Your thoughts on my loop and performance

G'day folks

Wondering if i could get some peoples thoughts on my current setup.

Ok so my setup is

• Case: Corsair 800D case (Not modded)
• Pump: D5 with a Bitspower D5 Mod Top v2
• Rad: Black Ice SR1 360 Radiator (With 3x 1850rpm GT's)
• Res: EK Multioption Advanced (Think it was about 250mm somewhere round there)
• CPU: Core 2 Quad (Q9550) with Apogee GTZ Block
• GPU(s) - 2XGTX580's in SLI (I know probably bottlenecked badly but i picked the second up dirt cheap )
  1 GPU is WC'ed with a Swiftech MCW60
  Other is currently on its Standard air setup (and noisey! Ruins the slight hum on my PC lol)
• They all have AC MX-4 Paste

Currently with an ambient case temp of 42 Degree's and a Water temp of 35 Degrees as reported by my Lamptron Fan Controller w/ Bitspower watertemp sensor (Nearly summer here in Aus and its a hot night tonight ) my temps are as follows at Idle

(Reported by AIDA64 Extreme)
CPU - 35 Deg (Individual cores are all sitting between 41 and 46 Degree's)
GPU1 (WC'ed) - 40 Deg (Dancing on the 39/40 mark)
GPU2 (Air) - 41 Deg

Don't have exact load measurements atm but from what i can remember the WC'ed components usually don't go up much (as expected, ie max out round 45 Deg, individual CPU cores get up round 50)
though of course the Air cooled 580 hit upward of 75Deg (and sounds like a vacuum )

Just wondering if these temps look alright for a WC'ed system (note even when the Ambient temps lower like 25Deg its still not that much different, maybe a few degee's but never under 30)
And secondly does anyone have any recommendations on upgrades? Worth doing a push-pull setup on the rad with more GT's?

I'm looking to WC the second GPU and im guessing it'll just raise my temps a few degree's across the board. Not hughly looking to overclock at the moment but yeah was thinking of just blocking up the second 580 with a MCW80 waterblock, throw in a 140 Rad (Don't really want to cut into this case, its so pretty ) to try to keep that Delta down

I was thinking of putting in a second 140mm Rad into the rear of the case (so 1x360 SR1 and a 1x140) but would that make much difference to the cooling capacity? If so what would be a good 140mm Rad and Fan combo ([edit] I replaced the 140mm fans with Thermalright X-Silent 140mm fans previously, not sure how good they are up against a 140mm Rad)

Any thoughts would be great, really just in the planning stage at the moment but some direction would really help
Edited by ShadoX - 10/25/12 at 3:31am

Hrrrmmmm not sure bout going external again, had one on my TT Armor case, worked really well just didn't look that nice but i guess its always an option (either cut the case or do that )

Do the full coverage blocks do much for actual GPU Core temps or mainly just cooling all the other components?
As it is currently i've got the original eVGA cooler baseplate + fan still on there, just the heatsink and top cover removed, im not really sure how hot the rest of the board actually gets :O

Good info though thanks, something to keep in mind if the 140 rad proves to not make much difference

i spose thats definitely true, my main issue is i like to reuse blocks Full coverage are really a 1 card thing.

A Bottom rad needs a bit of case cutting/modding to make it fit (remove the drive bays on the bottom of the case) thats why i was thinking 140mm as theres a 140mm fan already in the rear of the case (Already got a 320 rad in the top, wasn't sure if it would be enough by its self maybe with some push/pull fan setup, or if i'd need a extra rad and if the 140mm would make much difference (ie i'd need atleast a 240)

oh i didn't even think about a 160 Do you have any pics of the actual mounting? My pump currently resides there but will probably move to main chamber after i redo the setup. I like how clean it looks my looks real messy mainly cause after the last strip down i reused my pipe and sorta just threw it together so it worked rather than for looks (leaving that till i cooled the extra 580 which.....got delayed alot lol) so yeah i think it looks horrible as is but it gets the job done

When i redo it i'll be switching all the barbs to Compressions finally, probably those Monsoon Free center compression fittings as i've heard they're really good, plus they're tooled, Coloured and physically smaller than the Bitspower ones (main reason why i never changed, always thought the BT ones looks too chunky ). Plus i'll have to Single sleeve the second 580's PCI-e cable to match (Thinking of making them all "Spew out" from the lower grommet holes rather than from behind the board if it looks any good). I only just found out about those Mayhems Aurora and Pastels (been out of this game too long ), they look freakin awesome, i'm thinking, Clear tubes with Sunset Yellow Pastel, that stuff looks freakin sweet (or possibly an aurora, but i thought i read somewhere its more of a "show" coolant and not ment for long term use? Would hate to have to dump that stuff every couple months)

I was worried bout the size of a 140 in the rear too but seen a few pic's/videos of other peoples setups (few have gone with the 140 and mounting a high powered fan on the outside of the rear of the case to make its footprint smaller which i thought of doing) and it doesn't intrude too much so

ps, Ambient temps come down a lot when its actually summer cause of the air con, really only just getting into the heat now, was a bit early for Air con i thought )

Heres a few snaps i just took with the phone




Edited by ShadoX - 10/26/12 at 2:22am

Beware of my awesome paint skills
This is what i invision for my new loop.
Now everything i've ever read sez placement of the Rad's don't make much difference on the temps, and doing running more tubing/tight bends will do more to ruin your temps/make the pump work harder than short straight runs with the rad not first.

With this in mind i figure pumping directly into the GPU's, picking up the 140mm rad on the way to the CPU, then hitting the 360 Rad before dumping back into the Res should be the most optimum setup (besides the heat dump from the pump isn't that much, the Res is filled with water right out of the Rad so)



Any thoughts anyone? Obviously this is what i hope to do but we'll see about pump/res placement once i go to build it, ive had the Res in that location before, but not the pump (though last time i didn't have the multi-port Bitspower top on the D5)

Cheers