• 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.

Watercool TRI 285's

R

rennocneb

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
136
Wanting to watercool my triple gtx 285 setup. No cpu in the loop suggestions? does someone make a nice easy self contained setup? if not point me to some good components that are reasonably priced.
 
its gonna cost you about 500 bux for the components to do that... just the blocks are over 100 bux each, then a pump, a big rad, tubing, fittings, etc.
 
coolit makes a nice system for 299 i can get it wholesale for 200 its only good for 2 cards but that would help enough, if they are any good.
 
I don't think the GTX 285s are limited by heat for overclocking, so air might be a better option.
 
the reason for watercooling is to get them to cool off. in triple sli they get REAL hot, there is no airspace between the cards to let the fans breath. Hence wanting to go to water cooling.
 
rennocneb said:
the reason for watercooling is to get them to cool off. in triple sli they get REAL hot, there is no airspace between the cards to let the fans breath. Hence wanting to go to water cooling.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Aquacomputer's blocks look to be a good option. They're sexy as hell, if that's important to you.

sidewindercomputers_2043_27158254


http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/aqcoaqforgtx2.html

I'm promoting Sidewinder Computers here because they've always been prompt with my orders, and their prices are great for almost everything.
 
one i was looking at was the swiftech mcw60 just because its universal meaning i can change the passive plate out later and cool a new type of chip? Is there any air coolers that would work well in tri sli?
 
rennocneb said:
one i was looking at was the swiftech mcw60 just because its universal meaning i can change the passive plate out later and cool a new type of chip? Is there any air coolers that would work well in tri sli?
Click to expand...

Good call on the swiftech block, in my opinion. That way, you're almost guaranteed several generations of use, rather than winding up with three expensive paperweights. The full-cover blocks are a pretty sight, though.
 
how big of a raditor would i need to cool the 3 285's? and how big if i wanted to add my core i7 to the mix?
 
I'd begin with one triple rad and if temps are too high you might add more. Thermochill/Feser/Swiftech/XSPC/Magicool all make good stuff - any triple rad would be good, at least as a beginning.

For reservoir I'd recommend EK multioption, they come in multiple sizes so you should find something that fits you.
For something more compact Swiftech MCRES-micro would be "rather ok" tho' I'm not a big fan of it [bleeding issues].
Just remember about the general rule for watercooling: "Avoid anything containing aluminium and you should be fine".

There are only 2 popular pumps so there should be no problem here.
Swiftech MCP655 [aka. Laing D5] is the most powerful of all dedicated WC pumps. It's quiet and very reliable [never heard of one failing actually] but also bigger than the next I'll write about. It also allows you to control it's speed [and noise] by a small knob at the back of the pump.
The second one despite being smaller is almost as powerfull and slightly cheaper. Unlike in D5 you can not control it's speed and you'd probably want to buy an aftermarket top for it [increasing performance to D5 level but also removing the advantage of lower price of DDC].

For more detailed comparisons search for skinee's or Martin210's [on XS] reviews.
 
A triple radiator will not be enough for the cards and your i7. It may be enough for your cards, but I don't know how much heat each card produces.

For a pump, the Swiftech MCP655/Laing D5 and Swiftech MCP355 (with a replacement top) are popular choices. I have the MCP655, and when properly isolated, might as well be silent.

For flow rate, anything above 1gpm is good. It may depend on the pressure of your system, but my physics is too rusty to tell you for sure.

Any reservoir will work. I would recommend staying away from 5 1/4" bay reservoirs (at least the single height Danger Den ones). In addition to the one I had that spontaneously shattered in my case, it has a tendency to cause bubbles.
 
Monkeypillow said:
Gotcha. Aquacomputer's blocks look to be a good option. They're sexy as hell, if that's important to you.

sidewindercomputers_2043_27158254


http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/aqcoaqforgtx2.html

I'm promoting Sidewinder Computers here because they've always been prompt with my orders, and their prices are great for almost everything.
Click to expand...

Lol, that doesn't have SLI fittings. XSPC is cheapest, EK is pretty looking, and Danger Den is an all around good block. It also doesn't hurt to look at Koolance.
 
ok guys if a triple 120 raditor isnt gonna get the job done what should i be looking at? Im planning to hang this off the back of my antec 1200 if its any bigger than a triple will it not cover up my cards etc?
 
you still gotta plug in video cables sound etc. so if the raditior is covering everything it would be a hassle.
 
You're going to need at /least/ a 4x120 surface area. You could have a pair of 2x120 rads, a 3x120 and a 1x120, a single 4x120, or really any combination that adds up to at least 4x120 surface area. That's for the cards alone. You'll need another 2x120 surface area for the i7, ideally another 3x120.

Absolute minimum for everything in your box, 6x120 total surface area.
Ideal for everything in your box, 8x120. (5 for cards, 3 for CPU)

Watercooling is not easy / straight-forward all the time, and can certainly be a hassle. Spend some time over in the watercooling subforum and make sure this is something you really want to do (and are willing to spend the money on -- as another said, this could easily end up costing you $500+).
 
Hmm i guess i did not think about the cords from the GPU's.. if it is mounted a few inches from the case would that be enough space for one?
 
im not saying you guys are wrong but im not looking to keep the cards at ambient here, how can the little bit of aluminnum on them with a fan can keep them cool, when the fans can breath anyway, and i need a 4x120 raditor to do the same? somehow it doesnt make sense.
 
rennocneb said:
im not saying you guys are wrong but im not looking to keep the cards at ambient here, how can the little bit of aluminnum on them with a fan can keep them cool, when the fans can breath anyway, and i need a 4x120 raditor to do the same? somehow it doesnt make sense.
Click to expand...

You need the surface area to dissipate that heat. Three large heatsinks can make up quite a bit of surface area.
 
Thermochill Pa 120.3/Feser 320 would keep it cooler, but it would require more noise with higher speed fans than you would have with a bigger/more radiators
 
what pump would i need to get if i want to just cool my video boards for now but then later add aditional raiditor or raiditors and a cpu block. Will an MPC655 do this? if not suggestions that dont break the bank. Also is there someplace that shows some examples of a DIY external waterbox, im interested in housing the raditors and stuff in a seperate enclosure if im gonna need this many of them.
 
i did a little research it appears with some decent fans a swiftech triple raditor is capable of getting rid of about 600w of heat at 1.5gpm at a 10C delta. So if i can acheive this type of flow with those fans it would seem a triple would easily keep the cards cool. Assume a HOT room temp of 35C and figure even a bit less efficency, and we are talking 50C on the cards. More than acceptable to me. Even 65C is fine with me on the cards. XPSC even makes a little single 120 raditor that can dissapate over 250w at 10C delta with a reasonable fan speed etc. that should be more than enough for the processor alone id think?
 
"Reasonable" varies a lot person to person. If you want to hear it and it be just as loud, if not louder, than it currently is then yes you can get away with a 3x120 for the GPUs alone. I know -- I've gone that route with my 8800 GTXs (similar heat load, 2 on a 2x120) and was not at all happy with the results. Temps were not that good, though certainly better than air, and it was loud.

You're going to want two loops if you ever watercool the CPU -- the heat dump from the GPUs would not be good for temps and a pump powerful enough to push through four fairly high restriction blocks and maintain a high rate of flow could cost you $300+ easily, not to mention be extremely large relative to a Laing D5 Vario (the Swiftech pumps are all rebranded Laings) or similar.
 
Swiftech MCP355 with the XSPC res top as pump/res and either TC 120.3 or Feser 360 for best performance and they can cool three 285 down or MCR320 for less price but also tradeoff for perfomance and i am not sure one of these is enought.
Blocks depending where you live, for Europe at least EK is the solid choise, cheap and very good, rest is just overpriced as hell compared to EK and it wont give you any benefit at all.
As long as you stay away from parts that have alu in the blockarea that come in contract with water you cant go wong with any chooise of parts.
I would not do a singleloop of it all, one thick tripple/quad rad aka TC PA120.3/Feser 360/480 for the 285 and tripplerad aka PA 120.3/Feser 360 for the I7, MCR 320 as budgetchooise there if the budget is at strain.

EDIT: MCP355 and XSPC restop will be 10USD cheaper than using a MCP655 and an EK multires 100 rev 2 and the 655 has no advatages anymore as reliabiltiy was the reson to go for it when the DDC pumps died like flies. Flow is not the only thing to care about, perhaps in a freeflow loopp as with Siftech GPU-only block and Dtek Fuzion, but not in a complex multiblock loop with restictive blocks where preasure is more important for better performance.
 
Sorry late to this thread. I went 3 x MCR320's for my dual loop. Single 320 for i7 and 2 x 320's for GPU - NB/SB - MOSFET loop.

I went the Koolance route for my GPU. There were some questions regarding how well the EK's were cooling the vreg's and I didn't want to chance it. The Koolance FC's WC the vregs well.

The i7 does tend to run hot. On at least the eVGA the MOSFETs run way hot. The NB/SB do not get hot on the X58's. I'm cooling them for the bling factor :D
 
Im just honestly looking for a way to keep tri-sli from cooking itself. I see no way to mount 3 raiditors to a antec 1200. of i need the equivalent of 6 120mm raiditors to do the job all i can say is this stuff isnt the efficency marvel it is said to be. You can cool a car with that much surface area damn near.
 
Monkeypillow said:
Gotcha. Aquacomputer's blocks look to be a good option. They're sexy as hell, if that's important to you.

sidewindercomputers_2043_27158254


http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/aqcoaqforgtx2.html

I'm promoting Sidewinder Computers here because they've always been prompt with my orders, and their prices are great for almost everything.
Click to expand...

These wont work for SLI. It looks fantastic for sure but the way it's designed is very poor IMO. All the threads are in the back so basically your middle card has no way of interfacing with the other two cards without some super fancy tubing.
 
rennocneb said:
Im just honestly looking for a way to keep tri-sli from cooking itself. I see no way to mount 3 raiditors to a antec 1200. of i need the equivalent of 6 120mm raiditors to do the job all i can say is this stuff isnt the efficency marvel it is said to be. You can cool a car with that much surface area damn near.
Click to expand...

Get the stackable MRC320 and another plain one
 
rennocneb said:
Im just honestly looking for a way to keep tri-sli from cooking itself. I see no way to mount 3 raiditors to a antec 1200. of i need the equivalent of 6 120mm raiditors to do the job all i can say is this stuff isnt the efficency marvel it is said to be. You can cool a car with that much surface area damn near.
Click to expand...

Your computer isn't going upwards of 30MPH either. Fin spacing and area on car radiators is entirely different, they're not at all comparable.
 
- swiftech GPU blocks would be cost-effective and more universal than full-coverage blocks

- ddc 3.2 (swiftech mcp355) + ek x-top rev2 for pump(s)

- Dual (or even Triple or Quadruple) Swiftech MCR320 radiators (or the new stackable version(s)), or a few of the XSPC RX360 radiators.

Those are your best options I'd guess.

As for a CPU waterblock... well you might want to avoid restrictive blocks (usually I wouldn't worry, but with TRI-SLi + i7 + multiple rads + just ONE pump... it may be an issue).

- Heatkiller 3.0 tests should be out soon and it apparently isn't too restrictive. It might be the new king?
- If not then Fuzion v2 or Delta v3 or GTZ or some block of lesser restriction.


Edit: Or save some money and just do some good air-ducting work with a few quiet 120mm fans. Air-cooling will work. Maybe take off the heatsinks and re-apply thermal paste.
 
well the issue seems to be that there is no room between the cards for the fans to draw air. they get warm. plus obviously the top card runs much hotter since heat rises. If someone made good air sinks id be all over them because i dont like the idea of water in my system but as of now its something im having to live with.
 
I've got my 285s water-cooled. Using EK water blocks and Bitspower fittings, running on one Thermochill PA120.3 (CPU is on a separate loop). Temps are fine - mid-30s at idle, high 40's/low50s under load, ambient 23-24 degrees C. (this is with Yate Loon fans running on low speed for noise reduction). CPU is on a separate loop. My guess is you'd get okay performance with 3 x 285s and the CPU on a 4x120 radiator - it is going to be a push on a triple radiator. You'd probably not be a lot cooler than with air only, but it will definitely be quieter - unless you find you have to go to high speed fans to get the degree of cooling you want.


481459735_JHbup-S.jpg



482423471_hvYSs-S.jpg



486629830_NDR4s-S.jpg



Have also seen some nice setups using the Koolance blocks. Note that 3 cards is going to be a fair amount of weight on a vertical motherboard setup.
 
Thanks Shazza! I actually have your first pic from your hi-res album you linked in your build log on XS as my wallpaper! :) I start my new build this weekend using Koolance for the GTX 285.
 
in my setup I have basically the same parts you do. I did it with a 2 loop system

- I use 3.120 x 2 (stacked) just for the 3 285 cards
- For the CPU I use (1) 3.120.

- (2) swiftech 655 pumps and 2 single bay reservoir - worked out ok and temps are nice.



Its a duel loop system
 
As other have said you can get away with a 3x120 for stock situations. Just keep in mind, if you intended to overclock, you wanna look at least 4x120 with fans that match your rad (ie: high volume-med speed fans for thick rads and speedy fans for thinner more restrictive rads). Noise levels vary from person to person, but a good place to start is the MCR320. If that's not enough to your liking, buy a stack one, and stack the two.
 
No a triple rad is fine and is all that is needed for the cards. You will be able to overclock the cards and they will never push 60C.

For silence I suggest and XSPC RX360. If silence doesn't matter, the HW Labs GTX rads are superb for highspeed fans.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top