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The BEST watercooling block for 8800gts & socket 939?

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  • Heatsinks
  • Water Cooling
  • Socket
  • Systems
  • Overclocking
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July 26, 2007 1:56:09 PM

Hello. What's the best water cooling blocks for a 8800gts640 on the market? And what's the best for a socket 939 opty 170?

What about those complete systems with peltier and rads in external boxes? any good? better than 'normal' water cooling?

More about : watercooling block 8800gts socket 939

July 26, 2007 3:20:15 PM

For the blocks it really depends on how much you want to spend. The best blocks for your cpu will be either a Swiftech Apogee GTX(AMD version) or Apogee GT(supports all sockets) or a D-Tek Fuzion. For the GPU it gets trickier as whether you want a full coverage waterblock or just the core. Full coverage are more expensive and are typically only compatible with a specific card, but they should perform better and look better too.

For a full coverage block look at a Swiftech Stealth Full Cover, for core coverage only look at a D-Tek Fuzion GPU or Swiftech MCW60 with a G80 adapter. With core only blocks you'll have to make sure to get ramsinks.
As far as peltier cooling it's very inefficient and not worth the money or power required for them. You'd have to be more specific about rads in external boxes.
July 26, 2007 4:23:40 PM

OP,

I do agree with ICY on the CPU blocks. But IMHO do not get the Swiftech Stealth. It has a major flaw built into it. And that is that a large part of the unit is Aluminum. and as many of the people out there can tell you never mix aluminum and copper in a water cooling rig. You will end up with serious Galvanic Corrosion if any of the water contacts the aluminum. And the corrosion can lead to leaks or worse. If you want to get a great full coverage block for your 8800GTS get this bad boy:
http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=272&cat=48&page=1
It is a full coverage block made specifically for the 8800GTS by Dangerden. The block part of it is made entirely from a single piece of copper and the top is made from Delrin. From what people have been reporting back to Dd about this block they have seen load temps lower that idle temps using stock cooling, and most people using this block have seems overclock of 30% higher than stock speeds. For my 8800 that would mean 715MHz for the gpu and at least 2GHz for the ram, and temps near ambient. I do however recommend getting a good radiator to cool you setup since this block is going to add alot of heat to your loop.

-ouch1
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July 26, 2007 4:44:17 PM

I haven't done much research on the Stealth blocks besides some short reviews at XS but i'm almost 95% positive the aluminum is not exposed.
July 26, 2007 5:13:39 PM

It is supposed to be powder coated or anodized. But in my experience with powder coating and anodizing is that they are almost never perfect. And any kind of imperfection could allow the water to make contact with the aluminum. And once the corrosion starts you can pretty much be guarrantied that the corrosion will continue and get even worse with time. There was a thread about this issue and the EVGA Blackpearl card earlier this month but I cannot find it right now. But believe me that no matter how good the coating is the best bet is to go with good ol' copper.

-ouch1
July 26, 2007 5:48:30 PM

Perfectly understandable, but you recommended the swiftech cpu waterblocks which also have aluminum tops that are plated. But swiftech's CEO says over at XS there is no reason to be concerned with it.
July 26, 2007 6:15:06 PM

Well with my experience working in the PC industry I would say that any CEO of a company will try to put the best spin he can on a product his company makes or sells. I have seen it many times. From the Intel Pentium FPU flaw to Apple and the iPod Nano cracking screen issue, to M$ and the xBox360 overheat issue. They try to make it look like there are only minor problems if any at all. Hell at first Intel even went so far as saying there was no FPU flaw in the original Pentium chips. In the end they ended up losing roughly $500,000,000.00 replacing roughly 2 million Pentium chips with the flaw!!!! Now that had to hurt!

I have found thread showing that even anodized aluminum water block can easily get severly corroded:
http://www.dangerden.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9275
It was an interesting read even to me.

At the cost of recanting what Isaid earlier and hurting my rep I recommend he go with an all copper loop. Ie copper cpu block (Dd TDX or similar), copper gpu block, and a copper radiator. Keep aluminum out of the loop completely. It will make the loop last longer and if he takes good care of it his system will remain nice and cool.

-ouch1
July 27, 2007 3:29:10 AM

When deciding on what brand of product it is advisable to both do the research yourself and pay attention to people who have experience with the sort of thing that you are getting involved in. That being said, I've elected to put my two cents worth in because I have a slightly differing opinion about some things. The whole issue about galvanic corrosion is a valid one (and one certainly worth consideration when doing research about any potential investment into watercooling). In this matter, however, I feel that this particular concern generally affects those users who have homebrewed coolants that tend to be highly waterbased (with additives). I've been involved in watercooling now for almost 5 years and in that time I have used many a copper waterblock for my cpu, gpu, NB and HDD. I have, though, used the same BlackIce Extreme II dual rads (2 of them) and they are aluminum based. I've never had any issues involving galvanic corrosion. I've alos stricly used PC ICE as my coolant of choice and I feel that it has helped me in this area. I think that if you used a proper coolant like PC ICE (I always recommend the non-conductive formulas) you'll be fine.

For the GPU I think that those full coverage waterblocks (such as those made by EK, DD, Alphacool, etc) where the water channel flows over both the GPU core and the memory is not condusive to keeping a continuous and sustained waterflow throughout the cooling loop. This is largely due to the many bends in the pathway. I would recommend waterblocks such as AquaExtreme, Fuzion, Cyclone Fusion, Maze4 and MCW60 over ANY full coverage waterblock. The flipside to this is that you'll need ramsinks for the GPU memory and mosfets.

As of right now, though, I would recommend the Swiftech Stealth because of its use of the Apogee design. The diamond-pin matrix copper baseplate is the only gpu baseplate that, I believe, covers the ENTIRE 8800 GPU and does not use the fullcoverage channels for the gpu core and memory like the aforementioned EK, Alphacool, DD and others. Coolant goes in fast with little misdirection, coolant goes out - there is little to hinder the pressure from your pump. With the added "wings" to cover the memory it is like having an MCW60 and ramsinks in one unit.
July 27, 2007 5:16:54 AM

I agree with Phreejak in that galvanic corrosion is not a major concern with the latest generation of water blocks and radiators. I use Black Ice and MCR series radiators in my loops, along with Apogee, DTX, and Maze waterblocks. I have not had issues of galvanic corrosion while I use Pentosin G11 for water wetter.

As to the comments regarding Gabe Rouchon @ Swiftech, I would advise you to listen to him very carefully. He is not only the CEO of one of the BEST watercooling parts manufacturers on earth, but is also one of the most knowledgeable people who knows about watercooling. He has been very helpful, and has not, as was posted, trying to put spin on his products. Don't stereotype him with others like that.

As for waterblocks on GPU's, I would be very careful of ANY full-coverage waterblock for the Nvidia G8X series of video cards. As was mentioned before in this thread, the specifications for the waterblock may not fit all brands of the same GPU. This could leave a gap between the ram and the waterblock, or even the GPU core and the waterblock.

Personally, I would recommend the MCW60, DTX, or Maze series along with ramsinks for any G8X series. By doing this, you eliminate the added worries of water flow, yet maintain good cooling on the parts that need it. This also cools the ram without adding extra heat to your water cooling loop.
July 27, 2007 8:31:18 AM

In the five years that I've been involved with first, water cooling and then later with peltier cooling, Gabe has been very helpful with many things. He isn't just the CEO he is also their chief engineer so he is very credible as a spokesperson.
July 27, 2007 12:47:10 PM

Thanks guys for saving me the time to have to right all that! Hit the nail on the head.

Also if your in the watercooling check out the Apogee Drive at swiftech, or the H20-120-Compact, looks awesome and Gabe says it's gonna be a killer!
July 30, 2007 7:20:18 PM

Phreejack,

You might want to read up on your radiator again. It is not an aluminum based radiator. Black Ice ExtremeII rad's are copper based. Even Dd lists them as having copper fins and core.

Here is the info:
http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=2&cat=5&page=1

Now it is hard to double check with HW labs since they don't list that model any more. But Dd usually is dead on with this info.

But even then I will stick with a loop that uses copper blocks and rads so to negate Galvanic corrosion as much as possible. That is why I will even stay away from anodized, plated, or powder coated aluminum. Cause even the slightest imperfection or blemich in the coating and your blocks are ruined.

-ouch1
July 30, 2007 8:02:38 PM

Thanks for the heads up.
July 31, 2007 7:09:10 AM

Thanks for all that informative feedback. A lot of models and stuff's been mentioned, so it didn't give any definitive answer. However, as with most other things, we prefer to do stuff ourselves instead of buying them. So most likely we won't be using any water blocks, but rather mashine them ourselves. This thread very much indicates that mixing alu and copper is a bad idea. Is that only if we're using distrilled water mixed with car coolant like I do in my old p4 rig (with dd blocks), or is that also if we use some of that ice stuff coolant that was mentioned earlier?

I'm asking because we're planning on using a radiator from a car, which happends to be aluminum, but for blocks we'll use raw copper.

Also one of you rambled on about maintaining pressure - if the pressure stays high, won't that restrict the heat transfer from the blocks to the liquid? We're going to use an eheim 1048 pump, so pressure isn't that dramatic in the first place.... but still .... too fast flow means less heat transfer in my head .... my head may be wrong .... but still?

And lastly, shouldn't full cover blocks for gpu be LESS effective than gpu only + heatsinks? the memory modules are expected to both generate and be able to stand significantly less heat than the gpu, so having a fullcover block would according to my logic mean that an oc would hit a ram wall fast, because it overheats much quicker than the gpu while sharing the cooling solusion.....

I'm a noob in watercooling, and I admit that ... so sorry if my logic doesn't make sense .... I've only used water cooling for a couple months and don't really know anything much about it.
July 31, 2007 11:41:46 AM

Thanks to ouch1, I've learned that my rads are copper-based - I just don't know how I overlooked that but it is something I was glad was pointed out to me. I am not certain of the rate of decay but I can say that most of my fittings are made of aluminum and they've shown no signs of wear and tear. I've been using PC ICE for the better part of my involvement in liquid cooling - it is non-conductive and it is premixed for lubricating the pump, algae and anti-corrosion.

when you are talking about pressure and flow there are differences. For purposes of definition, “Head” refers to the height of a vertical column of water. This is the maximum height that a pump can sustain any semblance of flow rate before it loses its capabilities. For purposes of an example we'll use a pump rated at 317gph with an imaginery "head" of 36 inches. At 0 inches of height you will have maximum flow rate and the pressure will be zero. Pressure is a measure of resistance to flow. Thus, at its initial discharge, at 0 height, the pump experiences its least resistance and generates its fullest flow. As the height in the cooling loop increases, the resistance to flow increases and the flow rate decreases. Earlier we said that our pump had a "head" of 36 inches. The closer the pump gets to its "36 inch" height, the less flow is generated.

So, at 0 height we have 0 pressure and 317gph. At 36 inches we have full pressure and no flow.

Good flow moves heat away from the block quicker.

You are correct about your assumptions concerning fullcover blocks - that is why I don't advocate their use in a cooling loop where efficicency is important. Blocks like the Fuzion, Maze4 and MCW60 are far more effective but, to me, the Stealth design is the best.

February 24, 2010 6:42:44 PM

Know my thread's ages old. Just wanted to let you guys know that making our own cooling system was a lot of fun, albeit very impractical!
The setup ended up being as follows:
Rad : golf 2 interior cooler
Reservoir: 10L bucket
Pump: Eheim submersive garden pump - in the bucket
CPU block: Socket A alu cooler, 2 plastic cd covers and a lot of epoxy glue
Chiller: peltier from a car freezing box
GPU: using stock fan

Was very impractical when moved around, but stationary it was excellent. Could play test drive ultimate for an hour before crashing that one time where we forgot to turn on the pump (35% overclock @ 1.4v)

Quick edit : The system ran for about a year or 1½ before it was scrapped in favor of an intel P45 platform with e8500 and a hd4850 that currently runs stock air cooling. Planning on submerging in aquarium but can't find any reasonably priced liquid to use. Anyone know?
a c 86 K Overclocking
February 25, 2010 2:19:50 PM

There are a few old mineral oil posts here your welcome to read. Just try not to ressurect old dead threads.

Mineral oil is about the best decent cost liquid you'll find.
!