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New setup, Need advice

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Oper8or

Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2004
Location
Tennessee. USA
Well, since I've been water cooling this rig for about 2 months now, I do not like the temps I get. So I am going to redo the entire setup. I'm not sure of some parts as far as what I need. This is what I want to do.

I want it to run very cool. The amount of noise from the fans doesnt bother me to much. So here is how I was thinking the would run starting from the pump throught the rest of the system.

From the pump (MCP655) to the cpu block (Swiftech Apogee, or Danger Den - RBX). From there it will (depending on the cpu block) either y or run straight to one vid card then to the next vid card. From the vid cards it will run to the rad (Black Ice X-Flow Pro II) then to the rez (Danger Den Single 5 1/4" Bay Reservoir ) back to the pump.
The rad will be mounted on a Swiftech MCB-120 Radbox Radiator/Fan Housing with 2 120mm fans.

A few things I need help on.
1. Which cpu block would be better for this? I want the least amount of restriction I can get. The Swiftech Apogee has two barbs which would mean less hose. The RBX would be ran with 2 y's instead of 1. More hose. Which is better suited for cooling x2 vid cards?

2. The vga cooling blocks. I've read so many things about them. But I cant decide on which one to get. The DD blocks arent high flow.. and I cant for the life of me find a high flow one. Which do you suggest?

I hope I can do it right this time. My wife is going to kill me for redoing this to begin with. But the cost isnt a problem. Yes I'm going with a rez cause I love the ease of bleeding the system. Makes things so much easier for me.
 
Thermaltake cpu block.. sadly. So the Apogee is not effective.. Ok.. what about the DD 2 outlet or the RBX? I dont want to make the wife mad by buying the exensive Swifty.. plus I dont know if the pump would have enough head pressure to make it work the way it should.
Now I see. It flows water well.. just doesnt get ride of heat to well. Took me a minute to figure the chart out.
 
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I wouldn't say the Apogee isn't effective, it's just not a high-performance block. The DD RBX should do almost as well as the Swiftech Storm. An MP655 could cope with either of those CPU blocks and a couple Maze4's.

Why are you set on a high-flow system? If you're thinking more flow always means better temperatures, look at those charts again. It's true that, all other things being equal, more flow means transferring heat at a lower temperature. But the other things aren't equal in high-performance blocks. While blocks like the Apogee do allow much better flow, jet impingement blocks like the Swiftech Storm and the DD RBX still give a lower C/W with just about any pump because they eliminate laminar flow in the block.
 
Ok now I understand. The blocks with the jets tend to work more consitantly then the others.. because its not just a flow of water going over them. Its a broken stream which in turn carries more heat away. Even if they flow a little slower. Correct?
So the RBX would work for me. I would love to get a storm.. and from what I gathered from my wife. I'll be able to get one :)
Now.. the maze4 vga blocks are good enough to cool the oc'd vid cards? I think from reading your post and looking at the charts they would be.
Thanks for the help Otter.
 
Oper8or said:
Its a broken stream which in turn carries more heat away. Even if they flow a little slower. Correct?
Yes, that's basically it. It's all about making sure that once the copper heats up a water molecule it doesn't just keep flowing along the copper keeping colder molecules away. You want all the water molecules flowing through the block to have a go.

If you're strapped for cash, the RBX will work almost as well as the Storm. It's a Porsche vs. Ferrari sort of thing.

The Maze4 GPU will do the job. Be sure to get some ramsinks too, as you won't have a fan on the video card anymore.
 
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