How to Watercool a CPU + Single GPU for under $200 in the U.S.

[Faceman]

I'm pretty sure the card was simply a defective turd. I was able to buy it off a friend for $20 because it crashed for him too.

Oh, well that could be why.  Attempt to RMA it?  If it was bought within the last 3 years, it could still be under warranty.  Its worth a try.

[Ragin Asian]

Oh, well that could be why.  Attempt to RMA it?  If it was bought within the last 3 years, it could still be under warranty.  Its worth a try.

 

My friend didn't have any of the packaging when I bought it off him so that's out of the question.

[Faceman]

My friend didn't have any of the packaging when I bought it off him so that's out of the question.

You might not need the original packaging.  Some companies are lenient on that stuff.  As long as the warranty is transferable, or if your friend can do it?  If the serial number on the card checks out, and it is within warranty date all you need to do is send it back with the stock heatsink/cooler and you're good to go.  Its worth looking into.

[Ragin Asian]

You might not need the original packaging.  Some companies are lenient on that stuff.  As long as the warranty is transferable, or if your friend can do it?  If the serial number on the card checks out, and it is within warranty date all you need to do is send it back with the stock heatsink/cooler and you're good to go.  Its worth looking into.

I guess it's not happening then because the original cooler is on the 7950 I bought to swap coolers and is now in a friend's rig. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[SoftenButterCream]

Would you recommend the nepton 240m over the seidon now?

[Faceman]

Would you recommend the nepton 240m over the seidon now?

Abso-f$^king-lutely.

 

I love my Seidon, I really do, especially because I paid only $56 for it!  Even at $75, it is a good deal.. but the Nepton 240M is all around the better product.  I would buy it over a better performing 280mm AIO at the same price.  I do care about noise, so if I can get Noctua grade low noise, with high end AIO performance, without having to pay extra for new fans, that is a product I am all for.  It is priced very well at $90-$110.  I would also like to add, that those bigger AIOs tend to only perform extraordinarily well at maximum fan RPMs, which is unrealistic.  Most people have their fans in the 30-75% range, so when a reviewer only tests the product at max speed, it is not a fully accurate representation of its applicable performance.  I understand why reviewers do this, in order to see how good the products perform at max settings to make their comparisons standardized, but I love that Anandtech did a review of fan speeds at 7v(~60%) It paints a much different picture than what most people think is the best performing AIO. Unfortunately that mega AIO roundup was done before the Nepton 240M was released, but the lesson learned is something to keep in mind, at more realistic fan speeds, the AIO you think to be the best, is not always the best.  The excellent performance coupled with Noctua like noise makes this  a no-brainer for me as my go-to AIO recommendation.  It also comes with a 5 year warranty compared to 2 years of the Seidon.  Quieter fans, quieter pump, better technology, all around a superior product.

 

One thing that I would like to mention about the Seidon, is that the screws hole strip so damn easily.  I've remounted it a total of three times, and I'm afraid to ever move it again, even if I wanted to upgrade fans when the Cooler Master Silencio fans become available for individual purchase(the fans that come stock on the Nepton), I am terrified that it will never mount properly again.  This is not an uncommon problem, and CM doesn't offer RMA for this!  Out of the 8 screw holes, only 2 are still working as they should.  The rest are completely stripped.  I had to use a combination of strong zip ties and Loctite Threadlocker in order to get peace of mind about mounting this in the top of my chassis.  I should really do a follow-up to my review on Newegg, and my review of it on LTT.

 

TL:DR

 

Buy the freaking Cooler Master Nepton 240M!

[Curufinwe_wins]

This thread is worth the necro. Other options are steadily reaching the market as well.

[shaneclipse97]

@Faceman... So I was going to pm you, but figured the right thing to do was post here first. I atually became a community member just to talk to you lol. So im pretty good with cpus and oc's and go to college for cs, but this is my first go around with custom cooling for gpus. I have the 780ti ghz model shown here : http://www.techpowerup.com/195390/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-780-ti-ghz-edition-detailed.html and here : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4890#ov.. IM trying to locate all the vrms and vm's. Im assuming the vm's musth be the rows of 4 surrounding the gpu chip and the vrms are the row of 8 little black squares to the far right on the other sides of the grey squares (inductor or w/e they are called.)  IM currently running an amd 9590 with a corsair h100i and am planning on using a aio that came with my 8150 as an amd aio made by antek. Pretty much an antek cooler that is shipped with the other fx chips such as 9590. I am completely doing all this based o a post i found from u. ive folled what u said and bought the gpu to pwm fan adapter and heat sinks. I seem to have heat sinks that are the same size as the vms and are way too large for what i think to be the vrms. My vms and vrms came with thermal pad rows that seem to be loosing a little bit of their stickyness. please tell me where the vrms im concerned about are and should i buy very small heatsinks or just get rectangular ones and run them across multi vrms? I have soo many questions and im sorry but this card is completely different from every other 780ti on the market so i cant find much info. Please help as from what I understand these cards have no vrms sensor and im worried about my card as it is so different and has such a large factory oc thanks again man!!!

[Sky Daddy]

what about swiftech h220-x and gpu block? custom loop for about ~$250

[Faceman]

what about swiftech h220-x and gpu block? custom loop for about ~$250

I would want to see performance of a CPU + GPU running off of the same loop of just a 240mm radiator, but I am skeptical that it will perform as good as a dual AIO option, plus the G10 is a lot more flexible in terms of future upgradability, being able to take the G10 off of one GPU and placing it on another, to do that with a custom loop, you are spending the price of a G10 + radiator on the GPU block alone.

[Faceman]

@Faceman... So I was going to pm you, but figured the right thing to do was post here first. I atually became a community member just to talk to you lol. So im pretty good with cpus and oc's and go to college for cs, but this is my first go around with custom cooling for gpus. I have the 780ti ghz model shown here : http://www.techpowerup.com/195390/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-780-ti-ghz-edition-detailed.html and here : http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4890#ov.. IM trying to locate all the vrms and vm's. Im assuming the vm's musth be the rows of 4 surrounding the gpu chip and the vrms are the row of 8 little black squares to the far right on the other sides of the grey squares (inductor or w/e they are called.)  IM currently running an amd 9590 with a corsair h100i and am planning on using a aio that came with my 8150 as an amd aio made by antek. Pretty much an antek cooler that is shipped with the other fx chips such as 9590. I am completely doing all this based o a post i found from u. ive folled what u said and bought the gpu to pwm fan adapter and heat sinks. I seem to have heat sinks that are the same size as the vms and are way too large for what i think to be the vrms. My vms and vrms came with thermal pad rows that seem to be loosing a little bit of their stickyness. please tell me where the vrms im concerned about are and should i buy very small heatsinks or just get rectangular ones and run them across multi vrms? I have soo many questions and im sorry but this card is completely different from every other 780ti on the market so i cant find much info. Please help as from what I understand these cards have no vrms sensor and im worried about my card as it is so different and has such a large factory oc thanks again man!!!

Hey there, thank you for seeking me out!

 

The VRMs are the row of 8 little black squars to the right of the grey squares.  Those are the VRMs, those are the only things you need to worry about.  The VRAM doesn't get hot enough to be concerned with. If the included thermal pads are losing their stickyness, you will need to buy some new double sided adhesive, electrically non-conductive thermal pads and place them over the VRMs, and then place the aluminum heatsinks over the thermal pads. I describe this in my post providing links to everything.

 

Could you please post a picture of the pump/block design that you are planning to use with the G10 bracket?  The H100i won't work with the G10, as I'm sure you know, and I want to make absolutely sure that the included one you are talking about will.  Just because it is Asetek design, doesn't mean it is guaranteed to work.

 

It is a shame that the vast majority of Nvidia cards don't come with VRM monitoring.  That said, you shouldn't be too, too concerned because they tend to run much cooler than AMD VRMs.  Still, I always encourage people to buy extra thermal pads and heatsinks because it is inexpensive, and does show a nice tangible improvement in VRM temps.

[Sky Daddy]

I would want to see performance of a CPU + GPU running off of the same loop of just a 240mm radiator, but I am skeptical that it will perform as good as a dual AIO option, plus the G10 is a lot more flexible in terms of future upgradability, being able to take the G10 off of one GPU and placing it on another, to do that with a custom loop, you are spending the price of a G10 + radiator on the GPU block alone.

well, you could add another radiator since it's expandable, and each block gets a 120mm rad

 

i wouldn't expect temps to be stellar but i'd expect them to be good

 

but, in terms of pricing you have to buy 2 aio's ($60 each (120mm rad)) and the g10 ($30) and might need to buy vrm/memory heatsinks

 

swiftech h220x $140

block $80-100

tubing 2 fittings distilled water - <$20

 

so total ~$250 for a custom loop that you can expand later (you can reuse the cpu block/rad/pump/res/fancontroller)

 

edit:i sort of missed the point of the thread for watercooling under $200

[shaneclipse97]

@Faceman ok so i want to go with the thermal pads then the heat sinks instead of sticking the heat sinks directly to the vrms? from what ive read this card has a really high quality pcb setup and the vrms are designed to run cooler and shut off if they get too hot. That being said im thinking of just running them with nothing on them no thermal pad and not heat sinks until that stuff comes in from china. I have a very cool case and a side mounted 240mm fan that will be blowing directly from the side of the case onto the setup. the cooler im using is this one http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1743/amd_fx_water_cooler_010.jpg

Thanks for getting back to me man. I help a lot of people with some of my YouTube videos and its really nice to have someone help me for once lol

[Faceman]

@Faceman ok so i want to go with the thermal pads then the heat sinks instead of sticking the heat sinks directly to the vrms? from what ive read this card has a really high quality pcb setup and the vrms are designed to run cooler and shut off if they get too hot. That being said im thinking of just running them with nothing on them no thermal pad and not heat sinks until that stuff comes in from china. I have a very cool case and a side mounted 240mm fan that will be blowing directly from the side of the case onto the setup. the cooler im using is this one http://www.legitreviews.com/images/reviews/1743/amd_fx_water_cooler_010.jpg

Thanks for getting back to me man. I help a lot of people with some of my YouTube videos and its really nice to have someone help me for once lol

Yes, thermal pads.  You don't want to place heatsinks directly on to the components, because sometimes the thermal tape used is not very good, and it has melted and bricked other people's cards.  Something to avoid for sure.  Yea, VRMs can actually run extremely hot without anything wrong happening, of course cooler is better, and its not very expensive for a nice 20-30C drop in temps that the heatsinks provide.  If you want to run it without any extras, you can, but I strongly recommend buying a higher end 92mm fan at the very least.  Something like a Cooler Master Blade Master 92mm.  Its only $9, and its a super powerful 92mm fan, that you will be able to control via MSI afterburner since you bought the VGA to PWM adapter.

 

It looks like that AIO will work with the G10.  I'm not absolutely sure, but it does look like it will work because it has the locking teeth around the pump design.

[shaneclipse97]

Yes, thermal pads.  You don't want to place heatsinks directly on to the components, because sometimes the thermal tape used is not very good, and it has melted and bricked other people's cards.  Something to avoid for sure.  Yea, VRMs can actually run extremely hot without anything wrong happening, of course cooler is better, and its not very expensive for a nice 20-30C drop in temps that the heatsinks provide.  If you want to run it without any extras, you can, but I strongly recommend buying a higher end 92mm fan at the very least.  Something like a Cooler Master Blade Master 92mm.  Its only $9, and its a super powerful 92mm fan, that you will be able to control via MSI afterburner since you bought the VGA to PWM adapter.

 

It looks like that AIO will work with the G10.  I'm not absolutely sure, but it does look like it will work because it has the locking teeth around the pump design.

Thanks for helping me man, your awesome and I look forward to learning a lot from you along this gpu h20 cooling adventure of mine. Im going to be putting it all together in a few moments with out the extras and was wondering if i should atleast run the card with the old thermal pads on or with it off. it seems to me that with out the thermal pad it would allow the air that is blowing over them to help cool them down since it would be only the pads and no heatsinks. either way im confident that this card will shut off if it gets too hot so ill just see what happens but i would like to know b4 i hook it up if i will be better off with only thermal pads or just taking them off. 

[Faceman]

Thanks for helping me man, your awesome and I look forward to learning a lot from you along this gpu h20 cooling adventure of mine. Im going to be putting it all together in a few moments with out the extras and was wondering if i should atleast run the card with the old thermal pads on or with it off. it seems to me that with out the thermal pad it would allow the air that is blowing over them to help cool them down since it would be only the pads and no heatsinks. either way im confident that this card will shut off if it gets too hot so ill just see what happens but i would like to know b4 i hook it up if i will be better off with only thermal pads or just taking them off. 

I really have no idea when it comes to leaving thermal pads on without attached heatsinks. I follow your line of thought, but I also think maybe leaving them on will help pull heat off of the VRMs.

[atsf]

this is an excellent writeup, i thoroughly enjoyed reading it and i decided to pull the trigger and bought myself a Kraken G10 + H75 combo for my GTX970
my card have a bizzarely high temperature on idle and under load for a 970 (40c idle and 80c load) and it kinda worries me.. i've tried reapplying the thermal paste but after 1 week the temperature didn't get any better..
 
it had a midplate, but it doesn't have the 4 prongs that extend towards the die (referring to your post here) and it doesnt have a backplate.. so i safely assume the non reference board will accept the G10 bracket without any need for a copper shim or extra modifications..
 
i have some question regarding VRM cooling though.. heres the picture of the PCB with the midplate

 

 

as you can see, the VRM is on the other side of the board with direct contact to the midplate and actively cooled by the downdraft from the heatsink fan.. my question is since the VRM side doesn't have a fan to actively cool it anymore after i installed the G10, would it be advisable to buy additional heatsink and stick it to the midplate? or i could just leave it be and let the midplate do the heat transfer to the other side of the plate which is actively cooled by the kraken 92mm fan?

[Faceman]

@atsf

 

What exact model of 970 do you have?

 

Are those 40C idle and 80C load temps with a G10???  Something is wrong if it is.

 

For a 970 with VRM on the opposite side of the card, you need to buy something like an Antec Spot Cool to get airflow directly over the VRMs.  Just because your card has a midplate, doesn't mean that is sufficient.  You need to get some kind of direct airflow over the left side of the card where the VRMs are.  If that means removing the 92mm fan and ghetto rigging it to be blowing up onto the VRMs, then do that.

[atsf]

@Faceman

 

its Inno3D GTX 970 HerculeZ X2

 

 

no its 40c idle and 80c load temp on stock cooler, like i said, i've tried repasting the die and cranking up the fan but it does nothing.. bad cooler design perhaps? or a bad silicon?  :wacko:

anyway we'll see soon enough, i'm still waiting for my G10 + H75 to arrive.. 

 

will this pci bracket do the job? im not really fond of how the Spot Cool looks.. 

 

 

i also thinking on placing a few heatsink on the midplate to further reduce the temperature..

[Zayzo]

@Faceman

 

its Inno3D GTX 970 HerculeZ X2

 

 

no its 40c idle and 80c load temp on stock cooler, like i said, i've tried repasting the die and cranking up the fan but it does nothing.. bad cooler design perhaps? or a bad silicon?  :wacko:

anyway we'll see soon enough, i'm still waiting for my G10 + H75 to arrive.. 

 

will this pci bracket do the job? im not really fond of how the Spot Cool looks.. 

 

 

i also thinking on placing a few heatsink on the midplate to further reduce the temperature..

Were you able to monitor vrm temps in gpuz on your card? ANd those temps seem crazy high on an aftermarket cooler. MY reference 970 gets the same temps at 1575 on the core and 45% fan speed

[atsf]

Were you able to monitor vrm temps in gpuz on your card? ANd those temps seem crazy high on an aftermarket cooler. MY reference 970 gets the same temps at 1575 on the core and 45% fan speed

no i cant monitor the VRM temps, my card doesn't have VRM temp sensors..

even an open air enviroment (i uses HAF XB) with air conditioning (~23c) i only see drops about 1-3c max

[Zayzo]

no i cant monitor the VRM temps, my card doesn't have VRM temp sensors..

even an open air enviroment (i uses HAF XB) with air conditioning (~23c) i only see drops about 1-3c max

Thats so weird... like there is no way i should get better temps with the same ambient and less airflow and a stock cooler. I also repasted but with Xigmatek PTI-G4512 such a good paste

[atsf]

@Faceman @Zayzo

 

so i took a closer look at the stock cooler and i noticed that the heatsink plate is not made of copper, but alumunium.. and it's bigger than the entire gpu die.. i think that is why i dont get better temperature after repasting
 

anyway i have received the G10 and the H75 and install it right away.. took the stock cooler off, put some cooler master thermal paste from my hyper 212x cpu cooler on the gpu die (the same thermal paste i used for my previous repasting), install the kraken's 92mm fan, clean off the H75 copper plate from its preapplied thermal paste, mount the pump to the kraken and onto the gpu (this step is a pain in the a$$), mount the radiator as an intake in push & pull config, boot up the PC, and...

oh my f*cking god

im getting idle temperature just above 30c and the load temperature never got above 50c.. i ran aida64 gpu stress test for 8 minutes before and after installation, here's the result

 

got to be honest, im very impressed by the result.. i'm going let it settle for a bit before doing any overclocking

here is the finished build

 

 

next step: buy a pci bracket & a 80mm fan to cool the exposed VRM

[Zayzo]

@Faceman @Zayzo

 

so i took a closer look at the stock cooler and i noticed that the heatsink plate is not made of copper, but alumunium.. and it's bigger than the entire gpu die.. i think that is why i dont get better temperature after repasting

 

anyway i have received the G10 and the H75 and install it right away.. took the stock cooler off, put some cooler master thermal paste from my hyper 212x cpu cooler on the gpu die (the same thermal paste i used for my previous repasting), install the kraken's 92mm fan, clean off the H75 copper plate from its preapplied thermal paste, mount the pump to the kraken and onto the gpu (this step is a pain in the a$$), mount the radiator as an intake in push & pull config, boot up the PC, and...

oh my f*cking god

im getting idle temperature just above 30c and the load temperature never got above 50c.. i ran aida64 gpu stress test for 8 minutes before and after installation, here's the result

 

got to be honest, im very impressed by the result.. i'm going let it settle for a bit before doing any overclocking

here is the finished build

 

 

next step: buy a pci bracket & a 80mm fan to cool the exposed VRM

Nice!! yeah aluminum...

[Faceman]

@Faceman

 

its Inno3D GTX 970 HerculeZ X2

 

 

no its 40c idle and 80c load temp on stock cooler, like i said, i've tried repasting the die and cranking up the fan but it does nothing.. bad cooler design perhaps? or a bad silicon?  :wacko:

anyway we'll see soon enough, i'm still waiting for my G10 + H75 to arrive.. 

 

will this pci bracket do the job? im not really fond of how the Spot Cool looks.. 

 

 

i also thinking on placing a few heatsink on the midplate to further reduce the temperature..

Yea, definitely use some heatsinks on the midplate if you can.  Those aluminum ones I mentioned will work really well for that. 

 

Ok, so that is with the stock cooler.  With the G10, those core temps will drop dramatically. 

 

Yea!  That PCI bracket will work really well.