couple questions about cooling x800 w/ 226w tec

[__TRONIK__]

Hi all - I have a mzae4-1, but only a crap alap 80w tec for it. I do have this undustrial 230w tec alying around and a maze4 cpu +coldplate laying around. of course the 230 is 50mm, so I would have to use teh cpu setup.

my questions are - is it screwy overkill to use 230w, and am I inviting tons of condensation problems?

can the metal hold down on the back of the card be utilized to hold down the maze/230w sandwich?


do the x800 cores fraek out at cetain low temps?

is the core achitecture such that regradless of cooling there is not much headroom to overclock?

and finally rather than completely slathering the card in grease, can I get away with grease around the socket, agp slot area and the rest of the board/area coated in liquid electrical tape?

[saaya]

use grease EVERWHERE when going 227W :D

"my questions are - is it screwy overkill to use 230w, and am I inviting tons of condensation problems?"

overkill, no, the gpus produce around 65W of heat under load at stock clocks (xt) and at higher clocks and a vmod the cards will put out up to 130W or even higher. a 227W tec can remove up to 175W of heat, so its perfeclt for some -C temps. condensation should be manageable.


"can the metal hold down on the back of the card be utilized to hold down the maze/230w sandwich?"

dont know, if it doesnt fit make it fit :D


"do the x800 cores fraek out at cetain low temps? "

no, opp and macci are running their x800 cards at -80C under load and even colder in idle.


"is the core achitecture such that regradless of cooling there is not much headroom to overclock?"

a 227W tec gives you enough headroom to increase vgpu a lot to max out the card. even without a vmod you should get MUCH better clocks with that good cooling.

[__TRONIK__]

then it is getting done, done, done.
last question: I couldn't resist the $15 price on these:
http://xoxide.com/120mmradiator1.html
so I got two of them :-) even though I hgave a chevette. My plan is to run both of them in series (which I understand to be
block out->rad1 in -> rad1 out -> rad2 in -> rad2 out
the will be side by side, I have some SERIOUS width in my case, along the lines of lian li pc-65, and both will have delta 150cfm fans pulling and delta 100cfm fans pushing.
Am I better off with just the one chevette, or the chev plus one of the chrome? I am also going to have to mod the in/outs of the chromes, they have 5'8's I think, need 1/2" of course.

[saaya]

WOOOWWW! omg! what a nice rebate!

well hard to tell, i dont know what your heatercores perform like... just try it to be sure...

some rads also make more noise as others, so its worth giving both a try imo.

i think you should put the 150cfms pushing and the 100cfms pulling... i think, not sure though...

i always heard its the best to have the same type of fan pushing and pulling on both sides... so 150 150 on one rad and 100 100 on the other?

i really dont know dude, thats part of building the thing, test it and see what works best! :D

and then of course post your findings and maybe you can help somebody else with it :)

your really putting together a nice rig there!

[__TRONIK__]

yeah it should be pretty darn sweet. assuming everything comes togther like I think, it should end up like this:

A64 3200+ NC
DFI Lanparty UT
2x256mb OCZ EB Platnium
Gigabyte X800 VIVO ->XT
2x120gb SATA Raid0 samsung 8mb
530w sparkle (fortron) modded 5.15/12.15/3.4
350w fortron aurora (pelt/fans/lights/drives)
Cooling: homemade prommy 1/5th hp R22 (big up Jeremy!) ~ -25c idle
232w industrial pelt on x800 cooled by danger den maze4, in turn cooled by via aqua 1300, 2x120mm radiators
4x120mm 150cfm fans 3x120mm 100cfm, and many, many 80mm fans
i386 hsf for NB/SB
3x 3.5" fan controllers
5 temps probes.

all I have left to get is the prommy, getting shipped tomorrow, the x800, on preorder, and the DFI, ordered tomorrow.
all of this in a big ol server case wide as all outside.
It'll have a very nice polished metal thing going on with the interior/exterior, PSU's and cables.

Show n' go all the way!

[__TRONIK__]

oh I forgot to mention, the lighting system is going to be crazy. 1 blue cathode, 1 red cathode, 1 triple red lazer led, 2 triple blue lazer led, one blue bubble tube, 5' of blue el wire, two blue and one red cathode "half-life" fan grills, a couple led's, and the 120mm blue led fan in the forton 350.

This has the makings of being extremely gaudy, but I have 16 toggle switches that will control (among other things) several different lighting schemes...including all lights off!

[texuspete00]

Realize this extra cooling power is spread over that much more surface area. I hear ya though.... kind of hard to find a decent power supply for a powerful 40mm TEC when the vmax is upwards of 24v. :(

[__TRONIK__]

yeah I did some basic testing with a closed loop watercooling system, not attached to anything last night.

The 80w danger den maze4-1 with my 12v 13a psu did -11c, the 230w industrial pelt hooked to the same psu and a maze4 cpu did only -1c, and hooked to my fortron 350w w/ 18a on 12v didnt even do that well. couple degrees over oc.

course the 230w sandwich was only held together with a clamp, and had white goo instead of the as5 of the 4-1, but still....not cool, literally.

I do know how to wire two psu's together to get the voltages/amps I need, but no way I have room for 3xpsu's, a phase change, and watercooling gear in the hidden part of my case. the 80w just may have to do. Or maybe the 172w 40mm pelt dangerden sells is a better bet, but at ~$40 it is an expensive experiment.

[saaya]

its easy to get a 15v 227W tec nowadays, and they are cheap, so go for one :)

[__TRONIK__]

where do you see a 15v 227w tec?
and is it 40mm or 50? does it take over 20A? I have seen that 172w takes 12v and 13A, I have the perfect PSU for that - it does not seem like even a fortron with 18A on the +12 is any good for a 230w tec, as my rough results showed.

[saaya]

afaik there are no real 227W 40mm tecs, maybe there are some now, but there didnt use to be any. some were marked at 227W but they were actually more like a 179W tec.

i have a 50mm 227W tec. it has a max pump power of 180W, not 120W to 140W like the old 40mm 227W tecs. maybe the new 227W 40mm ones are better, no idear...

mine is 15V 15A...

check ebay, they have very good tecs for little money.