GPU+RAM cold plate and questions

Hey guys! I milled me a cold plate that covers my gpu and same side ram for my new 9600xt. I got it all insulated up and ready to be put on my gfx card.

Heres a few quick shots.



I will almost be able to just use it the way I have without any conformal coating or silicone because of the way I designed it.
My question is how far will the heat spread(lack of heat) through the card? how far and how much will I have to insulate on the back side?

I am planning on trying to run this at 5v and see if it will cool it just enough before I make a plunge to full 12v then maybe a 172@12v later if I keep the setup.

I made it out of aluminum because thats all I have at hand at the moment, and I am not too worried about the semi-small performance decrease at the moment.

Jon

You'll likely have condensation an inch or so around it on both sides of the card, but it also depends on how far you overclock, and how much heat stuff around those components make.

holy crap, clean job, let us know the results

That is a simply gorgeous piece of work there - great job!


With the coldplate covering the RAM chips as well, some much more serious insulation will be neccessary on the rear of the card, your entire card will quite likely be getting somewhat frosty with an 80W/16V pelt on 12V.

You will almost definetely see condensation on the reverse 4 RAM chips (the chips on the opposite side of the PCB from the coldplated chips), as well as condensation on the rear side of the card, behind the core. I would adhere copper RAMsinks to the rear memory chips, and then thoroughly insulate the entire rear of the card with dielectric grease, and a fitted piece of thickish neoprene. Some clips to keep the neoprene padded down against the card would help as well.

In fact, you might want to skip the rear RAM chip RAMsinks, and simply insulate the rear RAM chips as well. That card's memory doesn't put off much heat (compared to the core anyways), the RAM chips will likely get pretty chilly.


It's quite unlikely however, that a 40mm 80W/16V peltier on 5V will be sufficient for cooling the core, and memory, below ambient.

I will almost be able to just use it the way I have without any conformal coating or silicone because of the way I designed it.

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Use it anyways, especially on the 'front' (the side the waterblock is on) of the card, around/inside the GPU 'socket', around the RAM chips, and all over the rear of the card. About insulation on the rear of the card; you'll probably have an easy enough time making it nice and aesthetically pleasing, with a cleanly cut piece of fitted neoprene over dielectric grease.

Any plans to make a copper revision(s) later on, if this prototype is successful to some degree?

Have you considered designing a coldplate for RAM/core that allows fitting of a 50mm peltier?



There would definetely be some serious interest (I wonder who I'm implying would be interested... ) if you decide to maybe make a copper coldplate sized for, say, a reference PCB 9800 Pro's core/RAM

I love it how sometimes the forum or my connection craps out for a second and I loose my post.....

Thanx for the comments

Im a little worried about the condensation going that far, thats all the way into capacitors and all.
I figured the backside ram chips would be plenty cold, but I think I may make little 1/8" cold plates out of aluminum and then insulate over that.

A whole encasement crossed my mind, encase the entire card in an aluminum box, that may look good
I really wish I had a temperature controller because I dont use that computer enough to watch it, and my sister typically likes playing her sims2 game on it.
I bought this 9600xt strictly for this reason, to make some waterblocks or cold plate, I figured cince I didnt have the metal for waterblocks and had some aluminum I would make the cold plate

I have considered making a cold plate for a 6800 but I lack dimentions, I bet that would go pretty well. I was thinking I could buy one of those vga silencers for the 6800 and take dimentions off that.

If these blocks were easier and quicker to make or if I made a batch, I would be more up for making them, also, all the dimentions change too much on these lower careds from card to card.

The 9800/xt wouldnt have similar or the same pcb and layout as my 9600xt would it?
I know my cooler doesnt fit on the dead 9500 pro I have laying around.

hmm Christmas break maybe then Ill have a little time to make a few

Jon

Im a little worried about the condensation going that far, thats all the way into capacitors and all.
I figured the backside ram chips would be plenty cold, but I think I may make little 1/8" cold plates out of aluminum and then insulate over that.

A whole encasement crossed my mind, encase the entire card in an aluminum box, that may look good
I really wish I had a temperature controller because I dont use that computer enough to watch it, and my sister typically likes playing her sims2 game on it.

Click to expand...

Dielectric grease is your friend in this situation. Slather it over everything . The neoprene on top keeps it from collecting dust, and keeps condensation off of the actual dielectric grease - beading water on top of your insulation is a bad thing. I was thinking that you could make a sort of "Heatspreader" like some RAM sticks have, although it's purpose would be to insulate, not to spread heat. Some cleverly designed clips, and pre-cut neoprene, with lots of dielectric grease, would do the job nicely.

The rear RAM chips could well be completely insualted. They will likely get cold enough from the peltier that they don't really need airflow, or air contact, to stay cool enough for some decent overclocking.

If these blocks were easier and quicker to make or if I made a batch, I would be more up for making them, also, all the dimentions change too much on these lower careds from card to card.

The 9800/xt wouldnt have similar or the same pcb and layout as my 9600xt would it?
I know my cooler doesnt fit on the dead 9500 pro I have laying around.

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I'm pretty sure that the RAM chips wouldn't be in the same place between cards, although the core mounting is identical. If you want, I'll try and get a 1:1 scan of a 128 Meg 9800 Pro for you, so you can check. I'm sure I can find one pretty easily. 256 Meg 9800 XT cards have more RAM chips IIRC, and use a different PCB.

If you plan on making a batch of these coldplates in copper, for different cards, I can say right off the bat that I'd be interested in one, if it was made with holes mountable to a Maze 4-1 waterblock. The real problem is finding ~9 other people who would want one for the same card layout, so that you can justify the cost .


It's a superb idea though, even if it won't be mass-produced .

Please do let us know how it works out on your card!

whoa snap! pelt cooled RAM!

Yeah, this is why I consider the 6800s, they have the same layout from one to the other and they seem to be the big card these days.

I gotta figure out how much of a mess this is gonna be insulating it, I supose I will need to insulate the agp slot and everything too?

Jon

JFettig said:

Yeah, this is why I consider the 6800s, they have the same layout from one to the other and they seem to be the big card these days.

I gotta figure out how much of a mess this is gonna be insulating it, I supose I will need to insulate the agp slot and everything too?

Jon

Click to expand...

Some dielectric grease in it wouldn't be a terrible idea. Basically, I'd fire it up once, and keep feeling where is warm, and where is cold. Anyplace that isn't warm or above ambient after 5 minutes, I'd insulate.

Which, will probably be everything but the voltage regulators. On my 9800np @ 470/330 with an 80watt Tec, everything till past the ram was cool, not cold, but cool enough for me to insulate it. I made a big square of neoprene, and cut notches out for the ram chips, and it worked fine like that for over 4 months, at which point I went for a quiet system.

JFettig, the 6800s have an issue with low temperatures IIRC, they throttle or something, and don't work properly when they are run too cold .

So, peltiers on 6800s don't work too well

I gotta figure out how much of a mess this is gonna be insulating it, I supose I will need to insulate the agp slot and everything too?

Click to expand...

It shouldn't need an insulated AGP slot.

Although you will need more insulation than your typical peltiered card, because of the RAM, it shouldn't be too much worse.

Thanx for the info on the 6800s,

I almost think it wont need as much insulation becuase of the increased heat load, although it wont be that hot at first untill I get overclocking.
Should I use the agp voltage adjustment in the bios? I am not too fond of volt modding at the moment on something I paid that much for(Im cheap)

Jon

agp voltage does nothing to the card's component voltages just the agp bus.
as far as the throttling issue goes, i think there's a BIOS fix for it, not sure though

Should I use the agp voltage adjustment in the bios? I am not too fond of volt modding at the moment on something I paid that much for(Im cheap)

Click to expand...

Practice soldering some leads onto a dead piece of hardware, and you'll get pretty confident at it quite quickly

Most minor mistakes can be cleaned up for another try, and mistakes are rare if you're careful, and take your time. I've gotten pretty cavalier at doing volt mods; if you take your time, and stay relaxed, it's not too hard to do cleanly and safely.

Your card will see some serious gains with that peltier, without even touching the voltages though, if you really don't want to take the risk. Sub-ambient load temperatures make a *huge* difference to your overclocking

However, sub-ambient temperatures, combined with a hefty overvolt, work even greater wonders

heh yeah,
I am pretty good at soldering, I do quite a bit of it, real small stuff too from time to time, I turned a custom tip for my 15w iron that is extremely tiny. I don't think I wll bother volt modding it.

I scored 3825 in 3dmark 03(no patches or updates) Im downloading 05 as we speak -edit- 1454 on 05
Itll probably be christmas break before I even touch this cold plate setup again just to make sure I have plenty of time to work anything out and do it the right way.

Jon

Well well! Its on, idling right now at -7C!!!! I didnt have the backside ram insulated for a while just feeling, it got nice and cold pretty shortly. I would guess its down near 0C

Ill get some pics up soon!

-edit- Give me an idea of normal gpu and ram speeds for normal and possibly peltier cooling so I don't majorly overshoot. Anyone know? I hate stepping up speeds


Jon

Some pictures would be awsome, I really would like to see how this mounts on the card.

The work you manage to do with your Mill always amazing me JFettig .

I have the gpu up at 553 now, slowly edging up, not sure where and how fast, Ill start on the ram after I reach the gpu max.

and now for pictures!






Jon

rage3d tweaker maxes out at about 570... how do I go higher!!! Im gonna run the full benchmark and hope it goes.

Jon

I maxed it out at 610 and 355!!!! wowza

Jon

wow thats some insane OCs man!