Watercooling a GPU

[CmdrJeffSinclair]

Hi everyone,

I really want to cool two GTX980s, however I am forced between three issues:

1) no completely AIO cooler that I know of can allow a custom loop. They are all closed off which means if I wanted to include my GPUs into the loop I'd need a custom rad setup

2) I found one semi-AIO cooler (Swiftech H20-320 Elite) however it is not sold to people living in USA. It allows for a custom loop with the convenience of an AIO with the power of a custom rad. The pump on it is also legendary. $370 is decent for such a baddie

3) Building a custom cooler is not just daunting but seems wildly expensive and far too complicated. I will screw it up.

So, I have to ask myself before making a decision....

Will water cooling 2 GTX980s really make any difference? For the immense cost involved, I could buy the two now and if they start getting hot in a few years all that money I would have dumped into watercooling them with custm EK waterblocks and coolers would probably pay for a new epic GPU.

Am I right? And feel free to give some advice. This is a hard subject that I've never gotten good answers too.

My main desire is total quiet operation. I am not going to quibble over a hum, but hearing fans isn't great. That's why I wanted watercooling, aside from overclocking benefits.

My choices are down to---
ASUS Poseidon Hybrid Water-Air cooled GTX980 (out of stock on amazon and massively overpriced on Newegg)
Gigabyte G1-Gaming GTX980
EVGA GTX980 SC stock fan, then customize it with the EK waterblock and backplate....which would require a custom rad...which is overly daunting and the Swiftech doesn't seem to be purchaseable to USA residents

So what the heck do I do?

 

[getochkn]

The ASUS Poseidon still needs a water pump and rad and all that stuff. It just comes with a block already instead basically, but still works for air cooling, so it's probably half assed at both instead being good at one or the other. lol.

The thing with water cooling, is you still need fans. Usually more of them. You can spend a good chunk of money on fans to cool all the rads, especially if you want good fans that can move a lot of air through rad fans and be quiet at the same time.

Water cooling isn't as much about being quiet (The two stock fans that came with my cooler master AIO are Loud As F^$@, but they let me overclock like hell. I see water cooling as either, something cool to say you have, or to overclock. Getting a quiet system can be possible without it.

You could do the NZXT Kraken G10 brackets. They fit with a reference design 980 and allow you to use a AIO water cooler. The fans on my 7870 died, and rather get a new GPU, I got the G10 bracket on sale and a Corsair H60 watercooler cheap with a rebate and I have a water cooled GPU now along with my CPU. Took $60 in new fans to get them quieter though and under full overclocking load, they still get a bit loud.

 

[mrhippo900]

If you plan on buying a water pump, go with EVGA, gigabytes will be out of this world to find. Plus EK already has mounts to fit the EVGAs.

 

[CmdrJeffSinclair]

The ASUS Poseidon still needs a water pump and rad and all that stuff. It just comes with a block already instead basically, but still works for air cooling, so it's probably half assed at both instead being good at one or the other. lol.

The thing with water cooling, is you still need fans. Usually more of them. You can spend a good chunk of money on fans to cool all the rads, especially if you want good fans that can move a lot of air through rad fans and be quiet at the same time.

Water cooling isn't as much about being quiet (The two stock fans that came with my cooler master AIO are Loud As F^$@, but they let me overclock like hell. I see water cooling as either, something cool to say you have, or to overclock. Getting a quiet system can be possible without it.

You could do the NZXT Kraken G10 brackets. They fit with a reference design 980 and allow you to use a AIO water cooler. The fans on my 7870 died, and rather get a new GPU, I got the G10 bracket on sale and a Corsair H60 watercooler cheap with a rebate and I have a water cooled GPU now along with my CPU. Took $60 in new fans to get them quieter though and under full overclocking load, they still get a bit loud.

Chances are low I would want to overclock my GPU's since the benefits are small and heat is terrible. Instead I was going to buy a Superclocked EVGA Reference and wanna hook it up to a AIO since I don't want to play around with water and all that. Just finding all the pieces for a custom rad design is just too much by itself and the prices are outlandish.

The issue with the reference card is that if I crack upon that baddie to do custum cooling and it's a dud before the warranty then I'm outta luck, warranty is voided.

That's why I was thinking about the ASUS Poseidon, which I doubt will have any kind of reasonable price.

My gut is telling me that for the kind of price I'm looking at, I'd be better off buying two Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTZ 980s for SLI and leave them the heck alone....then buy a new GPU(s) in 4 or 5 years where all that money I would have spent on graphics cooling can be put into a new GPU itself.

I'm not big on OC'ing a GPU since the gains are so insubstantial and the heat is horrific compared to a CPU. CPU's are also far simpler to OC as well with about a bagillion ways to do it safely. I swear every OC guide I read for a GPU sorta seems like some finger crossing is necessary. I don't like that.

So....will 2x Gigabyte G1-Gaming GTX980s be total overkill and hopefully quieter since they share a load on a 5960x? Full PCIe lane support?

my case is the Corsair 900D so airflow and fan support is astounding. Specs of my build I am buying soon are below

SPECS:
CPU i7 5960X 3GHz
MOBO ASUS Rampage V
LIQUID COOLER not picked yet
GPU(s) not picked yet but definitely will be GTX980s in SLI
RAM 32GB Corsair Dominator 3200MHz
SSD 1TB Samsung 850 Pro
HDD 4TB Seagate Constellation 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Buffer
PSU Corsair AX1500i
DISPLAY Optoma HD141X 1080p Full 3D DLP Home Theater projector