Thin 240 - Enough for CF 6870?

RichH · 8 Mar 2012 at 10:16

Hi Guys,

As the title says really, is a thin (30mm) double rad enough for crossfire 6870s?

I have space for a thin 240 and a square 200mm rad, possibly a 120 as well.

I was hoping the 240 would do the graphics and adding the 200 at a later date could replace my nh-14d.

Am I being a bit optimistic? Will I need to keep the CPU under air and use the 240 and 200 for graphics?

Thanks in advance.

iTek · 8 Mar 2012 at 10:27

Not at all.

My i7 and 6970 run off 1x 280 slim (30mm) and 1x 240 (54mm) radiators fine, can't see the extra card causing any problems.

GPU never goes above 45degrees C for me.

RichH · 8 Mar 2012 at 10:33

Thanks, that's good to hear, although you have slightly more rad power than i'm talking about and 1 less gpu.

Although I suppose it does mean i will almost certainly be fine if I can bodge the extra 120 in if needed.

iTek · 8 Mar 2012 at 11:04

But I didn't think the 6870 run as warm as the 6970.

I'm no watercooling guru but I do believe you will be fine, like you say if you can add the extra radiator in then for sure you will be but I think your just creating extra work, it will be spot on.

The load temperatures (air) on anandtech suggest crossfire 6870 is only a few degrees warmer than the 6970. This should be the same when testing on water i'd imagine. Here

RichH · 8 Mar 2012 at 11:15

OK thanks for that.

I know it is hard to say but is this setup likely to be better, worse, or the same in terms of CPU cooling as my NH-d14?

iTek · 8 Mar 2012 at 11:48

What block, pump and res will you be using? as the ambient temperature rises you'll see a greater benefit with the watercooled system.

The NH-D14 is a good cooler so don't expect to see massive gains but the whole silence is worth it alone even if temps end up being similar, I wasn't totally satisfied until I got my GPU in the loop and see temperatures at load nearly half. (80 down to 45)

RichH · 8 Mar 2012 at 12:21

I havn't really thought about CPU yet, I was planning on just cooling GPU(s) with GPU only blocks and a slim 240 rad, then adding in a 200 and cpu block later.

I am pretty happy with the NH d-14, but my gpu is a lot hotter and is dumping hot air straight into the CPU cooler, making it less effective.

I only have one GPU at the moment, but want to watercool graphics before/at the same time as going crossfire.