Cooling SLI Cooling?

With pictures of the new nforce4 boards kicking about the net no doubt most people will be cacking themselves and dreaming of dual gfx card goodness but has anyone thought about cooling on the cards? Alot of the stock coolers take up an extra pci slot now yet the pci-e slots are right next to each other so how are they going to swing that one?

I've seen some boards with three pci-e slots next to each other which would leave some headroom but how would you watercool them or put a zalman heatpipe on them etc? A DD 6800 block would work as the barbs from the bottom card would foul on the top card, you have to use an older block like the maze4 but even that would be hard as it would be a very tight bend for the tubing. Anyone got any thoughts or will i just put this down to another late night rant?

 

Well you need a low flow block. Aqua Computer and Innovatek (and probably more) make single slot solutions that are perfect for SLI.

 

lol, I cant wait to see dual GPU + dual CPU gaming rigs again

Hooray!

Rofl, could you imagine phase change cooling for a system like that?

 

yes youd need a loan to get it all LOL!

 

So far it seems that SLI cards will come with low profile heatsinks. For the Watercooling enthousiasts, I'm sure that block designers will take dimensional requirements into consideration. Meanwhile, as Darv says, Aqua-Computer and innovatek have low profile blocks.

 

Dunno about you beut ive yet to see a sli board that has the 2 16x slots right next to each other so it shouldent be a problem.

slater..

 

Yeah, the two x16 slots have a space in between them, incidentially where the little lane configuring card goes to enable the second slot. The only thing you would really need to worry about are barbs hitting each other or the other block.
I don't see how you could possibly air cool them actually, there's about 2mm of space between the cooler of the top card and the bottom card, and we all know how hot those things run.

 

Alphacool do a low-profile GPU-only block, it you want to leave the ram alone.

 

i wouldnt be surprised if a few companies, including dangerden (hopefully) make some blocks especially for SLI configs, maye a dual-card block
now that would be a bit special

 

i was thinking the exact same thing earlier today. hopefully they will make one.

 

Not likely --too small a market. What would be more viable is a single block that can be "stacked" in SLI systems.

 

I relly dont see what the problem is with watercooling. Just get 2 lower profile blocks, no need for anything special.

 

Well you're fine as long as the block only takes up a max of one extra slot, as it was pointed out earlier it's more likely the barbs will be a problem, unless you get a bunch of 90degree ones.

 

Well the Fusion which is by Silverprop is getting that company much better known in the states.

The Fusion SL is a very low profile block, most of all for those with 1/2" rigs.

The HL version is better known in the states as it'll clear memory sinks, but the SL version would be perfect for this.

As to line routing, I don't see a problem if a strong pump is used. Use a Y fitting that goes from 1/2" line to two 3/8" lines to the two GPUs. Then rejoin after the GPUs or just route them to the res as independant lines.

Course if a block like the White Water or RBX with two outlet barbs is used, then no need of a Y at all.

And as the barbs are aimed outward towards the edge of the card shouldn't need many fittings to make it work very well. With the Y tipped down so the line to the first card lines up easy only the second cards line may need a fitting like a long sweep 90. Outlet lines should be managable without any fittings.
And with a 3 barb block no fittings at all should be needed.

The Fusion SL should work sweet! !

 

Good spot, here's a link to the block
http://www.silverprop.com/cyclonefusionsl.aspx

This one has both barbs facing the same direction as opposed to the alphacool where they are at right angles. Alas I don't know the layout of the 6800 so I can say where they are in the way of the chips.

 

There wont be a problem with water cooling.

The 2 PCI-E slots are next to each other but they are set a large way away from each other so that each card will take up 2 slots each like every other Geforce card. Look at the Image of MSI's upcoming board which has 2 x PCI-E slots for SLI.

The 2 slots run at only 8X as they cant both run at 16x with a card in each.

So with innovatech waterblocks would be ideal to cool both these mamas.

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Previews/nvnforce4/2.html

 

There has been alot of suport by the big companies like MSI, etc that have been producing these SLI boards for AMD 64 chips. I havnt seen any released as of yet. I am looking into the total cost of a SLI system as Im thinking of going that way. The MSI board got 6 SATA ports which be useful for me when i get my 4x200GB drives next monday

 

I guess it will be a while before we loose the PCI slots. Its a shame as if you're getting SLI then there's no hope of a PCI-X for a Raid card.

 

Alienware already do them $6000 for dual nvidia 6800 graphics, with a xenon 3.4 ghz processor, 1 gig of ram and 2 x 74 gb WD raptor drives. Although you can upgrade to 4 gig of ram and a 3.6 ghz Intel xenon processor.

Think there meant to start shipping before xmas if you pre order now

 

well you can always toss twin NVSilencers on those, and do a few wee modifications so that the fans breathe through the sides of the casing rather than right below...