Air Cooling Options for Quad Nvidia 1080 GPU Octane Render Workstation

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lakerwiz

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Mar 21, 2016
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Hey Everyone,

After months of research and planning, I'm finally biting the bullet and investing in a beastly Workstation PC for my Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and After Effects Compositing workflow (Some other Adobe softwares too but mainly those). I have listed my final build below, however wanted some community feedback with regards to mainly cooling options for 4 way/ quad GPU configurations (Case, Fans, Hybrid Cards/ Blower Cards, etc). Custom water cooling loops are not an option as I don't have the experience with them and cannot afford any down time due to potential problems or maintenance.

As of now I am starting the build off with 2 of the new 1080 GTX cards. While they are still not working with Octane Renderer at the moment, I'm assuming there will be a fix within the next month. I've chosen the newer Thermaltake Core X5 as of this moment, however am open to alternate smaller suggestions. The main sell point on this case (as opposed to investing in a much more expensive CaseLabs S8) is the price, and ability to place fans directly above the vertically stacked cards. Are there any tower cases able to keep 4 cards cool in a similar way just on air?

I initially was going to wait for 1080 Hybrid cards, however am still a little hesitant about having any sort of liquid cooling. Maybe I'll put 1 or 2 in down the road, but my main question is will Quad stacked 1080 GTX (or newer future cards) be cool enough with some beastly noctua's blowing directly on them along with their reference coolers? I know the reference card coolers are prefered when stacking cards since they do a better job at expelling heat than the aftermarket cooler/ fan cards which will blow hot air onto the card next to it, however would there be any other recommendations aside from the blower-style reference coolers?

Here's the build, thanks for your answers, feedback, and insight in advance!

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($574.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($78.88 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($5.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus X99-E WS/USB 3.1 SSI CEB LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($489.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($179.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($218.67 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Black 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($699.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($699.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($699.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($699.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake Core X5 ATX Desktop Case ($147.40 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 1300W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($183.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($129.88 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan ($21.72 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan ($21.72 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 107.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($26.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 107.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($26.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 107.4 CFM 140mm Fan ($26.75 @ OutletPC)
 
Solution
chizrah
It's more so to keep your GPUs cooler. As I said, the more heat in the Liquid, the less heat in your case heating up the cards. Also the leakage rate is incredibly, incredibly low, and in the extremely unlikely event that it does leak, Corsair may pay for any components damaged. I've only had one personal experience though, and that's with a friend's all in one. His 5820K and dual 980s stay very cool and quiet.
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chizrah

chizrah

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Jun 25, 2016
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Your best bet is a lot of fans near the GPU area. Blower style GPU coolers tend to be better for confined spaces as well. Also note that 4 way SLI is not supported with the 1000 series.
 
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lakerwiz

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Mar 21, 2016
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Thanks for the reply! Would blower fans and some case fans around the GPUs suffice in a smaller case/ mid tower? Would that keep the cards generally below 75-80 Celsius under full load?

Also, Octane makes use of each card's power/ cuda cores individually. I won't be using SLI for any of the cards so 4 of them should work and scale almost proportionally.
 
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chizrah

chizrah

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I'm not sure about those temps under full load but the blower will do the best job of keeping them cool bar liquid cooling. Also I imagined that is how it would work in terms of Octane, I just didn't want to assume. The core X5 is a big case though, so you should be OK, but I'd suggest investing in an all in one cooler. The more heat you dump into the fluid, the less is going into the case, so that will not only help your CPU, but also your 1080s.
 
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lakerwiz

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Mar 21, 2016
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Because the gaming cards are just as good if not faster at a fraction of the cost
 
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lakerwiz

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Mar 21, 2016
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Thanks for the reply! I'm still trying to stay away from any sort of liquid cooling, even the all in one CPU coolers as I'm just too worried about any sort of leak or problem resulting in downtime or maintenance. I'm not planning on overclocking at all as of now, so I feel like the Noctua-D15S should be solid for keeping the CPU cool and the area around it from getting too hot right? What's your personal experience with all in one coolers? Do you think it'll make that much of a difference dissipating heat in the case as opposed to a Noctua cooler?
 
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chizrah

chizrah

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Jun 25, 2016
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It's more so to keep your GPUs cooler. As I said, the more heat in the Liquid, the less heat in your case heating up the cards. Also the leakage rate is incredibly, incredibly low, and in the extremely unlikely event that it does leak, Corsair may pay for any components damaged. I've only had one personal experience though, and that's with a friend's all in one. His 5820K and dual 980s stay very cool and quiet.
 
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Solution
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lakerwiz

Commendable
Mar 21, 2016
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Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely consider that as an option.

One additional question is do I really need the massive size of the Thermaltake Core X5 or would the Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 be a nice option as well? I know it has the intake fans blowing right on the cards so was wondering if that would suffice or if the vertical placement/ space of the Core X5 is really necessary for an all air cooled quad-GPU system?
 
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arashiii

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Aug 17, 2016
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It's really great when you write a post and when registering as a new user the post is gone! Sould have copied my text...

So again in short:
Same situation. Built rig for Octane C4D render.
Chose carbide 540, because convenient to build, cablemanagement easy
MB: ASUS x99-e WS, good
OS: 950 pro 512, very fast!
GPUs: 4x1070 because better price/perf ratio, pull less power > less heat > lower noise
Liquid cooling? No, because no clue, reliability most important for me

Result:
Great build, everything runs very well. Except the middle two cards become very hot (83C) under full load. Resulting in downlocking. So I guess 1080s will face the same problem when only being air cooled. Removing the plastic backplates gives about 2mm more space between them. But still it is very narrow.

Conclusion:
A watercooling cycle for all 4 cards blowing the heat out top of the case might be the best solution.

What is your experience with your new build?

Alex
 
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lakerwiz

Commendable
Mar 21, 2016
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Hey! Thanks for the reply. Actually as of now I have both a Phanteks Enthoo Primo and a Thermaltake Core X5. Been looking into radiator placement options/ how everything will fit with both. I've decided to avoid the air cooled cards as of now, especially because I've heard the 1080 reference card has throttling issues at one it reaches temperatures of 80 celsius. Thinking of going with 4 hybrid card, however may scale back to the 980ti cards since they're super beast and I've been seeing insane deals for them online for almost half that of a 1080 card. I figure 4 of those will be my best option and give me the best temperatures.

I actually just saw a great build on facebook for Octane with 4X 980 ti Hybrids and the Carbide 540. Check it out here, stable temps at load under 50 degrees.

Octane Render 4X 980ti Hybrid Build
 
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A

arashiii

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Aug 17, 2016
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Yeah, friend of mine decided to go with the hybrids. It's probably the better way cooling four higher end cards. There's an older post you may have stumbled across already: http://www.fuchsundvogel.de/blog/2016-03-24-building-our-gpu-workstation
I just dind't want to have such a huge case under my desk. So the carbide looked best for me and the 1070s are still OK tempwise when just fan cooled. Maybe when upgrading to the next gen ti I will consider watercooling :)
 
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