CPU and SLI rad size ?

Adsta

Adsta

Adsta

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So I have finally VERY NEARLY got all my bits together to start building my watercooling PC now. I decided to buy a Corsair 800d as it seemed a very nice case for watercooling (plus I liked the hot swapable drives, which ocuk are doing the 6Gb/s vers now :D )

Anyways so my plan is to cool a i5 2500k and two 480GTX in SLI. I am thinking about rad sizes though. I thought about just getting a quad 480 I think it should fit into the bottom of the Corsair fairly nicely if not will mount it outside the case. Would a quad be ok though ? like this one 480 Quad rad

Or would I be better having a multi loop and have a 240 cooling the CPU then a 360 for the two Gfx cards ?

also on a side note with regards to my pump planning to get http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-030-OE&groupid=962&catid=2141&subcat= will one of these fit into the bay type res's ok ? sounds like it might be pretty big.

Cheers
 
When cooling cpu and gpu there really isn't any benefit to going dual loop if you get it all on one loop. Dual loops can look good and if that is enough reason to do it then fair enough.

Rad size: I don't know the specific heat output of two 480's but I would think that a 480 would be enough. Hopefully someone who has sli 480's can answer more definatly for you.

Regarding the pump though, You can get bay res for the D5 but they take up 2 drive bays. Also if you are looking at having the pump and res together you won't need the EK pump top. If you want a single bay res and pump I think you can get some but they would be for the DDC pumps.
 
Was considering a dual loop for my rebuild with the 6990 but decided against it. Bigger single loop is simpler to route and should give better overall temperatures.
 
ok thanks for the advice. I would prefer to go via a single loop as you mentioned it most likely be easier for routing. I have read that the D5's are pretty good pumps which was why I was planning to go with that. I will have to look for a bay res for that then.

I was a bit confused by the EK top pump bit I had assumed it would just be for more power on the pump.

But if anyone does have any experience with two GTX 480s and CPU water cooling please feel free to post advice :)
 
Quite a few pumps people use but the most common do seem to be the d5 or one of the ddc pumps and to be honest either of them will be fine. The pump top has two advantages, firstly improves flow rates and secondly allows and g1/4 fitting to be used. Skinnee labs did a test on pump tops if you want to look into it more, I would link to it but the page wont load here for some reason :( Also worth looking up for lots of water cooling component tests if you haven't already :)
 
I have used a d5 with and without the ek xtop v2, there's a noticeable increase in flow rate at the same pumping speed and as Greboth says it's nice to be able to use any size fittings in the g1/4 threads. It also improves the look of the d5 which does look like it's been dragged up out of someone's pond.
 
I, I have a i7 2600 (stock) and 2 x GTX480's in one loop.

I have 1 x ThermoChill PA120.3 Radiator and 1 x MagiCool SLIM TRIPLE 360 Elegant Plexi Series Radiator Rev. 2 with 3 x Scythe Slip Stream Slim 2000 rpm fans on each.

EDIT: The Thermochill is mounted outside on the back of the case and the Magicool is inside at the top.

I use a Swiftech Laing D5 Vario pump on full speed and I cannot hear a sound from it. (fitted into a XSPC Acrylic Dual 5.25" Reservoir)

The CPU idles at 33-36c and load about 50c

The 480's idle at 36-38c and load 50-55c

This is with the fans spinning at under 1000 rpm to keep it near silent.

I am well pleased with the temps and silence even under a long gaming session the temps are great.
 
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With regards to the D5 with EK top, will one of them not fit into the Dual bay res ? Going by what greboth said it sounded like maybe it wont fit ? or am I miss reading.
 
I dont know about them all but I know most of the bay res the d5 screws into it so you wont need the ek top. The Ek top only comes into its own if you are using the pump seperate to the res.
 
The benefits of two loops will depend on how hot either the video cards or the CPU need to run which I guess will depend on the level of overclocking. Dual loops are usually used when say the two video cards produce a lot of heat and you don't want that heat to be passed onto the CPU. Two 480s may well produce a lot of heat and linked to a Sandy Bridge they could be increasing the CPU temperature.

There are a number of dual loop reservoirs and yes you need an extra pump and a bit or two of pipe. However as I said depends on why you want to watercool your system.

I'm currently running one loop with an 2600K @ 4.0 two gtx 480s and an 8800GTX (for physx) temps peak at around 50 but I'm sure the CPU runs hotter because of it.

Andi.
 
If you are planning to OC an i5 as far as it will go, you really do not want the heat of 480 SLI dumped on it.

A dual loop is actually very easy to implement, just a little bit more tubing.

XSPC make a Drive bay / Dual loop reservoir for 2x DDC pumps
 
Am I mis-reading what the OP actually wanted advice on?:confused:

He has not mentioned overclocking his i5 as far as it will go, he wanted advice on single loops over dual loops and rad sizes.

I overclocked my i7 to 4.2 last night and the temps only went up by 5c under load, idle stayed the same.

I would go single loop for ease of planning, but go dual rad if you can that way you can have a largeish rad after the 480's but before the i5, and then a rad after the i5 but before the res/pump.

My flow is:

Res/pump : Sli GTX 480s : Swiftech rad : i7 : Magicool Rad: Back to Pump

I have 3 water temp sensors in the loop and none of them EVER go above 33c water temp.
 
I have the 800D too, awesome case :D

I have a 360 rad in the top with 5 fans, and a 240 rad at the bottom with 2 fans and have my 2500k at 4.7ghz with two overclocked 6970s in crossfire and get good temperatures. I use a D5 pump with just one loop.

To fit the 240 rad at the bottom I cut a hole to allow cool air in, plenty of guides online and quite a common mod.

The 480 would fit at the bottom but you would neet to cut holes in order to get cool air in and remove the HDD mount, pluse where would you fit the PSU as no mounting points at the top of the case.
 
yea I am loving the case :)

I found a nice guide on the Corsair forums with the mod to basically get rid of the bottom HDD mount. Seems fairly easy do.

The more I think about it though the more I am think it might just be better to external mount a 480 have the hoses go in and just cool everything in a single loop.

Also for the few mentions here, I am planning to OC my 2500k hoping to get a steady 4.5ghz if not a bit more if I can push it. Also OCing the 480s a bit too. Thats why kinda though maybe a 480 externally mounted might be a good idea that way it gets nice cool air without as much heat getting to the rad if it was inside the case.
 
I'm about to add another GTX 470 to my XSPC RX360 top mounted rad.
with the 2500k at 4.5ghz.

My temps won't be the lowest but still really decent compared to air and silent:)
I think a lot of people get very hung up on having looooaaads of rad space. which is nice, but you don't NEED it
 
The XSPC RX 360 looks a very good rad, so I think I think I might go with that. I think I will get one of those and mount to the top of the 800d as it seems ok there tbh, most custom builds I have seen tend to have them there on the 800d so I guess it will be fine.

Once I got that will sorta put things in place and see what room I have left in the case and make mods where I want. Going to have to wait till next month to buy my last few parts I want before I can start the build :) (don't want to be totally broke this month and dont want to use savings). I havn't bought a CPU block yet I was planning to wait and get that XSPC raystorm which does look awesome so hopefully that will come out towards the end of the month.

Really looking forward to this build I got a idea what I want to do with it got majority of the parts together now. Just a month away from build time :D
 
May I recommend 1450rpm gentle typhoons in pull, with phobya 20mm fan shrouds. All sandwiched together with foam strip for a good seal.

It is sooo quiet but if you ask them to, those fans can pull enough air to hover an A4 sized piece of paper 5mm in the air!
With the RX360 it's soo quiet and I feel I can chuck so much more heat at that thing and it will get rid of it for me, up up and away!
 
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