Watercooling 4870x2 and possibly northbridge.

grieve

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Apr 19, 2004
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I am of course 100% against a water kit for cooling a CPU, I would like to add I am no stranger to watercooling.

So here is the thought...

What is anyone/everyones thoughts on a guy taking something like the freezone elite, removing the CPU waterblock and adding a fullcover GPU waterblock?

My reasoning is financial savings… I can quickly build a loop from scratch, but I was thinking if the freezone can handle the heat dissipation of the 4870x2 it is a nice cheap/quick alternative to installing a custom loop.

I can not stress enough how much I am against kits, however for something like a vid card I think the cooling would be sufficient…unless of course the 4870x2 will overwhelm the system causing complete chaos.

something like this:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30939&vpn=DDB1GNV200&manufacture=CoolIT%20Systems
I know thats not for a 4870x2, i can customize that easy enough.

I dont want to OC the 4870x2 a great deal if any at all, this is more about removing heat from my case, so i can get my processor up higher. If i were to remove one of the ends and add a northbridge waterblock i would be set.


Thoughts, concerns, suggestions, alternatives?
 

bydesign

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First of all I really doubt that the heat in your case is limiting you all that much. Assuming it was, getting a large fan for the side of the case would be more effective. Second you have to drop the temp on the north bridge below ambient to get a meaningful gain.

So I guess my point is if you don't go all the way seems like a waste of time to me. Even then I wouldn't water cool the north bridge just the CPU and GPU. Currently I do have it liquid cooled (Blitz Formula) but that will coming out next loop maintenance when I plan on adding my 4870x2 to the loop.
 

grieve

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1) I have a Cosmos case; there is no side fan area.
2) My Northbridge is almost 60 degrees running @ 3.4GHZ

My vid card runs hot like every 4870x2... dropping its temperature will lower my case overall as i have very few fans...This machine was built for silence/power. Any tool can buy an Antec 900/1200, and overclock like mad for the cost of Decibels.

I do plan to go further then water cooling the Vid card, I am looking @ alternatives for dropping the temps on my northbridge without creating mega noise. I don’t want to clock higher then 3.4ghz, I just want to drop my temps a bit. If I can get the northbridge down to 40 or 50 degrees, I would be satisfied.

I can build a loop or two to cool everything, however building a proper loop is at least $300, i am looking for less expensive alternatives.