Water cooling possible?

Z

Zurginator

Gawd
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Nov 16, 2009
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Ok, so I basically need some strait answers.

I'm running an overclocked 980x, and 4-way SLI 480s. I have room for 1x 140mm rad, and 1x 140.3 rad.

What are the chances of that loop being able to keep temps on par with air? My primary goal here is to knock down noise, not temps, as the temps are fine right now.
 
I think it will be cutting it very close with the amount of heat you have to dissipate. Another 140x3 rad would be more ideal. What about doing a dual type solution and maybe leaving a GPU or two aircooled if they were spread out further on the MB. (GPU 1 & 4 perhaps)
 
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something like the feser monsta rad might be able to handle it, and than 140.1 isnt gonna hurt. Most people seem to always go overkill on their setups as far as rads go, but I think this is one situation where where you will be cutting it close. If you use this setup for something like gaming, I'd say scrath the 4th gtx 580, but some of the money into your wcing, as it will be easier to handle the temps of 3way sli as well. but IF you are doing large rendering or folding with it, forget it either way, because 100%load on all of those components probably will need more cooling anyway
 
cj3waker said:
something like the feser monsta rad might be able to handle it, and than 140.1 isnt gonna hurt. Most people seem to always go overkill on their setups as far as rads go, but I think this is one situation where where you will be cutting it close. If you use this setup for something like gaming, I'd say scrath the 4th gtx 580, but some of the money into your wcing, as it will be easier to handle the temps of 3way sli as well. but IF you are doing large rendering or folding with it, forget it either way, because 100%load on all of those components probably will need more cooling anyway
Click to expand...
Can't scratch the 4th 480, I already have the whole system built. It's just a little louder than I prefer. But thanks for the replies.

Any other opinions? Right now it looks like I'll be on air unless I manage to pull off a sponsor, which would be nice. :p
 
Definitely go with Black Ice GTX or GTS radiators. From what I've seen, the low FPI of the Feser radiators really hurt it with fans above 900 RPM in push/pull, so I would avoid those at all costs. If you can, go with Gentle Typhoons 1850 RPM and 120-140 mm adapters, that'll provide both shrouding benefits and the awesomeness of the Gentle Typhoons. In fact, the GTS 420 (3x140) is able to outperform a Mo-Ra 2 Pro (9x120 radiator) at fan speeds above 1500 RPM in push/pull. Of course, the 420 is using 140mm fans and the Mo-Ra is using 120mm fans, but you get the point. If cooling performance is what you need, avoid the feser and go with Black Ice GTX or GTS radiators. If you do get a GTS, I would recommend two MCP355 in serial, unless you go with parallel flow on the GPU's, at which point I would suggest two MCP655 in serial, since the GTS are highly restrictive.

Link proving I'm not making anything up.
 
Black Ice GTX 420 + GTX 140; Scythe GT AP15 or AP14 in shrouded push-pull, and a single pump (less heat) = workable... though with all of that expensive equipment, a pump failure would be catastrophic! I'd need some safety checks in place and/or pump-redundancy (not a bad reason to run dual pumps in series).

You could try running air-cooling on the CPU simply because the top tier air-coolers are quite good anyway: Thermalright Archon, Thermalright Silver arrow, or possibly something more exotic like the upcoming Alpenfohn K2 (which looks like an 8-pipe, jagged version of the NH-D14).

Although I don't think this is necessary, this would offload the water setup.

Also, considering that I don't recall any 3GB GTX 480's, I'd probably sell 1 of them. 4-way at 1.5GB of video memory doesn't seem worthwhile...

Edit: Also consider that the GTX 580's heatsink is well-received (right? - as in, better than the 480's heatsink) Going with 2x or 3x 580's might make sense... just replace the TIM on those, direct the case airflow, and you're done...
 
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I would suggest the Prolimatech Genesis for a CPU cooler if OP wants to go that route.
 
Tsumi said:
Definitely go with Black Ice GTX or GTS radiators. From what I've seen, the low FPI of the Feser radiators really hurt it with fans above 900 RPM in push/pull, so I would avoid those at all costs. If you can, go with Gentle Typhoons 1850 RPM and 120-140 mm adapters, that'll provide both shrouding benefits and the awesomeness of the Gentle Typhoons. In fact, the GTS 420 (3x140) is able to outperform a Mo-Ra 2 Pro (9x120 radiator) at fan speeds above 1500 RPM in push/pull. Of course, the 420 is using 140mm fans and the Mo-Ra is using 120mm fans, but you get the point. If cooling performance is what you need, avoid the feser and go with Black Ice GTX or GTS radiators. If you do get a GTS, I would recommend two MCP355 in serial, unless you go with parallel flow on the GPU's, at which point I would suggest two MCP655 in serial, since the GTS are highly restrictive.

Link proving I'm not making anything up.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the very informative post. However, why would you recommend stronger pumps for a parallel GPU flow? Wouldn't that reduce restriction?

Thanks to everyone else, as well. I have 1000rpm fans, so it looks to me like the GTS is my best option (I want to keep these 140mms).

Once again, however, as I feel this point isn't getting across: I'm not going for increased cooling, I'm going for silence. If my GPUs run at 80-90c while on this loop (I won't be overclocking hardly any), that is fine by me. It'll be a lot quieter.
 
MCP655 have lower head pressure as compared to the MCP355, but a higher flow-rate. That's why the 655 are better for a lower restriction system, since parallel GPU flow reduces restriction, but the 355 are better for a higher restriction like serial GPU flow.

You will almost be guaranteed lower noise. However, I'm not sure if 1000 RPM fans will cut it for keeping it below 90 C. You may need to move to 1500 RPM fans or 1850 RPM Gentle Typhoons, and I would suggest pairing with a fan controller to reduce noise when not under load. Gentle Typhoons still perform much better than any 140mm fan from a noise/airflow perspective.
 
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