Watercooling high end build - revised

[Joseph]

Read though the DT article, was interested and head hurting

Also read though a single vs dual loop article and it seemed to be little difference? I'm thinking if I change the back 360 to a 480 it should compensate well enough and the pump is of a high enough grade in order not to affect flow rate significantly

edit: Just on the GFX, what about an EK bridge? not sure which one though theres so many different types and it seems it needs an extra component?

 

[Daemonkin]

Slow down. You obviously are not getting some of the fundementals here. Spend a day or three learning those links volumetrik posted. Question, whats your heatload?

 

[Joseph]

Okay so I've done alot of reading, and re-reading and I hope I've increased my knowledge somewhat.

The heatload from my CPU I think should be around 250W (i7 970 overclocked). However, I could not find data on the heat load of the GTX 590 so I'm going to make a guesstimate of 300W each - I hope thats somewhat correct?

The next part has me a little confused, I think I understand dT now, or at least have a better understanding of it. The following diagram is for the 360 rad, I couldn't find one for the 480 version but I can only presume it will get somewhat better results.

So I think if I run the top 360 with 3 GT1850s and the back mounted 480 with 8 GT1850s [push-pull] (using a controller to adjust noise/speed) I should be able to get the dT down to an acceptable level for the CPU and GFX. Could you advise on this?

 

[Conumdrum]

You can drop your DT down by .25 or 1/4 of the total DT.

If your using a 360 AND a 480 then it's .125, or 12.5% of the total DT.

360 divided by 480 is .75, meaning the 480 is .25 larger...................

What is your acceptable DT?

 

[Joseph]

Well I read in your guide that the dT for a CPU should be 10 or lower, so my acceptable dT should be less than 10?

 

[Conumdrum]

A CPU is happier with cooler temps. You can overclock more. Under 10C is decent for a CPU.

Your going to be hard pressed to get low DT with those GPUs in the same loop as the CPU.

I dunno. It's up to you, it's your stuff. You set a DT number and do it?

A 360 and a 480 will be fine for your setup if thats what your asking. I think.

 

[Joseph]

If I did split the loop into two, what would you suggest in terms of pump+bay reservoir. I don't think I'd need such a high end pump given that it would only be serving either 2x GFX or just the CPU.

The thing is I can't really afford to get another D5 and bay res to match, increasing my costs by about 130 pounds or so

 

[Conumdrum]

Koolance makes a nice dual 355 res.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=265111
You'll need no more than a 120x3 for the CPU, and if your not super pushing the OC a 120x2 would be enough. And you could drop the 480 to a 120x3 rad.

But, again, your usage matters. You going to be gaming mostly? Then the CPU won't be pushed as hard while the GPUs are working, dropping your heatload. Thus keep it at a single loop. Gabe at Swiftech wrote a long paper about single vs dual loops at his websight. You can also find it at XS, but it was about a year ago.

This is where lots of reading and experiance come into play, the 'little' things do matter.

Lemme see. Today is the 19th. You first posted on 3/22. I spent 3 months hanging out playing with air overclocks while first reading about watercooling. THREE months later I bought my first parts. I can see why your having troubles wrapping your head around this newfangled WC thing. And I didn't have as many choices myself back then as you do now.

I know your head hurts, but you'll figure it out.

 

[Daemonkin]

The 590 has an avg tdp of 700 watts, fyi.

 

[m0r7if3r]

Nvidia cites it as 365w

 

[Daemonkin]

Ooops, I was looking at a quad sli (2x 590) set up.

 

[m0r7if3r]

Yea, it's gonna be higher than nvidia cites (I wouldn't be surprised to see 500W oc'd), but not double

 

[Conumdrum]

A 590 is at 375 max by requirements. Not all of that is dissipated as heat. A lot of it is under max GPU benchmarking loads.

So lets get down to normal use. Gaming with TWO 590 could be overkill unless your going for surround and 3D. If thats your needs, maybe 600 watts would be fine. Possibly less, lots less if your not getting 3 24" monitors and 3D.

On the flip side, over estimating rads means less noise. You got the room and money to spend? GPUs and CPUs will never really decrease in wattage without a game changing technology change.

Rads last forever, pumps almost the same life. Up to you. Once you spend billions on the first massive setup it's way less for upgrades later.

 

[m0r7if3r]

A 590 is at 375 max by requirements. Not all of that is dissipated as heat. A lot of it is under max GPU benchmarking loads.

365 is nvidia's number for "what is expected under normal 3d usage", which is to say they didn't want to cite the full load numbers at ~400W worst case

 

[Joseph]

I remember reading though that article about single vs dual loops.

I actually am going for a 3 24" 3D surround setup so it will be generating towards the higher end of the watt scale.

So I can estimate my total wattage at around 1100 watts (425W GFX1 + 425W GFX2 + 250W CPU) at max load?

I think what I'm going to do is go for the 480 back mounted with 8 GT1850s in push-pull and the 360 inside mounted with 3 GT1850s in push. In the event the cooling still is not adquate that the CPU is getting too high temps I will leave it stock until I am able to purchase more equipment for the second loop.

How does the above sound?

I'll post a revised build soon

 

[Conumdrum]

Yep, you have enough cooling. Good luck.

 

[m0r7if3r]

Sounds like a plan, lookin forward to seein those 590 blocks

 

[Joseph]

So I've made an adjustment to the build. Based on feedback I've seen and cost to performance ratio I've decided to go for two 580s instead of 590s. I'm just wondering should I get a backplate for the 580s?

 

[Conumdrum]

Makes them look nice, thats all I think.

 

[Joseph]

I thought it would help support the card to avoid flexing?