A short story of water cooling Update with bench marks

[WestWarrior]

Ahh, so you're running stock GTX's. Is your CPU also stock? I would try monitoring my CPU with CoreTemp, and my GPUs with whatever that nVidia control program is (sry, its been such a long time since ive used nVidia). Also, you still havent said what your temps are with the 3rd GTX in the loop.

One thing that Koolance doesnt tell you is that for their 1kW rad to remove 1kW of heat, the water has to be at around 80C. At which point, your tubing would start to melt, your pump would start to overheat, and your CPU and all 3 GTXs would bake.

 

[baddad]

Ahh, so you're running stock GTX's. Is your CPU also stock? I would try monitoring my CPU with CoreTemp, and my GPUs with whatever that nVidia control program is (sry, its been such a long time since ive used nVidia). Also, you still havent said what your temps are with the 3rd GTX in the loop.

One thing that Koolance doesnt tell you is that for their 1kW rad to remove 1kW of heat, the water has to be at around 80C. At which point, your tubing would start to melt, your pump would start to overheat, and your CPU and all 3 GTXs would bake.

Well I have the fan speed set to 4 out of 10, the pump at 1/3 speed and as the air has been purged out of the system the temps have dropped a little so now at idle the first GPU diode is 38C, the second 41C and the third GPU is 45C. The program I use to monitor those temps is the most accurate I’ve found so far and is used by corporate IT, You should try it. As for under load the temps very with the games but the game that produces the most heat is Crysis with the first GPU at 48C, second 52C and the third GPU at 58C.

 

[WestWarrior]

Oh, excuse me, I should use a program that corporate IT uses to make sure that stock heatsinks are working, instead of using a program that the most hardcore OCers rely on for accuracy. You have still failed to post a screen of the temps under load.

 

[baddad]

Well I’m not a hard core over clocker so I don’t have a narrow vision about what my PC is doing, I gave the under load temp’s in my last post. I don’t know why you’re being so contentious and keep calling me a liar; did I do something to you?

 

[Hatman]

It wont make much more heat the c0oolant will be moving quickly between the blocks and there isn't any space in between them. Only makes sense they would warm up just a little.

 

[baddad]

I made some feet for the radiator and modified the power cable so with the quick disconnect valves I can remove it in about 5 seconds.

 

[baddad]

This is the Crysis GPU test at 1920x1200 Very high.
Time Demo Play Started, (Total Frames: 2000, Recorded Time: 111.86s)
Time Demo Run 0 Finished.
Play Time: 69.55s, Average FPS: 28.76
Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 39.98 at frame 980
Average Tri/Sec: -15067940, Tri/Frame: -523954
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.75
Time Demo Run 1 Finished.
Play Time: 64.67s, Average FPS: 30.92
Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 41.78 at frame 95
Average Tri/Sec: -15885242, Tri/Frame: -513673
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.78
Time Demo Run 2 Finished.
Play Time: 65.04s, Average FPS: 30.75
Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 42.84 at frame 61
Average Tri/Sec: -15745457, Tri/Frame: -512060
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.79
Time Demo Run 3 Finished.
Play Time: 64.82s, Average FPS: 30.86
Min FPS: 17.50 at frame 261, Max FPS: 42.84 at frame 61
Average Tri/Sec: -15800044, Tri/Frame: -512049
Recorded/Played Tris ratio: -1.79
Time Demo Play Ended, (4 Runs Performed)
==============================================================
Press any key to continue . . .

 

[SpinachEater]

Wow, screw water cooling...what a tangled mess. Nice work with the setup though.

 

[Hatman]

Wow, screw water cooling...what a tangled mess. Nice work with the setup though.

Erm.. what? Whats a lovely setup of pipes compared to a massive block of metal with a huge fan on the side lol...


Still waiting for some 3dmark scores and in other games, as scaling isnt bril in crysis.... 3dmark06 seems to be extremly limited from a CPU bottleneck with tri-sli, you're looking at a 4ghz+ quad not even removing the bottlneck.

 

[baddad]

3DMark06 does not show the cards as linked and therefor does not show the correct results. The only one that seems to scale correctly is 3DMark03 going from 59k with two 8800GTX's to 74k with 3.

 

[Hatman]

It does indeed work on 06 you just have a huge bottleneck, its extremly CPU reliant.


E6850 wont remove the bottleneck, need a high speed quad.

Its just one app though.

 

[baddad]

It does indeed work on 06 you just have a huge bottleneck, its extremly CPU reliant.


E6850 wont remove the bottleneck, need a high speed quad.

Its just one app though.

Please explain to med how I'm bottleneck.

 

[Hatman]

Whats there to explain? The CPU cant keep up with the GPUs in 3dmark06 because it is extreamly CPU reliant.


Therefor the cards arent being used to their full potential because the CPU cant keep up.


Thus, a bottleneck.

 

[baddad]

Whats there to explain? The CPU cant keep up with the GPUs in 3dmark06 because it is extreamly CPU reliant.


Therefor the cards arent being used to their full potential because the CPU cant keep up.


Thus, a bottleneck.

Yes 3DMark06 scores are more depended on the CPU that’s true, but to say my system is bottleneck because of that reason is not. At no time is my CPU running at 100 percent unless it’s doing a graphics CPU test where the GPU’s are not used. There is no game or benchmarking software that utilizes my system at a hundred percent. The biggest problem we have today and it has always been the problem is inefficient, poorly written, and impossible to optimize code for every bit of software and hardware that’s out there.

 

[Hatman]

Im not talking about every bit of software, Im talking about 3dmark06... in which your CPU is bottlenecking your SM2 and SM3 scores. Increase it and they will increase with the CPU score.

 

[GizmoSLI]

Done with my setup.

Baddad

Temps are pretty good, 35-35-37 Idle, 37-37-40 load Crysis and WIC, no more fear from Koolance.

With 3 GTXs I get 41fps crysis GPU benchmark DX10 1680X1050 all specs set to very high.

Mobo: EVGA 780i
CPU: E6850 @ 3.8Ghz 1.45V
Video cards: 3X MSI OC. 8800GTX WC Koolance Blocks.
Ram: G.skill 2x2GB @ 1000 5-5-5-15 2V
PSU: TT Tough power 1200W
HDD: 2XWD 320GB 3Gbps Nvidia Raid 0.
Sound card: XFI Xtreme Music
Case: Gigabyte – Aurora 3D, I made a transparent side panel from an old case.
Monitor: LG 22” LCD wide.
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 Z-5450
Cooling: Koolance Exos 2 750KB

 

[baddad]

Temps are pretty good, 35-35-37 Idle, 37-37-40 load Crysis and WIC, no more fear from Koolance.

With 3 GTXs I get 41fps crysis GPU benchmark DX10 1680X1050 all specs set to very high.

Good numbers and good looking rig.

 

[baddad]

It’s been a couple of weeks now since I received my replacement striker II Extreme motherboard. After reassembling the gaming system, I still had many of the same problems that I sent the board back for, and BTW I didn’t use the Fusion Block, I wasn’t going to take the chance that it would leak again. I did take the Fusion Block heat pipe system off to put some Arctic Silver on the NB & SB instead of the stock tape.

While I was trouble shooting I notice that one of my graphics cards was not reporting any change in temperature and I also noted that it said I was in SLI not 3 way SLI. So I moved the card to a different slot and the problem followed the card. I removed the card and made it 2 way SLI and the machine ran great all the errors went away. I RMA the card to EVGA and had the new one back in two weeks, put it in and when I booted up it said it was in 3 way SLI, which found out from benchmarks wasn’t true. I had to take it out of SLI and put it back into SLI to get it running in 3 way. Because the card stopped working it caused init code hangs, no desk top after boot, freezes and lockups.

This is the hardware I have in the machine now.

Thermaltake Tower Case Armor+
Thermaltake 1000W PSU
ASUS Striker II Extreme
Intel C2D Q9450
Corsair 2x2GB 1600 DDR3
3 EVGA 8800GTX 768MB SLI
2 Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache SATA Drives Mirrored Boot Drive Vista 64 Bit
4 Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache SATA Drives Raid 5
1 Termaltake external E-SATA enclosure with Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache for Ubuntu
1 Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB E-SATA to back up the Raid set.
LITE-ON IDE DVD-CD Burner
Gyration Ultra Cordless RF Mouse and Keyboard
3 Koolance 282GXT water blocks
Koolance 330 CPU cooler
Koolance External EHX-1020SL 3 fan radiator
Koolance Internal RP-1000 reservoir and pump
24” Acer Monitor
Turtle Beach Ear Force 5.1 Headphones
Momo Racing Force Feedback Wheel and Racing Pedals
Ideazon Fang Gamepad
Logitech Dual Action Gamepad
Patent Pending Computer Gaming Table

I have a mild OC on the system right now and this is what that looks like.

Graphics Cards OC
Geometric 648MHz 13%
Shader 1512MHz 12%
Real Clock 1026MHz 14%
Effective Clock 2052MHz

CPU
3.2GHz 20%

FSB
400MHz 20%

Memory Timing
DDR3 1600MHz 9 9 9 24 2T

3DMARK
03 72794
05 20474
06 16690
Vantage 14150

All games are at 1920x1200 Maximum setting except Crysis I didn’t go beyond 4xAA.

Crysis Very High 39.37FPS
Crysis Very High 4xAA 27.5 FPS
Lost Coast 148.18 FPS
Lost Planet Snow 35.5 FPS
Cave 52.6 FPS
Call of Juarez 49.7 FPS

I'm using the 175.16 drivers from NVIDIA and I think they still need some work because of occasional driver crashs.

 

[dragoncyber]

Here is some important advice: (take it or leave it) For the OP.

#1: Learn how to actually build a computer.
#2: It's obvious to most experienced systems builder on this site that you have very little experience in the area's of cable organization, or the use of zip ties.
#3: Cable organization + a better layout strategy = better cooling. (just plain and simple).
#4: I notice that you leave your case side on. Try taking it off for better heat exhaustion, (it just works).
#5: You have way too many things blokcing way to much air, and with some better case managment you may not have even needed to go to liquid cooling.

Just two cent's coming from a guy who's been building custom gaming machines for about 14 years.


Good Luck

 

[spathotan]

Your two cents is necroing a year+ old thread that last had a post 3 months ago. Keep the change.

 

[baddad]

Here is some important advice: (take it or leave it) For the OP.

#1: Learn how to actually build a computer.
#2: It's obvious to most experienced systems builder on this site that you have very little experience in the area's of cable organization, or the use of zip ties.
#3: Cable organization + a better layout strategy = better cooling. (just plain and simple).
#4: I notice that you leave your case side on. Try taking it off for better heat exhaustion, (it just works).
#5: You have way too many things blokcing way to much air, and with some better case managment you may not have even needed to go to liquid cooling.

Just two cent's coming from a guy who's been building custom gaming machines for about 14 years.


Good Luck

If only I had your expertise I could have done so much better. :lol:

 

[rubix_1011]

Here is some important advice: (take it or leave it) For the OP.

#1: Learn how to actually build a computer.
#2: It's obvious to most experienced systems builder on this site that you have very little experience in the area's of cable organization, or the use of zip ties.
#3: Cable organization + a better layout strategy = better cooling. (just plain and simple).
#4: I notice that you leave your case side on. Try taking it off for better heat exhaustion, (it just works).
#5: You have way too many things blokcing way to much air, and with some better case managment you may not have even needed to go to liquid cooling.

Just two cent's coming from a guy who's been building custom gaming machines for about 14 years

Do you just have this on a word doc that you copy/paste at will into forums? I know I have seen this about 4 other times elsewhere...

 

[baddad]

It’s been about 8 months now that I’ve been running with this setup with a few minor changes. I increased my memory from 4GB to 8GB but the only way I could run that much of this memory was to drop it’s FBS to 1333, which didn’t seem to make any deferent’s in performance. The processor has a FBS speed of 1600 and OC to 3.2 GHz, the graphics cards are not OC because I’m having trouble keeping them stable. The drivers I’m currently using are the Nvidia beta driver 182.05 and all bench marks are with them. I use ViceVersa for the backup software and when I turn the machine on it backs up any previous changes, then I shut it down while I’m playing games. Below is what the system looks like, following that are my bench marks.

Thermaltake Tower Case Armor+
Thermaltake 1000W PSU
ASUS Striker II Extreme
Intel C2D Q9450 OC 3.2GHz
Corsair 4x2GB 1600 DDR3 Set to 1333 FBS 9,9,9,24 t2
3 EVGA 8800GTX 768MB Two SLI one PhysX
1Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache SATA Boot Drive Vista 64 Bit
5 Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache SATA Drives Raid 5 1TB
1 Termaltake external E-SATA enclosure with Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache for Ubuntu
1 Seagate FreeAgent Extreme 1TB E-SATA to back up the Raid set.
LITE-ON SATA DVD-CD Burner
Gyration Ultra Cordless RF Mouse and Keyboard
3 Koolance 282GXT water blocks
Koolance 330 CPU cooler
Koolance External EHX-1020SL 3 fan radiator
Koolance Internal RP-1000 reservoir and pump
24” Acer Monitor
Turtle Beach Ear Force 5.1 Headphones
Momo Racing Force Feedback Wheel and Racing Pedals
Ideazon Fang Gamepad
Logitech Dual Action Gamepad
Patent Pending Computer Gaming Table

I’ll start with the FutureMark Bench marks all in default settings, and very depending on the graphics driver your using at the time.

3DMark03 71647
3DMark05 19292
3DMark06 16322
3DVantage 18504

All game benches are in 1920x1200 max setting except for Crysis which I will start with. Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Lost Coast, Lost Planet, UT 2004, UT3, Farcry, Farcry 2, are 64 bit; I don’t know if which other games come in a 64 bit version. I tried to use bench mark software written for the game I ran bench marks for and for others I used Fraps to estimate an average.
Crysis Very High 4xAA GPU 27.87
2xAA 30.84
0xAA 37.2
Crysis Very High 0xAA CPU 38.02
Crysis Very High 0xAA 34.98 Harbor
Crysis Warhead 0xAA 45.00 Enthusiasts

Lost Coast 134.04
HL2 150.0
Lost Planet Snow 86.7 Cave 86.2
UT3 238.0
Prey 93.3
Call to Juarez 31.3
Fear 174
Fear XP 155
Fear PM 179
SS2 166.3
ETQW Capt at 60
Quake 4 Capt at 60
Doom 3 Capt at 60
Fallout 3 Capt at 60
Dead Space Capt at 30
The next games I could only estimate using fraps.
Bioshock 130
Time Shift 130
Fear 2 130
Jericho 40
Portal 200
MassEffect 60
Call of Duty 2 250
Call of Duty 4 150

The only game I play with AA off is Crysis and I really don’t notice any deferent’s when I’m playing it. I think it will take another huge leap ahead from Nvidia, as with the 8800 GTX, to over come AA and higher resolutions playability with Crysis. I think this machine is good for another five years or more.
Does it cool ok? Yes, during the summer months I have to turn the fans up to 8 my house is around 82*F verses 3 in the winter when the house is 68*f winter. I have no problems with over heating.

 

[Groveling_Wyrm]

It’s been about 8 months now that I’ve been running with this setup with a few minor changes. I increased my memory from 4GB to 8GB but the only way I could run that much of this memory was to drop it’s FBS to 1333, which didn’t seem to make any deferent’s in performance. The processor has a FBS speed of 1600 and OC to 3.2 GHz, the graphics cards are not OC because I’m having trouble keeping them stable. The drivers I’m currently using are the Nvidia beta driver 182.05 and all bench marks are with them. I use ViceVersa for the backup software and when I turn the machine on it backs up any previous changes, then I shut it down while I’m playing games. Below is what the system looks like, following that are my bench marks.

Thermaltake Tower Case Armor+
Thermaltake 1000W PSU
ASUS Striker II Extreme
Intel C2D Q9450 OC 3.2GHz
Corsair 4x2GB 1600 DDR3 Set to 1333 FBS 9,9,9,24 t2
3 EVGA 8800GTX 768MB Two SLI one PhysX
1Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache SATA Boot Drive Vista 64 Bit
5 Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache SATA Drives Raid 5 1TB
1 Termaltake external E-SATA enclosure with Seagate 250GB 32MB Cache for Ubuntu
1 Seagate FreeAgent Extreme 1TB E-SATA to back up the Raid set.
LITE-ON SATA DVD-CD Burner
Gyration Ultra Cordless RF Mouse and Keyboard
3 Koolance 282GXT water blocks
Koolance 330 CPU cooler
Koolance External EHX-1020SL 3 fan radiator
Koolance Internal RP-1000 reservoir and pump
24” Acer Monitor
Turtle Beach Ear Force 5.1 Headphones
Momo Racing Force Feedback Wheel and Racing Pedals
Ideazon Fang Gamepad
Logitech Dual Action Gamepad
Patent Pending Computer Gaming Table

I’ll start with the FutureMark Bench marks all in default settings, and very depending on the graphics driver your using at the time.

3DMark03 71647
3DMark05 19292
3DMark06 16322
3DVantage 18504

All game benches are in 1920x1200 max setting except for Crysis which I will start with. Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Lost Coast, Lost Planet, UT 2004, UT3, Farcry, Farcry 2, are 64 bit; I don’t know if which other games come in a 64 bit version. I tried to use bench mark software written for the game I ran bench marks for and for others I used Fraps to estimate an average.
Crysis Very High 4xAA GPU 27.87
2xAA 30.84
0xAA 37.2
Crysis Very High 0xAA CPU 38.02
Crysis Very High 0xAA 34.98 Harbor
Crysis Warhead 0xAA 45.00 Enthusiasts

Lost Coast 134.04
HL2 150.0
Lost Planet Snow 86.7 Cave 86.2
UT3 238.0
Prey 93.3
Call to Juarez 31.3
Fear 174
Fear XP 155
Fear PM 179
SS2 166.3
ETQW Capt at 60
Quake 4 Capt at 60
Doom 3 Capt at 60
Fallout 3 Capt at 60
Dead Space Capt at 30
The next games I could only estimate using fraps.
Bioshock 130
Time Shift 130
Fear 2 130
Jericho 40
Portal 200
MassEffect 60
Call of Duty 2 250
Call of Duty 4 150

The only game I play with AA off is Crysis and I really don’t notice any deferent’s when I’m playing it. I think it will take another huge leap ahead from Nvidia, as with the 8800 GTX, to over come AA and higher resolutions playability with Crysis. I think this machine is good for another five years or more.
Does it cool ok? Yes, during the summer months I have to turn the fans up to 8 my house is around 82*F verses 3 in the winter when the house is 68*f winter. I have no problems with over heating.

Don't worry about what everyone else is saying in this thread about you/your system/your cable organization/etc... You have proven over the past 1+ year that you CAN watercool your system as well as run overclocks.

As I had previously posted earlier in this thread, I applause your abilities, and willingness to share this good stuff with us on the forum.

THANK YOU AGAIN!! Keep it up, friend!

 

[baddad]

Thanks, it doesn’t bother me, for some it’s a help for others it’s reason to criticize.