Watercooling a Graphics card

[DaveVader]

I want to Watercool my graphics card and CPU once I have the money, I will be using a 360 Rad and was wondering which you think is best...

Option 1: Full cover block

Option 2: GPU block with RAM sinks

... the first one will be slightly more expensive, will dump more heat into the loop but will obviously cool the graphics card better, leading to a better OC (is this correct?)

or option 2, I will have pretty decent airflow within the case so the RAM sinks will be cooled. Cooling just the GPU will obviously dump less heat into the loop but will the differences be negligable? ie. overclock limit, temperatures etc. etc.

The Rad I will be using is probably going to be a Black Ice GT Stealth 360 with 3 80CFM Yate loons.

Thanks in advance guys.

PS. if this Q has been asked before, just slap me upside the head and tell me to use the search

 

[!TIMMY!]

Will you be over volting the GPU?

 

[DaveVader]

I doubt it, iv'e never really done much GPU overclocking and probably wont push it extensively.

 

[!TIMMY!]

Will it be worth WCing the graphics card when a quiet Arctic Cooling fan will do the same job? It will just dump a lot of heat into your loop. Just a thought if your not going to push it to the limits.

 

[lamboman]

Actually, watercooling the memory is a pretty bad idea, in theory, and probably has a slightly negative effect in reality. The memory doesn't really need to be actively cooled. Ram sinks will be sufficient and provide enough cooling. It is best to have a block for the GPU and that's it.

 

[agentx]

hahaha ur kidding right? with higher clocked ddr3 ram (used on 790i) we are starting to see this but the ram shud and is origonaly actively cooled. the higher the frequency i.e. MHz the hotter it gets and if the amout of heat overwelms the sinks the chips will fry. i say full coverage, you dont justify it by oc'ing the card but by the performance gain u get from wc'ing

 

[DaveVader]

I know I will OC and eventually push it to it's limits but I've never properly OC'd a graphics card yet so I'm a little bit wary at the moment. It obviously isn't difficult and so if I push it to it's absolute limits, a full cover block would be best!?

 

[Bungral]

I know I will OC and eventually push it to it's limits but I've never properly OC'd a graphics card yet so I'm a little bit wary at the moment. It obviously isn't difficult and so if I push it to it's absolute limits, a full cover block would be best!?

I know some who go for both ways and are happy with either method. Sorry.. I know that's not much help.

Mainly I just wanted to say that overclocking a GFX card is much easier than getting a nice stable overclock on your CPU. It's much more likely to see artifacts or for your drivers to just crash before you do any damage to the card itself.

 

[agentx]

most deffinately. yes u do get the extra heat dump from the ram but its worth it in terms of cooling the card as to safe guard from it burnning out and givving u a more stable oc. and its not even that much

 

[stealth300]

The seperate block and ram coolers come into there own if you plan on upgrading,im using the d-tek fuzion and unisink to cool my 8800's and they work very well,also improved my oc from stock cooling.

 

[agentx]

yes but to be perfectly fair almost any aftermarket coolers will give u better temps and performance than a stock cooler

 

[rrjwilson]

I have EK full cover blocks in my loop.

For heat they are great

OCing they need more radiator (PA120.3) than I have because they dump so much heat.

More performance is more easily done by upping the PCIe bus for the GPUs (less heat and more performance).

Running 576-900-1350 stock when i go 600-1000-1400 i get 400 more. Jumping the bus from 100MHz to 110z netted 150 so additional performance per increase is much more. OCd gets 75 temp wise whereas bus gets 66, stock is 65.

Whatever you do take it slow as they do dump TONS of heat. I had to WC mine as they were heating the WC CPU loop until it would BSOD.

Mine is 8800GTX in SLi

 

[agentx]

well im using splitters for everything and have 3 rads (2 240s and a 120) all dual core rads and only 1 98gtx for now hope to get one more but this one runs crysis on all very high at 10xx X 764 or wat ever looks awsome. i just hope i dont get too much heat wen i oc the card.

also dont oc the pci-e bus higher than 15mhz otherwise u mite kill ur mobo.

 

[SwaleSmith]

get soem ram sinks and how on earth do you overvolt the GPU??