GTX280 Cooling Options

youngbaba

youngbaba

youngbaba

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Joined
27 Dec 2008
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38
Location
Frozen North
I recently broke the fan on my GTX280 and have since been looking at my options. I am running an E8500 on an eVGA 680i board alongside my 280GTX (cheap one courtesy of the mad-dash sale here after Christmas!). I am using a Thermaltake BigWater 760i to cool my CPU and despite the bad karma surrounding the unit, it has proved excellent for me from day one as my first foray into water cooling.

So that's my current set up, and these are my options:

Air

Two products have caught my attention when looking at air options: the HR-03-GTX and the Accelero XTREME GTX 280. Both of these units look like the best choices when it comes to air, and would set me back around £50 all-in.

Water

For water, the only option I've really looked at is the EK-FC280, but having read some threads on those wanting to watercool their GTX280 I've realised I could instead get a GPU block and MOFSET sinks.

This is where I am not so sure: Would the BigWater be up to the task of cooling an overclocked E8500 as well as a stock GTX280? If so which is the better option - full-cover block or seperate block and sinks, and which models should I be looking at in particular? On the other hand, would it be a better bet to save myself £50 and grab one of the above air coolers?

I am leaning towards the water route, as it would be more future proof and I have been wanting to extend my water kit for a while, but I am reluctant to splash out (no pun intended) on the expensive kit without knowing my best options.

Any advice is appreciated, and please refrain from flaming my lovely BigWater <3
 
I've got a model down from the thermalright designed for the 8800gt. It does this fine, even when passive, but I am doubtful that essentially the same design will cope with the much hotter 280

I moved from that to the EK block for the 8800, and I'm seeing load temps of 41, idle of 38 centigrade. I like EK blocks as a result.

As the lightest flame possible, the bigwater is not future proof, and I think you'll discover this if you add the 280 directly to this loop
 
Thanks for the info.

I do realise the BigWater is not that future proof - but adding a GPU water block would then give me an excuse to upgrade the rest of my kit :P The BigWater was also one of the reasons I was looking at the waterblock/sink combo as it will put less load on the BigWater compared to a full cover block.

I think this would also be a better option in the long run if I upgrade my card.
 
Not a Chance that bigwater system will cope with the 280 as well if u want to go for watercooling a whole new loop will be required.
 
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