Got my MCW60 in (pics)

[Absolute_0]

Got this from Circaflex, thanks mate

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/a9c30d84.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/f04869d4.jpg

Did a light lap job on it right when i unboxed it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/9a7c56ea.jpg

Gonna go on a 7900GT after i can test the card out to see how far it goes on the stock cooler.

Anybody else tried an MCW60 yet? Perform better than a Maze4GPU?

[beermanpro]

must be better, anyone know about this block with peltier support ?

[nikhsub1]

Did a light lap job on it right when i unboxed it

You no doubt made the base worse by lapping it :clap:

[Absolute_0]

You no doubt made the base worse by lapping it :clap:

Yeah of course :stick: 1500 grit has that effect... :slap:
doesn't look that shiny, but if i can hold an IHS up to it at an angle and read the stepping from the base of the block, it's pretty good to me.

[johnanderson]

is that a bible in the background i see? :D

[Circaflex]

hope you enjoy it man!

[MaxxxRacer]

You no doubt made the base worse by lapping it :clap:

whit, niksub1 is absolutley correct... The process that Swiftech uses on the base is much higher precision than we can acchieve by hand. there is a way to get better contact, but that is not the way.

should ahve sent me a PM before lapping it :slapass:

[fareastgq]

curious, why did you lap it?

[Major]

It has a nice mounting arrangement, but it takes 3 hands to mount!

I like mine, but it would not clear the Ramsinks that came with it around the fittings. I ended up turning mine towards the rear of the card since its going out of the case to the Exos2 anyway.

[Absolute_0]

Ohhhh i feel bad for lapping it now :(

Why did i lap it - because i lap every heatsink that comes my way, that's always been the thing to do. As for it being worse, i don't see how it could be worse to a measureable level - we'll see what temps i get :)

Oh and apologize to Nikhsub for the slap comment. You knew better than me buddy, just didn't explain yourself.

[Circaflex]

It has a nice mounting arrangement, but it takes 3 hands to mount!

I like mine, but it would not clear the Ramsinks that came with it around the fittings. I ended up turning mine towards the rear of the card since its going out of the case to the Exos2 anyway.

quoted for emphasis, was a bugger to install on my x850 when i did only because i had to hold the block get a screw through the back plate, and put a screwdriver on it, once it got threaded though it was smooth sailing from there on out.

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

looks nice, but i hate the plastic barbs. just dont have the same feel as chrome.

[ReD.SkY]

this better not be better than a maze 4 cuz then ill be mad :(

[Absolute_0]

Well it should be better than a maze4, maze4 is old technology, this is new stuff.

[tw33ter]

is that the one that's flat inside?

[bigval]

Maze4's are the :banana::banana::banana::banana: and always will be! :D
I wouldnt have lapped it man, waterblocks come lapped nice as it is.

[Absolute_0]

Uhm, well bad news everyone. Didn't leak test the thing, I settled for tightening the barbs as much as i could, putting the tubing on all the way, and clamping them down hard. Big mistake.

Somehow the barbs loosened (and they were damn tight), and water quickly seeped out of the O ring area... turned on the comp and got beeping, checked inside, notice water had spread all over the graphics card, seeped down the whole mobo (BTX upside down format), went through the CPU socket (CPU was wet) and dripped down through the ram dimms, and had started making a small puddle below teh mb...

Feel stupid for not leaktesting but needless to say... pending the damage diagnostics tomorrow, i may be out. I don't have the budget to replace all this stuff if it's dead. It'll be hours and hours of work to figure out what's good and what's dead, and then to RMA the right things, and of course if the CPU is dead i'm going to hate myself forever. The 7900GT, brand new, is most likely dead as the whole top was flooded. The MB get yellow lights, so i'm thinking it might work, ram dimms probably work. Who knows, but if thing's go wrong... i'm out. I just need a computer for Autocad and my trusty backup laptop. Wish me luck :(

EDIT: Ram is good

Remaining: CPU, GPU, MB

[Nephilim]

Uhm, well bad news everyone. Didn't leak test the thing, I settled for tightening the barbs as much as i could, putting the tubing on all the way, and clamping them down hard. Big mistake.


Ahh that sucks mate :( I might look at some non-conductive coolant, for a little investment it can prevent death of a very expensive investment.... I'm not even using hose clamps :shock2: but I have little to no pulling pressure on any hoses and I leak test.

I hope GPU Mobo and CPU are ok :para:

[Clint]

Nonono, don't you go now and mess that CPU up...:eek:

Holding thumbs for you bro!

[EnJoY]

Uhm, well bad news everyone. Didn't leak test the thing, I settled for tightening the barbs as much as i could, putting the tubing on all the way, and clamping them down hard. Big mistake.

Somehow the barbs loosened (and they were damn tight), and water quickly seeped out of the O ring area... turned on the comp and got beeping, checked inside, notice water had spread all over the graphics card, seeped down the whole mobo (BTX upside down format), went through the CPU socket (CPU was wet) and dripped down through the ram dimms, and had started making a small puddle below teh mb...

Feel stupid for not leaktesting but needless to say... pending the damage diagnostics tomorrow, i may be out. I don't have the budget to replace all this stuff if it's dead. It'll be hours and hours of work to figure out what's good and what's dead, and then to RMA the right things, and of course if the CPU is dead i'm going to hate myself forever. The 7900GT, brand new, is most likely dead as the whole top was flooded. The MB get yellow lights, so i'm thinking it might work, ram dimms probably work. Who knows, but if thing's go wrong... i'm out. I just need a computer for Autocad and my trusty backup laptop. Wish me luck :(

EDIT: Ram is good

Remaining: CPU, GPU, MB


Dude, you gotta stop screwing up the water cooling.... NO MORE ASSUMPTIONS! :nono:

[OCme]

Live-n-learn... hope things arn't as too bad though cuz i was really looking foward to seeing how well that block performed

[Absolute_0]

i'll be troubleshooting today. Updates to come.

[Ouchy]

This is a little off-topic, but the same thing happened with the barbs on my Storm. They were screwed in very tight with pliers, and they magically unscrewed about 5 turns after 2 days. Leaked all over my VC, but nothing was damaged. Same barbs as on the Storm. I guess you just have to really screw them on very tight.

[creidiki]

Its because theyre plastic G threads on plastic. If the tube is torqued counterclockwise it will unscrew the barbs... i solve it by adding liberal amounts of PTFE tape and by making sure the tube torque is clockwise.

[Ouchy]

Yes, it was because of torsional forces imparted by twisted tubing, still something to watch out for. I was too lazy to re-flood the system by taking off hoses so I just weighed down the barb.

[Absolute_0]

Alright, well good news. EVERYTHING works. CPU, mobo, ram, even the graphics card, and it was totally flooded and i was powering on. It's all good. I'm so happy. I'm going to seal up the MCW60 really damn well, and leaktest it, and then try it again.

[creidiki]

Good stuff man :D

To the guy who wanted to invest into non-conductive coolant... DI water is just as non-conductive :)

[Viktor]

I run my Swiftech Storm with only the o-rings, no sealing tape or anything like that.

[Circaflex]

same thing happened to me, not with the mcw but with my storm at first, but it was during the leaktesting phaze. I had to rework my clamps so that when i tightened them it tightened the barb too not the other way around

[cronic]

great news, glad it wasn't destroyed

[lv_dicedealer]

Glad to hear it all works again!!

Regarding clamps: I use regular 'ol nylon zip ties. No leaks in two systems I have built in the last 2 months.. knock on wood.

I do leak test my sytems mounted in the case for 2 days before powering on the rig for the first time (I use a standalone 12v psu for the pumps when leak testing, best $20 I ever spent at radio shack). Nice side benefit, all the little bubles are gone by the time I fire her up.

[Absolute_0]

Yeah i'm very glad as well. After doing some leaktesting I hooked the block up to the 7900GT again and temps are terrific. Won't overclock much further, but 600 core isn't too bad ;).

Idle temp is 29c onthe 7900GT, load is low 30s.

[creidiki]

Thats pretty nice temps... assuming 7900gt reported temps arent too far from reality. Mine would be a few c higher, but i made a pretty wide and sharply exponential response curve for my PA's fans... they dont hit 100% till the water hits 30c. Add the extra heat from the x1900, and i get high 30s load.

[Absolute_0]

Just found out that my tubing started to kink... i fixed it all up though.

Official 7900GT temps @ 570/1800
idle 29c
load (serious sam 2 20 minutes) 31c

And i alt tabbed it many times, it shows 31c and instantly drops down to 29c again.

[OV3RCLOCK3R]

Just found out that my tubing started to kink... i fixed it all up though.

Official 7900GT temps @ 570/1800
idle 29c
load (serious sam 2 20 minutes) 31c

And i alt tabbed it many times, it shows 31c and instantly drops down to 29c again.

So this block is definatly better than the maze 4 then?:D

Excellent temps there

[Absolute_0]

Seems like a good block to me

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/ed7b3feb.jpg

[Viktor]

If you have Rina Tuner, you can use a temp-logger to see the exact load temps.

[Absolute_0]

Riva Tuner works on nVidia cards? (forgive my ignorance, thought it was ATI exclusive, i've never used it at all).

[OV3RCLOCK3R]

Riva Tuner works on nVidia cards? (forgive my ignorance, thought it was ATI exclusive, i've never used it at all).

Works fine on rivatuner and has been working fine for years now:slap: :D

[creidiki]

ATITool works with nvidia cards as well (yes, strange i know) and possibly atitraytools too...

I use SysTool (from techpowerup) to pipe my CPU and GPU temps to Samurize though ^^

[SaFrOuT]

or even use MBM5 and log ur temps

[madgravity34]

I wouldnt agree that the the block is necessary better than the maze 4. I talked to ViperJohn and according to him the 7800's temp monitor doesnt read below 31C if you have it turned on in the bios. If you turn it off in the bios and re-flash it, it turns temp monitoring control completely over to rivatuner and it reads down to 0C but not below (limit of the temp monitor itself not software). With the setup in my sig my gtx idles at 28C and loads at 31C when running 1.55v through the core at almost 620mhz. The highest load I have seen using the maze 4 is around 38C when pushing 1.68v through the core at around 700mhz.

[Absolute_0]

From my results, the Maze4 didn't get the best of temps, but then again my old cards weren't 90nm ;P. And the results weren't bad either. I think maze4 and MCW60 have similar performance.

Maze4 on a 6800GT @ stock volts was 38c idle and 42c load
Maze4 on an X850XTPE @ stock volts was 27c idle and 35.5c load

MCW60 on 7900GT @ stock volts is 29c idle and 31c load


Here, i opened ATI tool to log the temps as i ran 3dmark05. This is untweaked, i just opened it up and ran it.

7900GT @ 600/1864
3dmark05 - 10,500 pts
29c idle 31c load

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=1891381

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/31c-load-temp2.jpg

As you can see, the delta between idle and load is so small it's hard to even see in ATI tool.

This is definitely caused in part by the fact that this is a wicked 90nm chip. Also the waterblock ain't bad. As to how it compares to Maze4, i think that if you had them head to head, performance would be roughly equal.

[madgravity34]

Absolute, I think you and I are agreeing 100percent, I just didnt want people to think that the swiftech part was a huge improvement (if any) over the maze 4. I think GPU blocks will need to evolve a lot more (think impingement) before we will see any real difference between top brands.

[creidiki]

Its a wonderfully cool-running GPU as well... jack in a baby like mine and see your entire loop's temps go up a notch as your rad takes a kick in the nuts from the extra GPU that suddenly appeared :lol:

I love my X1900, but boy does it dump heat.

[Absolute_0]

jack in a baby like mine and see your entire loop's temps go up a notch as your rad takes a kick in the nuts.

:lol:

X1900XT are sure powerful cards, and they sure do draw a lot of power.

I was amazed at the temps with the 7900GT on the stock cooler. It's a pathetically small stock cooler, outmassed by the X850XTPE stock cooler like 4 times over. Yet it didn't exceed 60 load. And games and benches only brought it to the mid 50s.

[creidiki]

Yeah, its a wonderfully power-efficient design. Im not the kind of person who will go dual-card, but i did id be running 2 of those... theyd probably dump as much heat together as my x1900xtx.

[madgravity34]

Yes, the new 7900's are a brilliant move by nvidia. Instead of pulling up a new core like the x1900, they just improved on a an old cores weaknesses which makes it one of the best values today. Low temps, high clocks, and low prices, what more can you ask for right? Wish I had the money to upgrade though lol, anyone wanna buy my 7800gtx that does 700/1491?

[Clint]

Glad to hear your HW survived:toast:
You made me stop searching for that Storm block for a while there.

But now when everyhting is up and running for you the itch is back.
Got a 7900gt coming my way as well, a fella here are helping me out getting it here:D

[Viktor]

Well, I just hade a leak to, the storm block dropped water on my videocard, noticed artifacts in games, look on the gfx and saw water. :)

[macg]

The same thing happened to me. i used only the o-rings and water leaked into my gpu. i was lucky i was using only a pci card (a RIva TNT2 lol!) because the x1900s were just on transit.

I just had horrible artifacts during windows, so i checked the inside and noticed water dripping onto the gpu (was using an atx case then). i just cleaned and dried the stuff, plugged all back in and everything was good. i was using DI water too btw :)

[macg]

Oh and by the way, glad everthing was good there for ya mate :) Not too many rigs survive flooding 100% unscathed! lol

[Viktor]

The same thing happened to me. i used only the o-rings and water leaked into my gpu. i was lucky i was using only a pci card (a RIva TNT2 lol!) because the x1900s were just on transit.

I just had horrible artifacts during windows, so i checked the inside and noticed water dripping onto the gpu (was using an atx case then). i just cleaned and dried the stuff, plugged all back in and everything was good. i was using DI water too btw :)
The exactly same thing that happened to me, I'm using a 6800GT card, just tightened the fitting a little and everythin seems to work normal.

[Absolute_0]

Yeah you gotta screw those barbs in very damn well

Here is a pic of the card installed

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/d26df948.jpg

[thunderstruck!]

So what did you do different the second time? Just screw the barbs in tighter? Did you use any tape or seal string?

[Absolute_0]

Just turned them tighter

[Repoman]

Glad to see it all worked out. Even I would have cried if you lost that opty :eek:

Little off topic- I set all my hose clamps and filled my system today, is there any advantage to having the hose clamps at the end of the hose like you have them vs having them right at the edge of the barb like I do?

[Circaflex]

Glad to see every thing is workin out with that block and everything survived.

[Marci]

Riva Tuner works on nVidia cards?

Background history - Riva Tuner is called "Riva Tuner" as when it first came out it was for tweaking the nVidia Riva TNT2 Ultra cards (ie: before the days of Geforce 256 SDR) - it's always been an nVidia-focused piece of software. Rage3dTweak was the ATI equivalent, for tweaking the Rage3D chipset.

[eva2000]

nice but is the MCW60 taller than Maze4 Low profile block ? i think i'm game enough to graduate from first time H20 GPU cooling on single X1800XT, to something for H20 GPU cooling for SLI but on DFI NF4 UT SLI-DR PCI-E slot space is tight

[Absolute_0]

I think the MCW60 is comparable to the Maze4 standard, Maze4 low profile is probably significantly shorter, although i have not worked with it.

Thanks for clearing that up about the Riva Tuner... i'm really not much of a graphics/bencher guy, only things i've used before this are ATi Tool, coolbits, and a little Powerstrip. I have no idea what nibitor and all these other software programs do.

Lights off!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/absolute035/GPU%20related/28a21ab5.jpg

[moonlightcheese]

like creidiki, i live by PTFE sealant tape. i apply about three layers of it each time i tighten my barbs (i actually had a leak with only one wrap, it was on my storm, but none since). i live by the stuff and since i've been applying more i haven't had a leak. i also use nylon zip ties. it gets the seal around the tubing nice and tight, better than i was able to acheive with worm drive clamps actually.

and as for the MCW-60, i just heard about it and rushed over to XS and sure enough... someone has already got one heh... nice temps, a block that finally rivals the Maze4. not really a clear victor though. i'm still waiting for Cathar to work on his GPU project. btw, does anyone know what he's working on lately? is he still improving the storm design?