4870 Waterblock Options

[Webster]

I just bought 2 new Powercolor 4870s to replace my aging 2900XTs and now I am wondering what waterblock options I have. I really don't want to a Full Cover block so I was looking at the D-Tek GFX2, hoping that it didn't have the same pressure drop problems as the original. However on D-Teks website it says that 4870s aren't supported and that only ancient ATi cards are. I figure the MCW60s is always an option, but I also noticed that EK is releasing a GPU only block as well.

Basically I want to know what my non-full cover options are.

Thanks

[zerazax]

THey have the same hole mounting pattern for the GPU as the 3800's so any that worked for them should work fine on these. Just be sure to cool your RAM and pwms etc.

[NaeKuh]

MCW60 is 4870 friendly.

the mcw60 is 3870 friendly, and the 4870 has same mount holes in the middle.

so therefore its 4870 friendly.

reference design. If you dont have reference design, dont hold me on this.

[LockBreaker]

What about the new D-Tek block for GPU?

[NaeKuh]

the D-tek should work.

And i really like the new d-tek block.

However, if you have a MCW60, the D-tek wont be enough merit for you to upgrade.

my 2 cents.

[InfinityNX]

Sorry if i'm bringing up old topics, but I too have two 4870's.

If I use MCW60's, what kind of cooling can I use for the other stuff?

[disruptfam]

you could use this...

[Quatrix]

Sorry if i'm bringing up old topics, but I too have two 4870's.

If I use MCW60's, what kind of cooling can I use for the other stuff?

As in how would you cool the graphics cards memory? You can get Ramsinks and Mosfet heatsinks which I've heard good things about?

[Kaane]

my two 4870's, aquaxtreme waterblocks + swiftech ramsinks + enzo mosfet sinks.

[twwen2]

Nice Kaane, what are the PWM temps like with the enzo sinks on them?

[Red Evil]

Is there space for ramsinks with MCW60?

[jonny_ftm]

I'm not sure if there is, but with some low profile heatsinks it should be:

- Enzotech BCC9 (BMR-C1L) 14x14x9mm
- Xilence VGA Ram Heatsinks using 4x 13x13x13mm and 4x 13x13x6mm

[Sparda]

It an old trick.

[jcool]

Kaane, you tried running FURmark or similar test for a few minutes? Because I don't think your cards will survive long at full load without cooling of the pulse chip (the one that says Vitec). The stock cooler pushes ALL air past this little chip, and I've tried everything to make a HD4870CF work with aftermarked air coolers, not possible with halfway silent fans. That chip just overheats and shuts the card down, resulting in a blackscreen. I would not advise anybody to run GPU-only waterblocks without proper cooling of the PWMs an pulse chip.

[babalouj]

The "pulse chip" is just a Vitek multiphase SMD inductor. Its operating temperature goes up to 125C. The Vitek chip will not shutdown when getting too hot because it is just a coupled inductor so I am not sure how it shuts the card down. I will look into it more when I get home from work.

[jcool]

Yeah but believe me it does shut off, a red light goes on at the back of the card and that's it, black screen.

[Sparda]

aww..why so hot
4870 Thermal Pictures

[Kaane]

on the stock heatsink the vitek chip is not even attached to anything sits directly under the stock fan too so it gets zero airflow. I have plenty spare mosfet sinks, so if it gets really hot i will put some on. I have not tested the card yet since i am rebuilding my whole machine with new WC setup still waiting on the rest of the parts.

[babalouj]

aww..why so hot
4870 Thermal Pictures

Very interesting link. I will definitely check out the hot areas tonight.

[jcool]

on the stock heatsink the vitek chip is not even attached to anything sits directly under the stock fan too so it gets zero airflow. I have plenty spare mosfet sinks, so if it gets really hot i will put some on. I have not tested the card yet since i am rebuilding my whole machine with new WC setup still waiting on the rest of the parts.

That's not correct. If you look at the stock fan more closely, you can see that all the air is pushed through a narrow gap around that vitec chip. It's a radial fan in any case, so no dead spot there, quite the opposite.

I am pretty positive it's related to this chip overheating. Might be the PWMs as well, but I'm 99% sure it's the chip.

[babalouj]

So maybe reusing the stock cooling plate for ram and vrm cooling while using gpu waterblock should be the way to go.

[Kaane]

ok i fired up the card today. Not so good. With ram sinks and mosfet sinks the card crashes 30 seconds into any 3d. The gpu itself was idling at 38 degrees with the Aquaxtreme MP-1 waterblock and 43 degrees at full load.

I reinstalled the factory heatsink over the ram and vrm's, it helped. Card was able to run stably, but with only passive cooling the metal plate was getting VERY hot really fast.

Conclusion, I will not be running any non full cover waterblocks on this card, they are just too hot.

Will be ordering some EK blocks when they arrive state side.

[twwen2]

I know the EK FC block extends past the mem chips, but how far does it extend? Does it cover the problem chips (the hot ones)?

[jcool]

ok i fired up the card today. Not so good. With ram sinks and mosfet sinks the card crashes 30 seconds into any 3d. The gpu itself was idling at 38 degrees with the Aquaxtreme MP-1 waterblock and 43 degrees at full load.

I reinstalled the factory heatsink over the ram and vrm's, it helped. Card was able to run stably, but with only passive cooling the metal plate was getting VERY hot really fast.

Conclusion, I will not be running any non full cover waterblocks on this card, they are just too hot.

Will be ordering some EK blocks when they arrive state side.

This is what I discovered as well. It's either stock cooling or full cover block. Those digital PWMs make it virtually impossible to use aftermarket air or gpu-only water.

[leo_bsb]

http://www.koolance.com/water-coolin...product_id=706
Koolance just did it.
Looks good, but no internal pictures