Universal GPU Water Blocks

[james1701]

What is everyone's thoughts on these compared to full blocks. Anyone with experince with these on non reference 7970's?

 

[dougp]

I used one on a 660Ti - it did good to keep temps down, and I could overclock the card a bit. You can buy passive heatsinks for the memory, if needed, but most of the time you don't see water flowing over the memory anyways.

 

[chimaxi83]

I've used full covers and universals, on a bunch if cards including 7970 Lightning/Windforce. The universals always provided better core temps. The difference isn't drastic, but it's definitely there. The downside, of course, is figuring out what you're going to do about VRM and VRAM cooling, which is why I tend to stick with full cover.

 

[BrightCandle]

Its the VRMs and other random components on the board that always bother me. You can cool the core, its obvious that is a hot bit but you also have other parts of the card that really do need some active cooling, but its not always obvious what. One of the key problems always listed with universal coolers is VRM's overheating, RAM overheating and other components that sometimes go pop as well.

The universals are more expensive, obviously not reusable but they do cool absolutely everything that needs to be cooled, and that often means they can aid in overclocking because the VRMs/RAM/etc is cooler than with a universal. If you know precisely what else needs cooling and how you are going to do it then they are fine, if you don't then a specialist block is a better, safer option.

 

[thilanliyan]

I have run universal blocks exclusively since 2005 because I tend to reuse them. Actually, I have a DD Maze4 Acetal from 2005 running on one of my 7950s right now. Of course, because the core was rotated, I had to grind down portions to make it fit but it works perfectly well. However, since I modded it, this will be the last card I use it on.

As the poster above mentioned, you should know what you need to cool.

The easiest solution I find is to get a non-reference card that has a separate cooler/plate for the VRAM and VRMs, and one where you can attach a universal block without removing those, and then just point a fan at it. This is how I run my MSI TF3 7950 and an XFX DD 290.

 

[rgallant]

http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wat...ries/Wasserkühler/GPU_Kuehler/"GPU Universal"
most hidden product on the net. ever

I might go this route next time ,but I not sure on the snap in tubes to the vrm cooler

I don't really oc the memory that much, but they are cooled on full blocks so I not sure what stick on heat sink to the memory would be needed

did look at these a year ago but found my 2 ek titan blocks for sub. 99.00 on sale.
and haven't followed the pro's and con's of these.

 

[james1701]

http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wat...ries/Wasserkühler/GPU_Kuehler/"GPU Universal"
most hidden product on the net. ever

I might go this route next time ,but I not sure on the snap in tubes to the vrm cooler

I don't really oc the memory that much, but they are cooled on full blocks so I not sure what stick on heat sink to the memory would be needed

did look at these a year ago but found my 2 ek titan blocks for sub. 99.00 on sale.
and haven't followed the pro's and con's of these.

Sweet, that might be the ticket.