The question is what is a good card to water cool? I don't want to pay much more than $400 for a single card or more than $300 a piece for a dual SLI setup. Would prefer to stay away from full cover cards and utilize a GPU cooler only with heat sinks on other parts of the card. I will probably use Aqua Computer TwinPlex Pro's with a silver base and a OC Aquastream pump that puts out about 4.5 Liters.
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What's a good video card that's easily WC?
- Thread starter Top Nurse
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8800 GTX for pure performance
or SLI with 8800GTS's if you prefer the SLI route.
The new R600 is easily overclockable with the right cooling however, even OC'ed it doesn't touch the GTX in terms of performance. However, you can tweak the voltages easily without having to do a hard volt mod like you have to do with the 8800's (and its a pain in the ass to do).
The R600 might also require different adapter plates for various GPU waterblocks since the shim might get in the way.
or SLI with 8800GTS's if you prefer the SLI route.
The new R600 is easily overclockable with the right cooling however, even OC'ed it doesn't touch the GTX in terms of performance. However, you can tweak the voltages easily without having to do a hard volt mod like you have to do with the 8800's (and its a pain in the ass to do).
The R600 might also require different adapter plates for various GPU waterblocks since the shim might get in the way.
Arcygenical
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The 8800GTS 640 is available for about 320$ AR, add in about 100$ for the waterblock, and you're golden!
Shouldn't 1xGTX beat 2xGTS? If so, $500 for a GTX sounds better than $600 for SLI that won't be as powerful while putting off more heat and being in general more complicated to deal with.
Been nice sales on the GTS lately...maybe some tempting ones on the GTX will pop up soon. There's been a $30 rebate kicking around, but they're just not trying hard enough yet.
(At least, I hope it's easy...I have a GTX + Swiftech GPU block sitting around here that I need to assemble as soon as my classes give me some breathing room.)
Been nice sales on the GTS lately...maybe some tempting ones on the GTX will pop up soon. There's been a $30 rebate kicking around, but they're just not trying hard enough yet.
(At least, I hope it's easy...I have a GTX + Swiftech GPU block sitting around here that I need to assemble as soon as my classes give me some breathing room.)
Arcygenical
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A GTS SLI setup will beat a single GTX.
Cmon, it's TN! She's the queen of watercooling (not as glamorous as it sounds, she has very little, if any, competition
) of course she want's to watercool it But honestly TN, even though the full cover blocks are expensive, they're a great option... Unless you plan on having good airflow around the card (good case airflow just isn't enough, you need directed flow) I wouldn't go for anything other than a FC block.
I'm a bit skeptical about the value of SLI because when I tried it with 7800 GTX's a while back (at 1920x1200) it didn't really make much of a difference. Maybe it works out better with watercooling on both so you don't have to fend off rising case temperatures? Or they got some more of the driver kinks worked out.
Arcygenical
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8800s in SLI pack quite a punch... That's for sure.
Games will have to account for it and code for it. Within Vista itself, Nvidia's drivers are still craptastic and that's probably because they know ATI can't even compete with them.
Overall I'm quite displeased with the evolution of SLI. The gains haven't really outpaced the bottlenecks. If it weren't for a brief moment of e-peen insanity, I wouldn't have bought an SLI setup.
One GTX is easier to manage without driver hassles and game compatibility than dealing with two GTS's.
Because water cooling is fun and helps spin away the time. Why else would you want to WC?
Can a GTS setup definitely beat a single GTX?
It's not the expense of the FC blocks that bums me out. It's that they don't make them in silver.
Really it's just a single solution for a specific board which makes the upgrading cost prohibitive if you have to buy a FC every time you want a new card.Do you really need directed airflow if you trash the stock heatsinks and epoxy on some decent home made heat sinks? I always design my cases so that I get good air flow coming in from the front which moves air across the cards and exits the case at the top.
Forgot to mention that this thread is to help me pick out a video card for my Feeding Frenzy project. This project has three (3) water cooled loops all of which will be controlled by the Aqua Computer AquaSuite.
The water cooling for the GPU circuit is getting revamped to a DDC variant of some type, I'm cutting the case top so I can expand from a single 120 to a 240 radiator, and all the fittings will be G 1/4 so I will probably go to some big honking 8mm or 10mm ID tubing size. The GPU circuit will not have anything on it besides the GPU coolers.
The water cooling for the GPU circuit is getting revamped to a DDC variant of some type, I'm cutting the case top so I can expand from a single 120 to a 240 radiator, and all the fittings will be G 1/4 so I will probably go to some big honking 8mm or 10mm ID tubing size. The GPU circuit will not have anything on it besides the GPU coolers.
I don't know that you need it, but it won't hurt...increase the air velocity in that region, versus how ever many fans you care to stick fore and aft driving the full volume of air inside the case. I don't plan to (yet) because I'd rather have a quieter component over a more overclocked component. Just some deduction from physics since I haven't got mine set up yet.
Swiftech Stealth is silver...well...chrome.
Swiftech Stealth is silver...well...chrome.
Just say no to Vista
So I am interested to hear more about your SLI experience. My first SLI experience was with a Diamond Monster 3D card. It was a kick ass card and made DOOM fly in DOS. When they changed to PCI busses I was totally bummed as the card didn't work anymore. Is that the kind of hardware video capability I can get with the SLI of today?
Chrome don't make it, but thanks for the other info.
Well, I know where a CNC mill is that I think I have access to? Not that I know how to use it even if I'm allowed to...
Yeah...wasn't buying my own hardware yet at that point, mostly scrounging systems that were being thrown out.
Three loops, one radiator? How does that work? (See, this is why I need to replace my dead camera, my project goes undocumented.)
Well, I know where a CNC mill is that I think I have access to? Not that I know how to use it even if I'm allowed to...
Yeah...wasn't buying my own hardware yet at that point, mostly scrounging systems that were being thrown out.
Three loops, one radiator? How does that work? (See, this is why I need to replace my dead camera, my project goes undocumented.)
It defeats the purpose of having multiple loops (I'm assuming 3 different pumps and different blocks) if you don't separate the radiators. The water temps of all three loops feeding into the same rad will eventually reach an equilibrium influenced most by the hottest loop.
I know Feeding Frenzy is a very long thread (over 700 posts) so I will shorten up the project. It originally had three separate loops. Each loop had a 120 radiator and was pumped by an Aquastream pump. The GPU and motherboard circuits were all controlled through an Aquaero. The HD circuit was a stand alone with the clock rate of the pump controlled from the Aquastream circuit board independent of the Aquaero. Unfortunately some RLS got in the way and it was never finished.
So now I'm gearing up to finish it. The case has already been cut and fitted for the 120's. What I intend to do is to recut the top of the case for a 240 radiator just to cool off the GPU circuit. The HD circuit will remain on an Aquastream pump. The other two circuits will probably be used with Laing DDC variants of one type or another with the AC or Alphacool plexi tops. All the DDC's will be controlled with Aqua Computer poweradjust USB devices.
Feeding Frenzy has always been about a well engineered solution with lots of bling! While cost is not a subject we should discuss I am interested in a reasonable amount of bang for the buck so to speak. That is why I started this thread so I could figure out whether two cards in SLI might be better than one super hot shot video card.
Of secondary importance is how well the chosen card will be to water cool as I have heard of many problems in cooling off the latest 8800 series of cards.
So now I'm gearing up to finish it. The case has already been cut and fitted for the 120's. What I intend to do is to recut the top of the case for a 240 radiator just to cool off the GPU circuit. The HD circuit will remain on an Aquastream pump. The other two circuits will probably be used with Laing DDC variants of one type or another with the AC or Alphacool plexi tops. All the DDC's will be controlled with Aqua Computer poweradjust USB devices.
Feeding Frenzy has always been about a well engineered solution with lots of bling! While cost is not a subject we should discuss I am interested in a reasonable amount of bang for the buck so to speak. That is why I started this thread so I could figure out whether two cards in SLI might be better than one super hot shot video card.
Of secondary importance is how well the chosen card will be to water cool as I have heard of many problems in cooling off the latest 8800 series of cards.