I haven't gotten around to putting my 560ti under, not sure if I will... my cpu only loop is currently res, pump, cpu, rad with only 35cfm fans on it in a less efficient pull set up for silence. I still have my cpu oc to 3.8ghz with a slight overvolt of 1.35. Still getting idle at around 25c and load at around 50c with normal 20c room temps. I used to have a hot hd4850 on that same loop awhile back, and it only ran 10c hotter than it does now. I was using higher power 120x38mm fans then, but a much weaker pump. Those 130cfm panaflos cool really well, but ever so noisy. If I was to add my gpu to my loop now, I would be looking at adding a single 140 rad between the cpu and gpu for a little extra cooling, also with a lower powered fan, to still keep the noise down and add some more surface area for heat dissipation.
my GPU temps at load are 85c, wanting these shaved down to at least 60c once under water with sharing a 3x120mm Rad with CPU
Possibly selling them or keeping them for my SR3/X rig, why you interested? and no worries mate any time
60-70c overall loop temp should be doable, if you used some higher 90-130cfm fans with high static pressure, and sacrifice quiet for performance. I'd probably go for a high flow set up as well, with a stronger pump and 1/2" tube, that will help.
Yea the hydro coppers seem nice, by the way wonder if flame is ebaying his 580, as there is one on there with a backplate and all fitted haha
Yes they are fricking awesome but i'll be looking for something like £450 for them when/if I come to sell them I reckon. and Haha that is weird, but no thats not flame, although it is an identical card and backplate
There are three major things you have to realise about water cooling: 1. It's expensive and has a habit of costing more than you wanted it to. 2. You're not going to do away with fans. If anything, you might find yourself using more fans. 3. The best cooling you can achieve is ambient temperature. I won't go into the technical details about why this is, but the best you can achieve is room temperature. Some people do crazy things and run an external loop to radiators situated outside the building, but there's that cost thing I mentioned again. Consider this kit: http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...ercooling-Kit--EN-Nickel-Plexi-pid-14558.html includes everything you need, for £155.96. Then you've also got the hassle of mounting the pump and reservoir, figuring out the logistics of how to fill the reservoir, doing a 24 hour leak test, subsequently worrying about leaks anyway - not the mention the hassle of draining and dismantling it when you want to upgrade. Then consider the Corsair H100: http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop...erformance-CPU-Cooler--CWCH100-pid-13726.html Still a 240mm rad with pump (sits on top of the water block) and delivers similar performance. It's a bit noisier but it's install and forget and takes up a lot less space in your case. A closed loop that you don't have to worry about draining, filling or leaking. And at £85.99 it's almost half the price. All in all, the cost and effort of water cooling tends to outweigh it's benefits. Sandybridge can be cooled ecellently by well-designed air-cooling or with closed loop devices (e.g. the Corsair H80 or H100), even when over clocking. You'll see a more appreciable benefit if you water cool 1366 or SB-E set-ups. Then again, at that stage, temperatures will still be high (especially if overclocking) so you're going to start thinking about sub-ambient cooling - e.g. tecs - to realise the full benefit of all that money you're plowing into cooling.
Firstly although your not doing away with fans you can use them at MUCH MUCH slower speeds for when your not benching/overclocking etc, and higher speeds when you need to do such things. Also the H100 is a pile of cack, for what you pay for it plus some decent fan's you can almost bar probably £20-£30 get a full watercooling kit. Also tbh I found all trying to work out best place to mount my pump res etc pretty good fun, as for leak checking, generally if it doesn't leak within the first 3/4 hours its not going to, so what you should do is keep an eye on it like your life depends on it for the first 3/4 hours and then I left mine for 12 hours one day while I was out at work and had someone at home checking it every so often in case it had started leaking, but as long as your diligent when it comes to mounting your block's and doing up your compression fittings and connecting your hose you'll be fine. As for draining the loop, get a one of the tall res's like a phobya balancer 150/250 fill it up from the top and then to drain it empty the res and then disconnect a tube and blow down it Also I take the dismantling upgrading etc as part of the fun, also watercooling looks bloody awesome, much better than air cooling, and that was part of the reason went to the wet stuff, as well as wanting better temps.
With intelligent planning of where things go there is relatively minor hassle. Depending on how you set it up, like I did on mine this time, bleeding can be a pain more than anything. With the way my 'case' is I need to get inventive. There is no support for anything unless in upright position. Any other orientation cause undue stress on things. Since the way I laid mine out is somewhat non-standard it won't be an issue for most. I have mine atypical, as a bottom fill set up, but really easy to drain. I have to be more careful than most when bleeding and running it open, as the water tends to spurt when there is a bubble... so I run it after a refill with a jumpered psu, not my system on. That way if my motherboard or anything else gets a bit wet, no harm. Same with initial leak test, run it with a jumpered psu, not the actual system on. If there is a leak, it gets wet but as long as you let it dry thoroughly, no component death since it was not on. That said, I've never actually had a leak either, but better safe than sorry.
The H100 isn't even close to that kit, nor nearly as quiet. The problem you state with filling/draining etc, isn't a huge hassle since you're likely to be pulling your system apart every 6months/year anyhow, other than the initial assembly and leak test, you don't touch it. TEC's are a massive waste of electricity, if you're going to use TEC's you have the argument that a water chiller or a phase changer would be far more effective for the electricity cost. Finally, a custom water loop is often as much about the look as it is about the cooling.
I will be using the external radiator as my case simply isnt big enough, so ill need to buy a mount too. ps anybody selling gear go to my thread. Plus installing the rad outside case is surely better as its using the cooler ambient air to cool the loop?
I must have gotten lucky with my h100 because mine makes no noise whatsoever on the highest setting. Keeps my i7 2600k at about 45-50 under load in prime95. I've been very impressed with its performance. Edit: I will probably have it in a push/pull config for when I finally overclock.
Might be back to the old subjective sound level. I think I've mentioned this before, but if I can hear anything other than my hard drives, I consider it too loud. I have a similar setup to that kit, and it keeps my overclocked 2500K(5GHz, 1.38V) around 55-57C running intelburntest, maximum stress, 20 passes, which is rather more stressful than prime95(which takes it to 48-50C). This is with an ambient temp of ~20C. Idle temps are just absurd@ 23C. I'm not having a go at the H100 or other closed loop cooler, but for now, there's a good reason why they are so much cheaper than even a basic open water loop.
6 months/year, blimey I've drained mine once in 5yrs to upgrade graphics all it ever needs is the odd top up, perhaps I'm doing something wrong I'd say to AoE not to bother, all that expense for an extra few hundred Mhz out of what is a slow CPU these days, as others have said buy a better CPU, it'll likely run cooler and faster using its stock heatsink. My X6 will do 4.4 with 1.6v but for the extra heat output and power its burning I leave it at 4.1, extra 300Mhz doesn't seem to bring an appreciable gain really, I run mine with a very toasty OC'd GTX470 in the same loop I find that whether I run stress test with just CPU or GPU at the same time I don't really net any greater overclocking potential, what I mean is although the 470 adds significant heat to my loop I hit the same limits with CPU speed as I did when it wasn't in there. before GPU insertion in 26degC ambient, I was running about 45 under load, with GPU in loop added about 10 degrees in a burn test. I don't have the greatest W/C gear mind you, does the job though, by no means quiet though with all the fans I have on the rads.
Buying this GPU Block: http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/ek-fc580-gtx-directgpu-acetal-en-nickel.html What fittings would be best: EK PSC 10mm, 12mm or 13mm, can choose nickle, black nickel or black, I think i'll go with nickle. Whats this statement mean from EK:
It means that, while those are 1/4" threads; EK cannot confirm that fittings made by other people (Bitspower, Phobya and so on) will fit and work on the block. So it stops them from being blamed if you buy some stupidly huge fittings that won't work.
Ok but generally speaking of course, 1/4 fittings from most companies such as bitspower should work fine? e.g 1/4 compression with 3/8 ID?
