Custom waterloop struggle

AstroAss · 14 Jun 2017 at 18:59

Hi,

I'm twisting my head around trying to figure out a water cooling set for my PC...

My current setup is an overclocked i7-5960X at 4.5GHz and 4GPUs (2x GTX 1080Ti FE and 2x GTX 1080 FE). I need to watercool the two 1080Ti cards first and foremost, though throwing the CPU into the mix wouldn't hurt. At the moment I've got a Corsair Hydro H115i 280mm AiO cooler on it with two Noctua industrial fans for the CPU and all 4 GTX cards are on air with the two 1080s disabled via mobo while I game to release the PCI lanes back to the Ti cards.
In case anyone's wondering - I do GPU rendering and such, so hence the 4 top-end GPUs... But it's when gaming is when the noise annoys me

I tried the configurator tool on the OCUK website, but that doesn't include the water blocks for GPUs and is not smart enough to let me know what fittings will work with my selected stuff.

I've got a fairly big case (Corsair Graphite 760T, though I plan to maybe swap that later to the 780T as I built a PC with that one at work) and I reckon I've got space there for a dual rad at the front, a tripple at the top and a single on the back.

I'd apprectae it if someone could help me out with figuring out what I need

I was thinking of the EK Gaming A240G aluminium kit - sounds good to have something like that - all aluminium, no mixing of metals, everything I'd need is there with instructions and aluminium is way cheaper than copper... Downside is - it only comes with one GPU block. EK told me they don't sell aluminium blocks separately so I'd need to buy two kits to cover both GPUs. On the upside - then I could also use both rads there (240mm rad with two fans would come in each kit). The price is actually not bad - still way cheaper than what I can spec up using the traditional copper rads and blocks (from EK)!
But I'm just not sure if it would handle the two 1080Ti cards when overclocked AND my 5960X at 4.5GHz as the H115 is already struggling under load in the 70s and 80s with a quiet fan profile (unless having more water in a custom loop somehow helps a lot more than in an AiO).
EK don't yet sell aluminium rads and fittings separately either, so there's no upgrade path yet (though I suspect there will be as EK said they want to expand on this aluminium range).

Help is appreciated!

Brizzles · 14 Jun 2017 at 21:04

Based on a 360mm radiator which the 760T will take, this is a basic list of what's needed ( excluding fans ) .

Product

EK Water Blocks EK-FC1080 Ti GTX - Acetal + Nickel
Stock Code WC-9FB-EK
2
Was: £109.99
£79.99*
£159.98*

EK Water Blocks EK-FC1080 Ti GTX Backplate - Black
Stock Code WC-9FC-EK
2
£26.99*
£53.98*

EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream XE 360 (Triple)
Stock Code WC-842-EK
1
£94.99*

EK Water Blocks EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (incl. pump)
Stock Code WC-886-EK
1
£115.99*

Mayhems Ultra Clear Watercooling Tubing (3/8 - 5/8) 16/10mm - 1m
Stock Code WC-114-MH
2
£2.45*
£4.90*

EK Water Blocks EK-ACF Fitting 10/16mm - Elox Black
Stock Code WC-781-EK
8
£4.99*
£39.92*

Mayhems X1 Clear Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L
Stock Code WC-035-MH
1
£7.99*

Goods total
£477.75*

You will probably want to add a drain port if you proceed, which will add ~ £35 to the total.

If adding another radiator, add 2 more fittings

AstroAss · 14 Jun 2017 at 21:28

Thanks so much for the reply, man! Really made it all simpler to me. I've chosen a lot of these myself minus the fittings and the tubing (which is whre I got lost), so really appreciate the help!

Now on a side note, do you think upgrading to a Corsair 900D case would make any sense? I'm just really crapping myself here that there won't be anough cooling capacity for what I need out of the system - to stay at full clocks on full load when rendering/gaming and stay quiet and at moderate tempss. I've measured the front of my 760T and while there are two 140mm fans in there - there's no way I'd be able to fit a 240mm rad in there, so I'd have a single 120/140mm rad there at best without interfering with my HDD tray (hang-mounted under the 5.25" bays). Upon some more measurement I'm not sure I can even get a single 120mm rad at the back once the top is occupied by a 360mm either...

This is where I'm thinking of a bigger box where I could just plop a couple of behemoth rads (480mm at the top and botom?) in there and be done with it. But does it make sense to pay £330 for a 900D for that? Or am I overthinking it? Maybe there's a similar case that won't break bank?

Thanks again!

EDIT: Just noticed a problem - your spec of a 360mm rad and no CPU block wouldn't work in my case as the top is already occupied by a 280mm Corsair H115i for the CPU... Crap... I really do need a bigger case, don't I...

Brizzles · 15 Jun 2017 at 13:54

phanteks enthoo primo full tower case

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-enthoo-primo-full-tower-case-ca-000-pt.html

Is only £25 more that your planned 780T and has plenty of room for watercooling

queeg · 23 Jun 2017 at 00:35

although it says 780t takes 2 360mm rads its not that straight forward its very fussy about what it will take in the front as brizzles said the phanteks has a lot more rad space.

Smffy · 23 Jun 2017 at 14:50

This might be stupid but how is this working when you can't technically SLI 1080 and 1080Ti as they are different GPUs...? Are you sure the two 1080s are not just sat there doing nothing creating noise/heat? As far as I understood it you need both GPUs and VRAM to be identical for it to work, 1080 is GP104-400-A1 at 6gb and 1080ti is GP102-350-A1 at 11gb.

No?

Disco_P · 23 Jun 2017 at 15:59

Smffy said:
This might be stupid but how is this working when you can't technically SLI 1080 and 1080Ti as they are different GPUs...? Are you sure the two 1080s are not just sat there doing nothing creating noise/heat? As far as I understood it you need both GPUs and VRAM to be identical for it to work, 1080 is GP104-400-A1 at 6gb and 1080ti is GP102-350-A1 at 11gb.

No?

SLI is for gaming only. For "rendering and such" they probably only need to be the same brand - depends on the software.

Smffy · 23 Jun 2017 at 16:42

Disco_P said:
SLI is for gaming only. For "rendering and such" they probably only need to be the same brand - depends on the software.

Fair enough, not sure how effective it even is. Or option 3 replace the two 1080s with another Ti

given the issue is when gaming the noise is annoying when that's the point you can't use the mixed GPUs

oldbanana · 25 Jun 2017 at 07:59

There is nothing really complicated about picking fittings and whatnot, these days everything should be with G1/4 threads so it`s really hard to make a mistake of buying things that dont work with eachother.

Smffy · 25 Jun 2017 at 08:03

oldbanana said:
There is nothing really complicated about picking fittings and whatnot, these days everything should be with G1/4 threads so it`s really hard to make a mistake of buying things that dont work with eachother.

The thread isn't the problem, the inside of the fitting is what creates the seal and that diameter is a variable depending on fitting size and metric/imperial measurement (I.e country of origin).

VKleita · 26 Jun 2017 at 08:33

oldbanana said:
There is nothing really complicated about picking fittings and whatnot, these days everything should be with G1/4 threads so it`s really hard to make a mistake of buying things that dont work with eachother.

Sorry but that's a very misleading statement.

Very easy for someone to not understand difference between imperial and metric fittings in particular with rigid builds.