Which 7970 for W/C

[Tencntraze]

I'm looking to purchase 3 7970s to put under water in the near future and was looking for recommendations. Naturally they'll have to be a reference board, unless there are full-cover blocks for the cards in question. Normally I would just think to get whatever reference card is cheapest, but I see the talk about the Lightning and am wondering if a full-block will come out for that (no announcements yet that I can see).

Right now the cheapest card on NewEgg is Sapphire, likely because of the new model with the dual-X cooler.

 

[badb0y]

I would advise you to hold on for a little bit, Kepler is around the corner and seems promising so far.

 

[Subyman]

EVGA has been offering warrantied high end nvidia cards with waterblocks already installed and they are likely to do the same with the upcoming line up.

I believe AMD did not require manufacturers to stick to references PCBs, so do very careful research before jumping in.

 

[Tencntraze]

There really isn't a release date for Kepler yet though, right, aside from typical speculation? I've started to skim the various discussion threads about it but quickly lose interest over the various arguing/flaming/etc. Furthermore, I wonder how long it would be until both Kepler and waterblocks would be released? I've honestly already been holding out a while and next weekend would be the perfect time for me to build everything since the GF is out of town.

 

[Grooveriding]

If you are set on 7970s, buy whatever reference cards are the cheapest imo. Holding out for a block for the Lightning or DCUII cards could be a long wait.

There are blocks that tend to get released for those cards, for example EK always make a block for the Asus DCUII flagship cards and Bitspower has a block for the Lightning cards from the past generations, but it takes months for them to show up.

I researched this pretty hard when I was looking into 7970s and planning to watercool a couple Lightning models. Your other option if you want to get custom cards such as the 7970 Lightning for better OCs and still watercool is to use universal GPU blocks, such as these http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=99_100&products_id=1867 Those are also compatible with EK's GPU bridges as well, which is nice for a multi-gpu setup. Using those you'll have to use regular aftermark heatsinks on the memory and more importantly, the VRM circuitry. Which imo is not aesthetically pleasing ( if you care about that ) and in the case of the VRM cooling; not as ideal as water would be. There is an upside to that sort of GPU block though as they cool the GPU core much better than a full-cover custom block specific to the card does.

Reference is in general the best way to go and in the case of newly released cards, the only way if you want a full-cover block.

 

[MrK6]

If you are set on 7970s, buy whatever reference cards are the cheapest imo. Holding out for a block for the Lightning or DCUII cards could be a long wait.

There are blocks that tend to get released for those cards, for example EK always make a block for the Asus DCUII flagship cards and Bitspower has a block for the Lightning cards from the past generations, but it takes months for them to show up.

I researched this pretty hard when I was looking into 7970s and planning to watercool a couple Lightning models. Your other option if you want to get custom cards such as the 7970 Lightning for better OCs and still watercool is to use universal GPU blocks, such as these http://dazmode.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=99_100&products_id=1867 Those are also compatible with EK's GPU bridges as well, which is nice for a multi-gpu setup. Using those you'll have to use regular aftermark heatsinks on the memory and more importantly, the VRM circuitry. Which imo is not aesthetically pleasing ( if you care about that ) and in the case of the VRM cooling; not as ideal as water would be. There is an upside to that sort of GPU block though as they cool the GPU core much better than a full-cover custom block specific to the card does.

Reference is in general the best way to go and in the case of newly released cards, the only way if you want a full-cover block.

Solid advice and I agree. I'm using a reference Gigabyte water-cooled with an MCW82. I had to make my own shim to account for the extra space the shim over the GPU package now takes, but it did work. I think proper full cover blocks would be much less of a headache, especially if you're doing three of them.

 

[Subyman]

There really isn't a release date for Kepler yet though, right, aside from typical speculation? I've started to skim the various discussion threads about it but quickly lose interest over the various arguing/flaming/etc. Furthermore, I wonder how long it would be until both Kepler and waterblocks would be released? I've honestly already been holding out a while and next weekend would be the perfect time for me to build everything since the GF is out of town.

If you are itching to upgrade, do it. I doubt nvidia's offerings will be much faster than the 7970, I was proposing the wait from a value perspective. You should be plenty happy with the 7970's.

As for your original request, it seems the Sapphire 7970 (model number: 21197-00-40G) fits EK waterblocks. You can go to EK's configurator to check for fitment: http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/

 

[fastman]

Find one that doesn't void the warranty if you remove the fan. Mine has stickers on the the fan screws that say void if removed! So I'm good with software mods only for my card. Good luck.

 

[Tencntraze]

Good advice from everyone, thanks! Going to wait a couple days I think to see what, if anything, happens with prices.

 

[Tencntraze]

So another question regarding W/C. I'm going to be getting some d-plugs to connect the cards together as I think this looks much better than the EK bridge (and do not use colored coolant so not going to use bitspower crystal tubing). I've been googling a bunch but am still not 100% sure about what size d-plugs to get. I have an X58 Classified and 3 video cards end up sandwiched together on air, so it seems like I won't need too long of a connector.

I'm thinking that I need to use the following, which is apparently 30mm (~1.18in):

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/6...g_Male_Male_Coupler_Set_BP-WTP-C07.html#blank

Anyone have any experience with these?