Totally bizarre WC Issue

WJA96

WJA96

WJA96

Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,348
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
I hooked up a quick and dirty cooler install to test a GTX280 with a waterblock and I was really horrified when I saw the temperatures in GPUz. After about 20 minutes the water-block was too hot to touch and I shut everything down. The odd things is that not only was the GPU block hot, the radiator was hot and the water pipes were hot.

This leads me to believe that the water-block was working correctly, but the radiator simply couldn't cope with the heat loading. Except it was a Feser TFC 360 with 6 fans on it.

Can anyone think of a reason why this should be the case?

The water fairly whizzes round the loop, so I don't think it's that.

I've not split the block open as it invalidates the warranty, but it does appear to be free-flowing ie. not blocked.

EVGA SC GTX280 with HydroCopper 16 block
XSPC Reservoir top fitted to 10W Laing DDC
Feser TFC 360
6 Yate Loon SL 120mm fans in push/pull configuration
Approximately 60cm tubing length (30cm each leg to from rad)
XSPC 3/8" ID tubing on DD High Flow 1/2" barbs

The radiator, pump and res are known to be good, only the graphics card is new.

I'm genuinely baffled.
 
I thought that too, but where? The rad was hot top to bottom and the bleed screw was opened. And it took a decent amount of coolant to fill it.
 
Just read a few "GTX280 temp" threads and a few people are having 100-120c temps!

From another forum

You have one of the faulty heat sink models that came out a while ago. Just send it back if you have a warranty on it.
Click to expand...

RMA it - if the loop is fine. As is the flow rate - proved by every part of the loop being hot - it's the card overheating.
 
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Yeah - good point shadow.

I was considering saying the same... it might just be a faulty card outputting too much heat.

That said, i'd imagine a 120.3 whould cope - especially if it was the only bit of kit in the loop. :confused:

gt
 
From the few threads I read I don't think it's just a dodge ISH issue
The whole card gets really hot with the chip at 100c plus adding to the thermal load.

So in essance the block is cooling a small area at +100c AND a large area at say 50-60. It's the combination of both thermal loads that could be the issue.

WJA96 said to hot to touch so thats around 50-60c (guess) with the rad/pipes at around 40c (guess)
The stock air cooler on 'dodgy' cards have raised internal case temps to 70c (in quality cases) so I'd say the the 120.3 is doing well.

Edit: It's less about temps and more about thermal load - as a 1cm2 chip at 100c has a massively lower thermal output that 15cm2 at 50c

Edit: having a rethink that might be all BS and fud that I swallowed from others :o
for what ever reason the rad can't be removing the heat from the water as vertigo1 says in post 18
 
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Is it a new rad or has it been proven on another rig? Possible short circuit in the rad if new?
 
Seems very strange to me. Have you tried with only 3 fans on the rad? Perhaps 6 isn't working too well and they're actually working against each other.


porta said:
Just wondering if pump is on the way out and heating up, unlikely I know.
Click to expand...

This could be a possibility.
 
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Cant be just a "hot card" - it would have to be putting out over 500W to saturate that loop.

Water whizzes round loop, plus is hot everywhere so pump must be ok.

To me it all points at the rad not dissipating the heat it is supposed to
- are you sure that it is in push/pull and the fans are not fighting each other?


check the fans are ok and give the rad and system a flush, maybe some crud has blocked the tubes in the rad
 
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Ah... I thought you said the pipes and radiator were not hot. :o

Certainly sounds like it can't cope :s are the sides of the radiator hot ?
Is the air coming out of the radiator hot ?
Is the radiator hotter in any one place than elsewhere ?
 
120.3 would easy cope with that card, reckon the card is dodgy, have you tried the loop on something else, just to see its performing OK.
Not telling you how to suck eggs though as I know you know your stuff.
Does seem strange for a loop of that quality to struggle.
 
It's the radiator - there's nothing else that explains the symptoms.

If the radiator was working then there's no way everything else would be hot. If the radiator wasn't working then it would explain why everything else was hot.

Either an air lock or, and I know I might be calling you a muppet here but, you haven't got the fan directions screwed up have you so they're all pointing "inwards" or "outwards"? :D

As for "hot cards", the problems with the early GTX280s was due to a poorly fitted IHS, causing poor heat transfer from the core to the IHS and thus to the sink/block. If you had one of these cards then the GPU temp skyrockets but, if anything, the cooling block or sink won't get warm at all, which isn't what you're seeing.
 
Are you positive the flow rate is sufficient? Seems bizarre. A TFC 120.3 should have absolutely no problem with a GTX 280, I would have thought it could handle 2 at least.

You're positive the fans are spinning? Something hard to miss but I really can't think of why the water temperature would rise that high on a setup like that.
 
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