Got my 6970s today - Mixed bag so far...

[swaaye]

Actually I think it performs far better than the stock cooler, as it is inaudible with my setup, but I've come to the conclusion that the base is not flat enough. I did a straight edge test and it is very slightly convex. The GPU die on these chips is huge so flatness issues are compounded. I also think this could cause an issue with the heatpipes because if only part of the base is making good contact you are essentially going to be utilizing 2-3 heatpipes instead of all 4.

I'm going to try to lap it later. I think it has the potential to be excellent if I can get it flatter. I can't imagine trying to cool something like a GTX 480. This is more than enough heat already!


I also lopped off the VRM cooler part of the stock baseplate as a replacement for the annoying thermal taped VRM heatsinks. The VRMs are so tiny that thermal tape is quite iffy. I also think that this slab of metal from the baseplate will cool them better.

I was considering trying to rework the entire baseplate to fit with the S1 installed but I didn't feel like cutting that much metal. I would have to cut out a considerable area around where it mounts to the GPU. Also, the OEM heatsink is soldered to the baseplate so I would have to do some baking to separate and I'm sure it would be messy.


Regarding fans, I've tried 2x120, 2x92, and 1x120 + 1x80. So far the last setup is the best I think. It allows for better alignment of airflow over the heatpipes and controlling where the fan hub deadzones line up. 2x120 is too wide for the heatsink. The fans slightly hang off the sides and their big deadzones line up over the heatpipes.

 

[Grall]

You're comfortable with hand-lapping, and have some practise doing that? It's easy to lap the surface unevenly if you don't have a good enough technique.

 

[swaaye]

Yeah I've lapped a few heatsinks before. Lapping this thing is difficult though because of how unwieldy it is. But anyway it doesn't seem to have changed anything, certainly no improvement. I'm probably going to have to buy either a Accelero Xtreme or maybe the Setsugen 2.

I wonder if the S1's little heatpipes are being overloaded by the heat these high end cards put out now. I did some searching and found people with 4870 having the same problem. And I saw the problem again with my other S1 when I swapped it out as a test. And I also saw somebody on a forum try the Accelero Twin Turbo, which is a S1 with fans, and have problems as well.

 

[Grall]

Yea, you might well be boiling them pipes dry. It's only got 4 relatively thin ones, after all, and the thing was never designed to cope with this generation of GPU products.

Have you looked at the Thermalright T-Rad2? It's a pretty badass looking low-profile heatsink with six pipes, but it's not all that new either now so it might not fit this generation of hardware...

 

[swaaye]

That T-RAD2 looks nice. Thermalright makes good stuff. It's cheaper than that $70 Shaman monster they have which is a plus too. It will probably fit because it'll fit a 5870/4870 and the mounting holes are the same. That's why the Accelero S1 fits everything too.

Check this out
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1467589

I had their HR-03 Plus on my 8800GTX for years. I should have just kept that thing because it might have fit this card. But then the 8800 wouldn't have had a cooler so not a great solution there. I wish TR would stop end-of-lifeing their various excellent coolers.

 

[Mize]

I don't know if I'll have time to get my Setsugen-2s mounted next week. I'm still waiting on the PWM fans and then I'm in China the week after that...I promise before after Furmarks and noise evals!

Right now I have a custom Afterburner fan profile that keeps me at or below 60 C when hitting both cards hard, but I can hear the damn things even with headphones on !

 

[Grall]

I had the HR-03 on a Geforce 6800 vanilla, that heatsink was fat enough to handle that GPU even when seriously overclocked passively cooled. It sat in the main airstream of a Dell BTX box, and that was enough. Probably helps that the PCIe slots in a BTX chassis are turned the "right way up", so the coolant fluid propagates down by gravity to the hotplate more easily.

Very nice heatsink, but I don't think it would handle a 6970 or 580 all that well...

 

[Mize]

I think the HR-03 with a fan would handle the 6970, but the issue would be having two would require one over and one under (a nice feature of the HR-03 being this ability. The downside then is that the RAM on one would have no fan.

 

[almighty]

Just water cool everything

My loop didn't cost a lot and it'll fit every CPU socket and GPU on the market.... You figure out how much people spend on heat sinks over the years compared to a custom loop which will last forever

 

[Mize]

Just water cool everything

My loop didn't cost a lot and it'll fit every CPU socket and GPU on the market.... You figure out how much people spend on heat sinks over the years compared to a custom loop which will last forever

I used to watercool and it can be a fun project, etc.
But it's no fun coming home to a powered-down pc because the pump died and the motherboard cut power before frying the CPU. Sure, no damage done, but now you have to replace that pump before you can do anything and that's a huge pain in the ass. Between shopping (assuming you don't keep a spare at the house) draining, plumbing, mixing distilled and anti-corrosives, filling, leak testing and, finally, you're back in business in about 1-2 days!

Ugh.

 

[almighty]

I used to watercool and it can be a fun project, etc.
But it's no fun coming home to a powered-down pc because the pump died and the motherboard cut power before frying the CPU. Sure, no damage done, but now you have to replace that pump before you can do anything and that's a huge pain in the ass. Between shopping (assuming you don't keep a spare at the house) draining, plumbing, mixing distilled and anti-corrosives, filling, leak testing and, finally, you're back in business in about 1-2 days!

Ugh.

It seems like you haven't watercooled with decent parts.

NEVER known any Laing pump to fail.....

And we don't mix fluids these days

I can completely strip down my loop, Clean it all out and re-build it in about an hour.

 

[Mize]

Uh...you've invented a machine with moving parts that never wear out?
Magic!

All pumps eventually fail. That is a fact.

And, yes, you can spend more $$ for premixed fluids now

 

[cjo]

Uh...you've invented a machine with moving parts that never wear out?
Magic!

All pumps eventually fail. That is a fact.

And, yes, you can spend more $$ for premixed fluids now

almighty only said that they had never known one to fail, not that it wasn't possible for one to fail. You *probably* don't need a pump that will last for all eternity - the lifetime of one or two PCs is more than likely sufficient.

 

[almighty]

Uh...you've invented a machine with moving parts that never wear out?
Magic!

All pumps eventually fail. That is a fact.

And, yes, you can spend more $$ for premixed fluids now

Read my post again......I'VE never known one to fail....

I'm a member of the biggest overclocking forum in the world and in all my years there I don't think I've ever seen a thread in the water cooling section saying there Laing pump has died or exploded.

My Laing DDC has been going for 3+yrs now, Still completely silent and just as powerful as the day I bought it.

 

[Mize]

Guys, almighty is saying he's never known one to fail...I'm saying that they will eventually fail. Now if you preemptively replace your pump every so many runtime hours then you, statistically, might never see one fail. If you use it until it dies then, by definition you will. My only point was that dealing with a failed pump is a pain in the ass compared to a fan which dies slowly and loudly.

Laing's are designed for 50,000 MTBF which is comparable to a good hard drive.

 

[swaaye]

It's the maintenance and risks that keep me away from water. It's quite the undertaking really. I can make my PC plenty quiet and cool with modern heatpipe coolers that are already essentially leveraging water heat transfer and are zero maintenance.

Not to say that water cooling isn't fascinating though!

Very nice heatsink, but I don't think it would handle a 6970 or 580 all that well...

I think the 6 heatpipe models would do the job fine. That's what I had on my 8800GTX after all and it had no problem there whatsoever. I had that card inaudible, with either a 92mm or a 120mm. HR-03 Plus that was, but the HR-03 GT fits ATI cards.

They are tough to find these days though because they've been discontinued for whatever reason. It's as if Thermalright builds one batch of every product they design and then they discontinue it.

 

[almighty]

It's the maintenance and risks that keep me away from water. It's quite the undertaking really. I can make my PC plenty quiet and cool with modern heatpipe coolers that are already essentially leveraging water heat transfer and are zero maintenance.

Water cooling is maintenance free..... I've not had to do ANYTHING to maintain my loop since I built it 3 months ago.

The only maintenance they require is cleaning the dust off the radiator every 6 months and having the fluid changed every 12-18 months.

For reference I can change my fluid over in 15 minutes.

You spend a few hours building the loop and once it's done and all the air is out it's good for 12-18 months providing nothing fails. And the chances of things failing are slim.

My 5850's went from 90+ degrees C at 1000Mhz core speed with 1.25v to barely ever seeing higher then 45c once water cooled with blocks that only cost £20.

There's no air cooler that can more then HALF load temps for £20, And as it's a universal block I can use it on any past, present or future graphics cards I choose to own

 

[swaaye]

It's nice that the blocks themselves aren't too expensive, but it's not like there aren't other entry costs.

How do you cool video card and motherboard VRMs and the chipset? If you stop normal airflow they are a problem. How much galvanic corrosion have you seen in long term use? How long have you used a radiator for (ever seen a leak start)? Do you drive out and properly dispose of your used coolant?

I suggest you make a new thread and post photos if you like.

 

[almighty]

It's nice that the blocks themselves aren't too expensive, but it's not like there aren't other entry costs.

How do you cool video card and motherboard VRMs and the chipset? If you stop normal airflow they are a problem. How much galvanic corrosion have you seen in long term use? How long have you used a radiator for (ever seen a leak start)? Do you drive out and properly dispose of your used coolant?

I suggest you make a new thread and post photos if you like.

Dude you still have your case fans as normal...

s for the graphics cards just use RAM sinks to cool the RAM IC's and heat sinks for the VRM's... Don't cost a lot and 9/10 they provide better cooling then stock anyway.

Galvanic Corrosion?? A none issue..... I've never had it, Nor in my years of water cooling have I known anyone else to have it that's built a proper loop. The only time it occurs is when you have different metals in the loop, like mixing copper with alu is bad.

All decent blocks are copper anyway so it's not a problem.

Never had or known anyone to have a leaky radiator either, I've used my radiator for 3 years now with no problems. Anyway, Why would there be problems? The radiator is screwed to the case and left alone, It doesn't get messed with enough or put in a position were it would get damaged.

It literally is build it up and then forget about it, They aren't as much trouble as they appear to be.

You instal a big air cooler, You forget about it and leave it alone to do its job.

It's the exact same with water cooling .

Anyway, Pictures of my loop : http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1528498&postcount=1941

( A little teaser )

 

[Mize]

Ok, ok, I'll come out and admit it! I want a new watercooling rig but don't have time for it!
There.
Fine.
Happy?

[envy]