John Reid

First off, I'm a total noob when it comes to cooling methods other than air, so bear with me. This post will be a little long, but I'd appreciate any help you can throw my way.

So, my system is:
- Vista 32 SP2
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775
- ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
- Scythe SCINF-1000 120mm fan CPU Cooler
- 4GB RAM
- 2 x EVGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB in SLI
- 2 x WD Raptors in striped RAID
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1
- PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W
- Antec P180 case (very well ventilated)

My main issue right now is the high temps that the stock-cooled G92 8800 GTS cards generate (up to 106 C core temp under full load). Different attempts at ducting and fan placement/speed have not made any appreciable difference... even with the side of the case open, the cards simply get hot. This system is for gaming only. I don't overclock (yet).

So, my initial I thought was that a Boreas chassis would be the way to go. Since, as far as I can tell from reviews, etc., it would be ready to go out-of-box, would be future-proof, and I wouldn't have to futz around with it too much to get going or maintain it.

***Please correct me if I'm wrong about this, since the free time I have in life is too valuable to spend dicking around with cooling a gaming PC.***

Adding to the wrinkles... I just found out today from Coolit that the GPU blocks they make won't work with the 8800 GTS 512 G92.

So now I have to decide if it's worth futzing.

And now I ask for your help in finding a good full-cover block for my cards. They would need to be able to be used in SLI, and at least fit within the space taken up by the stock card coolers (2 slots).

Since I'm a noob, I don't know of brands that are good, or bad. All I've seen for my version of card so far is from DangerDen and Zalman.

I know that some of you use the Boreas already in your custom systems, so here are some questions that come to mind:

- If I use a GPU block from another manufacturer, what would be involved in "plumbing" it into the Boreas cooling circuit?
- Are the tubing sizes on the Boreas standard, so that any aftermarket GPU cooling block will work?

If you tweakers can think of anything I missed, please chime in. Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks,
JR

TEntel

Generally, Liquid cooling is only considered a valid option when you build your own.

Most WC kits perform about equal to high-end air cooling (i.e a TRUE).

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John Reid

S0 it may be best (and cheaper) in my situation to just buy a newer case (like the Antec p192) and stick with air, eh?