How To Install A Waterblock On A Nvidia GTX 1080

[kcarbotte]

Water cooling your graphics card has been getting more popular among computer enthusiasts, so we thought it would be a good idea to document the process. Here's how to install a full-cover GPU block on a GTX 1080 Founder's Edition card.

How To Install A Waterblock On A Nvidia GTX 1080 : Read more

 

[spodave]

Don't forget to test the card BEFORE you install the water block

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Great tutorial! Simple step-by-step guide.

 

[kcarbotte]

Don't forget to test the card BEFORE you install the water block

Yes, make sure the card is working first.
Also a good idea to get a baseline recording of temperatures and performance before and after. That wasn't an option to me as this wasn't my card and we were working with a limited time frame.

 

[Math Geek]

it looks to me that if you removed the dvi output, this would be a single slot card. is that possible to do? i'm still working some future plans for a watercooled pc in my head and this struck me as a possible option. looking at the pictures, there is some kind of cover for it so can't see how it is attached to the card.

so is it possible to remove the dvi output and only keep the 3 DP and single hdmi? would be easy to cut the bracket down if you can remove the output.

 

[iamacow]

The person who installed this block was lazy, didn't even cut the thermal pads lol.

 

[uglyduckling81]

"The VRMs and MOSFET thermal material doesn’t need to be cut into pieces, you can place long strips across all of them at once."

No it was a choice he made. Not just lazy. It's not required. Probably should of read the article before commenting on the picture.

 

[iamacow]

"The VRMs and MOSFET thermal material doesn’t need to be cut into pieces, you can place long strips across all of them at once."

No it was a choice he made. Not just lazy. It's not required. Probably should of read the article before commenting on the picture.

No need to read when pictures tell a thousand words. I've done my share of watercooled video cards, not once have i've seen the instructions say "don't worry about it, just throw the pads on for the best results" If you have it taken apart already, just spend 10 seconds and cut he pads to the right length. The best results would have been to cut the pads to the right size and than put some thermal paste (non conductive) on each mosfet for extra heat dissipation.

Its still a good article. It is hard to write an article, so either way good job

 

[uglyduckling81]

Honestly it makes no difference what so ever.
The idea is to ensure good complete contact between the item and the heat sink/block. It's the reason why you don't wan't too much paste between your CPU and heat sink. The object of the paste is to fill imperfections in the surfaces for full contact and maximum heat transfer. Whilst not increasing the distance between the CPU and block.
What happens in the dead space between the chips makes no difference.
I might agree with you if it was going to obstruct air flow but this is the point of water to replace moving air as it's more capable at moving heat away from the source.

 

[Ionlydothis]

Dumbest thing to do to this series since they don't Overclock any better on water and they're low heat cards anyway...

 

[Olle_P]

"To clean the components, take your microfiber rag and pour some isopropyl onto it."
This seems dangerous to me, in two ways:
1. Microfibre cloth is effective at collecting dust because it builds up a lot of static electricity. That static attracts dust and can/will of course also damage sensitive electronics.
2. Alcohol is highly flammable, so a spark between the electrically charged cloth and the surface could potentially start a fire.

I prefer to use tissue paper and Q-tips combined with isopropanol.

 

[uglyduckling81]

Dumbest thing to do to this series since they don't Overclock any better on water and they're low heat cards anyway...

They aren't low heat cards at all. The reference models overheat and throttle. Aftermarket cooling solutions do a better job of cooling them but this is about replacing a reference cooler with a waterblock which is a good upgrade. Too expensive IMO but still a good upgrade.
Oh I included a link to a video of some guys that put a GTX 980ti closed loop cooler onto a 1080FE card to show the result. They managed about a 500mhz overclock which ran beautifully cool and quiet.
It only added a few frames per second in most cases but it alleviated the frame time problems and frame rate drops of the throttling card which happens to reference models with that useless blower style cooler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-3fi1ovAP0

 

[JakeWearingKhakis]

"The next step is to add a liberal amount of thermal compound to the GPU surface. EK Water Blocks recommends using a plus and cross pattern that stretches across the GPU surface four times. Don’t worry about adding too much paste. You won’t cause any problems if there’s runoff beyond the die, provided that you use the supplied paste."

:/

Cool article besides that!

 

[Blaskotron]

I'm not sure you mentioned removing the blue covering on the thermal tape.

Also I actually ended up using the the longer screws on the first go since the guide with the EK block is pretty terrible. My temps were hitting 75. I redid with the shorter length and eraser head size amount of paste and I'm at 50/51 overclocked to 2100.

I also found that the EVGA backplate that comes stock 619$ model works great with the EK block.

 

[Ninevah]

Don't forget to test the card BEFORE you install the water block

Oh, heavens, did I learn that the hard way. For my first water cooled rig, I installed water blocks on the mobo, CPU and GPU. Had the whole loop built, tested, filled. No leaks, no problems. THEN I plugged in all the power cables and tried to turn it on. Frickin' dead mobo. Had to drain and dismantle it all and ship the mobo back for a replacement.

 

[kcarbotte]

Don't forget to test the card BEFORE you install the water block

Oh, heavens, did I learn that the hard way. For my first water cooled rig, I installed water blocks on the mobo, CPU and GPU. Had the whole loop built, tested, filled. No leaks, no problems. THEN I plugged in all the power cables and tried to turn it on. Frickin' dead mobo. Had to drain and dismantle it all and ship the mobo back for a replacement.

That is rough!
I once gambled on a power supply and won. I bought a Corsair AX 850w power supply for a build a few years ago. The intent was to modify it. Cut the cables down to exact length for a micro-atx build and sleave the cables with custom blue and grey sleave. (this was before it was popular and you could get people to do it for you).
I was so excited to get started, that I cut the cables and got to work. I didn't realize until the day I went to put it back together that I had never even turned it on.
I'm still using that PSU as a daily driver 4 years later, but man was I nervous.

 

[jwl3]

No way I'm messing around with a $550'card. I'veinstalled 20 cup heats inks in my day with not a single issue. But GPU's, I'm 0 for 2. Both cards became unusable with artifacts after I trie deep lacing the crappy stock heat sink with a much better one. The surface area of GPU's are much smaller and the margin of error is much smaller. They also probably get much hotter than CPU's and don't throttle down.

 

[jwl3]

Don't understand the economics of this - if you add a waterblock to a 1080 what can you gain, maybe +10%? Why not spend the $100 and get 2 x SLI 1070's that will blow a 1080 out of the water?

Worse still is if someone bought this for a 1070. Why not use the difference and get a 1080?

 

[Hupiscratch]

Did Nvidia mentioned something about removing the DVI conector in a redesign? This could really improve the airflow, improve the thermals, noise, and in case of a water cooling design, lower one slot.

 

[iamacow]

Don't understand the economics of this - if you add a waterblock to a 1080 what can you gain, maybe +10%? Why not spend the $100 and get 2 x SLI 1070's that will blow a 1080 out of the water?

Worse still is if someone bought this for a 1070. Why not use the difference and get a 1080?

Funny I bought a 1070 to watercool it. I can hit 2100 all day @ 45c. The reason why i didn't go with a 1080? well that was $700 vs 425+$125 for a waterblock. still cheaper and it will preform close to the 1080. Lastly my whole system (including MB) is water-cooled so I had to do it, or the loop would be messed up. So either spend like $550 on the 1070 or $900 for a 1080. I'm not gaming at 4k so the 1070 was a better choice.

 

[anbello262]

2. Alcohol is highly flammable, so a spark between the electrically charged cloth and the surface could potentially start a fire.

I prefer to use tissue paper and Q-tips combined with isopropanol.

Did you know that isopropanol is just the chemical name of isopropylic alcohol?
You're just saying "alcohol is dangerous, I'd rather use alcohol."

 

[builder680]

To those asking why watercool a 1070/1080

The 1080 throttles with the stock cooler. Aftermarket fans and coolers are better than the reference cooler but most blow air back into your case. Both cards run cooler and quieter with water coolers. Personally I will pay extra for that. I'm eyeballing the MSI Seahawk atm.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127946

 

[iamacow]

Mine is sitting at 41c with a 2100 OC all day. Completely worth it. No noise and it doesn't downclock ever.

I wish I got the Seahawk EK. But it was never in stock. It's actually cheaper than buying and card and a block.