Finally doing it....the long way - spec help!

EK do make them but even then they only have 1 or 2 in stock, every other retailer I've found lists as out of stock. Tempted to snap up the sapphire 7950 while its on the weekly offer, would hope to fetch £300 for the 6950's.
 
Surely that would be a downgrade would'nt it?

Are you sure it's 6850/70 blocks you need and not 6970? I found Aquacomputer and Koolance 6850/70 blocks in stock but damn they are expensive. How about core only blocks? If you have nothing in that pci slot above your bottom card they would fit. Damn sight cheaper too.

I would'nt stack the rads horizontally as you would be transferring heat from one to the other. Unless you mean one above the other with each rad mounted on it's side.
 
That's what i mean yes so the fans would be directed to the side of the case. I'll mock up a drawing tonight.

It would be a temporary downgrade as I will at some point end up with two, 100% sure its 6870 blocks and uses 1 less screw then a standard 6870 according to ek. The koolance blocks are also around £100 each with very few stocked, not a huge fan of the universal blocks,just not as cosmetically appealing to me.
 
Havig second thoughts about the universal blocks after seeing some of the ek ones, pretty nice! Average around £40 each too. Do they usually come with heatsinks for the memory?
 
Cheers I'll add some to the shopping list. Like the crossfire water bridges for the universal ek blocks, going to go with that - saved me buying a new card :D
 
pgi947 said:
EK do make them but even then they only have 1 or 2 in stock, every other retailer I've found lists as out of stock. Tempted to snap up the sapphire 7950 while its on the weekly offer, would hope to fetch £300 for the 6950's.
Click to expand...

You can try asking in the CS section as OcUK may be able to nab those for you :)
 
Cleeecooo said:
You can try asking in the CS section as OcUK may be able to nab those for you :)
Click to expand...

I'll do that just now! failing that I'm now quite happy to use a universal block (bridge edition) with one of the EK 3 slot dual card bridge connector.

Would I yield better results having a serial or parallel bridge in place? My heads telling me serial would be better.
 
Serial would be better. Quite like those new blocks as they do away with having a couple of big hoops of tubing between the cards. It's a nice tidy look and only cost's a few quid extra per block. The bonus is you can re-use them when you change cards!!

I have always used Zalman ramsinks on my cards and replace the thermal tape with the excellent Akasa stuff. VRM's may need some cooling though. Enzotech do some cool looking copper heatsinks for vrms/fets. I know it's extra cost but at least it's only a one off and will be paid for over a couple of card upgrades.
 
Yeah, the extra cost isn't really an issue as I was prepared to pay around £160 for the pair of full cover blocks, two universal EK blocks (not decided on nickel/plexi/acetal yet) the 3 slot dual card bridge only just runs over £100. I don't really plan on overclocking the cards, I have done in the past but the gains have been minimal, so they will stay at stock under water, hopefully keeping the VRM's a little cooler in the process.

Just waiting for a reply from CS, if they can't get hold of full cover blocks I'll be stumping up for the EK-VGA Supreme HF Bridge Edition blocks, probably direct from EK as OCUK don't seem to stock those either, unless they fancy ordering those in for me in place of the FC blocks.

Little question about the 360 rads as I need a template, in theory could I just tape 3 x 120mm fans together and use those? or is there slight hole spacing between fans? Plan to get the bulk of the radbox built tomorrow.

Thanks again for the help so far guys, probably the most exciting part of my build that been on going since June 2011 has/is going full custom water.
 
Brilliant, that makes life a little easier, intend on going with a pair of Phobya G-changer 360 rads and from the pictures I have seen there appears to be no spaces so just needed to double check.

Next little project for tomorrow is cutting some 3-pin fan extensions and soldering in some longer cable. Thinking of running 3 fans into a single 3-pin to my FC5 V2, hopefully this way I can have a rad on each dial.
 
Well building my own box has gone out of the windows, the wood is too damp, found a toy chest online that's 600x325x400, a little bigger than I wanted but it should allow for better airflow.

Edit: even better, I've found phobya make 3x360 Rad external stands, £60 but it should make life easier.
 
Last edited:
The sheet of MDF i used for my box cost me less than £15. At least you get a box exactly to your needs when you build it yourself.

The fans on my PA120.3 (15mm spacing) all butt up against each other so i imagine all rads will be the same. I just cut the hole in the top of the box wide and long enough for the three fans.
 
Cool, I did find some other wood but it was that battered I couldn't get a straight edge to start from. The box would be going under my desk, also been looking at radiator stands that are almost bolt on feet and fairly cheap. Just a pair of those covered up with grill pannels.

On the waterblock situation, 5UB is kindly going to speak to EK on Monday and see if anything can be sorted out.
 
Debating now using these: http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/r...iators-accessories/ek-uni-rad-holder-120.html

Rather than the traditional use (both on same fan bracket to hook a 240/360 up to a single 120) I intend to put one at each end and screw them into the desk to hold them in place, having 3 fans on top of each in pull complete with fan grills. Wont be easy pretty as a box containing it all but its certainly going to be easier on both my self and wallet :)
 
so now what pump to finalise my build, is a £90 pump required to push water around that amount of space (I don't mind paying it if its worth it)?

So far we have:

EK HF CPU Block (will be selected to match what GPU blocks I manage to get)
2 x 360 Phobya G-Changer
6 x 120mm 1000rpm fans yet to be decided
Zalman Reserator v1+ for res
2 x 6870 FC blocks OR EK-Bridge uni blocks
XSPC 1/2" Tubing (ID)
7/16 Barbs
2 x EK 120mm Rad stands

Just need the best value pump to get everything going :D
 
if you were thinking of getting 2 phobya 360's and mouting them externally anyway, why not just get a phobya 1080, it's actually cheaper than 2 x 360's

yate loon 120's are very good value for money on the fans

the EK DCP 4.0 is an 18w pump that compare quite well with a D5, or you could get 2 of those for the same price as a D5/DDC and run them in series also giving you redundancy if one fails
 
Last edited:
I had completely missed the Phobya Nova 1080! They make feet for them too which is even better, thanks that cures the 2 x 360 situation, also gives me the option of running 4 x 180mm fans rather than 9 x 120mm fans.

Think I'll go with the EK DCP 4.0. If I were to put two in series would it matter what order in the line they went? for example:

Res>pump>pump>CPU>1080>GPU's>res
or
Res>pump>CPU>1080>GPU's>pump>res
 
Watched a good 40+min video on the Phobya Nova 1080, excellent radiator, its only flaw is the 9 x 120mm fans, but with the extra bracket to support 4 x 180mm fans its near silent. Excellent cooling from it too, the guy said his i7 950 @ 4.4ghz 1.45v on high end air would hit 90c, it barely hit 70c with a 590 in the loop (which never broke 40c). So I'm anticipating some major performance gains once its in, currently CPU sits around 72c and GPU's between 70-80c.

Also found a nice way of powering the fans too, as the rad will only be a foot away from the main case there are things called 'PCI Power Brackets' that basically turns a single molex inside my case to 2 x molex and 2 x 3pin externally on a PCI bracket :D

Just have to wait to see what 5UB says tomorrow with regards to the GPU blocks and then its time to order!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom