The uber tight tubing bends people were using to cool sli'd gpu's looked like a flow killer to me, so I figured I would try something different.
First I thought about using fittings and running the loop in series cpu - gpu - gpu. But that too would be a very restrictive loop. Instead of tight bends in tubing, I had tight bends in fittings. Not good.
So what about running the gpu blocks in parallel? It would halve gpu block restriction and probably compensate quite a bit for the tight bends in fittings. Figured I'd give it a go.
Drove to Lowe's and picked up two 1/2inch T fittings and two 1/2inch 90 elbows.
This is how I plumbed it for parallel gpu cooling. Notice how each gpu is connected.
Here is a close up of the gpu connections.
Finally, an overall pic of tubing run.
Results have been excellent. Running tubing to the gpu's in parallel has resulted in a less restrictive system setup. Less restriction means more flow. More flow means better cooling performance.
Temperatures are nice too. My heat monger Opteron 148 at 3003mhz and 1.61v loads at 49c with my custom built cpu block. The XFX 7800gt's with Danger Den Maze 4 sli blocks load at 42c and 43c respectively. Not too shabby at all. By the way, 939 opty's produce a LOT of heat. Don't know what makes them different from Sandiego's, but they do indeed run hotter.
Overall I have to give this project an A+. System looks much cleaner with the fittings, and water cooled gpu's are so much quieter that the stock fans on these cards.
First I thought about using fittings and running the loop in series cpu - gpu - gpu. But that too would be a very restrictive loop. Instead of tight bends in tubing, I had tight bends in fittings. Not good.
So what about running the gpu blocks in parallel? It would halve gpu block restriction and probably compensate quite a bit for the tight bends in fittings. Figured I'd give it a go.
Drove to Lowe's and picked up two 1/2inch T fittings and two 1/2inch 90 elbows.
This is how I plumbed it for parallel gpu cooling. Notice how each gpu is connected.
Here is a close up of the gpu connections.
Finally, an overall pic of tubing run.
Results have been excellent. Running tubing to the gpu's in parallel has resulted in a less restrictive system setup. Less restriction means more flow. More flow means better cooling performance.
Temperatures are nice too. My heat monger Opteron 148 at 3003mhz and 1.61v loads at 49c with my custom built cpu block. The XFX 7800gt's with Danger Den Maze 4 sli blocks load at 42c and 43c respectively. Not too shabby at all. By the way, 939 opty's produce a LOT of heat. Don't know what makes them different from Sandiego's, but they do indeed run hotter.
Overall I have to give this project an A+. System looks much cleaner with the fittings, and water cooled gpu's are so much quieter that the stock fans on these cards.