Parallel In The Black

Mysterae

New member
Welcome to my project log for Parallel In The Black.

Many elements of this project will be familiar to those who have read my previous project log for “Black In Control” but I thought there were enough changes to warrant a new project. Can’t have too many projects!

The main changes to the hardware are the upgrade from 780Ti SLI to 980Ti SLI and the method of water cooling. I’m still sticking with chromed copper tubing but the water blocks (CPU, GPUs and motherboard blocks) will be plumbed in parallel. This is mainly for looks rather than any perceived performance benefit, if any and yet to be realised. The 980Ti’s will be water cooled but not in the traditional manner – I still want to retain the reference GTX look, more on this later. The water cooling schematic below does give some clues though.

water_cooling_schematic_03.jpg


Rig specification:
Processor – Intel i7 4770K @ 4.7GHz
Memory – Corsair Dominator Platinums 16GB @ 2400MHz
Motherboard – MSI Z87 XPOWER
Graphics Cards – MSI Reference Nvidia 980Ti SLI (overclocks to be determined)
Power Supply – Corsair AX1200 (considering changing this)
Boot Drive – Sandisk 240GB SSDs (2 in RAID 0, 480GB total)
Case – Silverstone FT02 Black​

The water cooling, fans and lighting will all be controlled by an Aqua Computer Aquaero 5XT as before but there are some new additions such as flow rate sensors for both in and out as well as some new lighting to control. Some further hints to my intentions can be found in the wiring schematic below but more will become clearer as I progress.

system_wiring_01.jpg


The case will be modified to give more space, the USB ports on the top upgraded to USB3.0, the viewing window extended and the all too easy to scratch acrylic window will be replaced with tempered glass.

I want this to be quite a quick series of mods so that my system is down for the least amount of time, so the target date for completion is the end of August 2015. Hopefully there'll be enough content to keep you coming back for the updates between now and then.

Thanks for reading.
 
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Cheers Tolemac, that's the intention as I'll need it to reference to later when the computer is in bits!
 
This will prove a point so far as parallel loop design goes, VERY interested to see how this develops, excellent diagrams dude.
 
Now this interests me, looking forward to seeing this as it develops

Me too :)

Can't wait for moooaarrrr updates :)

There's one coming very shortly ...

This will prove a point so far as parallel loop design goes, VERY interested to see how this develops, excellent diagrams dude.

Cheers Sub, the time planning and illustrating my intention should pay dividends hopefully. I think it will show that the parallel approach is possible but doubt it will prove if it's any better..
 
Cheers Sub, the time planning and illustrating my intention should pay dividends hopefully. I think it will show that the parallel approach is possible but doubt it will prove if it's any better..

It's not so much the better as, proving it's not really any worse or makes any real difference at all. And I personally thing it will look stella.
 
Update

It's not so much the better as, proving it's not really any worse or makes any real difference at all. And I personally thing it will look stella.

Cheers, yeah, worse performance would be bad!

980Ti GPU Cooling

One of my aims with this mod was to retain the reference GTX look yet still be able to water cool the 980Ti’s. The solution had to be non-destructive to the graphic card for resale purposes further down the line. Then I found the Koolance PLT-UN40F cold plate; a 40mm square water block which is the perfect solution to my needs. No dremelling required to fit this.

Take one reference 980Ti:

980ti_waterblock_mod_01.jpg


The method shown below of stripping the 980Ti makes getting the heatsink out quite easy, but I did previously strip the whole thing down. I found that some of the thermal pads were a bit skewed so I’m glad I did that.

980ti_waterblock_mod_02.jpg


The PLT-UN40T is relatively small water block. I quite like it; a solid good design, deep channels, offset inlet and outlet ports and a highly polished surface on the base. The only criticisms I have for the block is that the top isn't very thick so the thread length isn't very deep and it doesn't come with any fixings of any sort.

980ti_waterblock_mod_03.jpg


To fix the water block I sourced a number of items, such as M2.5 screws, washers, springs and thumb nuts. I considered many options and thought putting the block under spring tension to be the best option. The image below shows the fixing arrangements for two water blocks.

980ti_waterblock_mod_04.jpg


Pre-assembly and fitting of the water block. I decided to use Noctua NT-H1 as my thermal interface material this time.

980ti_waterblock_mod_05.jpg


980ti_waterblock_mod_06.jpg


The 980Ti reassembled with the PLT-UN40T fitted. I used some nuts to refit the screws that previously held the acrylic window on, otherwise it wouldn't have looked right with the holes.

980ti_waterblock_mod_07.jpg


Added some push fittings and chrome tubing for these pictures to see what it would look like :).

980ti_waterblock_mod_08.jpg


I chose this hybrid method of cooling because I have the theory that the water cooling can focus on cooling the GPU core and the fan can cool the VRMs and RAM modules. The air from the fan will also pass over the water block aiding in the cooling but that is secondary. I'm aware than the fan speed is set by the temperature of the GPU core but that the VRMs need just as much attention. When at load the water cooling will mean a lower GPU core temperature (than normal) and thus a lower fan speed, but the VRMs will be getting hot powering that load. To mitigate this issue a custom fan curve will be set in MSI Afterburner, probably by adding a +20C offset to the fan curve or implementing a 1:1 ratio for core_temp:fan_speed, i.e. 20C:20%, 35C:35%, 50C:50% and so on. This will need a little experimentation.

Now I'm not quite finished; I still have the other 980Ti to mod and have some lighting to add inside the graphics cards but the LEDs haven’t arrived yet so that’ll have to wait until another update. What colour I hear you ask – green of course! The LEDs will be controlled by the Aquaero, so the higher the GPU load or temperature the brighter the graphics cards lighting will be.

Thanks for your interest and I'll update again soon.
 
Update

Another update so soon? Well the LEDs arrived so I had to get modding :).

The resulting effect is exactly what I was looking for :cool:.

980ti_waterblock_mod_09.jpg


With some chrome pipes fitted:

980ti_waterblock_mod_10.jpg


The green light is visible through the fan as well, nice.

980ti_waterblock_mod_11.jpg


Here is the LED strip, not the best imo and I may replace it with a Phobya Flexlight as it has more LEDs per cm. Although the light strip I have fitted is RGB so any colours are possible, but only green or white would be of any interest in this build. I may also double up on the strip, fitting another on the bottom of the card but I think that may glare too much. It's pretty good as it is I reckon.

980ti_waterblock_mod_12.jpg


The cable to the lighting won't be white as in these pictures but sleeved black instead and will be carefully hidden by the SLI bridge.

980ti_waterblock_mod_13.jpg


Thanks for your interest and I'll update soon!
 
Hi

Very awesome solution for your GPU blocks. Have you thought of making a acrylic window to fit in the space where the one on the original heatsink used to be? That way you maintain the original blower properties and all the memory/vrm heat goes out the back of the card. Just drill holes through the replacement window for the pipes

--Rick--
 
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Nice work there mate :)

Looks more and more impressive, great mod on the 980 Ti !

looks awesome dude! subbed

Thanks for the comments guys, very encouraging :).

Hi

Very awesome solution for your GPU blocks. Have you thought of making a acrylic window to fit in the space where the one on the original heatsink used to be? That way you maintain the original blower properties and all the memory/vrm heat goes out the back of the card. Just drill holes through the replacement window for the pipes

--Rick--

Indeed I have, great minds huh?! I even have some "glass effect" green acrylic lying around from a previous build although that's 10mm thick! The issue would be getting it exactly like the original profile, quite a bit of work involved. It's something I'm still considering, I'll see how much time I have left.
 
i do enjoy build logs.
And i give this one my thumbs up :)

I do have a question though. (something i have never comprehended)
Why go parallel?
Is it for the aesthetics?
 
i do enjoy build logs.
And i give this one my thumbs up :)

I do have a question though. (something i have never comprehended)
Why go parallel?
Is it for the aesthetics?

Thanks for the thumbs up :).

Why go parallel? A number of reasons:

1. The GPUs are normally in parallel in my previous builds anyway and that is for aesthetics as well as ease of install, so I thought I'd go parallel with the rest as well, creating a theme.
2. On the aesthetics side, if I were to go series with all blocks I would need a very long return pipe and that would just look odd. So instead this build will have two parallel pipes feeding and returning as you will soon see :).
3. I've done parallel before, years ago in a build called 'Parallel Hex'. I learned a lot from that build and proved parallel is possible. However I borked that build by not using a big enough radiator; lesson learned! The thingy in my avatar is a relic from that build.
4. I wanted this build to look a bit different to my previous build 'Black In Control' despite using a lot of the same hardware. The parallel ethos will be it's redeeming feature. As well as two stonking green glowing 980Ti's :).​
 
Update

That looks amazing

Cheers mate!

A little update for the tonight; fitted the Koolance PLT-UN40F cold plate and LEDs to the other 980Ti.

980ti_waterblock_mod_14.jpg


Temporarily installed in them in the case to check out the lighting, spacing and tube routing.

980ti_waterblock_mod_15.jpg


I knew I was going to have to remove some of the case to allow different options of tube routing and to be able to see the left hand graphics card.

There's only a few mm between the left graphics card and the fittings of the right one.

980ti_waterblock_mod_16.jpg


Still looking at other options, I'll see how the 45 degree fittings look when installed or if a manual bend of the pipework will make it.

Thanks for reading :).
 
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