Water Cooling the 4870X2

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RichMcc

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Jul 24, 2008
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Well the reviews are out, the card's available on newegg...

Every review says its fricken hot and noisey, for me this has concerns of longevity for the components...
95C under load... woooah!
Prime candidate to get water cooled!

Ive got a Thermaltake Kandalf LCS, is there a generic, or "two" generic GPU cooling blocks that will fit this card? Or one big one?
I know its very early days and most people wont have their grubby paw's on the card yet but I thought I'd throw it open to debate!

Discuss!
 
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IndigoMoss

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Well I'm guessing the best way to look into this would be to check for 3870X2 water cooling solutions, considering they use the same type of fan placement.

Water cooled 4870X2 is full of win though. V-mod that sucker and OC to the sky.
 
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Kaldor

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I wouldnt use anything but a full coverage block on an ATI card anymore. The PWMs get far too hot to use a waterblock and heatsink setup. I know EK and a couple others have released a nice full coverage waterblock for the 4870. There are quite a few people testing these on the XtremeSystems forums.

A block for the 4870X2 is going to be a monster as your cooling 2 GPUS, and crossfire chip, and ram on both the front and back of the card, as well as the electrical stuff like the PWMs and such. This waterblock will most likely not look anything like the solution for the 3870X2.
 
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RichMcc

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I see what your saying...

I found these for the GPU's
http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=174

But the big corssfire chip looks like it would need something too and theres no way to mount a small northbridge waterblock or something on there either looking at the photo's of the card... plus the other two water blocks would get in the way.

Would the crossfire and ram get that hot though? I would have thought the GPU's would be generating most of the heat?
Also I cant see anything on the back's of the cards that require cooling, all the photo's Ive seen just have the massive copper block over the GPU's, crossfire and ram on one side then the fan unit sits on top.

If the thing runs at 95c under load thats fricken hot! Water cooling would cut that in half imo.
 
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Kaldor

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I dont think anyone really knows what exactly needs to be done for cooling. Go take a look at EKs 3870X2 block. Im assuming the 4870X2 block will have to be larger as I think its a larger card. The real killer from what Ive heard is the PWM getting viciously hot, and it needs more than just a little heat sink on it. Obviously the GPUs are throwing some heat, so they need cooling. I think you could probably get by with just heatsinks on the memory. All that being said, I think ATI has come out and said that this card will handle 100c without a problem.

3870X2 block:
http://ekwaterblocks.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=21_31_42&products_id=235
 
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RichMcc

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Yeah thats cool but doubt it will fit, chips at different heights its made for that card.
Im sure there will be a watercooling solution in the works, its obviously a hot runner so I bet the watercooling manufacturers are already developing something because they know we'll want to chill it :D
I'll run stock for a bit and put up with the noise, the cards still on pre-order anyways hehe...

The main reason I want to do it is to ditch the massive copper lump or reduce it, I hate having that much weight on a card in a slot, my old 5950 ultra did something bad to the AGP slot because it was so heavy (massive copper blocks on both sides!).
 
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Kaldor

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Meh, looks kind of cheesy, and the pic doesnt show anything. I want to be able to plumb the card myself using a good pump, a big radiator, and 1/2 ID tubing.

And FYI, thats a 4870 in that pic. The power connectors on an X2 on on the top edge of the card, and use a 8 pin and 6 pin.

FUD!!
 
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madbad

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:whistle:
Not sure if this link is any good to you all...... its Diamond ATI 4870X2 with a specialised water block on it. Some tie in with a USA system builder.

There are several photos of it... but is it an X2 ?

http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f22/quad-crossfire-ready-hd4870x2-water-cooled-diamond-56904/

Would be interested in purchasing it if it was?

 
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Kaldor

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Thats a 4870 and it has a Koolance block on it. I would avoid Koolance like the plague honestly. Mixing metals in a watercooling setup like Koolance does is a big no-no.
 
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