Experimental radiator \build log!!!

[toolmaker_03]

well here are the radiators, my problem is the configuration of them, simply too many possibilities, so if you could find the time to give your opinions, I would really appreciate it.
I also need advice on a type of shroud for the radiators, the purpose is to inshore good air flow through the radiator.
and lastly how to attach the fans to the radiators?



all advice is welcome and thank you

 

[Lutfij]

nah, your drivers already have both cards do the physx work and graphical horsepower in tandem

 

[toolmaker_03]

well the reason I ask is mass effect 2 wants to use the CPU as the physx unit and it slows the game down a little my processor is the weak link here I can manually configure it to the GPU's and it does fix the problem so I guess it does not matter i am always looking for ways to make it better.

I will upgrade later I should get 3 to 4 years out of this rig by then hopefully they have finished the DDR3 platform out and have moved on to DDR5! (They might call it DDR4)

if you noticed I wait until the platform has reached its heights before I build one I did the same with the DDR1 platform and I got 8 years out of it (my kids still use it for all of their games) I do not thank that I will be that lucky this time.

 

[Lutfij]

I noticed toolmaker! I noticed

 

[wolfram23]

ME2 doesn't use accelerated PhysX as far as I can tell. Meaning it's just the regular old style of physics which is almost always run on the CPU. Plus, even PhysX acceleration would be significantly faster on CPU than GPU if Nvidia could get their marketing heads out of their asses.

On that note, if you really want a PhysX gpu, a 480 would be massive overkill and in that case you would have significantly more gains from going tri SLI than 2 way SLI and a PhysX card. At the absolute most something like a GT 250 would be fine, but there's only a handful of games that use accelerated PhysX. I've got a GT 240 for PhysX with my Radeons and it works fine in all the games I tried.

 

[Lutfij]

You also forgot wolfram, he's using an old gen mobo for that x6 so the mobo/ram will be his bottleneck when he'll tri sli. I say he's fine the way he is now.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Ok so I will forget it for now; leave it on the back burner for now; I am going to start another thread in video cards for this and other questions. Like how do you fit 4 video cards in a case that only has 7 slots and each card takes two? Do you have to get another case or can one card drop below the bottom slot by one slot? thoughts for the next build i'll start now that way i am ready by the time it gets here.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Guess what that artic silver does work better after 200 hours of use my temps now stay at 90 F at idol and never get above 120 F at load. That really surprised me I was thinking maybe 2 or 3 degrees difference but not 10 at idol and up to 15 at load that is really good, and all I had to do was use the computer for a few hours to get better temps.

 

[toolmaker_03]

On a side note my kids system that I gave them with the 8800 ultra-card and now 3x 240 for the CPU, GPU, and MOBO runs pretty cool even when clocked the kids are getting into clocking and enjoying it they have never done this before and it helps that I know that system like the back of my hand.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Ok so I have played all of my games and this is the hottest game I have meaning that it heats up the system more than any other game this is after 6 hours of game play and the temps are pretty constant
Thank you recon uk for the MSI afterburner it works great and I now know the GPU 2 gets a litter hotter than GPU 1 for some reason haven’t figured that out as for why yet, but I will in time and maybe fix it unless this is normal.



Any ideas, suggestions, or comments welcome.
I want it to work right if it isn’t already.

By the way is there any way to change the color of the HUD from dark purple?

 

[toolmaker_03]

i think this will be better the water temps with the fans on low and the system under load



and with thw fans on high



and the hardware with the fans on high



Doesn’t seem to make much difference

 

[toolmaker_03]

I think I figured it out, I have QDC’s on that part of the system and it is slowing down the flow on that side so I will rip them out and see if that fixes the problem. I should have tested them before I used them, but live and learn that is what I always say. So for future reference yes QDC’s do slow the flow rate down in a system drastically. Lost 1500 RPM in the process of installing them in the loop that can add up quickly in a system that has several of them.

So I will repost after removing them and I will be willing to believe that the system evens out with GPU 1 after I remove the QDC’s what do you guys think?

Give me your opinions.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Ok so I do not know what is going on, my flow is back up to 6000 but the temps stay the same.
Does anyone have an answer for this, why does GPU 2 get hotter than GPU 1?
Yes I did install them both the same way; at idol they both have the same temps.
After shutting the game off it takes about 5 seconds for the cards to cool down and the blocks cool down as well, so I know the water block is working properly

 

[toolmaker_03]

Could it be that the CPU and north bridge are dumping so much heat into the system that GPU 2 gets that much hotter?

 

[rubix_1011]

For your second image of the controller with the temp readings (I'm assuming those are water temps listed in F?)

82 fahrenheit is equal to 27.78 celsius
88.9 fahrenheit is equal to 31.61 celsius

Sorry- it's much easier to measure in Celsius for watercooling as that is the most commonly used scale used world wide. Everything else in life generally works well in Fahrenheit.

That isn't a huge difference, but would indicate to me you have an issue with flow somewhere. I never see more than 1C difference between card 1 and card 2 on any SLI setup I've had.

 

[toolmaker_03]

yes that is the water temps for both loops the first is the smaller loop with the memory SSD and south bridge blocks that never gets above 115 F the second temp is the main loop with MOBO mosfets GPU 1 on one side of the parallel loop the mosfets are at 125 F and GPU1 is 135 F and the other side of the parallel loop is the CPU, north bridge, and GPU 2 the CPU stays at 125 F and the north bridge is at 135 F and the GPU 2 is at 145 F

I do not know Celsius that well to know the conversions or how hot 31.6 C is to me that is below freezing.

 

[toolmaker_03]

This is the only game that does that to my system the rest of the games I have the GPU’s are within a couple of degrees of each other and they do not get above 135 F ever hover around 125 F for the most part.

 

[rubix_1011]

This will help if you need to convert:

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/temperature_conversions.php

37C = 98.6F normal human body temp
0C = 32F freezing point of water
100C = 212F boiling point of water

So, to me it would seem that your temp differences are due to being different loops with different total TDP and deltas...this is the reason for the discrepancy.

 

[toolmaker_03]

OK so if I added another rad to that side of the loop it would most likely fix the issue? or do you think that it would not fix the issue? I am willing to try anything at this point.

 

[rubix_1011]

The temp differences aren't that much, and given the amount of components one is cooling vs the other, there doesn't seem to be an issue unless you really want to be concerned. I guess you could add another radiator to the warmer loop, but the cost of doing this is only going to be worth a handful of degrees F and only 1-2C.

I personally would utilize a single reservoir for both loops as this would allow you to maintain overall loop equilibrium a bit more:

res > pump > block > block > block > rad > rad > res
res > pump > block > block > block > rad > rad > res

Either way, this much work for a minimal improvement of temps is your call.

 

[toolmaker_03]

I found the issue it is a programming issue with after burner, here is a pic that shows the problem.

 

[toolmaker_03]

If I could figure out how to record the game play on this game I would, oh yea I also need to know how to upload it to you tube? Do I need an account to do that?
I like this game it has some really good graphics and fast game play I have played it many times and have gotten pretty good at it. My kids say it is like watching a computer play because I know exactly where everything is and where it will appear and what order to take them out in.

 

[rubix_1011]

FRAPs free version will record up to 30 seconds I think, but there are others out there as well.

Yes, you need a YouTube/Google acct. to load video to YouTube.

 

[toolmaker_03]

If I buy it can I get a 15 min record of the game?
Or is there a better one that you would recommend? I know nothing about programs other than how to make them.

 

[rubix_1011]

You can do some searching on www.download.com and search by free. There are some software suites out there that will do what you want for the price you want...just might have to look.

You could also look around the Windows 7 software links...I've also seen a list of suggested/free software links around somewhere.

 

[toolmaker_03]

Thank you for the info it really helped, the only problem I have now is the huge cost of trying to record games in high res to show how nice the game runs and looks. Never would have imagined that it would be so taxing to the system to do this, I did get it to record but the res was so low that a lot of the graphic detail was distorted and blurred by the low res image. so I gave up, oh well, I do have a good program now though for image capture and video capture that can capture high quality images as long as I am not playing a game to do so.