Problem designing water cooling system

[gravey davey]

Hi

Im looking to overclock my PC, using water cooling.
The company "www.digitalstormonline.com" say that you can use just two 120 rads to cool a cpu and up to two graphics cards.
Is this really right?
Ill be using a CM Scout, i5 and two 4870s

Thanks

Davey

 

[richardscott]

no you need a min of a 240 rad for just 1 cpu or gfx card, conumdrum has a stickie at the top of the threads he's the WC pro here

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1. Total BS if they claim 2x 120mm rads are good for bot GPU AND CPU loop.

Read the sticky here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/253958-29-watercooling-guide

 

[Conumdrum]

Two 4870's need a 120x2 rad at minimum and higher speed (louder) fans to cope. An i5 needs a 120x2 to function.

So no way, unless they let the CPU and GPU temps get stoopid and use higher speed fans.

Watercooling is a hobby, and isn't something you should ever prebuy in a prepurchased system.

No way

 

[gravey davey]

Ok I think ill send an email off to digital storm.
Heres the page i found the information from anyway

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/images/h20stage3cpuvid.jpg

Looks like ill be air cooling my 4870s!

 

[Conumdrum]

Thats good stuff they use, just a little small.

 

[rubix_1011]

^Yeah, you would definately need some more rad for a system like that, which wouldn't be hard to incorporate with a little DIY.

 

[richardscott]

air cooled hd4870's get very hot i know i have 2 and they require my fans speeds set to 50% or they crash in game 😛, although i have more heat generated in my case than the average user.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Depends on if you get the reference cooler or not. I know Sapphire's VaporX works quite well. Not sure if it'll be able to do CrossFire (depending on board/case) as VaporX is a dual slot solution.

 

[richardscott]

i got 1 with a ref cooler which is the worst 😛 and the other is similar to the vapourx design and they both overheat tbh but the stock one is louder to achieve the same temps

 

[Shadow703793]

^Really? Many of me friends are using the VaporX 4850s and they (AFAIK) haven't/aren't overheating. I guess case airflow and ambient play a big part also eh?

 

[richardscott]

doesn't help with a vapochill letting alot of hot air up through the hole at the bottom which goes directly to my gfx cards 😛

 

[mindless728]

^Really? Many of me friends are using the VaporX 4850s and they (AFAIK) haven't/aren't overheating. I guess case airflow and ambient play a big part also eh?

i don't even have the vaporx design, just the sapphire heat pipe design and it never even comes close to over heating, then again i have a 120mm fan blowing right on it

 

[gravey davey]

Ok I just found another strange product:

The sapphire 4870x2 atomic manages to squeeze two RV770s and a CPU block into one 120mm Rad!
GPUs get to 54 degrees under load, CPU at 48 degrees idle.
Thats pretty impressive for a single 120 I think!

 

[Shadow703793]

^I'm guessing you'r talking about this review: http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/video/sapphire/hd4870x2_2GB_Atomic/page6.asp

 

[Conumdrum]

Impressive for a 120 rad to cool both. Good temps? Nope.

You mean a 4870x2. Not some arcane chip name. It's a 4870x2.

Hmm no metion of ambient temps or what it was installed in/on. I can pretty much bet it wasn't inside of a case.

So the test has very little validation, usually expected and written into a review. Actually, reviews isn't where we find out best data, it's tests done with consistent scientific methods, like here.
http://www.skinneelabs.com/
Science at work.

 

[rubix_1011]

That review doesn't mention ambient temps...that would be a good temp to mention considering the comparisons made.