Swiftech stealth probs! Overheating!

Hey guys.. I just spent all day and all night draining my water loop and removing my Switech VGA blocks and heatsinks from my 2 Evga 8800GTX's and installing the new blocks, Swiftech Stealth rev. 2. Low and behold i had probs getting good contact with the cores using the new blocks.

I put a long bead of AS 5 in the middle of the core and slapped the block on and tightened the block down and quickly checked it out for contact. What i seen i could'nt believe. I could see light threw the core and the block! I was like what the hell.. I shinned a flash light in the area and i could see the thero goop just hanging there inbetween. I quickly took the block off and noticed that the goop was spread a little bit in an oval shape but just in the very center of the core. Also it looked like the goop was not even flattened down at all meaning there was not much contact.

I first thought lets take a pic of this but i thought was lets just add more AS 5 and spread it out this time and try again.. I'll take pics of the next block.( note i didnt even notice the prob till i got the block on the second card ofcourse!)

I spread it out and put the block back on again and tighted the screws down all the way and checked it out and i didnt see much light as before and figured it was good. I did the same n the second block and no i didnt take pics

Put the cards in and took another 2 hours filling and bleeding the system.

Start the computer up and i'm like cool its alive( good sign). I get into winXp and check rivatuner for temps and what do i see??? 48/44 idle! ****ed off cause i had temps of 42/38 idle before with the old switech universal blocks with the G80 addapter.

I ran a bench of 3DMark 06 to see what the damage is on load and i ran the first test and hit escape and checked the temps and i got a 59/55! The highest i seen the temps with the old setup was 51/47.

This is with 1.6v GPU and 2.2 on the ram. Runing 684/1836/1000. <-- Not the highest i can go.

So it managed to complete the 3dmark 06 bench once.. the next time it rebooted the system.

So obviously i have a major prob on my hands right now.. Also it dont help that i'm just about out of AS5.


Now i've read that the newer rev stealth is bowed and its supposed to out do the older vid block that i have. What the hell do i do to fix this??

NOTE: the pads seem to thick for the memory chips as its bowing the card out.. i dont know is that is whats stopping the block from making good contact with the core of what. Looks like you would'nt need the dang pads as it seems like the bock would line up perfectly with all the memory chips and not bow out the card. Though i doubt it would have any pressure behind it to make a solid connect.

Not too happy right now as i blew $228 plus a 4 hour drive to get these locally so i could play this weekend when my 2 and a half year old is staying over her god mothers house this weekend.

Looks like i'm gona be spending the next 2 days putting back on all those dam sopper heatsinks back on the 2 GTX cards and the old blocks.

What a nightmare!

Oh yeah.. sorry its almost 6 am and no sleep!

Is there only one way to have the flow go with these blocks? I have the inlet going into the left side of the blocks and the out is the right. Would it make a difference it i reversed it? I mounted the lines that way as thats how i had it before and only way i could hook it up with my system without changing out the lines.

The only thing you can do is achieve proper contact. IMO you shouldn't have powered the system up until you were satisfied with the contact between the block.

Edit: to be honest I think those temps are more than fine. Not very hot if you ask me. It sucks that your temps went up, but it's not that bad. Just sell the new blocks and go back to what works better, or keep these knowing that those temps aren't dangerous. My card gets to over 85C sometimes. It's totally safe.

heh they state that the blocks cool better then the MCW60 block and thats what i was expecting.. if there was going to be almost a 10C higher temps i would of went with the Danger Den full coverage blocks as my real only concern was cooling the rest of the card.

Dont know whatelse i could do to get a better contact as the screws are all tight. I wish i would of taken the block off again and checked the coverage before putting them back in but with those damn memory pads i didnt want to be out with nothing as i doubt you can remove the block more then twice without having to replace them.

1. Get some sleep.

2. After that, approach it with a fresh mindset. You say that the core is not making proper or adequate contact with the block, because of the memory pads. If that's true, try taking off the pads and see if the block will make proper contact with both the core and the memory. If not, you might try some different thermal pads.

A quick look on a popular cooling site yielded these: http://www.petrastechshop.com/ekrevoretimp.html

Might work.

Welp finally bled the lines again of all air bubbles as that was pretty much my last idea.. and tested it out.

Same crap GPU1 and 2 - 48/45C Idle and 59/52C Load.

My last idea is that maybe since this block also touches the mem chips that since i'm runing 2.2v on it, maybe its also adding heat to the line.. i know the water isint touching the mem but the block is.

I'm gona flash the card to default mem speed and lower the voltage back down to 1.95 (default) and take a look.. I'll repoart back shortly.

xilix said:

The only thing you can do is achieve proper contact. IMO you shouldn't have powered the system up until you were satisfied with the contact between the block.

Edit: to be honest I think those temps are more than fine. Not very hot if you ask me. It sucks that your temps went up, but it's not that bad. Just sell the new blocks and go back to what works better, or keep these knowing that those temps aren't dangerous. My card gets to over 85C sometimes. It's totally safe.

Click to expand...

I thought the contact was fine.. its kinda hard to see with the block on.

I didnt change a thing from the lines, only the blocks. I expected what i read about the blocks, that they designed them to top the king (MCW60). I ended up seeing about a 10C incline to my temps.

I just down clocked the mem speed and lowered the voltage on them from 2.20v to 1.95. Last ditch idea as i was thinking that maybe since the block covers the ram that with such high voltage it may also be heating the blocks up.

Results:

I got a whole -1C difference on idle temps. Dropped a little under load at 57/51.

So now i'm sittin at around a 6C increase using the new blocks.

Your card may have taller memory than most of the 8800s out there. Full cover blocks are sensitive to this. For example, the 6800 and 7800 have identical PCB layouts (pretty much identical PCBs really) but the newer memory on the 7800s is thinner so you need a new full cover block or use thick pads. Also, like in your case, the 7800 full cover blocks will not work on 6800s unless they're an oddball version with memory from 7800s.

Thats basically why I won't recommend a full cover block. I don't see spending an additional $100+ or $200+ (assuming an SLI system) every time you replace your video cards to be good for anyone except the water block companies.

There both early 8800GTX models.. never heard anyone say anyting about any changes made to the 8800GTX cards... not saying that your wrong or anything just saying i didnt hear of a change.

only think i can think of is take the block off and press down on the mem pads and or remove then all together and see if what kind of contact you get with mem and core. hopefully with the stupid pads gone you get nice contact on both!

Yeah i have images in my mind of me takin the whole thing out again and checking without the pads on. i'd just hate to do that as if it dont make good contact i'm **** out of luck puttin the blocks back on.

It be nice if i could just return them but ya know since its watercooling i'm sure thats out of the question.

So possably in teh end i'm gona have to blow another $15? shipped for replacement pads and then loose my rear selling these blocks.

I'm happy that i choosed to have these blocks for my X-mas present from my parents. What a waste..

Another thing you can do is look for a local computer shop. They might have some cheap TIM or pads for sale. You don't HAVE to put AS5 or fancy TIM on memory.

Welp i figure even after i get ahold of someone at swiftech there will tell me to take the blocks off and remount so i attempted to take the second block off whil still on the loop.. quickest way to see whats doing.

Pics taken while on my back as i had to hold the block up and take a shot underneith.








I've carfully taken the pads off and placed them on a peice of wax paper so i dont ruine the sticky back. I'm gona clean the goop off and do a test mount without the pads using goop on all the ram chips to see what kind of coverage i get without the pads this time.

Its gona be extremely ruff tryin to remount the block on my back but a mans gota do what a mans gota do.. Wish me luck.

First of all, you used WAY too much AS5 there! Second, it looks like more pressure from the block is being placed toward the bottom of the core instead of the middle. I'd say that's your main problem.

This is why I refuse to buy or use full cover water blocks.

Jas said:

This is why I refuse to buy or use full cover water blocks.

Click to expand...

I feel ya man..

Here we go...

First a shot of the idle temps before with the older swiftech MCW60 blocks in SLI.



Now a pic of the idle temps after installing the 2 Stealth blocks in SLI.



Heres a shot of the card removed.



Heres a pic showin the new AS Ceramique spread over everything.



Close up.. I spread the goop with a credit card as usual.



A pic of the card now installed.



Close up pic so you can see the AS goop on the mem chips compared to the first block with the pads.



Just a couple of pics showin the overall cooling of the case.

Now the good stuff..

Idle temps



And now load!




Now i dont know whats up with the system now though.. The mem look like there making fine contact, ofcrouse with the trouble of getting that card on the block in the position that i did (Miracle really) i didnt want to chance taken it off and puttin it back on again.

So i made it through 2 loops of 3dmark 06 and i seen that it finished the last loop as i past by the system coming in from outside. I come back 2 mins later and i see that the system rebooted

Then while the system was idling and i was on the notebook trying to upload pics the system blue screened on me. Forgot the error ofcourse but at the bottom it said starting physical memroy dump. I turned it off.

So i thought my current prob would be if i wanted to dump the lines and pull both cards out and redue them without pads to now wondering it something is cookin like the mem with the pads off. I did leave the little blue pad on the shadder chip as i didnt feel like chipping it putting the block on in the position i did. I think that may be preventing the memory on that side near the shadder chip from having good contact.

Those blocks are pretty heavy, are you sure your graphics cards aren't getting torqued a bit in their slots and loosing contacts with the PCI-E bus?