Recommendations for Build, All Advice Greatly Appreciated

[NoobPCBuilder_18]

Hi,

I recently built a gaming system (first one for a number of years), and I am now in the process of adding a second video card to run in SLI. However, after reading various posts in the forums it has come to my attention that sufficient cooling in SLI would require space to be left free between the 2 video cards for airflow.

This is where my first problem is, I have a motherboard which only supports 2 video cards, and they are quite close together so I cannot leave any space to allow the video
cards to cool.

Therefore I have decided the best option for me would probably be to go down the route of water cooling my video cards and possibly my processor and memory soon after. This is where my second problem comes in, I have no experience with or previous knowledge of water cooling, or what I would need to buy for my system.


My System is:

Case: Coolermaster Haf X 942
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68-UD3P
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k 3.40GHz (Sandybridge - 1155) - Overclocked to 4.40GHz
Processor Cooler: Corsair H60
Memory: 16Gb Ballistix DDR3 PC3 - 12800
Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 580 (1536Mb)
SSD: Corsair 120Gb Force GT Series 3
HDD: Western Digital 1Tb SATA 6Gb/s (7200rpm)
PSU: Cooler Master 1000Watt


Would anyone be able to provide advice on the varous parts I would need to buy, and a trusted retailer (online preferably) that I could buy them from. I am looking for the the best cooling possible at an average price. As said previously I have no knowledge of water cooling and could really use all the help and recommendations people have to offer.



Advice Greatly Appreciated

 

[rubix_1011]

Have you read through the watercooling sticky?

 

[NoobPCBuilder_18]

I have took the time to read through the sticky for watercooling.

I am just looking to get some advice from people who may have similar specs or requirements to mine.

 

[4Ryan6]

Hi,

I recently built a gaming system (first one for a number of years), and I am now in the process of adding a second video card to run in SLI. However, after reading various posts in the forums it has come to my attention that sufficient cooling in SLI would require space to be left free between the 2 video cards for airflow.

This is where my first problem is, I have a motherboard which only supports 2 video cards, and they are quite close together so I cannot leave any space to allow the video
cards to cool.

Therefore I have decided the best option for me would probably be to go down the route of water cooling my video cards and possibly my processor and memory soon after. This is where my second problem comes in, I have no experience with or previous knowledge of water cooling, or what I would need to buy for my system.


My System is:

Case: Coolermaster Haf X 942
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68-UD3P
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k 3.40GHz (Sandybridge - 1155) - Overclocked to 4.40GHz
Processor Cooler: Corsair H60
Memory: 16Gb Ballistix DDR3 PC3 - 12800
Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 580 (1536Mb)
SSD: Corsair 120Gb Force GT Series 3
HDD: Western Digital 1Tb SATA 6Gb/s (7200rpm)
PSU: Cooler Master 1000Watt


Would anyone be able to provide advice on the varous parts I would need to buy, and a trusted retailer (online preferably) that I could buy them from. I am looking for the the best cooling possible at an average price. As said previously I have no knowledge of water cooling and could really use all the help and recommendations people have to offer.



Advice Greatly Appreciated

I see you already are clocking your 2600K to 4.40ghz obviously on air with no problems, overclocking it further will give you no gaming advantage, and you won't be experiencing any bottle necking with the 580GTXs in SLI.

That said, water cooling your 580s will be a serious advantage, now to give you some ideas to think about click on This Link and scroll down to my RadBox build section.

I used an old case to create a RadBox to cool my 2 EVGA 580GTX, now this is just to give you ideas of what you can do, you can plan your build and build it all inside or on your case, or build a RadBox yourself if you have the room to do so.

At the bottom of the RadBox section the GPU temperatures, stock vs water cooling are listed, and with a comparable setup you would be assured of those same or very close temperatures, pretty much guaranteed a 40c load temperature drop.

If you'll scroll way past the RadBox further down the thread you'll come to the section of adding the water blocks to the 580GTXs, I used the Full Coverage Heatkiller Water Blocks.

I was very impressed with the Heatkiller water blocks as they were very well made and machined to the point I was able to use regular Thermal Compound on the memory chips, instead of the supplied Thermal Pads.

You still use the heavier thermal pads on the voltage regulators, but being able to run regular TIM on the memory chips allows cooler running period, and then you'll probably have some further questions and ideas.

 

[ubercake]

Hi,

I recently built a gaming system (first one for a number of years), and I am now in the process of adding a second video card to run in SLI. However, after reading various posts in the forums it has come to my attention that sufficient cooling in SLI would require space to be left free between the 2 video cards for airflow.

This is where my first problem is, I have a motherboard which only supports 2 video cards, and they are quite close together so I cannot leave any space to allow the video
cards to cool.

Therefore I have decided the best option for me would probably be to go down the route of water cooling my video cards and possibly my processor and memory soon after. This is where my second problem comes in, I have no experience with or previous knowledge of water cooling, or what I would need to buy for my system.


My System is:

Case: Coolermaster Haf X 942
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68-UD3P
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k 3.40GHz (Sandybridge - 1155) - Overclocked to 4.40GHz
Processor Cooler: Corsair H60
Memory: 16Gb Ballistix DDR3 PC3 - 12800
Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 580 (1536Mb)
SSD: Corsair 120Gb Force GT Series 3
HDD: Western Digital 1Tb SATA 6Gb/s (7200rpm)
PSU: Cooler Master 1000Watt


Would anyone be able to provide advice on the varous parts I would need to buy, and a trusted retailer (online preferably) that I could buy them from. I am looking for the the best cooling possible at an average price. As said previously I have no knowledge of water cooling and could really use all the help and recommendations people have to offer.



Advice Greatly Appreciated

It really is not necessary if you're using video cards that exhaust heat out the back. Even with stock cooling, the video cards will operate fine and stay well under the max temp with the cards next to each other on your motherboard. I had two 580s running like that just fine for over a year. I even ran these without a custom fan control utility. Just plain old stock clocks and Nvidia drivers. I was running on an X58 board with the cards right next to each other. You even have a one-slot gap on your board.

If you're overclocking the video cards, that's a different story. If you're running two 580s in SLI, you won't need to overclock them. You'll get great performance without an OC, but to each his own.

Most people giving advice on sufficient cooling in SLI probably don't run with it or might overclock the crap out of everything unnecessarily. I'm not saying there's no place for overclocking, but when your working with high-end equipment like the 580s and a 2600k, aside from bragging rights about your benchmark scores or pushing the equipment for the science of it, it's really not necessary.

The case you have allows great airflow and ventilation so it's not like you have an oven cooking the parts.

You're going to be fine just adding another card to the board you have.

 

[NoobPCBuilder_18]

Thanks 4Ryan6 for the advice and the link.

I will deffinetly take into consideration the radbox mod option. How much did that cost to put together?

Also, the images for adding the Full Coverage Heatkiller Water Blocks could prove to be very useful.

 

[NoobPCBuilder_18]

Thanks ubercake for your advice and experience on the subject also.

Glad to hear that someone has ran two GTX 580's also and had no problems with heat or airflow.

I would like to overclock them at some point down the line to be honest and that is the main reason for me wanting to go down the water cooling route with my video cards.