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

[MraK]

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:



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:

DDC:

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.

After doing more and more research, I came up with this setup for now, would this do pretty ok?

(3) EK-FC480 GTX-NK-ACK gpu waterblocks
(1) EK-Supreme HF High Flow cpublock
(2) Swiftech MCP655 w/speed control pumps
Primochill Primo Flex Pro tubing (15ft)
Koolance Liquid Coolant
(2) Koolance Reservoirs, Inline 240mm with zozzles
EK Compression Fittings
(4) XSPC RX360 radiators
Koolance mb/mosfets waterblocks

all together I'd be running at $1377.90 (w/shipping included already)

To get the lowest temps possible this is the loop I had in mind:

res>pump1>rad 1,2,3> cpu >nb/sb?mosfets>pump2 >rad4>gpu1>gpu2>gpu3>res

And I already chose the new case for this setup, from Mountain Mods, its a custom Ascension case with a custom front and rear panel that I had designed for them to make, spent around close to $700.00

 

[RussianSensation]

all together I'd be running at $1377.90 (w/shipping included already)

OR, you could sell the 3x 480s before they lose value next month. Get 2x 6990s ($1200 most likely) that will blow your system out of the water. Why spend $1400 to cool slower technology that will be obsolete next month?? Makes no sense to me :biggrin:

 

[CurseTheSky]

To each their own, but...

I would NEVER spend $1300 on a cooling setup - top-tier liquid cooling or not. It's sort of like saying "my Corvette is too loud and bumpy," and then spending $20k in expensive sound dampening, different exhaust, different suspension, and installation for it all. In the end, you could have just sold the 'Vette and taken that plus the $20k you threw away and bought a luxury car that's DESIGNED to be quiet and smooth, or spent the $20k on a used Lexus and kept the 'Vette for the weekends.

With that many radiators and fans to go with them, you're not going to have a quiet case. That many rads and fans means lots of openings in the case and LOTS of air flow, even with relatively low speed fans. For example, compare an Antec Twelve Hundred, CoolerMaster HAF 932, or Antec LanBoy to a FT02. Even if all the fans spin at the same RPM, the open-air cases are going to be louder than the FT02 due to openings for sound to escape and air turbulence. Will your water cooled setup be quieter than your current 3x GTX 480's on air? Probably, but for $1300 I would friggin' hope so.

I still stand by my original suggestion: sell your cards and buy something quieter. Even if you can only get $300-350 per GTX 480, you're looking at OVER $2000 between the money the cards would fetch and they money you'd save by NOT liquid cooling them. I could build an entire new computer for that much.

Again, to each their own. I would hate to see you spend that kind of money only to realize it didn't meet your original goal of quieting things down drastically, or for you to get half way into the water cooling build only to realize how much work it can be. Water cooling is tons of fun, but it's definitely not for anyone that wants to simply use their computer without tweaking things every so often.

 

[MraK]

for the last three posters all I could say is I'm a computer Enthusiast, loving how computers work and how artistic they can look when you put enough effort in the presentation. See the other thing about this rig of mine is because It's going to be a presentation rig for "Nvidia 3D surround" for a PC gaming/technology expo that is happening where I live during the month of November and so I thought why don't I make my rig look nice for all to see. I built this rig for 1) already have 2 other i7 rigs to my name and thought to build another one now and this time make it WC 2) while the other two were built for gaming or what not, this rig although built is not yet quite done yet as I want this rig to be you could say "beautiful" 3) just to see how GTX480s in Tri-sli perform 4) like how other guys spend $1000s on parts for their fast cars I do the same but for computers, plus every year I just sell them after I'm done with them, but for this rig I plan to atleast keep for 2-3 years before I let it go for yet another upgrade.

 

[MraK]

Finally my mountain mod ascension case arrived, got the version with 9 140mm fan openings. Quick question before I move on to the other watercooling questions, does anyone know of any pretty top quality 140mm fans (planning on getting Black Ice SR1 rads) so any 140mm fan below 2000rpm is what I need. Saw Noctua's 1200rpm 140mm and Noiseblocker's 1700rpm 1400rpm, do you guys think these brands are ok?

Thanks in advance!

 

[muskie32]

Here is a related thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2122247

 

[aigomorla]

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

3 gpu's = mandatory 2nd loop.

I dont care what radiator you have, unless you can push water flow in like the high high 3gpm mark, so you can boost the holding capacity on your water.

However even then, you would need a substantial radiator.
And im talking about the king of kings, and not a standard one which wouldnt even fit inside your case.

Seeing how you dropped nearly 1k on your cpu sector, finish the system nice with a different case.

Your going to need a lot more holding capacity to get your system done properly.

Edit: Ahhh u got the ascension... :\

Im very impartial in that case, because yes, its big and tall, yet lacks floor room for other things and what nots.

 

[MraK]

3 gpu's = mandatory 2nd loop.

I dont care what radiator you have, unless you can push water flow in like the high high 3gpm mark, so you can boost the holding capacity on your water.

However even then, you would need a substantial radiator.
And im talking about the king of kings, and not a standard one which wouldnt even fit inside your case.

Seeing how you dropped nearly 1k on your cpu sector, finish the system nice with a different case.

Your going to need a lot more holding capacity to get your system done properly.

Edit: Ahhh u got the ascension... :\

Im very impartial in that case, because yes, its big and tall, yet lacks floor room for other things and what nots.

I did just that, got me a custome Ascension case *anodized black* from MountainMods.com and so far I'm just going to watercool my cpu first and like you mentioned will add a second loop for when I'm ready for my cards to cool down. This is what I ordered so far:

(1) EK-Supreme HF cpu cooler
(1) Black Ice SR1 420 rad (will have 3 Noiseblocker 140mm PK-3 1700rpm/90.3cfm/27dBA fans)
(1) EK- DCP 4.0 pump
(1) EK- DCP 4.0 res
(1) IandH Silver KillCoil / will just use distilled water also
(8) EK-PSC 13mm fittings
(1) Alphacool Flow indicator with filter
PrimoFlex Pro LRT UV Blue Tubing (about 7ft)
PrimoChill Anti-Kink Coils - UV Bright Orange (about 7ft)
(3) EK G1/4 plug with O-ring

and in the next few weeks, will be working on the gpu aspect of watercooling, most probably will add a 420 and 280 rad along with an additional pump if one wont be strong enough.

 

[MraK]

finally finished the rig guys, check out my youtube channel "avepics" and see my finished rig and in the coming days finally post a video showing the rig fully.