Help watercooling an EVGA FWT edition 770

umdoobby · May 23, 2016

I have done some watercooling work in the past including GPU cooling but when I have done it in the past I have always used a full cover gpu waterblock designed for a reference board. I have never cooled a GPU using a generic universal GPU waterblock. I have an EVGA FTW edition 770 with 4GB of RAM (EVGA 04G-P4-3776-KR to be exact) that I really want to watercool. But being a FTW edition it uses a custom PCB.

Would I just get something like:
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-vga-supremacy
or
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-thermosphere
and a bunch of
http://www.performance-pcs.com/watercooler-passive-cooler-for-vga-ram-heatsinks-8-pack.html
to keep everything on the card cool?

Guess I'm asking for some kind of input from someone more experienced... If you had to cool that card with watercooling how would you do it?

JackNaylorPE · May 23, 2016

Water Cooling a relatively modern nVidia GPU doesn't really bring anything to the table. It is pretty hard to bring them to the throttling point ... and if ya can't do that on air, there really is no point to water cooling from a performance PoV. With the 7xx and 9xx series, the OC is more likely yo be limited by VRM temps than GPU temps.

I have my twin 780s water cooled with full cover water blocks, but I have gotten as big or bigger over clocks on air cooled builds ... just the luck of the draw responsible for the differences. But it is an awful lot quieter which is the reason or the water cooling.

The heat sinks you are planning for the VRM and memory can be useful but only if you have a means to pass air over them. So while I'm an avid water cooling enthusiast. I just don't see an advantage to be gained here. Your GPU will run cooler, but it was never in danger of throttling in the first place and, as described, I think the original cooling on the VRM / memory appears superior.

JQB45 · May 23, 2016

JackNaylorPE :

Water Cooling a relatively modern nVidia GPU doesn't really bring anything to the table. It is pretty hard to bring them to the throttling point ... and if ya can't do that on air, there really is no point to water cooling from a performance PoV. With the 7xx and 9xx series, the OC is more likely yo be limited by VRM temps than GPU temps.

I have my twin 780s water cooled with full cover water blocks, but I have gotten as big or bigger over clocks on air cooled builds ... just the luck of the draw responsible for the differences. But it is an awful lot quieter which is the reason or the water cooling.

The heat sinks you are planning for the VRM and memory can be useful but only if you have a means to pass air over them. So while I'm an avid water cooling enthusiast. I just don't see an advantage to be gained here. Your GPU will run cooler, but it was never in danger of throttling in the first place and, as described, I think the original cooling on the VRM / memory appears superior.

Perhaps OP is doing this for aesthetic reasons?

umdoobby · May 23, 2016

JackNaylorPE :

JQB45 :

@JackNaylorPE
Yeah that is true when looking at performance. The stock cooler for the card is more the sufficient even when under high load and overclocked. And the fear that I wouldn't get a mosfet or ram chip cooled well enough is why I posted this question. You have confirmed what I was suspecting tho, thanks for your input.

@JQB45
I am actually looking into this mostly for aesthetics. The visual impact of water cooling is lessened (in my opinion) if you only have the CPU watercooled. And I know the stock cooler on this thing is great, just makes the build look less visually interesting and impressive.

JackNaylorPE · May 23, 2016

JQB45 :

I'd have no issue with that at all.... I only addressed the performance / noise issues. He / she made no reference in the post as to motivation.

That being said, there's no mention of backplate which would have the largest visual impact. Also the addition of heat sinks still leaves us with the issue of how to get air flowing over them and how to do that well "aesthetically". But aesthetics is very personal ... for example, to my eyes, flexible tubing running every which wa is "aesthetically displeasing" and offends "my sense of order".

I only use rigid tubing, either bent / shaped or with fittings.

In short, I'm not in position to recommend or decide for the OP what he / she finds aesthetically pleasing / acceptable.

One option that might be considered is that with the 1070 dropping the market will soon be filled with sell offs of 7xx series cards from peeps looking to upgrade, many with full cover water blocks. Given the limited market for such, these can oft be picked up, even in pairs, for a fraction of their original price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-GTX-780-SC-w-EK-Water-Block-/262437594088?hash=item3d1a7fe3e8:g:7q4AAOSwB9xXOgdo

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-EVGA-GeForce-GTX-780-superclocked-3GB-with-Bitspower-water-blocks-for-SLI-/361553554731?hash=item542e456d2b:g:vUsAAOSwy5ZXCRxc

Those guys are asking way too much but shud settle for less

umdoobby · May 24, 2016

JackNaylorPE :

JQB45 :

I'd have no issue with that at all.... I only addressed the performance / noise issues. He / she made no reference in the post as to motivation.

That being said, there's no mention of backplate which would have the largest visual impact. Also the addition of heat sinks still leaves us with the issue of how to get air flowing over them and how to do that well "aesthetically". But aesthetics is very personal ... for example, to my eyes, flexible tubing running every which wa is "aesthetically displeasing" and offends "my sense of order".

I only use rigid tubing, either bent / shaped or with fittings.

In short, I'm not in position to recommend or decide for the OP what he / she finds aesthetically pleasing / acceptable.

One option that might be considered is that with the 1070 dropping the market will soon be filled with sell offs of 7xx series cards from peeps looking to upgrade, many with full cover water blocks. Given the limited market for such, these can oft be picked up, even in pairs, for a fraction of their original price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-GTX-780-SC-w-EK-Water-Block-/262437594088?hash=item3d1a7fe3e8:g:7q4AAOSwB9xXOgdo

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-EVGA-GeForce-GTX-780-superclocked-3GB-with-Bitspower-water-blocks-for-SLI-/361553554731?hash=item542e456d2b:g:vUsAAOSwy5ZXCRxc

Those guys are asking way too much but shud settle for less

Alright I'll keep that in mind, thanks for your input.

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Help watercooling an EVGA FWT edition 770

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