Skinnee Labs - GTX480 Block Round-Up (working thread)

[skinnee]

Sorry for the back to back posts here, but I have been a little behind in keeping this thread updated as work has been taking up way too much of my time.

Blocks:
Aqua Computer: Shipped, DHL has it leaving Germany on 05/08/10
Bitspower: Shipped, presently in Alaska via UPS
Danger Den: In house
EK: In house
EVGA/Swiftech: Shipping this week
Koolance: In house
Watercool: Finally got sort of an email response, we'll see what happens.
XSPC: Didn't ship as I expected last time. I have photos from XSPC, but I'll wait to post until I have the retail sample in hand.

More importantly, MSI has sponsored the testing and provided a GTX480, of course there will be some LN2 benching after testing has wrapped. I planned on using Afterburner 1.60 Beta 5 for voltage control and clock tweaking anyhow, and Kombustor is a FurMark clone. And of course we have some shots...

Don't worry, there are many more shots of the card to come... we will be doing a full photo session on removing the stock heatsink and will be experimenting with video as well.

Yes, prepping the Torture Rack and pretesting has been going on behind the scenes (bonus of being able to participate on conference calls and still tinker in the lab). So far in pretesting I am not see a bit of difference between Furmark and Kombustor, even with "Xtreme Burning mode" enabled. I'll verify before finalizing the procedure on the GTX480 and not just a low watt 9600GT. Some shots of the bench and pretesting...


The GPU loop consists of a DDC3.2 with EK V2 top, 2 dual temp probe T's(block in and block out), Koolance VL3N QDC's, XSPC RX360 V1 with Triebwerk 121's in push at full RPM, and the EK 400 Res. All BP 1/2" High Flow barbs except for the QDC's and 2 BP rotary 90's on the GPU block. The radiator has 12 temp sensor total, 6 air in and 6 air out.

As usual, all temp sensors and fan RPM are monitored and logged by a CrystalFontz and GPU-Z will be used for logging all GPU sensors and data points. So far through pretesting, the RX360 has kept a 2C delta but that is using a 9600GT @ 825 Core / 1130 Memory at stock volts. I am sure that will change once we loop up the MSI card and start tweaking with Afterburner. Although, my current plan is to log two runs per block mount... 1 stock clocks and voltage and 1 with my max stable OC and adjusted voltage.

Anyhow... time for me to get some sleep, but wanted to update everyone on the progress.