Water Cooling Advice.

BreaK-

Hey guys, I've recently had problems with my 2 8800GTX's in SLI overheating. So I've put my balls on the table and ordered an EVGA GTX 580 Hydro Copper 2 which is winging its way towards me as I type! Woooo....

Bad news is I have never ventured into watercooling before. Since I'm watercooling my GPU I'm going to buy a CPU block and cool that in the same loop.

What I really need to know is which size radiator to use to cool this loop. Ideally I'l like to use a triple rad. I'm currently running a Silverstone TJ07 and I'm not much of a modder, and in order to get the triple rad in I'm going to have to re-locate my SSD and HDD's which coule be a little tricky. So I'd like to just get 1 single 120mm rad and fit it next to the PSU.

Here is a short Vid of my rig. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UZYU_DQSMo[/ame]

Any of you guys think this will be ample cooling? Or should I bite the bullet and go for a triple.

Oh...also are there any known issues with Maya/ZBrush and the GTX580? Kinda too late now but....it would be good to know.

Like always thanks for your help!

Tom Ellis

I dunno, but I have a question for you:

Why? Surely you spent like thousands of dollars on that setup.

I spent less than $600 on my SandyBridge, GTX 470 rig and everything runs at lightning fast speed... I use the fan that came with the cpu, I shoved the spare PSU cables in any hole I could find, and it's still fast, and quiet and stable.

I know it sounds like I'm trolling you but I really am curious... why all this 'water cooling this, SLI that, radiators blah blah', like, what does it actually do?

BreaK-

creationtwentytwo wrote: »

I dunno, but I have a question for you:

Why? Surely you spent like thousands of dollars on that setup.

I spent less than $600 on my SandyBridge, GTX 470 rig and everything runs at lightning fast speed... I use the fan that came with the cpu, I shoved the spare PSU cables in any hole I could find, and it's still fast, and quiet and stable.

I know it sounds like I'm trolling you but I really am curious... why all this 'water cooling this, SLI that, radiators blah blah', like, what does it actually do?

Heh...tbh I'm really getting into modding....aaaaaand thats it. Plus I was sick of my cards overheating and causing me to lose loads of work. (I always forget to save often). Then theres a few games I'd like to play that my 8800's wont run well.... Crysis 2 for one! For the past 4 years my cards have done me proud, and I think its time to upgrade! But mainly because I'm a nerd.

ericdigital

I'm with creation, why bother to do such a killer water cooled set up on such old cards? I would have just replaced the cards, which it sounds like your planning on doing as well? Which with a newer card you might not have even needed it, those 8800s always ran hot.

EarthQuake

Just buy a single, quality card that outperforms your old 8800s, this will cost less than silly water cooling crap, and has no risk of pouring antifreeze into your computer.

BreaK-

I've already bought an EVGA GTX580 which comes watercooled as standard so its too late now. I've always wanted to venture into watercooling and now I have a little spare money I'd like to have a bash. Since the GPU is going to have to be watercooled I may as well do the CPU too.

Esprite

If you are going to water cool don't mix Aluminium parts with other metals it will lead to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

I've seen servers done in because of it.

BreaK-

Esprite wrote: »

If you are going to water cool don't mix Aluminium parts with other metals it will lead to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

I've seen servers done in because of it.

Cheers dude. I'll keep an eye out!

Artifice

Since nobody else explicitly said it, I will. If you're really dead set on water cooling, post on an appropriate forum for it. While people here might know a bit about it and a few may even run setups, you'll get a lot farther on HardOCP or Anandtech or somewhere like that, where pushing performance is the focus. For CG, especially if you make money at it, stability is way more important than speed. If it takes longer, you just charge more.

Seriously, I'm not trying to discount your question, I just think you're going to save a lot of headaches (your own included) by asking somewhere more appropriate.

EarthQuake

Artifice wrote: »

Since nobody else explicitly said it, I will. If you're really dead set on water cooling, post on an appropriate forum for it. While people here might know a bit about it and a few may even run setups, you'll get a lot farther on HardOCP or Anandtech or somewhere like that, where pushing performance is the focus. For CG, especially if you make money at it, stability is way more important than speed. If it takes longer, you just charge more.

Seriously, I'm not trying to discount your question, I just think you're going to save a lot of headaches (your own included) by asking somewhere more appropriate.

Yes, on PC you'll get much more people telling you how stupid you are for risking your important equipment, than giving useful advice on nerdy OCing stuff. =D

BreaK-

Yeah I already have posted on Kustom PC, but since I know guys on here are always helpful I wanted a second opinion. Also I dont think its too risky, watercooling has advanced a lot in recent years and Im planning this out very carefully. (Even modelling the rig in maya first so I know it all fits)...gah I'm just re-enforcing my nerdyness there. When Its done I'll post some pics up here of it all running and hopefully not leaking. Thanks for the help anyway guys.

Here's , a quick mock up of a set up I've done for those who are interested. Just need to work out where Im going to relocate my SSD/HDD's.

metalliandy

My sincere advice would be not to use liquid cooling.

My last rig was liquid cooled and at the time the reduction in temperature was around 10-15 deg. but now with the advances in air cooling, its just not worth the extra headache or cost.

If a pump breaks, you have to pay out through the nose and you have to order parts on line, which will leave you with out a PC for xx Days because its not something regular PC stores stock.

You could buy a gtx 460 or better for much, much less money than a good liquid cooling solution and an aftermarket fan (if you so wished) for £10-15.
A new GPU will perform better, run cooler and draw less power than the 8800gtx (even in SLI) and it doesnt require you to spend a ton of cash in top ups liquid either.
Please heed my advice...Its just not worth the stress.

Esprite

metalliandy wrote: »

My sincere advice would be not to use liquid cooling.

My last rig was liquid cooled and at the time the reduction in temperature was around 10-15 deg. but now with the advances in air cooling, its just not worth the extra headache or cost.

If a pump breaks, you have to pay out through the nose and you have to order parts on line, which will leave you with out a PC for xx Days because its not something regular PC stores stock.

You could buy a gtx 460 or better for much, much less money than a good liquid cooling solution and an aftermarket fan (if you so wished) for £10-15.
A new GPU will perform better, run cooler and draw less power than the 8800gtx (even in SLI) and it doesnt require you to spend a ton of cash in top ups liquid either.
Please heed my advice...Its just not worth the stress.

Yeah, had a bud whose pump died while he was at a LAN. Sucked cause he was from out of town and had gotten a ride with friends. He put it through the RMA process while he was there, but that's a few weeks without a computer.

metalliandy

yea
My first pump died without warning just after a year and i was without a PC for 6 or 7 days

Jeremy Lindstrom

what is this 1998?

Mark Dygert

Water Cooling Advice

Don't.

Shaffer

Yeah leave the water cooling for the enthusiasts, I used to like overclocking a lot and would have all my stuff to the max and honestly water is for a very small percentage of users. The majority I talk to who want water cooling are like yourself and don't actually need it but think it would be sweet upgrade.

Check out overclock.net

greevar

I think urine cooling would be better. GPU overheating? Just piss on it! :poly142:

Kwramm

Jeremy Lindstrom wrote: »

what is this 1998?

haha. that just sums up my feelings about water cooling. Tinker on your models, not your rig

pior

lol

arrangemonk

you know a proper air filter is about 5$ to 10$ , putting such things on teh fan prevents the dust from entering your case, renders liquid cooling obsolete

krisCrash

arrangemonk wrote: »

you know a proper air filter is about 5$ to 10$ , putting such things on teh fan prevents the dust from entering your case, renders liquid cooling obsolete

Whoah, I had no idea those existed, why aren't they on PCs to begin with?

Tom Ellis

krisCrash wrote: »

Whoah, I had no idea those existed, why aren't they on PCs to begin with?

They sometimes are, my $30 CoolerMaster case has built in filters in all vented areas.

Mark Dygert

creationtwentytwo wrote: »

They sometimes are, my $30 CoolerMaster case has built in filters in all vented areas.

Mine did too. I pop out the screens, spray them down with canned air every few weeks and it stays clean and cool inside. It's also the most quite case I've ever had, I love it.

My proc is slightly over clocked and air cooled, its running cooler than it normally would. I bought a coolmaster V8 without checking the dimensions, I thought it was the same size as a standard fan but with a little advanced cooling, turns out the thing was a GIANT. I ended up putting it in and it helps keep my entire case cooler ha ha ha. It's a beast and total overkill but it doesn't make much sense to take it out.

The heat of my memory is what worries me the most, its packed in there like sardines, so I put in an extra fan just for the ram so it stays at a decent level. I did the same for my SSD drive which runs a little hotter than I'd like when the extra fan isn't there.

r_fletch_r

Stick with Air. Its safe, and can be quiet if you buy good fans. I have experience with water and it was a waste of time and money. it also ended up damaging my MB and RAM when the pump leaked (Not my plumbing). If air fails you replace a fan. If water fails you buy a new computer.

Spend your dollars on good hardware and some 3rd party cooling fans.

Arcanox

On the subject on fans and such, I've been looking at doing a new computer build and I definitely need a new case. Currently my case is a bit small and I've gone crazy with these big 120mm fans since they're super quiet.

I'm wondering if there are some decent cases that are big, solid and have some sort of noise reduction features. Any recommendations with that?

BadgerBaiter

I have a Coolermaster Stacker... very large case and is pretty quiet... however you could look at some of the Lianli ones.... however they do have a pretty large price tag with most of them.

SHEPEIRO

fuck just stick it in the fridge the noise from the bubbles pisses me off

Justin Meisse

I've got an antec P1xx (not sure what number it is) it's their performance series,
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MTgwOA==
It comes with built in air filters!

Kwramm

just remember to clean or replace the filters every few months, depending how dusty your place is. Having filters full of dust pretty much kills any cooling the fan does.