charles81

Hi to all.

Running an E8500 on a 790i with 9800 GX2 Quad SLI.

Since air cooler could not keep up with high OC on CPU, decided to go for a total watercooling setup including the following:

Two loops:-

CPU/NB loop

• Dario Laing 12v pump
• Swiftech MicroRes
• EK Supreme CPU block
• NB waterblock
• Tygon 1/2" ID

GPU loop

• Same pump
• Same tubing
• Same res
• GPU blocks by EK (pending)

Radiators: dual or triple, PA 120.3 or Black Ice Extreme II/III? Which radiator performs best? Can anyone illuminate me on best dual and best triple rad?

Will use Panaflo 38 x 120 mm fans, in draw air through config on a fan controller. Panaflo have 110 cfm 2000 rpm fans, might be too noisy.

Any feedback on best performing rads please?

(Some tell me Black Ice Xtreme II/III and forget the GTX or Stealth black ice, others tell me Thermochill PA... PS: I want all copper in the loops, hope none of these rads has aluminium, although usually rads are brass tubes, copper fins if I remember correctly.)

__________________
Primus inter primi - the strong eat, the weak are the meat

SergeRY

The cooling capacity going from a double to a triple rad is substantial, and pressure drop increase is not very big. Also for 4gpus, vote triple. as far as BI GTX vs. 120.3, both are excellent rads that will give you great results.

The main difference is that the 120.3 is designed to work well with lower cfm fans. If noise is a concern for everyday operation, you can use lower cfm's and still see very good performance with the thermochills.

As far as component selection, looks fine. You could make small tweaks, but what you have is excellent. Other fans that are excellent are sanyo denki san ace, if you can find them. here is a link to a review of fan performance vs. noise.

__________________
!!! [TOTAL] !!!

Currently thinking about: when is that hydra engine gonna be available for buy??

marcus000

What blocks you using on the 790i?

__________________

mz-n10

i believe the GTX performs better then the PA with high CFM fans. might want to think bout the 480GTX for your GPU loop.

DaCrusader

Good luck finding a NB for the 790i, the heatpipe is linked to the mosfets and SB, Just a heads up.

The PA series is designed to work well with low CFM fans = less noise. A PA.2 should be enough for the CPU loop. Depending on how much heat the 9800GX2's output you may only need a PA.3 but that would be wishful thinking.

Also you may need a bigger case.

__________________

charles81

790i blocks = NB custom ViperJohn block, SB air cooled with Evercooler after market cooler and Mosfets custom ViperJohn heatsinks, only NB will be watercooled, the Mosfets and SB don't need it, just complicates loop uselessly.

So, for an E8500+NB blocks = PA120.2 or Black Ice (which one?)


For GPUs (this will be a later loop since I am not going to watercool 9800 GX2 seeing as I do not think they will be my long term GPU solution) - I can mount a triple or quad radiator at the back of the case externally, no problem there, just spacers and rad.

@Sergery - what tweaks did you have in mind please?

__________________
Primus inter primi - the strong eat, the weak are the meat

ChielScape

i'll drop this link here for teh rad question.
360 GTX Beats PA.3 Using 47cfm YL Fans
those fans should make the difference ever bigger.

__________________
Bigger = better, except for transistor size.
480GTX Club

SergeRY

nice find Chiel. looks like the thermochill doesn't have much going for it. Even taking into account the difference in flow rate, using martins flow rate calculator and the C/W from dteks site, you still have GTX on top with the slower fans by ~1/2 degree C . I am sure the margin of defeat grows even more with faster fans.

@OP, I just took another look a the supreme, it is VERY restrictive. Change recommendation to D-tek fusion.

as far as tweaks I had in mind, ddc3.2 w/ petras top should flow a little more. Not a lot, ~5% over our range of interest. some people may suggest 7/16" tubing as more flexible, almost identical in flow, tighter seal. I have the microres, and find the vertical layout doesn't work all that well in my case. I would get a drive bay or tube type if I got another.

I know the res's aren't in stock, just for illustrative purposes.

__________________
!!! [TOTAL] !!!

Currently thinking about: when is that hydra engine gonna be available for buy??

charles81

So for a dual rad, what would be best, a Black Ice Xtreme II or a GTX 240? And you suggest the DDC3.2 with Petra top instead of the Dario Laing?

__________________
Primus inter primi - the strong eat, the weak are the meat

charles81

Decided to go back to the 680i setup. The 790i is way too unstable, memory timings going off, data corruption, massively expensive DDR3... better way to wait for Nehalem socket and change mobo then.

Any suggestions for mosfet/Southbridge cooling on a 680i? Don't think it's worth watercooling them?

__________________
Primus inter primi - the strong eat, the weak are the meat