[Caperjoe]

I'm fairly new to the WC world and I have a question. I already had two Gigabyte 7950's in my system when I installed water cooling. As there is no universal water block for these cards I have been looking to swap them out and go with a new GTX 970 and WB.

Will a reference 970 perform as well as the more expensive 970's offered by Asus, Gigabyte and MSI. Since the aftermarket cooler will be coming off for a water block is there much of a performance difference between any of the 970's. Does anyone recommend a better card for this setup?

Zotac offers a cheaper card:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500362

Just wondering if it would compete with he others - ie. G1 or Strix? I seems a little small. Core clock is 1076 vs 1170 for a G1.

Anyone have a 970 on a WB that they think is best? Also, anyone experience bad coil whine with their 970 on a WB? After all, I'm aiming for silence in my system.

Thanks

 

[OS-Wiz]

Geez, unless you're an uber overclocker and/or max eye-candy gamer, you'll find no need to WC a 970. I can't hear my stock 980s even in intense graphics games. Most of the time the fans aren't even turning!

 

[electro2u]

That Zotac looks really small; can't be reference PCB can it?

 

[pc-illiterate]

no that zotac cant be reference at all.

universal blocks fit the 7950 just fine. what problems were you having in the search?

os-wiz, of course you didnt hear your 980 sli spinning up. you run 1200p. im also betting all of the other fans in that case help drown them out. that psu has an 80mm fan and isnt quiet either.
do you wear headphones when you game? thats probably a yes. do you realize your sig links evga 680 sc signature reference cooler cards? what 980s do you have?
ambient noise drowns out so much pc noise and helps mask it so well most people dont know how loud their pc actually is.

 

[jfing14]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1516169/best-gtx-970-for-watercooling-and-for-mods

Its already been heavily discussed, just search a query like this and you are most likely to find something.

 

[jfing14]

Pretty much G1 or MSI Gaming for water are the best. You would only ever need a Hof for LN2 but even then to push it all the way people will just mod the VRM's, etc anyway so there is no real point unless you are looking for aesthetics. The Hof hasn't been putting out as much chip consistency as the G1's (i.e. silicone lottery is bad so PCB is meaningless) which leads me to think that perhaps Galax got a bad batch of chips that they are putting on their cards. either way I'd just get a G1 they have been doing the best. Also out of the box stock clocks are meaningless. A little time in the overlocking world and this is ridiculously apparent.

 

[Caperjoe]

Thanks for the information. G1 sounds like the way to go and hope for no coil whine. In my setup now - the loudest fans I have are on my Gigabyte 7950's especially under load - and I want to have everything included in my WC loop for aesthetics.

Also, there is no full WB for the Gigabyte 7950 rev.2.0 cards (I meant to say full, not universal, in my original post). I wish there was a full block - problem solved! I would probably need someone to mod a block for the rev. 1 card and hope it worked - I'm too much of a wimp to try modding a water block on my own.

Thanks again.

 

[pc-illiterate]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfing14

Pretty much G1 or MSI Gaming for water are the best. You would only ever need a Hof for LN2 but even then to push it all the way people will just mod the VRM's, etc anyway so there is no real point unless you are looking for aesthetics. The Hof hasn't been putting out as much chip consistency as the G1's (i.e. silicone lottery is bad so PCB is meaningless) which leads me to think that perhaps Galax got a bad batch of chips that they are putting on their cards. either way I'd just get a G1 they have been doing the best. Also out of the box stock clocks are meaningless. A little time in the overlocking world and this is ridiculously apparent.

what is a Hof? i have never heard of this before.

 

[OS-Wiz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc-illiterate

os-wiz, of course you didnt hear your 980 sli spinning up. you run 1200p. im also betting all of the other fans in that case help drown them out. that psu has an 80mm fan and isnt quiet either.
do you wear headphones when you game? thats probably a yes. do you realize your sig links evga 680 sc signature reference cooler cards? what 980s do you have?
ambient noise drowns out so much pc noise and helps mask it so well most people dont know how loud their pc actually is.

First off, a couple years ago you decided to flame me and you are at it again. PLEASE find someone else to flame, you are beginning to bore me.
My 980s
EVGA 04G-2981-KR GeForce GTX 980 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 ACX 2.0 PCI Express 3.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487078&cm_re=evga_980-_-14-487-078-_-Product
Don't see a problem with my sig.

 

[pc-illiterate]

it is not flaming. im pointing out either you dont or cant hear how loud your 980s are. your 980s arent stressed running 1200p. your ancient antec 1200watt psu has a loud 80mm fan. you and a lot of others dont realize how loud your computers are because you have grown accustomed to it and/or you dont hear your 980s because everything else drowns them out.
you run air cooling not water cooling. why are you here not giving advice but discouraging the use of water cooling by joe?

the link in your sig is wrong. it points to http://www.overclock.net/products/evga-680-sc-signature so maybe you should step back and figure out whats going on with your rig and not try discouraging others.

 

[OS-Wiz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc-illiterate

it is not flaming. im pointing out either you dont or cant hear how loud your 980s are. your 980s arent stressed running 1200p. your ancient antec 1200watt psu has a loud 80mm fan. you and a lot of others dont realize how loud your computers are because you have grown accustomed to it and/or you dont hear your 980s because everything else drowns them out.
you run air cooling not water cooling. why are you here not giving advice but discouraging the use of water cooling by joe?

the link in your sig is wrong. it points to http://www.overclock.net/products/evga-680-sc-signature so maybe you should step back and figure out whats going on with your rig and not try discouraging others.

Fixed my sig component matches; now, please leave me alone.

 

[jfing14]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc-illiterate

what is a Hof? i have never heard of this before.

Hof: Galax Hall of Fame edition. they got both 970's and 980's covered. 8+2 phase, ln2 and air bios (basically dual bios already [poorly] tuned, under a fancy name), with a white PCB, a good buck ic and arms so you know that the only thing limiting this card is the silicone lottery.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Caperjoe

Thanks for the information. G1 sounds like the way to go and hope for no coil whine. In my setup now - the loudest fans I have are on my Gigabyte 7950's especially under load - and I want to have everything included in my WC loop for aesthetics.

Also, there is no full WB for the Gigabyte 7950 rev.2.0 cards (I meant to say full, not universal, in my original post). I wish there was a full block - problem solved! I would probably need someone to mod a block for the rev. 1 card and hope it worked - I'm too much of a wimp to try modding a water block on my own.

Thanks again.

Too easy mate, I'm happy to help.

 

[electro2u]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jfing14

Hot: Galax Hall of Fame edition. they got both 970's and 980's covered. 8+2 phase, ln2 and air bios (basically dual bios already [poorly] tuned, under a fancy name), with a white PCB, a good buck ic and arms so you know that the only thing limiting this card is the silicone lottery.
Too easy mate, I'm happy to help.

The white PCBs *are* hot and cool at the same time. But are those reference PCBs? I do not know if they are. If not, obviously there probably won't be any custom full blocks for them. Must make sure to go for either extremely common custom cards like the Strix or MSI Gaming edition etc that have confirmed Blocks for them from a block manufacturer--or be prepared to use universal blocks.

Check this out from Diamond Cooling

I'm sorry but I just can't stomach the switch of name from Galaxy to Galax... I still think it sounds like a laxative from outer space.

 

[jfing14]

Quote:

Originally Posted by electro2u

The white PCBs *are* hot and cool at the same time. But are those reference PCBs? I do not know if they are. If not, obviously there probably won't be any custom full blocks for them. Must make sure to go for either extremely common custom cards like the Strix or MSI Gaming edition etc that have confirmed Blocks for them from a block manufacturer--or be prepared to use universal blocks.

I've contacted Diamond cooling in the past and they are definitely plans to have water blocks made for these cards. Not only has one customer relations employee told me this but also @Hukkel the OCN diamond cooling hardware rep. I wouldn't suggest this card if I knew it wasn't going to have a full water block after all thats what @Caperjoe was looking for. I still think it'd be wise to save your pennies unless you are going to put it under LN2 without modding the card.

Edit: Also I personally wouldn't get a strix because the single 8-pin connector will limit you if you get a decent chip from the silicone lottery even though it does have 6 phase power delivery. It might be fine on air and quiet on air, but the moment you put it underwater they are all as quiet as each other and when pushing the upper limit, the G1 will beat the strix overclocking wise