water cooling nvidia 8800 GTS

[eirche]

i have a 8800 GTS video card. if i want to water cool it, what solution should i look for? what product should i use?

i can work out how to cool the GPU. my main concern is, what about those memory chips?

 

[baddad]

http://www.koolance.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=29_46&products_id=406

 

[eirche]

wow, thx, excellent, just what i need. after summing up everything. it's quite pricey to have a water cool system.

 

[ouch1]

Make sure to read Baddad's tread about these water blocks before you buy them.
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/short-story-water-cooling-part-Final-pics-ftopict232763.html

Another couple of options are:
Danger Den - 8800GTS
Dd makes the blocks for the BFG factory water cooled 8800GTX cards so I doubt there will be a problem with them fitting onto the card.
And there is the EK-FC8800GTS Full Cover Waterblock for nVidia 8800 GTS. Which from all reports I have read is in the same league as the Dd block.

Both cost a lil more than the Koolance block but I think they probably worth it.

-ouch1

 

[baddad]

Yes I had a problem with the water blocks for the GTX not the GTS and I believe they have fix that problem.

 

[ZOldDude]

i have a 8800 GTS video card. if i want to water cool it, what solution should i look for? what product should i use?

i can work out how to cool the GPU. my main concern is, what about those memory chips?

Air cooling with correct case air flow can give the same results for 100's of $ less.

Thermalright has a cooler with RAM/PWM heatsinks as well that in tests give the best non-chilled H2O results for the 8800 GT/GTX (same as with thier CPU and RAM coolers).
This cooler can be mounted in two dirrection so they can even be used in SLI.

I run Thermalright coolers in a Coolermaster case with 1 intake and 1 exit fan and my Optron with a 950Mhz OC runs only 2C over room temps.

 

[T8RR8R]

Don't bother with the one from Koolance, it looks nice but it has aluminum and copper in the same system. The 2 together make an acidic solution. The one from DangerDen, EK, and even the setup from Swiftech are great. Personally I'd just go with the swiftech because it's a very universal kit so if you decide to change cards in the future(duh) swiftech will probably make an adapter for whatever card you'll have then. It's also the least expensive.

 

[ZOldDude]

i have a 8800 GTS video card. if i want to water cool it, what solution should i look for? what product should i use?

i can work out how to cool the GPU. my main concern is, what about those memory chips?

Air cooling with correct case air flow can give the same results for 100's of $ less.

Thermalright has a cooler with RAM/PWM heatsinks as well that in tests give the best non-chilled H2O results for the 8800 GT/GTX (same as with thier CPU and RAM coolers).
This cooler can be mounted in two dirrection so they can even be used in SLI.

I run Thermalright coolers in a Coolermaster case with 1 intake and 1 exit fan and my Optron with a 950Mhz OC runs only 2C over room temps.

Here is a link to that Thermalright cooler so you can see the install steps and all the heatsinks that come with it (main page gives reports from all the OC sites):
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_support_installation_hr03-plus.htm

 

[cb62fcni]

Don't bother with the one from Koolance, it looks nice but it has aluminum and copper in the same system. The 2 together make an acidic solution. The one from DangerDen, EK, and even the setup from Swiftech are great. Personally I'd just go with the swiftech because it's a very universal kit so if you decide to change cards in the future(duh) swiftech will probably make an adapter for whatever card you'll have then. It's also the least expensive.

You're wrong here. The copper in the koolance block is gold-plated, so there's absolutely no corrosion issues whatsoever. I mean, you're right that normally with Cu and Al you'd get corrosion issues, but trust me, they thought of that. And I know gold doesn't conduct heat as well as copper, it's only a few microns thick, so the impact is minimal.

 

[cb62fcni]

Do you have a link to this site with these tests? I know the thermalrights are pretty darn sweet, but I would be amazed to find that they outperform water. I also would worry about just passively cooling the memory, especially with an overclock. If the cooler was mounted so the fan was blowing onto the RAM it wouldn't be a big deal, but if you pull the el-reverso and have it blowing on the back of the card I could see that becoming an issue. So please, link.

 

[T8RR8R]

When they 1st released this cooler from Koolance they didn't say anything about Gold plating...just don't lap it or scuff it up.

 

[cb62fcni]

...all their blocks have it. Believe me, you'll never have to lap a Koolance block, they're pre-lapped beyond what a normal person can accomplish. Besides, you won't be lapping or scuffing anything internally, where the gold matters the most. I just wish they'd start making impingent flow CPU blocks

 

[cb62fcni]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1149858

 

[APieceOfCheese]

Air cooling with correct case air flow can give the same results for 100's of $ less.

Umm...no?

If air provided the exact same results and performance as water then no one in their right mind would drop a couple hundred for watercooling.

But it doesn't.

In my experience, air cooling is significantly louder, the temperature delta between idle and load is greater and it's a lot more dusty.

 

[cb62fcni]

I agree. Benchmarks have shown time and again that the VERY best air-cooler is roughly equal to the very WORST waterkit. Roughly equivalent anyway. Water is just a MUCH better heat transfer medium, it offers exponetially less resistance than air. It's more complex, granted, and can take up more in-case area (though some of these huge air coolers are narrowing THAT gap). It's also considerably more expensive. The results justify it for many.

 

[ouch1]

It's more complex, granted, and can take up more in-case area (though some of these huge air coolers are narrowing THAT gap). It's also considerably more expensive. The results justify it for many.

Well in fact a decently configured water loop is less complex than having multiple heatsinks with fans on them. With each fan requiring a fan header or a molex adapter. The only thing that can be complex about a water loop is the tubing. But if you plan it out it can be very efficiently routed.

And as for the space issue the Thermalright HR-03 plus with fan can actually take up 5 slots when mounted on a 8800 (if you don't believe me here is some proof for you: PCPers review. Compared to the stock cooler taking up 2 slots and a full card block (Dd, EK, or Koolance) take up a total of 1 slots worth of space.

IMHO when you add the lower space requirment with the increased cooling efficiency you get a better bang for you buck. For those reasons I think I will stick with liquid cooling over air for the time being.

-ouch1

 

[cb62fcni]

For complexity I meant doing the research and selecting components, not so much the actual setup, though that can be challenging depending on the amount of space and and number of loops, blocks, etc. Also, some case mods might be neccessary if you want a REAL setup. This, to me, if more complexity than finding a spot to plug in fans. Besides, you need to plug in fans AND pumps....

As for space, I factored in reservoir, blocks, tubing, rads, shrouds, fans, etc. Air cooling is rapidly catching up, as surface area is a must when using air as the medium.

Water cooling is better than air cooling. It's not for everybody, but if you can, you should....or something.

 

[baddad]

Simple enough.

 

[cb62fcni]

Sweet setup. What's up with those lime-green SATA cables though?? Yuck. Hahaha. You should consider a cooling block for the NB. I have the same MB, and no kidding, the NB got so hot that the heat sink fell off. It literally de-soldered itself from the baseplate, leaving only the plate and the heat pipe. Didn't even have the FSB above spec. Crazy.

Honestly, I was kinda surprised by the quality of the GTS block on Hardocp. Were your blocks that shoddy? Usually Koolance really takes their time lapping and polishing, in this case it looks as though they rushed them.

 

[IcY18]

I agree. Benchmarks have shown time and again that the VERY best air-cooler is roughly equal to the very WORST waterkit. Roughly equivalent anyway.

Completely untrue, high end aircooling can easily match and exceed mediocre watercooling by a large margin while still costing less than half of a water cooling setup.

 

[baddad]

Ya those SATA cables came with the XFX raid 3 controller card and as you can see they are pretty long. 8O

 

[cb62fcni]

First of all, I said roughly equivalent.

First, we see a not-so-great block from koolance destroy the H-03, arguably one of the best VGA air coolers.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/28/a-beginners-guide-for-watercooling-your-pc/page11.html

ACF7P Vs Water
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/hardwarecanuck-reviews/976-core-2-duo-e4300-vs-e6400-performance-air-water-cooling.html

Now obviously, high-end air coolers occasionally edge out low-end water systems. This depends on a ton of stuff, ambient, case flow, the water kit's efficiency, etc. But I was speaking generally.

So now it's your turn. Your claims are not so general. Show us this large margin.

 

[IcY18]

First of all, I said roughly equivalent.

First, we see a not-so-great block from koolance destroy the H-03, arguably one of the best VGA air coolers.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/28/a-beginners-guide-for-watercooling-your-pc/page11.html

ACF7P Vs Water
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/hardwarecanuck-reviews/976-core-2-duo-e4300-vs-e6400-performance-air-water-cooling.html

Now obviously, high-end air coolers occasionally edge out low-end water systems. This depends on a ton of stuff, ambient, case flow, the water kit's efficiency, etc. But I was speaking generally.

So now it's your turn. Your claims are not so general. Show us this large margin.

Thanks a bunch for the info.