Water Cooling - Buyers Guide

little update on my 8800 and the ek block.on air and fan at 100% idles at 56-58c!with the ek block idles at 37-39c im likin the 20c drop in temps!on air the back of the card got really really hot even with a 120mm fan blowing across it.now its hardly warm to the touch.drawback is now my cpu idles roughly 4c higher
havent had time to get the apogee gtx in the loop yet but im hoping to this weekend.ive got a new proc on the way so i may wait until that gets here to do some comparison testing between the storm and the gtx.
another update.i redid my loop and decided to try out a dual pump configuration.got a sweet deal on a pair of ddc-2s(thought they were ddc-1s when i bought em,bonus!)
anyhow with both pumps running my temps didnt change a bit my theory was that with the added restriction of the ek block,the dual pumps would help my temps a little(was shooting for redundancy at first,being that my ddc-1 died on me).unfortunately thats not the case at all.basically ive found the only difference to be noise lol.with both pumps running my system is really loud.the water crashing thru the res is unbearably loud.not to mention its well nigh impossible to bleed the system with both pumps running.
anyhow thats my latest adventure.ill keep you guys updated with the gtx when i get it hooked up.
editroc showed up early!:rock:
still wont be able to do anything until tomorrow tho

 

Yeah, unfortunately not a lot of good comprehensive reviews on the net so all you can do is try it out and see what happens. Though if your system is pretty high-end to begin with I'd say its probably best not to expect more than a degree or two from changing any one component. I'd imagine adding a second radiator might make it a better candidate for dual pumps, as I'd guess a radiator is at least as restrictive as any block, and presumbably would help deal with the GPU heat.

 

so far so good.the gtx is definately outperforming the storm r2.not by alot but its more than i anticipated.heres what ive got so far with orthos small ffts.
xeon 3070 at 3.5 vcore 1.35 8hrs orthos.
storm idle 31c load 50c
apogee gtx idle 28c load 47c 8hrs orthos.havent had time to let the ceramique burn in yet.so i may get slightly better temps further on.
not too shabby.havent had time for much more than this but ill be pushing the 3070 hard tonight.havent found the max stable yet.might see what running both pumps does as well.
edit:ive found that running both pumps is a really bad idea.my temps are alot higher with the two running at the same time.im talking like 4c!the problem is that i cant completely rid the reservoir of air(cap is hollow so it inevitably traps air)and because of this the air gets pushed thru the system rather than staying in the res.if i run with one pump the air stays in the res and temps are normal.
also ive bumped the vcore up to 1.4275 to run stable at 3.6 and temps have risen quite dramatically with the vcore and frequency increase to 34c idle.load temps have strangely stayed about the same at 50-51c.im finding that c2ds are voltage hungry after 3.2-3.4.only needed 1.35 for 3.5 but need alot more for 8hrs orthos stable at 3.6.
the gtx is a very solid block so far and much easier to bleed than the storm was.

 

hit 4 gigs!!!!!yesssss finally!this cpu is a monster!i love it!idles at 36c at 4.04 woot!im a sissy tho i only ran superpi,i was too scared to run orthos lol.

hey Preacher is your ocz memcooler rattling?mine is making me crazy.i have to thump it like every 30-40 mins to make it stop grrrr.

 

Not that i've noticed. I only run it at 80% fan speed though, maybe that's the reason? Do you have the thumbsrews tightened hard enough?

Btw i'm loving the loop and overclocks you're getting, maybe we'll see some 3dmark benches later?

 

ive got those dang things cranked down so tight its painful to loosen em lol.i think i fixed it tho.i redid all the fan screws and its been fine so far so hopefully itll be alright.
thanks man its taken a loong time to get everything where i want it lol.still not quite done either.thinking verrry seriously about a mm ufo case right now.lol my gf will kill me tho...

i just got windows reinstalled so i havent even got any 3dmark benches installed yet.ill try to get some benches run later tonight.im trying to find my 24/7 right now so still a ways to go.passed 8 hrs orthos at 3.7 1.45v but msn crashed on me at about the 8hr mark so retesting at 1.4625.ill try to get some benches up soon tho.

 

cool, cool. As long as you don't beat my 06 score we won't have a problem.

Having said that i actually hope you do. At least that way it'll give me some motivation to raise my game a bit. I still haven't been bothered to flash my bios.

 

hehe im a lazy bios updater myself lol.im still running the bios my board came with youll probably have a better score than me tho.i dont oc my gpu period anymore lol.killed too many $500 cards in the past :/
im tellin ya tho this gtx has been a much better block than i anticipated.i had no problems bleeding this out compared to the storm.the storm gah,it was nearly impossible to get the air out of it.

 

sorry its been so long.theres been a few changes since the last post but heres the latest 3dm06 score gpu stock.cpu 3.7,11,213 pc mark 9914.<---strangely this is lower than i scored with my e6600 at 3.6?where has Preacher disappered to?

 

Received this baby in the mail yesterday, the Thermochill PA120.3:



I was in the process of cleaning it with boiling water when I took the picture, and I'm still not done. There's so much solder flux in that thing! Anyway, I also fixed the engine on my dremel recently, so I'm all ready to put this baby in my stacker, whenever I get the time after my exams that is.

Still wondering if I should swap my Storm for a bowed Apogee GTX. Would probably increase my flow drastically, and at the same time decrease my temps pretty nicely.

 

ah the pa 120.3. very very nice choice John!the gtx is a great block but it really only beats the storm by a few degrees unfortunately.i havent tried the larger gasket tho so it may well make a much bigger drop.let us know how you fare with the new rad!btw what are you upgrading from?

 

Going from Storm to a GTX with bowed base may yield temperature drops as large as 6 degrees, from what I've read. The bowing really makes a large difference. I'm a bit tired of the Storm getting clogged up all the time as well, those jets are hard to keep clean.

I'm upgrading from a overloaded BIX2. It really does not handle the heat from my GPU & CPU with higher voltages. I get some pretty nasty deltas.

 

i can definately understand that.i had a bear of a time just getting the air out of the storm.then having to try and keep it clean bah.i moved on the first chance i got lol.dont get me wrong tho the storm was a great block while i used it.especially with the pa 120.3 thats when it really showed its colors.

 

How come you haven't bowed the base on your GTX? I understand it's "the big thing" to do these days, haha.

 

well tbh im just not fond of my mb being bent even a little lol.with everything that ive got attached to this thing(nb,sb and mosfet coolers)im afraid something terrible would happen.im pretty happy with my temps the way they are right now(32c idle 50c load) but im sure the next time i redo the loop ill give the big gasket a shot its just such a pain to redo,that and im lacking severely in the motivation department lol.

 

Ah yes. AFAIK it's pretty much necessary to use a backplate to avoid too much motherboard strain. I read Swiftech are releasing a kit for bowing, with a suiting backplate and some longer screws.

 

now that would be sweet.id love to be able to get the most out of this block without having to worry about the mb bending.hmm i wonder if theyll just send me one for being a early adopter?lol yeah right

 

The R600?

Heya
been reading reviews about different kits and came to the conclusion that Swiftech is the way to go :smoke:

now I am wondering: waiting for my 2900xt to arrive, will the vga block supplied fit the R600? also will this kit be enough to keep the cpu/vga at acceptable temp?

H20-220-APEX-ULTRA+ (359€)

:look:

 

If the block that follows that kit is the MCW60, then yes, it will fit. And it will do a very decent job at cooling the super hot R600 GPU.

 

Thank you very much, i'll order one right away! :ying: