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Antec Kuhler/GTX 480 Closed Loop Water Cooling Mod *~GUIDE~*

The 480's as per the original post are just ripe for these type of mods. I have already done the custom loop watercooling and found it a good challenge but very fiddly so the sealed units were a welcome. However I found the CPU ones to be barely better than air cooling.

I like the fact that with the GPU mod you are doing something they are not designed to do yet the results are far better than air cooling equivalents.
 
Didn't CoolIT make a all in one GPU cooler, i remember seeing it way back when i got my H50.

CoolIT omni something or the other?
 
Ha, never really looked into it so i wouldn't know. Would be awesome if they could make one, ya'know, that works.

No doubt i'd nab one pretty quickly.
 
Snowcrash said:
Hi tobsmonster2, great guide!
how do I get in touch with Dwood about these brackets for the Kuhler 620?
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Dwood :cool: - shoot him a PM with what you need and he'll sort you out. He even does custom aluminium fan grills etc.
varkanoid said:
I did it recently with a GTX 580 and the OCUK Extreme see here
GPU017.JPG
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Awesome work mate :D.
andybird123 said:
it probably does offer a small advantage over "stock" air cooling, e.g. Intel reference cooler and Nvidia reference cooler

but as is typical with these sealed unit water coolers, they won't compare well with aftermarket air cooling (which will in all likelihood be a lot cheaper and quieter) or with a custom loop (which will be a little more expensive but will be a lot lot better), and will start to struggle when overclocked - e.g. you will probably get a good air cooling OC, but no where near a decent water OC

some people are put off by building a custom loop because water + computer = scary, so these sealed units offer a small part of the benefit of water and you are paying someone else to build it for you (unless you get lucky on a kit like yours that they seem to no longer sell)
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I read a review for the dual CPU/GPU 580 card (think it was PNY 580) and the performance was steller. The CPU was OC'ed and the 580's temps maxed in the 50's.

That review was actually inspired me to look into strapping a closed loop cooler onto my 480 :D, and the performance didn't disappoint. At stock clocks the 480 idled at ambient (~30deg in my little case) and only crept into the high 40's under load (48max iirc), which is miles better than any air cooler, including the Gelid Icy Vision I had on it previously.

In any case these close looped systems do an amazing job when attatched to hot graphics cards, and at a MUCH lower price than a custom loop. Makes me wonder why more company's aren't releasing purpose built closed loop GPU coolers (ones that don't look like **** anyway :p).
 
covenantuk said:
Under intensive CPU conditions, that system would probably actually warm up my GTX670....
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Yea I've seen a couple guys who did the mod on their 670's and they didn't notice much of a difference. Which makes sense really, as the they 670's run pretty cool and just don't need as much cooling as older generation cards do. I was horified when I saw the strips of metal they'ed taped together for use as the 670's stock cooler, but even is enough for the job :p.
sgoaty said:
I just did this to a 470 good edition. I just wondered if there is any way of controlling the 120mm fan speed from the gfx card?
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You can buy adapters that'll let you connect a 4 pin PWM fan to the graphics card, but I wouldn't bother mate. Pretty much any speed fan blowing through the Kuhlers radiator will do. I was using a low cfm 800RPM fan and it handled my 480 nicely. Plus you run the risk of overloading the cards fan header (the headers on GPU's run with a lower amperage than regular case fans use).
sockky said:
Ha, never really looked into it so i wouldn't know. Would be awesome if they could make one, ya'know, that works.

No doubt i'd nab one pretty quickly.
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There's a group on OCN called "The Red MOD", dedicated to applying the mod to AMD cards :cool:. A few have even done it on their 7970's too, so check it out :D.
 
I've got this mod working well on my 7950. Unfortunately you need a 0.5mm copper shim as there is a raised shim around the core of 7950/7970 cards so that is hurting my temps a little. Remounting tonight and have to mod it so I can fit a 38mm fan to it. Hopefully afterburner extreme will let me go north of 1.3v and let me bench at 1300mhz. 1275mhz is already doable :D

All nice and quiet and exhausting heat directly out from my case, excellent mod :p
Lowered my CPU temps as well because of this.
 
varkanoid said:
double thickness one though ?
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a 60mm thick rad is what I'd call a normal thickness, and 80mm thick, that will perform horribly, and I've always thought of even using a single 120mm rad on a graphics card is pointless as it'll get marginally better temps than a good aftermarket air cooler, a h100 would be best, but this would be pointless for me as I use a custom loop :p
 
Thanks tobsmonster2, used this guide to mount Kuhler's to my SLI GTX 480's via cable ties (Waiting for bracket from Dwood). Getting much better temps ! Awesome mod !!
 
KiiYzOo said:
a 60mm thick rad is what I'd call a normal thickness, and 80mm thick, that will perform horribly, and I've always thought of even using a single 120mm rad on a graphics card is pointless as it'll get marginally better temps than a good aftermarket air cooler, a h100 would be best, but this would be pointless for me as I use a custom loop :p
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a drop of around 25c over reference and 10c over Accelero Xtreme III is hardly performing horribly ! ;)

got a reply from Asetek the 760c CPU/GPU cooler is OEM only.
 
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Did anybody get the asetek 760gc for a non reference card? I have a gtx570 inno3d hawk so I will have to remove the cooler, will my side panel fan be sufficient to cool the VRM section? Also, which fans did you use for the radiator?

Cheers!
 
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