Looking for tips custom VGA waterblock

[pontiacg5]

Hi everyone!

So I have a problem, I have 4 7970 GHz editions in a custom made case. These things get hot, hot, hot. Insanely hot. I tried cooling with 8 120mm fans which didn't work, now I'm settling for a box fan and 4 120mm fans which gets me to 90-95 degree temps, still throttles...

Anyway, lets just assume that I have an infinite list of resources; CNC mills, racks full of any material, legit CAD and CAM software, nickel/chrome plating contacts, laser acrylic cutters, press brakes....

"Why don't you just buy premade waterblocks?"

Aha! Because I can't! Like some kind of dummy I bought Ghz edition cards, Gigabyte's to be exact. These are not a reference cards unfortunately, and google hasn't been much help.

"Sell and buy another!"

OK, got me. But where's the fun in that?

All serious logical questions aside, can any of you remember any decent threads or builds using custom water blocks? I'd very much like to see them all, and I'm not asking for links, maybe just usernames or build titles or whatever.

I've bought a few full cover blocks for the hell of it, just to see how they worked, mounted, sealed etc.. but I'd still like to read around and see other people's ideas. Search terms are somewhat hard though, as custom, cnc, and water cooling all go together so often.

I know I've seen a few before, but I'm having trouble finding them!

 

[Supertrucker]

What model of gigabyte? Some ghz cards still use a reference PCB. I have 2 7950s made almost a year apart. A stock 7950 powercolor and a sapphire dual fan 7950 boost. They use the same pcb and full cover water block. Failing that, swiftech and a few others make GPU only blocks that will go onto just the core of virtually any GPU, no matter the PCB design.

If you are bent on making your own, what you will want is to make sure the core portion of the block sticks out enough to touch the core of the card, as it sits below the shim, and gets close enough to the ram and voltage regulators to use thermal tape(these hot points will be spread throughout the PCB) and has clearance for everything else on the board. A fairly time consuming amount of measurement and design.

Personally, if it isnt a reference pcb, i would just use swiftech mcw82s and call it a day.

 

[pontiacg5]

What model of gigabyte? Some ghz cards still use a reference PCB. I have 2 7950s made almost a year apart. A stock 7950 powercolor and a sapphire dual fan 7950 boost. They use the same pcb and full cover water block. Failing that, swiftech and a few others make GPU only blocks that will go onto just the core of virtually any GPU, no matter the PCB design.

If you are bent on making your own, what you will want is to make sure the core portion of the block sticks out enough to touch the core of the card, as it sits below the shim, and gets close enough to the ram and voltage regulators to use thermal tape(these hot points will be spread throughout the PCB) and has clearance for everything else on the board. A fairly time consuming amount of measurement and design.

Personally, if it isnt a reference pcb, i would just use swiftech mcw82s and call it a day.

Normally, I'd agree on the measurement and design being difficult and time consuming but sticking the card up in a mill with a dial indicator will get me all the measurements I need pretty quickly.

If I'm reading you right you are saying I'll want to make sure and get the memory modules and voltage regulators cooled right? Wouldn't that be the drawback to the universal solution?

My cards are GV-R797TO-3GD, from research I think that means I have rev 2.1 cards.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1315649/gigabyte-gv-r797to-3gd-radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-3gb

That makes me think reference design won't fit. I casually glanced and saw that the gigabyte OC uses reference design before I bought them but bought the GHz instead thinking it was the same. Whoops lol

 

[Supertrucker]

With the universal solution you can use ramsinks on the memory and vrms with any kind of decent airflow. They don't put off a lot of heat but if you cover them with a full cover block that doesn't help cool them they won't get any airflow and you will burn the vrms.

Also, with the custom block you are going to need to be able to make a custom oring or copy the size of a known full cover card so you can seal the acetal or plexi top over the channels on the water side of the block. All in all if you have the equipment and time vga waterblocks are pretty simple if you dont expect absolute peak performance. Just have to measure out all the clearance for the base so you can channel in a proper flow path to hit everything.

Im also speaking theory here I have the equipment at work to do the measuring, but I have no experience with the milling and whatnot.

 

[Conumdrum]

Dude, sure you can make your own block. Go for it. Once tested etc maybe you can make a bit of coin.

Gotta say, SURE buddy, it's as easy as cake on a plate that you didn't cook.

It's a silly endeavor. Just get the MCW 82 blocks, some copper heatsinks and get those cards cooled. NOW.

By the time you figure it out your cards will be outdated.

Maybe you need to become friends with this guy and ask him what it took. SERIOUSLY.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?270045-My-custom-waterblock-for-GTX480

 

[jcochran]

Have you looked at http://coolingconfigurator.com/ ? They may have the exact card you have on file and in turn have a water block for you. Just browsing the site, I see 5 models of the 7970 made by Gigabyte. Going there, I do find them listing several water blocks for your GV-R797TO-3GD. However, they don't have a full cover block for you, so the CPU itself would be handled, but you'd need to add passive heatsinks on the other chips (RAMs, Mosfets, etc).

 

[pontiacg5]

Dude, sure you can make your own block. Go for it. Once tested etc maybe you can make a bit of coin.

Gotta say, SURE buddy, it's as easy as cake on a plate that you didn't cook.

It's a silly endeavor. Just get the MCW 82 blocks, some copper heatsinks and get those cards cooled. NOW.

By the time you figure it out your cards will be outdated.

Maybe you need to become friends with this guy and ask him what it took. SERIOUSLY.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?270045-My-custom-waterblock-for-GTX480

Thanks for the link, but thinking it would take me as long as that guy is a bit of a stretch lol

I have much respect for a guy that can make something like that from dials alone though, no matter how long it takes.

And don't worry about the timeframe and tiny details, I can handle that
Like I said, I bought cards to copy the finer details from. All the R&D has been done for me. It's what I do for a living actually, and turnaround time is paramount 110% of the time

I have a hard enough time getting air to these cards as is, and the VRMs are notorious for getting hot on these cards. I don't really consider air an option for those, it doesn't work now and I don't see it working better with tubing and water blocks blocking airflow.

So, does anyone else have any recollection of a completely custom vga waterblock build they've seen before?

Thanks!

 

[Conumdrum]

Yep, just posted one. Glad you looked at it. That is custom, a pure hobby block.

Well for your cards you buy the GPU only blocks, and airflow isn't an issue with the right case and planning. Never seen an issue before.

Bet it's the top card getting hot. Hmm, the fans starves for air. Putting a GPU only block opens the area for a nice case side fan or a aux fan inside the case to add airflow over the area of concern where the heatsinks on the Vregs/Ram are. If your cards have VRM issues and you have the coin to build your own blocks, well get a bigger case, a mobo with 3 PCI x16 slots and lots of fans.

Dunno what else we can do for you. Build it and post pics.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Welcome to OCF!

I see you have a quad Xfire setup. Oh my.

I looked up that model on newegg and see that these cards have multiple fans on them for cooling. The problem is when they are sandwiched together side by side with no spacing assuming in your case or in most, the top card draws or sucks the air from the bottom card and some from the sides. These fan designs are good but when you're in a x-fire setups 2 or 4 especially, all they are going to do is suck hot air from each other and spreading it inside the case till the top and/or back fans exhaust. For example most Nvidia Evga cards intake air from the side and exhausts back out of the case from its other end. Sorry for my but its just speculation on my part why I would think you have those high GPU temps from the info you have given.

Also do you have a picture of your setup to see what your custom box looks like. Assuming you custom build it strictly for a air setup and those 4 cards in x-fire.

I would go with a universal GPU block and add some HS on the VRMs/RAM with some type of air flow passing by.

 

[pontiacg5]

Yep, just posted one. Glad you looked at it. That is custom, a pure hobby block.

Well for your cards you buy the GPU only blocks, and airflow isn't an issue with the right case and planning. Never seen an issue before.

Bet it's the top card getting hot. Hmm, the fans starves for air. Putting a GPU only block opens the area for a nice case side fan or a aux fan inside the case to add airflow over the area of concern where the heatsinks on the Vregs/Ram are. If your cards have VRM issues and you have the coin to build your own blocks, well get a bigger case, a mobo with 3 PCI x16 slots and lots of fans.

Dunno what else we can do for you. Build it and post pics.

A mobo with three pci-e slots would do no good, this is a quad crossfire setup! A bigger case is unnecessary, as I've got one as big as I need it to be.

Welcome to OCF!

I see you have a quad Xfire setup. Oh my.

I looked up that model on newegg and see that these cards have multiple fans on them for cooling. The problem is when they are sandwiched together side by side with no spacing assuming in your case or in most, the top card draws or sucks the air from the bottom card and some from the sides. These fan designs are good but when you're in a x-fire setups 2 or 4 especially, all they are going to do is suck hot air from each other and spreading it inside the case till the top and/or back fans exhaust. For example most Nvidia Evga cards intake air from the side and exhausts back out of the case from its other end. Sorry for my but its just speculation on my part why I would think you have those high GPU temps from the info you have given.

Also do you have a picture of your setup to see what your custom box looks like. Assuming you custom build it strictly for a air setup and those 4 cards in x-fire.

I would go with a universal GPU block and add some HS on the VRMs/RAM with some type of air flow passing by.

Here's a few pics of what I'm working with now.

Quadfire! lol

The real quadfire plus my foot.

My initial cooling plan.

The revised temporary cooling plan.

Due to the way the fins on these heatsinks run there's no good way to cool them as you said. These cards pull hot air in from the bottom (fan face) of the card and eject it at the pci-e slot and what would be the side of your case. There's no good position to place a fan that doesn't also blow the hot exhaust back at the intake fans.

I'm still worried that trying to go with air on the vrms won't really work, these cards are known for running hot. If I've got a universal block on these things I'm afraid of making another pocket that I can't force air down into again.

I can't explain it well, but if you pictured a universal block on a crossfire setup you'd end up with a pocket made by the block, and the two PCBs of the cards, if that makes any sense...

 

[Owenator]

Below are some threads on how I incorporated a universal water block into the stock VGA cooler. Maybe a hybrid like this could work for you. It looks like you have access to the needed equipment to roll your own!

Some shots of the block without the cover in this thread: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=674795
The cover back on but with a hole for the water lines: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=703973

I did this to avoid the full cover block cost but still get good GPU cooling and then ram/vreg cooling via the stock fan.

 

[Conumdrum]

Amazing rig! Wow! Yea, you can use the universal GPU blocks and the fans on top you have setup would cool the VRMs just fine with the copper heatsinks you can buy.

Might have to raise the top fans by 1" or so to allow for the hoses and fittings etc.

 

[pontiacg5]

Below are some threads on how I incorporated a universal water block into the stock VGA cooler. Maybe a hybrid like this could work for you. It looks like you have access to the needed equipment to roll your own!

Some shots of the block without the cover in this thread: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=674795
The cover back on but with a hole for the water lines: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=703973

I did this to avoid the full cover block cost but still get good GPU cooling and then ram/vreg cooling via the stock fan.

You have excellent taste in cases components! I've got my 2600k rig in the same case, powered by 2 striped ocz v3's. 1000MB/s read/writes

I've got nowhere near as much watercooling stuff though, or any for that matter

That's pretty slick how you saved the stock fan and shell! I might be able to pull something like that off, but this card is goofy. The heatsink covers the GPU/RAM then branches out to cover the whole card and the fans mount right to the heatsink/pipes. I might be able to save one of the fans and use the stock VRM heatsink, but I'd have to rig up a way to hold the fan. Then it would still be pointed right at the back of another card. Thanks for the links and writeup!

But that got me thinking, maybe I just make a waterblock for the vrms. I already have a premade backing plate, plus a template to copy. Could be as easy as drilling a deep hole in some bar stock I guess.

Amazing rig! Wow! Yea, you can use the universal GPU blocks and the fans on top you have setup would cool the VRMs just fine with the copper heatsinks you can buy.

Might have to raise the top fans by 1" or so to allow for the hoses and fittings etc.

Thanks! I'm starting to think a universal block might be best, or at least paired with a vrm block too.

I'd really like to get rid of the fans and cage completely once these are water cooled. I'm thinking I might try to bend up an acrylic top for it, maybe with a few fans.

 

[pontiacg5]

It's been forever and a day since I last posted here, but I thought I'd reply with what I eventually came up with...

Leak tested for months! Everything will be together and running once a new resevour gets here. The one I designed is lame and dysfunctional

And just for fun, my new-ish 3930K build. Found the mobo, ram (64gb!!) and 3930 for cheap-cheap. Now I just need some more GPU horsepower

 

[||Console||]

I give props to you for doing this , its a nice throw back to times gone past when we build our stuff .
I only wish I had access to your tools , as an Electrician Im lucky if the company you work for supplies a cordless drill . =)

 

[pontiacg5]

Haha, thanks!

The perks of my job are pretty sweet sometimes, but damn does it keep me busy..

 

[DaaG]

Dude, sure you can make your own block. Go for it. Once tested etc maybe you can make a bit of coin.

Gotta say, SURE buddy, it's as easy as cake on a plate that you didn't cook.

It's a silly endeavor. Just get the MCW 82 blocks, some copper heatsinks and get those cards cooled. NOW.

By the time you figure it out your cards will be outdated.

Maybe you need to become friends with this guy and ask him what it took. SERIOUSLY.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?270045-My-custom-waterblock-for-GTX480

Was that made in Slovenia? Many, many, moons ago?