Water cool my 7870?

[Manik37]

I am currently building a new rig and looking to water cool my cpu and graphics card. I have a Gigabyte 7870 oc. After doing some research I am realizing their is no full waterblock for my graphics card (that I know of), but on the EK website had this post when I did a search on the Gigabyte 7870 oc

EK-FC7870 series block needs to be modded a bit to fit this card (plastic top must be cut at certain edges)

Does anyone know this mod? Is there any vídeos or forums that tells or shows how to do it? Is there any other full waterblocks that will fits my card?

 

[LeoMatrix]

http://www.dazmode.com/store/product/ek-fc7870_full_cover_block_for_hd7870_50_-_acetal_nickel/
http://www.dazmode.com/store/product/ek-fc7870_full_cover_block_for_hd7870_50_-_plexi_nickel/

 

[manofchalk]

Far as I can tell, the Gigabyte 7870 follows AMD reference design, you should be fine to fit a full-cover block.

 

[Manik37]

Far as I can tell, the Gigabyte 7870 follows AMD reference design, you should be fine to fit a full-cover block.

Didnt know cause it wasnt on the compatablity list. Plus having EK-FC7870 series block needs to be modded a bit to fit this card (plastic top must be cut at certain edges) pop up when I did a search on the EK site, made me cautious about getting it without knowing the mod they are talking about

 

[photonboy]

Seems like a big headache and waste of money for a likely very small performance increase.

I couldn't find any benchmarks though.

 

[amuffin]

http://www.dazmode.com/store/product/ek-fc7870_full_cover_block_for_hd7870_50_-_acetal_nickel/
http://www.dazmode.com/store/product/ek-fc7870_full_cover_block_for_hd7870_50_-_plexi_nickel/

No....

Don't get EK Nickel.

 

[boiler1990]

Have you actually found a picture of the 7870 OC PCB? Otherwise you will have no real idea if the block will work.

 

[Alex Leung]

Have you actually found a picture of the 7870 OC PCB? Otherwise you will have no real idea if the block will work.

It's not the PCB that's not compatible. The gigabyte card added a special choke inductor on the card, making the block not fit. The choke sits on the corner where you mentioned you need to mod. I just ran into this myself, and i'm going to see if i can shave the corner off so the block can fit.

 

[heydan]

Have you actually found a picture of the 7870 OC PCB? Otherwise you will have no real idea if the block will work.

It's not the PCB that's not compatible. The gigabyte card added a special choke inductor on the card, making the block not fit. The choke sits on the corner where you mentioned you need to mod. I just ran into this myself, and i'm going to see if i can shave the corner off so the block can fit.

Did you manage to mod the block?, Im intersting in buy a water block for my card, and if it can be moded easly I will do it

 

[Alex Leung]

Have you actually found a picture of the 7870 OC PCB? Otherwise you will have no real idea if the block will work.

It's not the PCB that's not compatible. The gigabyte card added a special choke inductor on the card, making the block not fit. The choke sits on the corner where you mentioned you need to mod. I just ran into this myself, and i'm going to see if i can shave the corner off so the block can fit.

Did you manage to mod the block?, Im intersting in buy a water block for my card, and if it can be moded easly I will do it

sorry for the late reply. yes I did, but it took more than shaving to make it fit. the good news is that the part that is in the way was some kind of hard composite (plastic? not metal). I ended up clamping it and used a boring tool I borrowed from a buddy (the name escapes me right now) . I also needed to bore a second spot where it pushes against a capacitor.

 

[heydan]

Have you actually found a picture of the 7870 OC PCB? Otherwise you will have no real idea if the block will work.

It's not the PCB that's not compatible. The gigabyte card added a special choke inductor on the card, making the block not fit. The choke sits on the corner where you mentioned you need to mod. I just ran into this myself, and i'm going to see if i can shave the corner off so the block can fit.

Did you manage to mod the block?, Im intersting in buy a water block for my card, and if it can be moded easly I will do it

sorry for the late reply. yes I did, but it took more than shaving to make it fit. the good news is that the part that is in the way was some kind of hard composite (plastic? not metal). I ended up clamping it and used a boring tool I borrowed from a buddy (the name escapes me right now) . I also needed to bore a second spot where it pushes against a capacitor.

Thanks Alex!, dont worry about the late raply, can you send us a picture of the water block? (if you haven´t install it) and can you investigate the name of the tool please?, I think I gonna do the same you do, thanks!

 

[Alex Leung]

http://www.harborfreight.com/electric-cutout-tool-42831.html
It was a router. the drill bits drill sideways. The above link was the cheap one i used, and you should definitely need to clamp down the block when you're boring it out. Notice the plastic guard, so it keeps its depth.

Unfortunately, everything is installed now, and it's cross-firing with another 7870 (the sapphire oc version, that one needed no such mod and fitted nicely). It's hard for me to tell which one was the one i needed to mod (i also got the optional backplate for each). Like i said before, the PCB was never the problem, so the screw holes aligned nicely.
http://postimg.org/image/lstgd6l0r/
the red circles where the spots i needed to bore. Hope that helps!

 

[heydan]

http://www.harborfreight.com/electric-cutout-tool-42831.html
It was a router. the drill bits drill sideways. The above link was the cheap one i used, and you should definitely need to clamp down the block when you're boring it out. Notice the plastic guard, so it keeps its depth.

Unfortunately, everything is installed now, and it's cross-firing with another 7870 (the sapphire oc version, that one needed no such mod and fitted nicely). It's hard for me to tell which one was the one i needed to mod (i also got the optional backplate for each). Like i said before, the PCB was never the problem, so the screw holes aligned nicely.
http://postimg.org/image/lstgd6l0r/
the red circles where the spots i needed to bore. Hope that helps!

Thanks dude! this will help me a lot, I gonna order my blocks right now, I also got 2 7870, well I would put your answer has the solution but is not my thread, thanks again!