Stren's Titan Water Block Roundup

[Shoggy]

Shoggy, what can you tell us about that awesome titan backplate?

We will offer the backplate in two variants: passive and active. The active variant uses a heatpipe which transfers the heat from the packplate to the connection terminal on the side of the block where it has direct contact to the water. The so called anti gravity heatpipe works in any direction so it does not matter how the card is installed in a PC.

The passive variant will cost 29.90 Euro and active variant 39.90 Euro. Both should be available in around 10 days. So far I have only two renderings of the active version.





This will not be the last thing that we offer for the Titan ;-)

[Church]

Hmm, this, and new transparent block. Work of art bling wise. You guys outdid yourselves.
I wonder though how such active backplates will be usable with SLI water bridges, or for later ones specific version will be needed.

[Shoggy]

Right, you will need a special connector that works with the heatpipes.

[lowfat]

Honestly that block swayed my decision. Ordered a Titan. Need one of those blocks and backplates stat.

[zalbard]

Honestly that block swayed my decision. Ordered a Titan. Need one of those blocks and backplates stat.

Agreed, really amazing block.

[paulbagz]

THAT is what a back plate for a $1000 GPU should be.

Take note other companies.

-PB

[.::NeO::.]

We will offer the backplate in two variants: passive and active. The active variant uses a heatpipe which transfers the heat from the packplate to the connection terminal on the side of the block where it has direct contact to the water. The so called anti gravity heatpipe works in any direction so it does not matter how the card is installed in a PC.

The passive variant will cost 29.90 Euro and active variant 39.90 Euro. Both should be available in around 10 days. So far I have only two renderings of the active version.





This will not be the last thing that we offer for the Titan ;-)

@Shoggy I think I'm gonna grab a couple of Titan and order your nickel + plexy waterblock and your active backplates.

Just a question, a bit off topic but when I'm doing a loop I always try to grab waterblocks of the same brand, and since I think that I'll go with Aquacomputer also for the CPU, please tell me, what's the difference between Kryos HF and Kryos XT? Who is better?

Also, Kryos Derlin (listed on your shop at 39,90€) is the HF or the XT version?

PM me if you prefer. Sorry stren for the OT.

[chispy]

Really looking forward for this article since I have a Titan inbound arriving next week , this will be very useful for the choice of GPU Block that I will install on it. Cannot wait for the full article

[stren]

love the new backplate

Can anyone tell me what temperature sensors are available on the titan card itself? Still waiting for mine...

Also here's the unboxing vid of the first three cards:

[Callsign_Vega]

Can't wait for the results. Hopefully EK fairs well.

[stren]

XSPC shipped, Watercool should ship next week. Waiting to hear back on an update from alphacool. Need to chase up BP, EVGA and Phobya again.

Did some testing of the MPS 400 flow sensor today instead. Hopefully I'll get that published this week while we're waiting.

[musicfan]

In case there is any chance to read VRM temps, I wanted to share this freeware utility HWiNFO64 that was on an ATI/AMD HD7970 readout at the bottom of this post. The readme says the utility works on a Titan but don't know if Titan tells us VRM temps like that model of HD7970. If it would easy for you, the numbers may be helpful to those who OC VGA cards. It might also help those of us scratching our head over active versus passive water-cooling of VRM. I haven't seen a roundup with VRM monitoring since Skinnee put the probes in the GTX 480. Sorry to pile on...just like Martin said would happen. So forget it if too much hassle. But I only learned today that some VGA cards have sensors for VRM temps. Thanks.

[stren]

In case there is any chance to read VRM temps, I wanted to share this freeware utility HWiNFO64 that was on an ATI/AMD HD7970 readout at the bottom of this post. The readme says the utility works on a Titan but don't know if Titan tells us VRM temps like that model of HD7970. If it would easy for you, the numbers may be helpful to those who OC VGA cards. It might also help those of us scratching our head over active versus passive water-cooling of VRM. I haven't seen a roundup with VRM monitoring since Skinnee put the probes in the GTX 480. Sorry to pile on...just like Martin said would happen. So forget it if too much hassle. But I only learned today that some VGA cards have sensors for VRM temps. Thanks.

Yeah I can try this when the card comes in. As long as it logs the data then it's just one more number to process. I should really setup scripts to parse the data for me lol.

[Kenjiwing]

Can we get some pics of the plexi/nickel aqua block installed? It looks awesome but as a render kind of looks off to me for some reason

[tiborrr]

@Kenji: Stren is still waiting on the card.

[rge]

Yeah I can try this when the card comes in. As long as it logs the data then it's just one more number to process. I should really setup scripts to parse the data for me lol.

VRM temps would be nice, but only gpu temps are available, using gpuz/precision tune, even tried HWutil from musicfan, but no gpu vrm temps, just gpu.

Also many OCing titans are using custom bioses. My original bios stated (using kepler bios editor to look) that my core boost was 1202, but my core constantly varied under load and never higher than 1050 with any benchmarking program or games, even though I was on water and gpu never above 38C. All the consumer cards bioses were gimped with heavy throttling from too low power limits. Playing around, I ended up flashing mine about 17x, trying to figure out how the bios power limits were causing throttling.

The hard limit is 300W total 265W from gpu, cant go passed those without hard mods. hard limit on vcore is 1.21, cant go past that without hard mods. So card is pretty protected...even if you change bios.

My card now will do 1150 rock stable at 1.18 v (stock v is 1.16), or 1202 rock stable with 1.2v. No throttling.

Just to warn you if your card throttles, and it will unless a rarity (always check a loading program/log and look for throttling, part of my norm after any benchmark now), just trying to save you some time in case you get varying load screwing up results.

Here is rest of my post on bios:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...=727364&page=9

[musicfan]

Thanks rge for post & links. Perhaps VRM temp readings may only be HD7970 type cards then? Have to wait on VRM temps. Thanks again stren for taking on VGA block testing.

[mbreslin]

I will be adding a third titan when ib-e launches. I normally prefer the plain acetal covered rectangles (ek) but I will be switching to those aqua computer blocks for sure due to passive vram cooling. My chips get so insanely hot I can't help but think it's hurting the memory oc potential. Also it seems like the block/heatpipe will match nicely with corsair extreme dimms?

Looks great.

[stren]

Some pics of the XSPC Titan Block - the boxes were not the usual XSPC grey/black style:



One for block, one for backplate:



Included accessories with the block:



Almost time to unwrap:



The wrapping left some sticky on the bridge. No big deal, but it makes the photo look bad:



A complex block - thin copper base sealed with a stainless steel top and then topped off with acrylic and brushed aluminum to flesh out to the size of the card:



Unlike the EK XXL block the copper doesn't run to the end of the card. This doesn't affect performance, but does mean that the side view of the card isn't consistent:







BTW Vega the XSPC backplate is not brushed unlike the front, it's a plain powdercoated style instead!

[Callsign_Vega]

Very sexy, but ya I prefer the EK backplate.

[.::NeO::.]

Firendly bump

just received my 2 titans today, can't wait to see stren roundup!

[Equinediver]

EVGA Titan finally ordered tonight, Shoggy any ETA when that backplate will be available?

[Shoggy]

Shoggy any ETA when that backplate will be available?

Around the end of this month.

[Martinm210]

Hopefully EVGA actually pulls through. When I asked about sponsoring a watercooled 680 card, they pretty much told me to get lost...

Don't think they care about science or performance much, but if you build a piece of artwork..that's probably where they may have interest.

Crossing my fingers for you..hate to see you spend $1G on a card to do all that work and end up like Skinnee with a dead card.

[Church]

Martin: imho the more modern card is, the more it has circuitry and firmware features related to more advanced throttling and less chance to kill card. It's only temp wise though, and does nothing for many many remounts of cooling sys/it's durability, plus also limits overclock for those more insane (xtreme!) from us