My Guide to Water Cooling 680i boards

[buffbiff21]

Okay! Hi everybody. I have seen far too many threads where people are just asking "what blocks fit" etc..

So here it is:

buffbiff21's Guide to Water Cooling 680i Boards

This list is not meant to be definitive at first - Please, post your findings and I will add them.


Northbridge blocks:

Danger Den 680i block

Swiftech MCW30

EK-NB EVGA 680i

EK NF4 block fits the Striker/P5N32-E, awaiting confirmation of EVGA or other board models.

MIPS Computer (Germany) makes a NB block

Innovatek makes a block that will fit the EVGA 680i. However its native tube support is 3/8.

Southbridge blocks: (this is asked the most; I even have seen someone running a Maze4 with a ziptie to hold it on)

EK NF4 block

MIPS Computer (Germany) makes a SB block

Swiftech MCW30, an easy to find block, fits on ASUS Striker/P5N boards with no problems.

HOWEVER it does not *naturally* fit on the EVGA 680i with vid cards in place. I'll show you how to change that. You need to either use different screws or cut the stock ones in order to fit. The screws and washers that come with the MCW30 are quite large; they stick out and prevent the video card from going all the way into the PCI X16 slot. Here are some pics with what I tried: (southbridge installation)

Mount them from top down. As you can see, it fits perfectly given you have a waterblock on the vid card. However you can also see this poses a problem: the screws are too long to mount upsidedown because they will run into the motherboard tray, preventing you from installing the board to into the case. I cannot verify if this trick will work with stock HSF on vid cards:

*note: in this pic, the screws were not in all the way because the board was laying on top of a flat piece of foam. They do not bow out like that. (I am only showing this first pic to show how to put the screws in)*


You need to cut the screws in half with a dremel. (this pic shows them already cut; you need 'em a little less than 1.75 centimeters)



Screw the washers on from the bottom of the board.



All done:



Innovatek makes a block that will fit the EVGA 680i. However its native tube support is 3/8.

Just found out this Koolance block fits the SB..


Mosfet blocks

If you are planning to watercool the VRegs be EXTREMELY careful. Specially if you are planning to use the solutions from mips-de. The contact surface is about 5 mm wide. If you tighten the bolts properly you will most likely warp the PCB, which will result on no contact whatsoever on the middle one. If you use less torque, the pipes will tend to tip the block, which will result in bad contact or chipped insulation. I'm not saying that this is the only possible outcome. I believe it can be mounted properly. But it will require a certain degree of skill and a great dose of patience.

Striker/P5N32-E SLI / P5N32-E SLI Plus kit
Not sure if it works on the EVGA or other models.

If someone could say which blocks work for the EVGA and other models, please do.


Air solutions:

Thermalright HR-05 and HR-05 SLi
I would not recommend running these passively.
Note that the HR-05 SLI will NOT fit on the SB with two 8800 cards and an X-Fi. It will lean on a resistor on the bottom card, and also not make proper contact with the SB chip.

EVGA 680i Southbridge fan.
EVGA makes this fan if you run water cooling on only the NB.

Vantec Iceberq
Basically the same approach as the EVGA fan, just different aesthetics.

EVERCOOL EC-VC-RE
Same as the EVGA and the Vantec.

Swiftech MCX159-CU



Again, if anyone has something to contribute, please do