Whaler_99

Aquacomputer Aqualis PRO 450ml Reservoir with LED HolderBackground
Recently, I have been having some issues with Bay Res solutions for my computer, having had two leak on me. Short story, the acrylic and glue can only handle sustained temps of less the 50C. I have a requirement for handling water temps in excess of 60C on a sustained basis – so after some looking and some help from Daz over at Dazmode.com I decided on the Aqua Computer Aqualis reservoir. This is borosilicate glass tubing with a nano coating. It has a wall thickness of 5mm and has excellent thermal resistance.
Initial ImpressionUpon taking out the res from the packaging the first thing you notice is the sheer weight of this thing. It comes in at just over 1.2 kilos and just oozes quality. The base and top are constructed of Delrin and have an incredibly solid feel to them. A center, stainless tube for filling and the water after and two plates for inside the res to help control air ingestion back into the loop
 
My res is the PRO version which comes with an additional acrylic windows screwed into the base and has the option of mounting 6 x 5mm LED’s to help highlight the coolant, especially if using the water fall.
 
Now, if you notice from the pic, the res comes with all the accessories and the instructions in the res itself. So, I sat there wonder for a few minutes, how the heck do I get into it? I tried unscrew the top G1/4 plug but that didn’t do anything. I tried unscrewing the top and the base, but to no avail. This thing wasn’t letting me in. It wasn’t until I went on the Aqua site, found an online copy of the manual, which is in my res do note, that it says to unscrew the top in counter clockwise direction. After some more work on this I finally got it off. J
InstallationInstallation looks pretty simply. They provide a nice mounting plate. Very solid for holding the weight of the res as well as the fluid. Depending on your case though, you will need to get the old drill out. I mounted mine and drilled out four holes. Once screwed in it was VERY solid.
 
One thing to remember, if you have the LED Holder, the LEDs need to be installed prior to mounting, otherwise you have no access to insert the LEDs. Now, one issue I came up with, not enough room. There is a channel on each side of the base for running the cabling for the LEDs through. There was nowhere near enough room for three per side and just barely room for two per side.
 
Now, a lot of what you do here for filling depends on what you do – if you want to use the water fall effect, the intake into the res is through the center port, and the outtake is through either of the side ones. Now, of course, to fill, you need to put coolant in through the top port, but that is supposed to be sealed, for the water fall effect. So, I installed a fitting and some tubing that was higher than the whole setup to fill. This worked out well.
 
Once all filled, primed and sealed up, the res looks really good. The LED effect is really nice. The water fall effect is a little “meh”. As per the video on Aquacomputer website, where it is really pouring out, even with me D5 at the 5 setting, I could not get anywhere near that. The fluid comes down and out a bit then down the center tube. Still looks cool, but quote a “water fall”.
 
One thing to keep in mind when screwing the top back on, make sure the o-ring at the base, that the glass res goes on, is in the right spot. Place the glass down, then hold it in place and the screw the top on, tight. I original screwed the top back on and the glass twisted a bit and kinked the o-ring. Which mean it leaked like a sieve when I started filling it and had to tear everything out…
VerdictOverall, this is a great reservoir. Top quality parts and the glass itself is amazing. Installation was a bit complicated, just sorting out exactly where to mount it, drilling out custom holes. But otherwise pretty straight forward. Multiple port options, LED effects, all good!
 
In the next post I will add a bunch of the pics I took with some descriptions...
 

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These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
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These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
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First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
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At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
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Very nice build! Like the mount for the pump.

Nice to see this going on and the community pulling together. I've been reading up and looks the folks are working on bringing more WU's into the system as well as more back end architecture to support the surge!
 
Congrats and thanks to all for working and donating!
 
Cheers and love to all!
Whaler
 

These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
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These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
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These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
Any posts which are deemed by the mod staff to not meet the rules outlined in the Community Standards or these guidelines might be locked or deleted without warning. If you are found to have violated the core values of the Community Standards via a topic and/or post (attacking another member, vulgar language, racism, etc,) warning points will be assigned.
 
At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
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Couple of things... working in datacenters with 220V and bringing in PC's on occasion with no auto voltage regulator. They have the stupid red switch you have to flip. BAM! I have fried a few PSU's that way, and almost lost it in my pants in the process. :)
My other issue sometimes, being in a hurry during a build.... not making sure the CPU heatsink was properly placed, tighten it down and nothing... shutdown due to thermal overload... Doh... Oh ya, the block has to be ON the cpu... no just hovering above. :)

These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
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At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
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These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
Any posts which are deemed by the mod staff to not meet the rules outlined in the Community Standards or these guidelines might be locked or deleted without warning. If you are found to have violated the core values of the Community Standards via a topic and/or post (attacking another member, vulgar language, racism, etc,) warning points will be assigned.
 
At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
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Thank you all for your contributions to the LTT forum!

These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
Any posts which are deemed by the mod staff to not meet the rules outlined in the Community Standards or these guidelines might be locked or deleted without warning. If you are found to have violated the core values of the Community Standards via a topic and/or post (attacking another member, vulgar language, racism, etc,) warning points will be assigned.
 
At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
"Don't be a dick" - Wil Wheaton. "Be excellent to each other" - Bill and Ted. Remember your audience; both present and future. No excessive/excessively off-topic threads or posts. No posting nonsensical messages. No "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages. The posting solely of memes or similar images without contributing to the discussion, memes can be funny and applicable but if it is completely unrelated it is spam. Do not create threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums. Do not cause disturbances in forum threads such as picking fights or insulting other members. Do not make non-constructive posts for the purpose of causing unrest.  This includes posting LMGTFY links. No replying to a thread simply to call the author a troll (regardless of whether the post is actually trolling) We are working to make this a productive and positive environment for all and the Off-Topic section must maintain these standards.
 
Thank you all for your contributions to the LTT forum!

These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
Any posts which are deemed by the mod staff to not meet the rules outlined in the Community Standards or these guidelines might be locked or deleted without warning. If you are found to have violated the core values of the Community Standards via a topic and/or post (attacking another member, vulgar language, racism, etc,) warning points will be assigned.
 
At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
"Don't be a dick" - Wil Wheaton. "Be excellent to each other" - Bill and Ted. Remember your audience; both present and future. No excessive/excessively off-topic threads or posts. No posting nonsensical messages. No "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages. The posting solely of memes or similar images without contributing to the discussion, memes can be funny and applicable but if it is completely unrelated it is spam. Do not create threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums. Do not cause disturbances in forum threads such as picking fights or insulting other members. Do not make non-constructive posts for the purpose of causing unrest.  This includes posting LMGTFY links. No replying to a thread simply to call the author a troll (regardless of whether the post is actually trolling) We are working to make this a productive and positive environment for all and the Off-Topic section must maintain these standards.
 
Thank you all for your contributions to the LTT forum!

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General
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These guidelines are subject to updating and/or change without notice.

These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
Any posts which are deemed by the mod staff to not meet the rules outlined in the Community Standards or these guidelines might be locked or deleted without warning. If you are found to have violated the core values of the Community Standards via a topic and/or post (attacking another member, vulgar language, racism, etc,) warning points will be assigned.
 
At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
"Don't be a dick" - Wil Wheaton. "Be excellent to each other" - Bill and Ted. Remember your audience; both present and future. No excessive/excessively off-topic threads or posts. No posting nonsensical messages. No "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages. The posting solely of memes or similar images without contributing to the discussion, memes can be funny and applicable but if it is completely unrelated it is spam. Do not create threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums. Do not cause disturbances in forum threads such as picking fights or insulting other members. Do not make non-constructive posts for the purpose of causing unrest.  This includes posting LMGTFY links. No replying to a thread simply to call the author a troll (regardless of whether the post is actually trolling) We are working to make this a productive and positive environment for all and the Off-Topic section must maintain these standards.
 
Thank you all for your contributions to the LTT forum!

These are the specific guidelines all users must follow when posting in the Off-Topic thread. They are subject to change/update at any time.
 
First of all, ALL the items of the Community Standards apply to the Off-Topic section. The Off-Topic section is NOT for junk posts, SPAM, trolling and just any old thing. The Off-Topic section IS for productive threads that may not fall into one of the already laid out sections of the forum. At all times though, this is a tech centered and focused forum.  
Any posts which are deemed by the mod staff to not meet the rules outlined in the Community Standards or these guidelines might be locked or deleted without warning. If you are found to have violated the core values of the Community Standards via a topic and/or post (attacking another member, vulgar language, racism, etc,) warning points will be assigned.
 
At all time when posting, remember these few key items from the Community Standards :
"Don't be a dick" - Wil Wheaton. "Be excellent to each other" - Bill and Ted. Remember your audience; both present and future. No excessive/excessively off-topic threads or posts. No posting nonsensical messages. No "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages. The posting solely of memes or similar images without contributing to the discussion, memes can be funny and applicable but if it is completely unrelated it is spam. Do not create threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums. Do not cause disturbances in forum threads such as picking fights or insulting other members. Do not make non-constructive posts for the purpose of causing unrest.  This includes posting LMGTFY links. No replying to a thread simply to call the author a troll (regardless of whether the post is actually trolling) We are working to make this a productive and positive environment for all and the Off-Topic section must maintain these standards.
 
Thank you all for your contributions to the LTT forum!

FYI gang - please don't respond in this thread - we are trying to keep it neat. If you want to thank or congratulate us, please like the various or appropriate posts

Some more updates and clean up.

Bunch of updates tonight - PM myself of Ghost if you think anything should be added.

Maintenance
 
7.1 Draining your loop
 
There are three main ways to "drain" the loop; get rid of the coolant.
Get a manifold. This is a cube with G1/4 threads on all sides. It has 4 blanking plugs. While in use the water would flow directly through it. When you want to empty your loop just unscrew one of the sides. and water can pour out. You can attach a valve if you want a "cleaner" way to do it. This is the only method that will work with acrylic tubing. Get a no spill quick disconnect. These cost around £10-20 for the complete set and click into each other. You can cleanly separate the loop. You can split a tube in half with almost no water spillage. These add some restriction to the loop but now-a-days have been improved a lot so this restriction is minimized. The free solution. Most of the time when you change your coolant you need to change your tubing too. So just grab a scalpel or sharp knife and cut through the tube and put both ends in a basin. There will be some splash but if you are quick its a good way to drain your loop. Timing - When to drain...
 
Depends a lot on your situation - coolant used, tubing, average heat of system, lots or no direct sunlight, etc. On "average" I would say once a year. If just using distilled water and a kill coil and system runs relatively cool - can probably easily go a year and a half. Running a heavy pre-mix coolant with UV addiitve? May want to clean things out every 6-9 months as you can get some buildup in your blocks from different UV additives. This is still highly subjective. But if you notice your system running warm, clouding of the coolant or other things in the liquid, it may be time to drain.
 
Cleaning
 
Very important step, esp if you are changing coolant colors. You need to make sure you clean your blocks properly. Most of the time blocks can be disassembled to get into them and clean them out. Pay attention though as most have rubber gasket/seals that need to go back on correctly in order to make a leak proof seal. Some blocks may have build up in them, a soft bristle tooth brush can be used. Some recommend a some amount of vinegar in the water, ketchup or other things to help. I just recommend distilled water. Anything else use to clean will in turn need to be thoroughly flushed out before filling your loop.
Also, make sure you flush those rads. Fill them up with some water and move the water all about, tipping and twisting the rad. A vigorous shake can help. You may need to do this many times until the water coming out is the same as the water that went in.
 
Another option if to have a pump and hook things up, say near the sink. Typically this has the pump pulling fluid from a bowl that easy to fill. You attach each component to the pump and use that to flush them. Very effective, but a bit of a pain to setup.
 
Tubing, should it be replaced?
 
In almost all cases I will say yes. The ends of the tubing get stretched after use in fittings or on barbs and if reconnected, won't be as tight, leading to possible seals. If you drained your loop due to things being cloudy, quite possibly this was because your tubing was starting to break down. General rule of thumb, after a drain, replace the old with the new. 
 
The only time I will re-use a piece of tubing is if I can really tell it is still in excellent shape and I can use it in a shorter run then before, allowing me to trim both ends off and get rid of the stretched sections from the previous hook up.

Extra's

Q: Loop order

A: People often wonder if loop order is important in the design and layout. Not really is the simple answer. A water cooling loop is exactly that, a closed loop. Water is being pushed and pulled and once your system is up and running, the temperature difference at any one point may be only a degree or two. The only general recommendation is to mount things so the reservoir outlet feeds the inlet of the pump. This prevents the pump from running dry and also helps to collect air during the priming and stop it from being recirculated (just ensure the outlet is mounted higher the the pump inlet).

Q: Dual Loop?

A: In almost every case, no. Having two dedicated loops that are completely segregated not only requires a pump for each, they also lack the overall cooling potential of the total radiators being implemented. If you were to comprise two setups- one single loop, one dual loop, and use the exact same watercooling hardware, you'd find that the single loop (even if using both pumps) would cool better due to the combined dissipation potential of the radiators from the dual loop setup. You would be able to take advantage of the extra radiator space from the dual loop's CPU loop to help cool the GPUs when running a single, overall loop.

Q: Fan Controller

A: Lot of people plan to use fan controllers in their builds. The idea is to run fans at low speed when idling or not doing much and to ramp them up when load/temps require them.

I (Whaler_99) recommend against planning on this. Get good quality fans and set them and forget them. One of the issues that has come up is that a large number of fan controllers use a type of pulse modulation or on/off signalling for controlling the voltage. In other words, the voltage is not constant. This can introduce some horrible motor whine in some fan motors which can only be fixed by running the controller full out - 12v. If you are planning on using a set model of fans and a controller - test prior to buying a whole bunch of fans. I typically undervolt my fans off direct connection from the PSU. This gives me the most constant power to the fans.

Q: More Reading

A: Here are some site that can give you a lot more info.

http://skinneelabs.com - Skinnee Labs - one of the top sites on the web for info and test results.
http://martinsliquidlab.org - Updated new site - one of the main resources on the web.
http://martinsliquidlab.i4memory.com - Martin's Liquid Labs - no longer update since 08 - but a lot of good info there.
http://www.coolingconfigurator.com - The EK Cooling Config site. One of the best to see if your GPU has a compatible water block.

Q: Linus's Test Results with various AiO's

A: Linus and crew have recently been testing various AiO units with the standardized test bench. Here is the link to the spreadsheet that they update.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlPSGh26Ne0XdHZweHoxckRqazBvM0RTMW5GSFZNRmc#gid=0
 
Q: Where to buy
 
Aquatuning sell in:

 
Please go to http://www.aquatuning.us/ and select the appropriate site.
 
Please bear in mind that most retailers will ship to nearby countries.
 
If you see a retailer missing please message/tweet "Ghost".
 
In Canada:
http://www.ncix.com
http://www.dazmode.com/
 
In US: 
Performance PC
Sidewinders
Xoxide
AquaTuning US
Frozen CPU - Closed
Jab-Tech - Closed Down
 
In UK:
http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk
http://www.candccentral.co.uk
http://www.e22.biz/
(Unfortunately Specialtech.co.uk has gone through voluntary liquidation)
 
In Germany:
http://caseking.de
  In Spain:
http://www.ibercool.com/en/
 
In Sweden:
http://www.coolingstuff.se/.
http://www.inet.se/
 
In Denmark: coolerkit.dk  
In Australia:
http://pccasegear.com/
http://www.thekoolroom.com/
http://www.gammods.com.au
 
In Asia:
http://store.apes.my...hk=1&Itemid=262
 
 
Some Extra Links
 
Thanks to @airdeano for this post, some intro to water cooling videos from Mod Zoo and MNPCTech
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/180691-recent-how-to-water-cool-videos/

FYI gang - please don't respond in this thread - we are trying to keep it neat. If you want to thank or congratulate us, please like the various or appropriate posts

With the new Cores and the release of new GPUs, there is a lot of information floating around from various sources. Not, if any, is official unfortunately. So, in this thread I am going to post some info I have found to be pretty trustworthy as well as results I know from my own tests.
 
I invite other users to post their findings. NOTE!! Do not simply post PPD results and the like. This thread is for posting config examples that you know to work based on your testing. Yes, testing, meaning you have multiple systems, GPUs, whatever, to back up your claims. Or you have read, post links if possible, trusted sources.
 
This will hopefully allow you, the average user, who might be considering some GPU upgrades, to get some information that may pertain to your environment. Also, NOTE, all this info is very subjective to the testers environment and settings. Mileage will always vary. Most of this directly effects multi GPU configs. 
 
General Information
Unfortunately most of the info you see on the Stanford site is out of date. Much of the information is from 2013 when the new website was launched and has not been updated much. So, when reading things there, take it with a grain of salt. There have been a lot of upgrades and changes over the past two years.
 
Supported GPUs
There is a file, called the GPU White-list, that contains a listing of all supported GPUs. This does NOT mean that because your GPU is in there, it is supported. This list is updated with new cards but never has old cards removed.
 
As per the Folding Forum, the somewhat official information source, here are the currently supported cards:
 
Officially Supported GPUs
AMD -> HD 5000 Series or higher
Nvidia -> GTX 400 Series (Fermi) or higher
 
That was from 2013. I think the minimum's supported have now gone up, but I am not positive. 
 
Also the equivalent Quadro, FireGL and such cards are also supported.
 
The dedicated GPU compute cards, NVidia Tesla, Intel Phy and others, are not supported.
 
PCIe Slots
You can use PCIe x1 size through x16 sized slots for folding with GPUs. There are various types of expanders that allow your x16 card to plug into a x1, for instance, slot. Also, v1 through v3 of the PCI Express specifications is also supported. Now, here is where is gets complicated. Different Cores and Projects need differing amounts of bandwidth. 
 
In my testing, and some others, about two years ago, we found no PPD decrease when using x1 slots versus x16 slots (PCIe v2). Back then though Core17 was just coming out and there was no Core18. This has changed somewhat. If you get Core15 and some Core17 assignments, this still won't make a difference. But, on Core18 it can. Some have seen up to a 20% drop on PDD when going from x16 to x4 slots. At this point though, v2 or v3 slots don't seem to make much of an impact. So, where does this leave you?
 
If planning to make a multi GPU folding system, try and get/use as many x16 slots as possible. You can use x4 and x1 with the use of expanders, but depending on the work you get assigned, you might notice some PPD decline now on those cards.
 
CPU Impact
This is primarily a NVidia issue, mostly attributed to NVidia drivers. So, the rule of thumb when folding with a NVidia GPU and CPU folding, is to leave one core free per GPU to maximize your GPU Folding performance. In the case of AMD, it is simply recommended to leave a single core free for one or more cards as the impact isn't as great.
 
So, what is going on? Well, it turns out when Folding on NVidia there seems to be a lot of polling. If you watch the CPU, yes, you can see it pegged pretty high, but if you look at something like the heat output, it actually isn't generating much. The CPU isn't actually working that hard, just being consumed with polling queries. Apparently not having the core free can greatly increase processing time, which in turn affects the QRB bonus. But, the CPU isn't actually doing a whole heck of a lot. The GPU is still doing all the work, just there seems to be this polling mechanism for some reason. 
 
SLI and Crossfire
If you have two cards with either of these enabled, no fear. There is minimal impact on Folding from having these technologies set.
 

 
Hopefully some of you find this useful and as mentioned, feel free to add your findings. 
 
Just remember, I will remove posts not on topic and specifically containing config info.
 

 
Update October 2015
 
Drivers
As many have seen, sometimes updating to the latest version, especially when folding, is not always the best thing. One of the more current versions for NVidia is simply crushing folding. If you are on a version and everything is running tip top, pay close attention to what those new updated version are doing. 98% of the time, you don't need them as they have zero performance gain for most things. What they are doing is adding specific support for games, fixes, etc. If you don't play those games, then you don't need the update.
Just pay attention before updating drivers and be prepared to roll back if things don't go something and wait for the next round.
 
Minimum Support Cards
Officially Supported GPUs
AMD -> HD 5000 Series or higher
Nvidia -> GTX 400 Series (Fermi) or higher
 
Looks like they has been tweaked a bit, nothing official, but looks like these are now the minimum needed to get most WU's completed:
AMD -> 6000 series or higher
NVidia -> GTX 620 or higher