Best gpu blocks for 768Mb Asus 8800GTX V2 PCI-E in SLI setup

[ladderman]

I'm buying a pair of 768Mb Asus 8800GTX V2 PCI-E cards to use in my first watercooled system. and I'd like you guys help me pick which is the best blocks for the job.

My new system will be:

TJ07B-W

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1 NF680i SLI

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz

4 X 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 / 1150 MHz / FlexXLC Edition

1000W Enermax EG1000EWLDXX Galaxy Modular PSU

2 X 768Mb Asus 8800GTX V2 PCI-E

150 Gb Western Digital WD1500AHFD Raptor X

Logitech Z-5450 Digital 5.1 Speaker System

Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional

24" Dell 2407WFP LCD, Widescreen,


Loop 1:

D5 pump

PA120.3 rad

D-tek fuzion cpu block

Full cover GPU blocks ?

EK res

Yate Loon fans

½ ID tubing

Loop 2 for ram not sure yet

[Hard H20]

What kind of blocks are you looking for, full cover or GPU only?

If you're not looking for full cover blocks get the Swiftech MCW60's with G80 adapter. At the moment for a GPU only solution the MCW60 is leading all others performance wise. Dtek has a new GPU only block out, however I can't comment on the performance of this block. I have not had any experience with it. I'm sure there will be performance reviews popping up shortly if you're willing too wait a bit.

If you're looking for full cover blocks EK are in front, with DD behind them. I would avoid the Koolance G80 block @ all costs.

[ladderman]

What kind of blocks are you looking for, full cover or GPU only?

If you're not looking for full cover blocks get the Swiftech MCW60's with G80 adapter. At the moment for a GPU only solution the MCW60 is leading all others performance wise. Dtek has a new GPU only block out, however I can't comment on the performance of this block. I have not had any experience with it. I'm sure there will be performance reviews popping up shortly if you're willing too wait a bit.

If you're looking for full cover blocks EK are in front, with DD behind them. I would avoid the Koolance G80 block @ all costs.

Thanks for your quick reply. I will be using full cover. The two you have mentioned are what I had in mind, so I'll give the EK a good look

Thanks

[IanY]

Are you in the watch business ? Or just a proud owner of a few Breitlings ?

You may want to at least double up on your D5 pump if you are going to use full covered blocks. There's added resistance and some additional head pressure is always advantageous.

[Solarfall]

What kind of blocks are you looking for, full cover or GPU only?

If you're not looking for full cover blocks get the Swiftech MCW60's with G80 adapter. At the moment for a GPU only solution the MCW60 is leading all others performance wise. Dtek has a new GPU only block out, however I can't comment on the performance of this block. I have not had any experience with it. I'm sure there will be performance reviews popping up shortly if you're willing too wait a bit.

If you're looking for full cover blocks EK are in front, with DD behind them. I would avoid the Koolance G80 block @ all costs.

damn you beat me to it..

well personally i have tried both Swiftech MCW60, and EK fullcover. would say that with MCW60 you will have better temps than with EK block, but you will have to get a lot of ram sinks with MCW60 personally i really hate the fact that the glue in most ram sinks is really horrible and they end up falling off.. in worst case scenario if you have a sli setup and one ram sinks from the upper card falls off.. disaster your lower card is toasted...

[ladderman]

Just had a look at the EK-FC8800 GTX and the EK-FC8800 GTX-Acetal. Which is the better out of the two?

[IanY]

Its your choice, since you obviously chose appearances over performance. I must warn you that acrylic does crack.

[Hard H20]

I see alot of people complaining about the ramsinks falling off. Simple solution guys, clean the crap TIM material that the sinks are manufactured with, put a small dab of REAL TIM in the center of the chip and use super glue (drop on each corner not all the way around the chip) on the chip. I have been doing this for the last 4 generations of cards and have never had a ramsink fall off on me. I have also been able to remove the ramsinks if I needed too.

Back on topic, out of the 2 blocks you looked @ the only difference in my opinion is the bling factor. Again buy what you think is best for you.

edited to add: GABE can we please address the TIM on the sinks please. I'm tired of beating this dead horse. ;)

[ladderman]

Are you in the watch business ? Or just a proud owner of a few Breitlings ?

You may want to at least double up on your D5 pump if you are going to use full covered blocks. There's added resistance and some additional head pressure is always advantageous.

Yes I am a the proud owner of the watch, only you got the make wrong it's a Jaeger-LeCoultre, Master Compressor, Chronograph. I also have an Omega Seamaster, Chronometer, but the Jeager is my favourite.

Do you think I should use a DCC ultra instead and keep the D5 for the second loop?

[IanY]

OK. Its a Jaeger-leCoultre. I'm sorry.

My preferred brand is Rolex, and I am partial to the Daytona Cosmograph and the President Day-Date, although I have several others.

I think you should use a minimum of two DDC Ultras in series, or even better, seperate the stuff into two loops and use two DDc Ultras per loop.

Hard H2O and myself are strong advocates of pump power and redundancy. What happens to your equipment if your single pump inexplicably dies ?

[ladderman]

Its your choice, since you obviously chose appearances over performance. I must warn you that acrylic does crack.


Why do you think I chose apperarance over performance?

[ladderman]

damn you beat me to it..

well personally i have tried both Swiftech MCW60, and EK fullcover. would say that with MCW60 you will have better temps than with EK block, but you will have to get a lot of ram sinks with MCW60 personally i really hate the fact that the glue in most ram sinks is really horrible and they end up falling off.. in worst case scenario if you have a sli setup and one ram sinks from the upper card falls off.. disaster your lower card is toasted...

I'm going SLI so I don't like the sound of that happening

[Solarfall]

I see alot of people complaining about the ramsinks falling off. Simple solution guys, clean the crap TIM material that the sinks are manufactured with, put a small dab of REAL TIM in the center of the chip and use super glue (drop on each corner not all the way around the chip) on the chip. I have been doing this for the last 4 generations of cards and have never had a ramsink fall off on me. I have also been able to remove the ramsinks if I needed too.

Back on topic, out of the 2 blocks you looked @ the only difference in my opinion is the bling factor. Again buy what you think is best for you.

edited to add: GABE can we please address the TIM on the sinks please. I'm tired of beating this dead horse. ;)

thats exactly what i did when i got fed up with those falling ram sink.
got to say though taking those super glued ram sinks off from a vga card is a real hard even with a hair dryer.. and it's very stress full too :D

[IanY]

Why do you think I chose apperarance over performance?

There is at least a 3C to 5C, if not more, temperature differential on the GPU temp using a focused gpu block as opposed to a full covered block.

By all means, use the D-Tek video block if you like, but for crying out loud, the main reason why the EK blocks are so popular is not at all related to performance. Its all about looks.

[ladderman]

OK. Its a Jaeger-leCoultre. I'm sorry.

My preferred brand is Rolex, and I am partial to the Daytona Cosmograph and the President Day-Date, although I have several others.

I think you should use a minimum of two DDC Ultras in series, or even better, seperate the stuff into two loops and use two DDc Ultras per loop.

Hard H2O and myself are strong advocates of pump power and redundancy. What happens to your equipment if your single pump inexplicably dies ?

Originaly I was just going to watercool my old AMD 4000 and a 6800GS in my new TJ07. But I've now decided to build a completely new and up to date system. So thats why I got a D5 and planned one loop.

So you think it will be better to have 1 loop for the cpu and another for the gpu's ?

This is starting to cost me a small fortune haha

[IanY]

Its never cheap to have quality You would know. What happens when you buy a cheap watch? If you're going to do it, either do it right, or forget it.

[Hard H20]

So you think it will be better to have 1 loop for the cpu and another for the gpu's ?

This is starting to cost me a small fortune haha

I would say it depends on what CPU you're going with. If you're contemplating going with a Quad, by all means get everything off of your CPU loop. I would recommend 1 loop CPU only, 2nd loop for GPU1 > GPU2 > NB > SB if you plan on WC'ing the north and south bridge. Or if you're really wanting the best of all worlds GPU1 > GPU2 on 2nd loop and NB > SB on 3rd loop. :) Yup, I said it 3 rads, 6 pumps, 3 seperate loops. Let the flames begin.

Water / Phase / Dice / L2N hobbies are more expensive than crack, love it or leave it. ;)

[ladderman]

There is at least a 3C to 5C, if not more, temperature differential on the GPU temp using a focused gpu block as opposed to a full covered block.

By all means, use the D-Tek video block if you like, but for crying out loud, the main reason why the EK blocks are so popular is not at all related to performance. Its all about looks.


Steady fella.

I think we are getting our wires crossed here. I have a D-tek cpu block, and at this moment in time I am trying to find out which full GPU blocks to use.

I haven't mentioned any thing about D-Tek Vid block?.

Read the start of my thread again:confused:

[ladderman]

I would say it depends on what CPU you're going with. If you're contemplating going with a Quad, by all means get everything off of your CPU loop. I would recommend 1 loop CPU only, 2nd loop for GPU1 > GPU2 > NB > SB if you plan on WC'ing the north and south bridge. Or if you're really wanting the best of all worlds GPU1 > GPU2 on 2nd loop and NB > SB on 3rd loop. :) Yup, I said it 3 rads, 6 pumps, 3 seperate loops. Let the flames begin.

Water / Phase / Dice / L2N hobbies are more expensive than crack, love it or leave it. ;)

I'm using a core 2 duo 6700

[IanY]

I think that there's some miscommunication here.

There are generally two leading gpu-centric blocks in the market: MCW60 w/G80 adapter, and FuZion video block.

The EK full covered block is generally regarded as by far the leading full covered block.

If you are intent, meaning that you insist, on using a full covered block, there is no debate. Buy the EK full covered block.

Hard H2O and myself are trying to convince you to not go that route.

I said "by all means, use the D-Tek video block" and I meant that use any other gpu-centric block, as opposed to a full covered block.

I know that I wouldn't touch the EK block even if it were: (1) much cheaper and (2) 10 times more attractive looking. It yields lower performance, and I am unwilling to sacrifice performance.

[ladderman]

Its never cheap to have quality You would know. What happens when you buy a cheap watch? If you're going to do it, either do it right, or forget it.

I wouldn't know I've never had a cheap watch ha ha.

I get what you are saying and totally agree with you. Like i've already said this is my first go at watercooling. So I'm just trying to do the job right. There is a hell of a lot of information to take in and make sure I get this right.

[Hard H20]

I've got an E6700 in my wifes rig with a Zalman 9700 on top. I don't think you will have any problems cooling the chip with the FuZion. I would however recommend that you dump the D5 for the DDC+ for obvious performance (read more head, less heat dump) reasons. If you're concerned about pump failure simple solution run 2 DDC+ in series.

[septim]

its more like a figure of expression since most like the fuzion, you might want to give dtek vid blocks a try too.

only real prob of too much ramsinks is the chance that they fall off like hard h2o said it. superglue 4 corners and tim in the middle should be fine.

this is why full cover blocks are made. acetal for the bling factor and delrin if you don't really care about the bling, but like sexy black...

[ladderman]

I think that there's some miscommunication here.

There are generally two leading gpu-centric blocks in the market: MCW60 w/G80 adapter, and FuZion video block.

The EK full covered block is generally regarded as by far the leading full covered block.

If you are intent, meaning that you insist, on using a full covered block, there is no debate. Buy the EK full covered block.

Hard H2O and myself are trying to convince you to not go that route.


Ok sorry about this.

I already have 1 MCW60 what I was going to use on the 6800 gs, but since I've decided to use 8800 gtx I thought I would need to use full blocks. So I'm sorry for my lack of understanding, I didn't think a MCW60 would be up to the job, but I guess I'm wrong

[ladderman]

I've got an E6700 in my wifes rig with a Zalman 9700 on top. I don't think you will have any problems cooling the chip with the FuZion. I would however recommend that you dump the D5 for the DDC+ for obvious performance (read more head, less heat dump) reasons. If you're concerned about pump failure simple solution run 2 DDC+ in series.

I read the threads about all the DCC ultras burning out thats why I thought the safe bet would be the D5.

So you think I should use 2 DCC ultras in the same loop as a fail safe?

[IanY]

Even if you were to believe in the reliability of teh D5 over the DDC+ (and it does provide less pressure), you would still not be wise to use a single pump in a loop. Redundancy is a fail safe measure, and better to be safe than sorry.

I would outright annoy a lot of Iwaki owners and say now that I don't trust the relaibility even of Iwakis to use a single standalone pump, notwithstanding the fact that I have not owned any Iwakis before.

Having said that, I have over 20 Laing pumps at home and have never encountered a dead pump before.

[ladderman]

I am starting to think I sould scrap the 4 X 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-9204 X 1GB FlexXLC Edition in place for something else, then I could have two loops, one for the cpu and the other for the gpu's.

Something like what massaville's rig

[ladderman]

Even if you were to believe in the reliability of teh D5 over the DDC+ (and it does provide less pressure), you would still not be wise to use a single pump in a loop. Redundancy is a fail safe measure, and better to be safe than sorry.

I would outright annoy a lot of Iwaki owners and say now that I don't trust the relaibility even of Iwakis to use a single standalone pump, notwithstanding the fact that I have not owned any Iwakis before.

Having said that, I have over 20 Laing pumps at home and have never encountered a dead pump before.

So by what you are saying, should you always have two pumps in any one Loop as a fail safe? 2 loops= 4pumps

[ladderman]

I've got two Retrievers going mad for there walk, so i'm off out, but I'll be back soon

[Hard H20]

So you think I should use 2 DCC ultras in the same loop as a fail safe?

Yes, redundancy is the key. I prefer providing the added safety measure of spending an extra $100.00 on a 2nd DDC+ to run in series. Look at it this way, you spent $100.00 to protect a $3,000.00 to $7,000.00 investment. Running only 1 pump and having that pump go tits up when you least expect it will possibly cost you a new CPU, GPU's etc. I think the added expense is well worth it in the end.

Just my :2cents:

[IanY]

So by what you are saying, should you always have two pumps in any one Loop as a fail safe? 2 loops= 4pumps

That is what I would do. Hard H2O has six pumps and three loops in his machine.

[Hard H20]

Hard H2O has six pumps and three loops in his machine.

You just had to do it didn't ya. :p:

[IanY]

Yes.. next I have to go brag about everything in your [H] machine.. so that I draw attention to you and away from me. ;)

[ladderman]

Yes, redundancy is the key. I prefer providing the added safety measure of spending an extra $100.00 on a 2nd DDC+ to run in series. Look at it this way, you spent $100.00 to protect a $3,000.00 to $7,000.00 investment. Running only 1 pump and having that pump go tits up when you least expect it will possibly cost you a new CPU, GPU's etc. I think the added expense is well worth it in the end.

Just my :2cents:

Walking dogs always gives you time to think, and I see exactly what you are saying. I'll be spending over £2,000 by the time I get all the gear and it makes complete sense to have a fail safe approach.

I'M NOT rushing into this build so i'll have to re-think how and were the pumps and loops will go?

As yet all I've started to do is strip down the TJ07 to see what options I've got with to regards to were things will go.

I would still like to have full gpu blocks so I'll speak to Paul at coolercases about ordering the blocks and DCC pumps.

[Hard H20]

I'M NOT rushing into this build so i'll have to re-think how and were the pumps and loops will go?

As yet all I've started to do is strip down the TJ07 to see what options I've got with to regards to were things will go.



Plan your work, work your plan.

Setup your pumps like this, Res > Pump > Pump > @ this point route your loop the shortest route possible, doing so will yield best performance. There will be a million others telling you to use Chemical XYZ in your loop. Stick with Distilled & algacide and you can't go wrong. ;)

Good luck putting your loops together.