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Tired of a loud air GTX480/i7, need help on Liquid Cooling

MraK

MraK

Senior member
hello guys and gals!

Some of you might now me for the rig and some newbie threads, but now it is the time to ask of you all, for some help on the next step of my gaming rig. After a week and a half of "jet engine" noise coming from my cards and also high temps (see sig) I feel it's in my best interest to move my rig on to Liquid Cooling.

My budget for now is around $900 but hope to spend a little less than that in the end. I have been looking at Swiftech and Koolance, and base on how my tower fits into the equation, I may end up buying another case, like the UFO cases from Mountainmods.com

So hope for your kind and helpful advise.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

Here are some pics below:

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab260/Pongki7/drag3-1.jpg

http://i869.photobucket.com/albums/ab260/Pongki7/drag4.jpg
 
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Yeah, the FT02 was designed to be an ultimate air cooled case, not really intended for water cooling.

A major reason why your 480s will really ramp up in noise is because of their immediate proximity to each other, two of the cards are sucking hot air right off of the card in front of their intake. I have a pair of 470s that I can only run right next to each other like that and the one will run a good 10-20C higher than the other.

If you took out the middle card and only ran two I'd wager temps and noise would drop significantly, although certainly still wouldn't be as good as water.
 
bunnyfubbles said:
Yeah, the FT02 was designed to be an ultimate air cooled case, not really intended for water cooling.

A major reason why your 480s will really ramp up in noise is because of their immediate proximity to each other, two of the cards are sucking hot air right off of the card in front of their intake. I have a pair of 470s that I can only run right next to each other like that and the one will run a good 10-20C higher than the other.

If you took out the middle card and only ran two I'd wager temps and noise would drop significantly, although certainly still wouldn't be as good as water.
Click to expand...

yea I figured that the case is mainly for air, but saw a pic or two on someone else's FT02 rig that was liquidcooled (removed two of the 180mm fans below) but looked close and it was just for his cpu. I was thinking maybe just get a nice rad for my 3 cards and use a dual pump configuration with and internal loop with a installed drive double drive bay Res. But sad to see I really just want to keep to the "tri-sli" configuration, dont want to regret getting the other card lol
 
muskie32 said:
I am not sure on how it is but: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=23175

Or you could try...
Click to expand...

yup saw that before (actually order from that site =) ) only thing is I have 3 cards, if only it had a triple vga cooler. And looking at It I know it could pretty much fit into my case with ease. Haven't really seen much reviews for it, but if it can atleast keep my cards below 70c then I think that could work, but still not sure.

thanks for the tip though, much appreciated!

(((((update: reviewed the gpu cooler again and it showed that it would not match for the 480s))))
 
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Perhaps you can cool the first card with air (so it sucks in cool air,) and cool the second 2 with water?
 
bunnyfubbles said:
yeah, I've seen some water cooling setups for the case, but there really isn't much room for rads inside the case.
Click to expand...
How about this setup remove 2/3 180mm fans from the bottom part and install a nice 2x120mm or 2x140mm rad in that spot for the cpu and then put at 3x120mm rad at the back of the case, for the 3 cards? saw a mod like that with some other cases, and speaking of this case there is actually two holes in the bottom rear of this case made for a water cooling setup
 
If you plan to watercool you're gonna have to ditch the FT02. Sell it (you'll get a lot back for it, still new and still an amazing case) and grab an 800D, then build your water. You should be able to do all of that for under 900, blocks are usually around 150, and the case will only cost you maybe an extra $100 if you sell yours.

You could also try buying an AP181 fan for under the GPUs and see if that helps, it's suppose to help with SLI cooling since it blows air directly up and concentrated and your GPUs are reference design
 
Where's aigo when you need him? 😱

IMO, 3x GTX 480's is way too much for even a 3x120mm radiator, especially considering the way the FT02 is designed - you'll be radiating that heat right back into the case (since the only good place to mount a radiator is at the bottom). It also looks like the GTX 480s are long enough that you won't be able to squeeze a radiator under them, which means you either need to remove the fans (and lose the awesome air cooling of the FT02), or extensively mod the case.

Personally, I think your best options are either to buy a different case that easily supports a 2x120mm and 3x120mm radiator simultaneously, or sell off one of the GTX 480's.

What resolution do you play at, by the way? Because if you say anything less than 2560x1600 or 2560x1440, your tri-SLI setup is a complete waste.
 
:O triple gtx 480s... i was expecting only one from the thread title, lol. intense. i'm gonna sit back and see what develops from this.
 
Can you do like a double setup such as: Tank---> Pump---> Rad---> Water Block for the first and second video card---> Then Pump #2---> Rad #2---> Water block for the third video card---> Then back to the tank.

Would something like that work? Like 2 systems in one?
 
CurseTheSky said:
Where's aigo when you need him? 😱

IMO, 3x GTX 480's is way too much for even a 3x120mm radiator, especially considering the way the FT02 is designed - you'll be radiating that heat right back into the case (since the only good place to mount a radiator is at the bottom). It also looks like the GTX 480s are long enough that you won't be able to squeeze a radiator under them, which means you either need to remove the fans (and lose the awesome air cooling of the FT02), or extensively mod the case.

Personally, I think your best options are either to buy a different case that easily supports a 2x120mm and 3x120mm radiator simultaneously, or sell off one of the GTX 480's.

What resolution do you play at, by the way? Because if you say anything less than 2560x1600 or 2560x1440, your tri-SLI setup is a complete waste.
Click to expand...

yea, kinda thought so regarding my case, actually I'm leaning towards a UFO case from mountainmods.com and will still be keeping this case, for my daughter's rig I'm planning to build. And regarding what resolution I play at, I play my games at 5670x1080 since I game on 3x Acer 120hz 3D capable 23.6inch monitors (see sig below), so yes I believe my cards are not a complete waste and may also be, at one point not enough, in one particular game.
 
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Petey! said:
If you plan to watercool you're gonna have to ditch the FT02. Sell it (you'll get a lot back for it, still new and still an amazing case) and grab an 800D, then build your water. You should be able to do all of that for under 900, blocks are usually around 150, and the case will only cost you maybe an extra $100 if you sell yours.

You could also try buying an AP181 fan for under the GPUs and see if that helps, it's suppose to help with SLI cooling since it blows air directly up and concentrated and your GPUs are reference design
Click to expand...

with regards to the case I'm still using for this rig, actually I'm going to keep it since it is still a very nice case, I'm going to use this case for my daughter's rig I'm in the process of building (note: shes still in elementary school =P) and will be getting a UFO case from mountainmods.com instead, or maybe an acsension case.
 
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muskie32 said:
Can you do like a double setup such as: Tank---> Pump---> Rad---> Water Block for the first and second video card---> Then Pump #2---> Rad #2---> Water block for the third video card---> Then back to the tank.

Would something like that work? Like 2 systems in one?
Click to expand...

actually besides the different case I'll be using, the setup I was thinking was (1) 360 rad with (1) 120 rad,for the cpu and (2) 360 rads for the 3 cards, with a pretty nice pump and res.
 
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muskie32 said:
Perhaps you can cool the first card with air (so it sucks in cool air,) and cool the second 2 with water?
Click to expand...

That's my thought for a cheap way to do things. Usually the top card (that the monitor hooks up to) runs the hottest, plus any card that has another card right against the fan will run hotter. Thus, water cool the top two cards and leave the third on air.
 
ur gonna spend more money watercooling your gpu's then you would on your cpu.
Your best off trying to get the entire system in 1 go, instead of trying to go after just your gpu's first.

First off, when you watercool that many gpu's, you need to watercool your board.

Why? because the fans on your gpu actually promote air flow though your board.
Having water and tubes there, without a fan to push air inside your case, will only lead you have stability issues when your board is heating up.

Second, each full card gpu block, and yes you will probably need them for 3 gpu's, will cost roughly 100-150 EACH.

Thats block cost alone, so you will eat close to 300-450 dollars just on pure blocks.

Now add all the other stuff, and yes, you may run out of room.

Gpu's dont need insane amounts of cooling potential cpu's get.
The reductions are fairly nice as long as you keep a 120x1 / core rule on your gpu.

Meaning 3 gpu's = 120x3 is recomended.

Remember in GPU's the lower the temperature does not mean better overclock.
Reduction in water and even high end aftermarket air, is enough to net max overclock on gpu's.
 
aigomorla said:
ur gonna spend more money watercooling your gpu's then you would on your cpu.
Your best off trying to get the entire system in 1 go, instead of trying to go after just your gpu's first.

First off, when you watercool that many gpu's, you need to watercool your board.

Why? because the fans on your gpu actually promote air flow though your board.
Having water and tubes there, without a fan to push air inside your case, will only lead you have stability issues when your board is heating up.

Second, each full card gpu block, and yes you will probably need them for 3 gpu's, will cost roughly 100-150 EACH.

Thats block cost alone, so you will eat close to 300-450 dollars just on pure blocks.

Now add all the other stuff, and yes, you may run out of room.

Gpu's dont need insane amounts of cooling potential cpu's get.
The reductions are fairly nice as long as you keep a 120x1 / core rule on your gpu.

Meaning 3 gpu's = 120x3 is recomended.

Remember in GPU's the lower the temperature does not mean better overclock.
Reduction in water and even high end aftermarket air, is enough to net max overclock on gpu's.
Click to expand...

well actually my budget for the added watercooling system is around $900 and if I really need to go higher then I think I could handle spending a tiny bit more and as for casing I'm leaving the case for my daughter to use and not get rid of it since its actually a pretty nice case but now due to my situation have ended up getting a case mod from MountainMods.com
 
ok, got my plan down before I hit the checkout button,

1) EK-Supreme HF High Flow CPU Water Block - FULL COPPER - "FULL NICKEL"
2) (three)Feser Limited Edition "Monsta Lite" 420/360 Xchanger Triple 140mm/120mm Xtreme Radiators
3) (three) Bitspower BP-VGNGTX480-MBK Black Freezer POM-Matte Black Panel
4) (three) EK-DDC X-RES 140 VERSION 2
5) (three) Swiftech MCP655™ Series 12 VDC Water Pumps - Bare
6) Feser tubing
7) Bitspower (fittings/connectors/etc)
8) just need help on which NB/SB waterblocks are best for my board, got any recommendations?

planning on having 3 seperate WC system configurations for my current rig setup and also will be getting an Ascension Case from MountainMods.com to fit all this stuff in.

tell me what you all think!
 
Are you sure the MM case will work with three of those Feser rads? The Monsta Lite is designed for 140mm fans, and I'm not aware of any MM configuration that will let you run three 140.3mm rads. It appears you can use 120mm fans with the Monsta Lite, but the fan spacing is no longer 15mm, which means it won't be mountable in a MM case without getting custom panels.

Also, this isn't going to work:

4) (three) EK-DDC X-RES 140 VERSION 2
5) (three) Swiftech MCP655™ Series 12 VDC Water Pumps - Bare
Click to expand...

The EK-DDC X-RES 140 VERSION 2 is a reservoir/pump top combo for a DDC pump (Swiftech MPC355) pump, which means it won't work with the MPC655. There are two primary types of pump used by most people based on the Laing D5 (MCP655 style) and the Laing DDC (MCP355 style), and accessories for one are not compatible with the other. Most people will generally refer to these as "D5" and "DDC".

Here are some pics of these pumps, which should help explain why accessories for one are not compatible with the other:

D5:
MCP655.gif


DDC:
mcp355.gif



Honestly, this is pretty basic water cooling stuff. My advice to you is to do more research before you spend any money. I don't mean this to be a jerk, I'm just trying to save you some money. You need make sure you understand what you're doing and how the parts will work together, or you will end up wasting a lot time and money.

Also, (talking about money) don't base the cost of your loop on the rads, blocks, and pumps alone. Make sure you plan your loop entirely down to the last fitting and price the whole thing out with the fittings. You might be surprised at how expensive fittings can be. For a triple loop with Bp compression fittings you're easily looking at $200 in fittings if not more.
 
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