Thinking about making the jump!

ibpalle

ibpalle

ibpalle

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Joined
6 Jun 2006
Posts
282
Location
Leeds
Hi all

Long time lurker here - have been reading and following the forums for a while.

I have been using a Zalman reserator V1.2 for a while - currently it's just cooling the CPU and it is nice and easy to maintain and setup but now I am contemplating the jump to a "proper" watercooling setup - mainly due to the fact that I now have 2 GTX680s situated right next to each other and they tend to get a bit toasty after a couple of hours of Crysis :)

So, looking for a bit of advice. I have read most of the guides and looked at the various options and I am thinking about the following as a solution for cooling both GPUs and the CPU.

1 x XSPC RayStorm 750 RS240 kit
1 x 240 RAD
2 x Full cover GPU blocks

So a loop with 2 240 rads - imagine the sequence would be:

reservoir/pump > CPU > rad > GPU > GPU > rad > reservoir/pump

CPU is a Bloomfield 930 running at stock currently. Not currently interested in OC but depends on the temps I get if I take the plunge.

Does this sound sane at all?
 
Sounds perfect :)

What case are you going to use?

Also it will benefit you to clock that 930, the 2.8ghz stock clock may give some degree of bottleneck on a pair of 680's.
 
Thanks for the reply - that remark may have pushed me over the edge :)

I currently have 2 cases - the original Coolermaster Stacker and an Antec 300. The Antec is currently housing my gaming rig. The Antec wont be able to hold the watercooling setup so will either try to use the Stacker or go for a new case. Was looking at another Coolermaster - the CM-690 II looks like it would be good for 2 240 rads.

Open for any suggestions.
 
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CM 690 II is an excellent choice for a budget WC ready case, it does indeed hold a pair of 240's with no modding, just measure up first afaik the top requires a rad of around 30mm thickness, with the bottom you should be able to go the whole hog and stick a 60mm thick rad in :)

You should probably be able to take the 930 up to and over 4ghz with water too :)
 
Yes I managed 3.2 - 3.4 but not with a lot of experimentation on the current setup.

Interesting with the RAD thickness - had not considered that. Thanks for the tip.
 
So putting a basket together - will send a pre-sales enquiry and ask what extra fittings are needed for this. Feel free to chip in :)

OcUK Tech Lab - V8 Watercooling Kit 240
2xXSPC Razor GTX680 GPU Waterblock
Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Dominator Case - Black/White
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 240 - XFlow
2xScythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1450 RPM - 3 Pin

And thank you both for all the replies.
 
You need 2 fittings per block, so for every component out side of the kit you order you need to add another 2 fittings. I think OcUK are still using 7/16 tubing with 1/2" high flow barbs in their tech lab kits.
 
It is worth noting if there is any component you would like to swap out in the V8 watercooling kit (for example a thicker / higher performance radiator) then OCUK will arrange it for you if you drop them a webnote. I have done this before with their watercooling kits, they are very helpful :)
 
So I finally did it and ordered the parts I wanted. Some are out of stock though! :(

2xEK-FC680 GTX - CSQ Full Cover Waterblock - Nickel Plexi
Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Dominator Case - Black/White
XSPC X2O 750 Dual 5.25” Bay Reservoir Pump
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Xtreme 240
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 240 - XFlow
EK-FC Bridge DUAL Serial CSQ Plexi
4xNoctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Focused Flow PWM Cooling Fan
XSPC HighFlex Hose 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD, 16/10mm, 2m, Clear
2xMayhems Ultra Pure H20 Watercooling Fluid 1L
3xEK-PSC Adapter Rotary 45° G1/4 Nickel
8xEK PSC Compression Fitting 10mm 3/8" - G1/4 - Nickel

But wait - no CPU cooler? I am going to be reusing the ZM-WB5 Plus from my Zalman Reserator kit for now (I can hear the cringing in the background there :)).

Hopefully it should all be arriving end of this week, beginning of next and I can get started on my build.

Found a very good OC article and did a little preliminary bclock isolation and had no issues with a 191 bclock so hopefully I should be able to get to 4Ghz on my i7 930.
 
Got the parts from OC after having to amend the order about 4 times - one item out of stock (the EK SLI bridge) and while I was waiting, other items became out of stock so etc etc. Took about 3 weeks before it got shipped - did get a generous helping of Haribo in the shipment :)

So a couple of lessons learned - check OD on tubing as well as ID :) Tubing I ordered was 5/8 OD and the fittings where the EK ones so did not fit. ID was fine, OD wasn't. Ordered some tubing from EK as OCUK does not carry that size.

The Coolermaster case was a bit banged up on arrival - had to use pliers and brute force to get it into shape again. Not enough for an RMA but annoying nonetheless.

Put everything together yesterday apart from tubing the build as the tubing hasn't arrived yet. That showed me a few other issues with routing the tubing so I have ordered a couple of 90 degree angled fittings to overcome that.

Pictures of the yet unfinished build here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108731769623735390613/posts

Can't wait to get the final part done and fire the thing up :)
 
Here are my overclock settings, same mobo.

4011 MHz
BCLK freq - 191
CPU voltage - 1.29375
QPI/DRAM core voltage - 1.30000

Hope this helps.
 
Thnx BriT

Went through the entire thread here:

http://www.overclock.net/t/662236/the-asus-p6x58d-premium-e-thread

Yes! All 530 pages of it (as I said, a lot of waiting for my order to arrive:)) and I have already tried poking the bclk a bit and got to 191 easily - that was with a multiplier of 15 in order to keep temps down. Was just testing if I could reach the 191 bclk - and I did need to up the qpi a bit to the level you have in order for the mem to run at 1500 something.

Can't wait for my tubing to arrive - I miss my gaming PC :)
 
So finally the system is up and running.

CPU clocked at 3.8Ghz, both GTX-680 with a mild overclock and temps all in hand. All good stuff :)

However - I did have a mishap. Bricked one of my GTXs :( Stupid mistake knocked off a couple of resistors near the bottom of the card, just over the pci-e connector. Never even knew it had happened until I had completed the build and booted the system - right into a BSOD.

Got a couple of pics showing the damage - I'll post this in another forum as this is probably not the right place but I wanted to show this here in case anyone had any repair ideas. Pics are a bit blurry but the difference is easy to see:

Damage

No damage

Any tips on possible repair options?
 
yeh replace them. Ive just sold my soldering station else i would have done it for you. But if you go to a electrical repair shop they should be able to replace them for you for about £10.00 all in.
 
ibpalle said:
So finally the system is up and running.

CPU clocked at 3.8Ghz, both GTX-680 with a mild overclock and temps all in hand. All good stuff :)

However - I did have a mishap. Bricked one of my GTXs :( Stupid mistake knocked off a couple of resistors near the bottom of the card, just over the pci-e connector. Never even knew it had happened until I had completed the build and booted the system - right into a BSOD.

Got a couple of pics showing the damage - I'll post this in another forum as this is probably not the right place but I wanted to show this here in case anyone had any repair ideas. Pics are a bit blurry but the difference is easy to see:

Damage

No damage

Any tips on possible repair options?
Click to expand...

That shouldn't be a too bad of a repair to be honest!
 
Got a colleague at work that has experience with SMD soldering and he will have a go at it. He has built his own 3D printer so he does have some knowledge. He checked the pictures out and barring broken components and mangled solder pads, he should be able to fix it. I should know today or tomorrow :)

On another note - been playing with OC this weekend and managed to get to 4Ghz easy :) QPI voltage was the main thing I needed to adjust in order to get to stable.

However, with CPU at 4Ghz I can't OC the GPUs anymore - think my power supply isn't beefy enough (650W Corsair) which I sorta expected.

So running GPUs at stock until I find out if the broken card can be repaired - if it can then seriously considering tri-SLI - which will mean new case, new PSU and likely a 360 radiator instead of the BlackIce stealth 240 I have at the top :)

OMG I think I may have been bitten by the wc bug......
 
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