Advice on Watercooling my Ares Video card

[cam_miles2003]

Hi

I'm planning a side project that I never got around to doing since I've been busy as hell but I'm planning on water cooling my Asus Ares 4gb video card (still brand new, never used, - been really really busy -__-)

(and yes I am aware it would have been cheaper to buy several video cards and used SLI to combine them but again...this is a new hobby project so practicality was shoved out of the window screaming onto the ground a long time ago)

Well any way...I plan to use two Alphacool HF 14 ATI / nVidia Smart Motion Universal VGA Blocks - Copper Edition to cool both cores of the Ares.

Here's what I'm thinking I should buy:

Here's an outline of the Ares with its individual parts removed



Here's an outline of the exact specs and length of the waterblock



The "universal“ compatibility claim is based on the mount with a hole spacing of 53.5 to 61.5mm.

It seems like it might just work and fit if I buy two of them and place them on separate areas of the Ares.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated on a proper liquid cooling setup just for the Ares (parts etc.) (I'm going for a closed loop system for the CPU so no problem there).

As for cooling the memory, PLX and VRM chips

I plan to use several Alphacool MCX one Copper Edition water blocks (plus some thermal tape to keep them in place) to cool the memory, PLX and VRM chips (unless another solution presents itself).

You can see what I'm planning to do here:

The Alphacool MCX one Copper Edition is pretty cheap so I can buy several of them just to make sure, then I combine those with the Alphacool MCX 10x Verteiler G1/4
(seen here)

so that I can distribute the coolant properly.

If I need smaller mini water blocks I can use the Alphacool MCX ram Copper Edition

As for the pump and reservoir solution, I plan to use the MCR-X20 Drive Rev3 Series Heat Exchangers with Integrated Pump and Reservoir (the one with 3 120mm fans)

(seen here)



The reason I'm using this is because this liquid cooling setup has the pump, reservoir and fans integrated into one device so it reduces possible problems when it comes to the arrangement of the water blocks. I also plan to use this on a full water block for the Rampage 3 extreme as well as another water block on the 4gb x 6 slots water block I'll use for a Corsair RAM set..

Still trying to figure out a good configuration

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Conumdrum]

Lotta links are broke.

 

[cam_miles2003]

Lotta links are broke.

Hi thanks for telling me wow....weird...dunno what happened there...I fixed the problem though and the links are working now

Thanks thanks



if you could give any advice regarding a proper tubing setup for what I'm about to do it would be greatly appreciated

 

[Conumdrum]

Tubing? Size? Amount? Direction? Umm best you read the stickies up top first.

Tubing is like basic stuff, like tires on a car. You don't understand the basics like tubing, covered in our stickies, your missing something.

 

[cam_miles2003]

Tubing? Size? Amount? Direction? Umm best you read the stickies up top first.

Tubing is like basic stuff, like tires on a car. You don't understand the basics like tubing, covered in our stickies, your missing something.

Sorry if I didn't clarify things earlier, my bad....

For the 2 main water blocks going over the two cores I'll be using
AlphaTube HF 13/10 (3/8"ID) - clear (semi-transparent) tubing.

The problem really lies in the mini water blocks I'll be using to cool down the other parts of the video card. By my estimates it'll take at least 18 (more or less) mini cooper water blocks to sufficiently cover the needed parts.

I'm going to have to use 10 mm tubing for them.

Here's a photo of what it'll look like afterwards except double the amount of tubing due to the separate cores of the Ares.

I would like use a more efficient setup than the one seen above, so a little advice would be great.

 

[m0r7if3r]

Parallel the little blocks, you'll get way better flow that way.

 

[cam_miles2003]

Parallel the little blocks, you'll get way better flow that way.

Hmm if you have any photo examples it would be greatly appreciated, I want to prevent my setup from looking like a pile of spaghetti

 

[m0r7if3r]

I don't think I know of anything that massively parallel, you'll probably have to make your own manifolds or maybe mcmaster them if you're lucky.

 

[Conumdrum]

I'd do it just like the pic if you have to watercool the Vram and Vregs.

 

[cam_miles2003]

I'd do it just like the pic if you have to watercool the Vram and Vregs.

Unfortunately I do have to watercool the Vram and Vregs, the Ares runs pretty hot so ordinary heat sinks really won't work in the long run. I could try to retain the fan and main heat sink board however this all depends on whether the water blocks I'm going to buy will fit in the space provided for the original copper heat sinks of the Ares within the original heat sink board. Still trying to figure that out. I contacted some manufacturers though, one of them suggested I try the Accelero Hybrid which is a fully integrated water cooling setup for a video card (pump, radiator, reservoir etc. all integrated into sealed closed loop system)

(Seen here)

While this would normally work with a lot of video card setups, the 2 cores of the Ares means that I would have to buy two of these (still feasible though). The problem is that I doubt the fan that comes included would fit over the Vram and Vreg, especially if I tried to put them side by side.
(Seen here)

One solution though would be to just leave out the small fan setup that can be attached to the water block.

Like this:

Though this would mean I would be paying $179 each for two Accelero hybrids which I couldn't make full use of and it would be cheaper just to get a standard liquid cooling setup.


It might just fit though....I mean take a look



If I put them both side by side...and then use ordinary heat sinks, they would be air cooled though but....it might just work....

It would be an expensive experiment though....would need more details before I would even try this...it does solve my spaghetti tubing problem though....

 

[m0r7if3r]

If you leave the black metal plate (not the backplate, the front one) and the fan on, you should be able to just run universal blocks and leave the rest of it on air with no issue (I've done this before on various GPUs)

 

[cam_miles2003]

This may be slightly unrelated but what do you guys think of combining a Apogee Drive II

(seen here)

http://www.swiftech.com/apogeedrive2.aspx#tab3



with a Swifttech MCR-X20 Drive Rev3 Series Heat Exchangers with Integrated Pump and Reservoir (3 120mm fans)

(seen here)



This is for cooling my processor of course, seems like a good solution.

Oh and for the Ares, thanks to all your advice, ( ) I'm slowly piecing together what I can do. I think that if I follow the advice of m0r7if3r and if it works wherein I keep the black metal plate and fan in place to cool the Vregs and Vram I could limit the setup to 2 main waterblocks with 4 tubes on either side. Since the cover of the Ares has a large gap on either side I could let the tubes pass through there, that way I can keep the awesome looking cover on top. What do you guys think?

I think a 90 degree elbow socket would work on the waterblock so that the tubing doesn't bend as much.

 

[Conumdrum]

Don't need both. Get the new CPU cooler and an XSPC RX rad instead.

Dunno about the cover idea, seen it done tho, some modding invloved I'm sure. Look up the ones done here, keepining the cover etc.

 

[cam_miles2003]

Received an email from Koolance just now, they said that for the Ares their GPU-220 would do the job quite well, especially if I buy two of them.

l

http://koolance.com/gpu-220-video-card-vga-chipset-water-block?filter_name=gpu-2

I have to say that based on the mounting mechanism alone I have to agree with their assessment. Will be buying this for the Ares.

They also recommended the following heat sinks for the video RAM



http://koolance.com/video-ram-heat-sinks

I may just use these instead of the setup I'm going for since it would be a hell of a lot easier.

 

[Conumdrum]

And Vreg coolers too. Maybe better ones made from copper for the Vregs, that's where all the extra heat is besides the GPUs.

 

[cam_miles2003]

And Vreg coolers too. Maybe better ones made from copper for the Vregs, that's where all the extra heat is besides the GPUs.

Yup yup will do so, I still need to see though if I can keep the plate with the fan on it. If I can I won't need to buy heatsinks for the RAM and Vregs.

 

[cam_miles2003]

Look!!!!!

Its a watercooled Ares!

Someone from the Asus forums replied to my inquiry over there asking how to get it done.

I don't recognize the waterblocks and the person who made this hasn't responded yet.

In one of his posts he mentioned they're from swifttech, what kind of swifttech blocks are they?

Help!

 

[bmwbaxter]

The look like the swiftech universal gpu blocks to me.

 

[cam_miles2003]

The look like the swiftech universal gpu blocks to me.

I'm looking at their site right now, their universal GPU block doesn't look the same, it could just be the angle of the shot though....hmmm

 

[bmwbaxter]

They look identical to me...