2xGTX580 & 2600K in Haf X case?

MonkeyJug

MonkeyJug

MonkeyJug

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I am fed up with the high temps and noise levels in my case, and I now want to watercool.

I'm looking for advice on what I need to watercool the following components:

1 GTX580 (Kfa2 Anarchy Edition)
1 GTX580 (Gainward Phantom)
2600K CPU

I'm don't even know if these cards can be dismantled to allow it and I am unsure about the number of pumps etc I will need.

Without having a look inside my case (I'm at work at the moment), I suspect the Kfa2 card is slightly longer than the Gainward. Is there a 'one size fits all' block for GTX580s?

Any advice greatly received...
 
you can get EK blocks for gainward/pallit cards, but not sure about the KFA anarchy, but EK have a compatibility thing on their website to check

so basically, no there isn't a one size fits all, you will need to try to find a block that fits that specific card (all the gainward non-reference cards use the same layout though)
 
just research what rads can be fit into your case plenty of watercooled builds for your case google is your friend

seems like you going to run into problems KFA not on Ek site and also searching around cant seem to find a full block that will fit it

but u can get core blocks for both but will then have to fit heat sinks to vrms and memory
 
Any particular reason you want to watercool?

I ask because your 2 580's are the quietest and coolest on the market...
 
Cleeecooo said:
Any particular reason you want to watercool?

I ask because your 2 580's are the quietest and coolest on the market...
Click to expand...

they are quiet, but they sit in such close proximity to each other within the case (gainward card is blowing the hot air onto the kfa card, with about 5mm space between them) and i have temps in the mid 80s when running at stock speeds/voltages. i have even added a fan to blow air between the cards, but this has had a negligible effect.

when i tried to overclock these to 900mhz, the temps are hitting 100c and shutting the cards down!

i'd like to overclock the cards now, as i've had them for 6 months (for no other reason than because i want to), and it seems watercooling is the only way to keep the temps down...
 
I wouldn't OC unless you need the performance gain. all you'll do is reduce the life of the cards :)

Can you not space them out by moving one down a pcie slot?

Try using an antec spotcool to blow air between the cards, many swear by them reducing SLI temps
 
thanks Cleeecooo, i appreciate your advice. i have a p8z68 motherboard and the 3rd slot only runs at 4x i believe. would this penalise sli performance much?

i rushed into buying those cards without too much research, with the intention of playing bf3 in nvidia surround on my 3xhazros! i get 1-2 fps on ultra!! i think its mainly due to them being 1.5gb ram cards, so i will take any performance increase i can get by overclocking them, although i don't think my dream will ever become a reality as far as hi-res, triple-screen, surround action is concerned!
 
Cleeecooo said:
I wouldn't OC unless you need the performance gain. all you'll do is reduce the life of the cards :)

Can you not space them out by moving one down a pcie slot?

Try using an antec spotcool to blow air between the cards, many swear by them reducing SLI temps
Click to expand...

wut.jpg
 
Cleeecooo said:
I wouldn't OC unless you need the performance gain. all you'll do is reduce the life of the cards :)

Can you not space them out by moving one down a pcie slot?

Try using an antec spotcool to blow air between the cards, many swear by them reducing SLI temps
Click to expand...

You should go and post on mumsnet to be frank:(, don't overclock pfff:cool:
 
lol clecooooooooooooooooooo

OC'ing the cards will not reduce the life of cards. Not by an amount that you will ever notice at least.

Antec spot cool aren't ideal for SLI set ups either, they are designed more for chipset/RAM cooling if anything.
 
NathWraith said:
lol clecooooooooooooooooooo

OC'ing the cards will not reduce the life of cards. Not by an amount that you will ever notice at least.
ok, fine, you win on that one.


Antec spot cool aren't ideal for SLI set ups either, they are designed more for chipset/RAM cooling if anything.
Click to expand...

What on earth is the point of overclocking if you already have the performance you want? It can add heat to your case henceforth making things noisier (fans will spin up further). If you have a steady 60FPS already with vsync on, what on Earth is the point in keeping a 24/7 OC on your HW if you won't see or notice ANY performance gain AT ALL.

There's no point in investing £100's into a watercooling loop just to get overclocks which you will not notice. It makes no sense at all.

Don't get me wrong, OC'ing isn't pointless in every scenario, and i'm not just saying nobody should overclock, but the main advantage of overclocking, and the reason most people do it is because of performance gains. If you can't see any performance games or don't need anymore, then overclocking has been a waste of time for you. For example, i OC'd my CPU to 4.5 ghz but didn't see any visual difference, so, after posting about it on the internet to boost my epeen, i put it back to stock and got cooler temps on it.

Now, spotcools; yes, their original purpose was to cool chipset/RAM, but in the graphics card section, in many threads i see them being recommended by those who have multi card setups by the likes of Rroff and setter who have sworn by them improving temps in GTX 470 SLI. Just because something was designed for one purpose, doesn't mean it can't also be used very effectively for other purposes.


Cupra said:
get out
with 17k posts you would understand that this is www.overclockers.co.uk not www.mehdontbother.co.uk
Click to expand...

When did i say "meh don't bother?"

Re read my post and try to understand the full context before charging in to have a go at me.

I said:
Cleeecooo said:
I wouldn't OC unless you NEED the performance gain.
Click to expand...

Go on then. Explain to me, Cupra, why else someone would overclock bar for epeen reasons?


MonkeyJug said:
thanks Cleeecooo, i appreciate your advice. i have a p8z68 motherboard and the 3rd slot only runs at 4x i believe. would this penalise sli performance much?
not sure about that i'm afraid, why not just try it and see?

i rushed into buying those cards without too much research, with the intention of playing bf3 in nvidia surround on my 3xhazros! i get 1-2 fps on ultra!! i think its mainly due to them being 1.5gb ram cards, so i will take any performance increase i can get by overclocking them, although i don't think my dream will ever become a reality as far as hi-res, triple-screen, surround action is concerned!
Click to expand...

I very much doubt Oc'ing will increase your FPS from 2 to 30+ :p

elmuzzy66. said:
You should go and post on mumsnet to be frank:(, don't overclock pfff:cool:
Click to expand...

They keep banning me for speaking the truth on mumsnet :( Stupid cows lol

I never said don't overclock, I just said don't do it if it's not going to help you at all or give you any noticeable gains.
 
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Cleeecooo said:
When did i say "meh don't bother?"

Re read my post and try to understand the full context before charging in to have a go at me.
Click to expand...

it seems yet again cleeecooo you are in this section giving bad advice on someone elses money.

The fact that 2 ocuk employees came in here with lul wut replys shows that you have no idea what your talking about.

It wasnt only that post i was refering too either, 580's regardless of brand are perfect for watercooling if the blocks are available for them, they become a whole different card under water and I would reccomend it however I suppose thats because I know what im talking about........

You run along now with your antec spot cool cooling sli 580's lol
 
Cupra said:
it seems yet again cleeecooo you are in this section giving bad advice on someone elses money.

The fact that 2 ocuk employees came in here with lul wut replys shows that you have no idea what your talking about.

It wasnt only that post i was refering too either, 580's regardless of brand are perfect for watercooling if the blocks are available for them, they become a whole different card under water and I would reccomend it however I suppose thats because I know what im talking about........

You run along now with your antec spot cool cooling sli 580's lol
Click to expand...

Me, giving bad advice on someone elses money?:rolleyes:
I was specifically told not to continuously spec people £500+ loops which they don't need. The OP has two of the quietest, coolest 580's on the market, if he doesn't benefit by watercooling, then why should he?

I'm merely trying to help the OP decide for himself if he needs the expensive watercooling solution.

I too owned a 580, which I overclocked to 920 on air. It reached 85 max using a reference cooler. The only advantage to me when putting my 580 under water was that it was quieter. For the OP this will be less of a problem seeing as he has the quietest air coolers around.

It is also notable that noise levels remained perfectly acceptable even when the fan control was cranked all the way up to 100%.

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/vr-zone...hantom-3072mb-review/10933.html#ixzz1ttjCvasP
Click to expand...
That shows the phantom is a quiet card

Bumping the GPU voltage from 1.0V to 1.125V, we were able to reach 955MHz for the core

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/vr-zone...hantom-3072mb-review/10933.html#ixzz1ttjq3whF
Click to expand...

Anarchy card:
In our environment, the card maintains temperatures under 70c when gaming. This rises to 78c when loaded with Furmark. Great results.
Click to expand...
http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...0-anarchy-edition-sli-review-1-536gb-ddr5/18/

Back to the spotcools. As shown above, both the OP's cards have good coolers on them that allow for a decent amount of overclocking whilst being quiet. The problem with them is that they both dump heat into the case, so good airflow is crucial in keeping them both cool.

The OP said:
(gainward card is blowing the hot air onto the kfa card, with about 5mm space between them)
Click to expand...

By introducing a spotcool, or any other means of generating airflow between the cards, you are helping reduce the temps as one card isn't operating off the other's hot air.
 
Cleeecooo said:
Me, giving bad advice on someone elses money?:rolleyes:
I was specifically told not to continuously spec people £500+ loops which they don't need. The OP has two of the quietest, coolest 580's on the market, if he doesn't benefit by watercooling, then why should he?
Click to expand...
The fact its the op complaining about the noise means its not quiet enough for him is it?
Plus the heat in his case is massive, added to the fact theat both cards are heating each other up a lot means the fans need to spin faster to get the same temps but they cant spin fast enough to even compare with what a decent loop would do with sli 580's)


Cleeecooo said:
I'm merely trying to help the OP decide for himself if he needs the expensive watercooling solution.

I too owned a 580, which I overclocked to 920 on air. It reached 85 max using a reference cooler. The only advantage to me when putting my 580 under water was that it was quieter. For the OP this will be less of a problem seeing as he has the quietest air coolers around.
Click to expand...

at the cost of everything else in his case getting very very toasty the fact is both cards are brilliant on there own but putting 2 in sli then water is the way to go. Theres no comparoison with 1 card or 2 where temps are concerned. For everything that makes heat in a case every component in that part of the case will feel it so his motherboard ect will also benefit from the gpu's going onto water as there is 2 of them so the fact you owned one is irrelevent here.

Cleeecooo said:
That shows the phantom is a quiet card
Click to expand...

That shows a phantom is a quiet card, i didnt say it was massivly noisey but he has 2 gpu's (both phantoms now) so thats 6 little fans spinning like mad that are both putting very hot air into the case. The OP complained about the noise so altho you may think the card is quiet the OP doesnt.

Cleeecooo said:
Back to the spotcools. As shown above, both the OP's cards have good coolers on them that allow for a decent amount of overclocking whilst being quiet. The problem with them is that they both dump heat into the case, so good airflow is crucial in keeping them both cool.

By introducing a spotcool, or any other means of generating airflow between the cards, you are helping reduce the temps as one card isn't operating off the other's hot air.
Click to expand...

so you reccomend the op should add another fan that isnt going to take any hot air out of the case but will add more noise to an alrady too noisy pc?
The 6 fans ont he gpu's will be able to pull air a lot faster than the spotcool can push it so theres no benefit to it as the case has good airflow anyway.
There isnt a single good direction he could point that spotcool that would help the op out at all.
 
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Everything you're saying is valid, but you'll be surprised how effective small fans can be in adding airflow to the case and therefore removing the hot air which causes the vicious air recycling cycle.

Before telling the OP to go buy a £300+ loop, i'm trying to see if a £10 solution will work at all.

My usual advice in scenarios like this is move card 2 down a slot and introduce some airflow. I'm not 100% sure what you wanted me to say Cupra, but i'm trying to help give the OP some options before he commits to spending a lot of money. As I give him a few options, problems will crop up and that means those options will no longer be viable and then watercooling will be the recommendation. I don't see what your problem is with this or how this means i'm giving bad advice on someone else's money.

I'll admit, my first post was ambiguous, but I think I explained very well what I meant in my second post here. Also, why are you presuming his case has good airflow? I'm saying the lack of airflow may be the problem.
 
i'm going for the following:

2 x EK-FC580 GTX+ Acetal+EN (Nickel) water block for GeForce 580 GTX reference graphic cards

do i also need the backplates?

these: EK-FC580 GTX Backplate - Black ?

OCUK have none in stock, so i'll have to source from others...
 
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