) quiet. I've been looking at the Arctic Cooling XTREME Plus II, which seems to be the best of the bunch at the moment.

As well, I am wondering about space issues. From pictures I've seen, the XTREME Plus 2 seems to take 1.25 slots, which means that it might be MIGHTY tight for my bottom card over the PSU. Here's a pic for reference of spacing (link as it's a mighty big picture):

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk13/Vagabond142/IMG_1034.jpg

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

I also have a HAF912 as my case, was considering adding a low RPM 140mm fan to the side... should that be an intake or an exhaust fan? o_O
 
The side intake fan would be a good idea, preferably blowing right on the cards. Just make sure you don't get something cheesy. My case (Thermaltake Armor + MX) came with a whopping 230mm fan on the side but it's total garbage, makes noise and hardly moves any air so I just disconnected the damn thing. Pointless.

If noise is your primary issue, have you considered water cooling? Just a little more money.

BTW- your temperatures aren't that bad.
 
The big concern I have is the secondary 6850, as is with the standard cooler, is only a half slot depth from touching the PSU... any third party cooler that is taller than 1.25 standard slot height on the second slot (for a total of 2.25 slot depth) means I can't fit it on the second card.

I am thinking about going water cooling on the GPUs, however, I have never watercooled before. My case DOES have some allowance for water cooling, although the radiator would be externally mounted.

GAAAAHH I'm just not sure.

My priorities are:

1) Silence. The stock fans are giving me a headache during extended gaming (anything over a couple of hours with the GPUs getting used pretty heavily, ie Crysis 2, Rift, etc)

2) Temperature control

3) Reliability. In 2-3 years I'll get the next series of AMD cards out then (Prolly something like a 10870 crossfire :p). So it has to last till then, reliably, for extended play time each day (think 2-4 hours a day play, and ~8 hours a day power on)

4) Price.

5) Power consumption
 
You cant have all those im sorry. Silence- Liquid cooling Temps- Liquid cooling Reliability- Once a year change the water Price- EXPENSIVE power consumption- Not bad
 
How difficult is a water change? (I'm extreme nub regarding watercooling)

And how expensive? Like... $300ish to cool both cards and have equipment?

Hence why I'm asking if there are any low profile but good third party air coolers. I PREFER air cooling as it's fairly reliable and cheaper than WC, even if the effective temperature reduction is less.

I'd be willing to shell out for watercooling, however, I also want to have my watercooling be SAFE and effective, and I will not, WILL NOT, cheap out on parts if I go WC. I will want the best, most reliable, etc. Also, I would like to be futureproofed on the WC as much as possible, ie have it set up and have enough spare materials so that when I do get, for example, 2x 10870's in the future, I can simply change out waterblocks, use new connectors, and be up and running in no time flat.
 
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