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Guide: Modding A Watercooled Titan-Style Card

hihihi8
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46 minutes ago, hihihi8 said:

So far my only jealousy towards AIO's is their maintenance free aspect... Currently my rig's under maintenance due to the radiator being so dirty and impossible to clean properly :(.. It's been slowly yet steadily depositing junk into my filter over the past week, and has been steadily reducing flow. Unfortunately Alphacool Rads are notorious for this

 

Should've bought second hand, that way the junk's already in someone else's loop lol :D 

Lol. My alpha cools were second hand. Loop was fine. Guess I got lucky. They're the monster rads though. Like 80mm thick. Can't fit in any of my cases except my core x9. 

Main RIg Corsair Air 540, I7 9900k, ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero, G.Skill Ripjaws 3600 32GB, 3090FE, EVGA 1000G5, Acer Nitro XZ3 2560 x 1440@240hz 

 

Spare RIg Lian Li O11 AIR MINI, I7 4790K, Asus Maximus VI Extreme, G.Skill Ares 2400 32Gb, EVGA 1080ti, 1080sc 1070sc & 1060 SSC, EVGA 850GA, Acer KG251Q 1920x1080@240hz

 

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I still find most full cover blocks to be better looking, but I have to admit this is a very nice mod. It's definitely the best one of these mods I've ever seen - most of them look amateurish and sloppy, unlike yours. The idea is nice and the end result looks sharp.

 

My only real concern when comparing this to a full cover block would be VRM cooling, but it seems that the reference design provides no VRM heatsinks to begin with (correct me if I'm wrong, I've never seen a reference 980Ti up close) so I suppose it should be okay with just airlow from the blower fan.

 

 

Liquid cooling since 2002.

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1 hour ago, unholy_walrus said:

I still find most full cover blocks to be better looking, but I have to admit this is a very nice mod. It's definitely the best one of these mods I've ever seen - most of them look amateurish and sloppy, unlike yours. The idea is nice and the end result looks sharp.

 

My only real concern when comparing this to a full cover block would be VRM cooling, but it seems that the reference design provides no VRM heatsinks to begin with (correct me if I'm wrong, I've never seen a reference 980Ti up close) so I suppose it should be okay with just airlow from the blower fan.

The entire block is the cooler for the vram. So the little bit that gets carried away from the blow and the passive airflow (if any) across the cooler itself. Its even more difficult when you have vram on the back that's has nothing what so ever to cool it.

Main RIg Corsair Air 540, I7 9900k, ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero, G.Skill Ripjaws 3600 32GB, 3090FE, EVGA 1000G5, Acer Nitro XZ3 2560 x 1440@240hz 

 

Spare RIg Lian Li O11 AIR MINI, I7 4790K, Asus Maximus VI Extreme, G.Skill Ares 2400 32Gb, EVGA 1080ti, 1080sc 1070sc & 1060 SSC, EVGA 850GA, Acer KG251Q 1920x1080@240hz

 

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I was referring to the power delivery though, not the vram chips.

 

 

Liquid cooling since 2002.

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1 hour ago, unholy_walrus said:

My only real concern when comparing this to a full cover block would be VRM cooling

After adding the heat sinks to the inside of the cooler, my cards now run cool to the touch. A little higher than room temperature at most, so I'm pretty sure I did a good job of protecting the VRM and VRAM's

PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB — WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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Just now, hihihi8 said:

After adding the heat sinks to the inside of the cooler, my cards now run cool to the touch. A little higher than room temperature at most, so I'm pretty sure I did a good job of protecting the VRM and VRAM's

What kind of heatsinks did you use for the VRM if I may ask? Seeing this has made me want to try something on a reference 780 I'll get soon. I have a bunch of small copper heatsinks I used on one of my R9 290s somewhere around here but I suspect they may be way too high to fit inside.

 

 

Liquid cooling since 2002.

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5 hours ago, unholy_walrus said:

What kind of heatsinks did you use for the VRM if I may ask?

Mine were 21*21*15mm (15mm height), i used 6 of them on one card, whereas the other I used like 20 of these 6.5*6.5*12mm (12mm height) pieces, and a few 10*10*10mm pieces. I stuck em' inside the original card cooler, next to and around the EK-Supremacy EVO water block. This area is orignally blocked by the stock heatsink getting little surface area, and is why the VRAM and VRM's run so hot on the stock cards. 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.K6sF74&id=7327987370&_u=p2f0dn2v3d87

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.K6sF74&id=7226682874&_u=p2f0dn2ve53f

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.K6sF74&id=26283324058&_u=p2f0dn2v4cbe

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.0.0.K6sF74&id=520760469494&_u=p2f0dn2v0468

 

IIRC, I also used some 19*14*7mm pieces (Third link). They are all aluminum, as copper was harder to find to these specifications. You can also choose to buy a large chunk the thickness you want, and cut them using a hack-saw. When sticking with adhesive-thermal-paste, just remember to stick them in an orientation that they will guide the wind around the water block :) 

PC 0: Pinky 2.0

Ryzen 9 5950x — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 @3600Mhz CL14-13-13-28-288 — ROG Crosshair 8 Dark Hero — RX 6900 XT — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB — Samsung PM961 1TB — WD Blue 4TB HDD — Corsair AX1500i — Thermaltake Core P5 

 

PC 1: Pinky (Yes that is her name) Here's the build

Xeon E5-1680V3 — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Samsung 950Pro 512GB — Seagate 2TB HDD — Corsair RM1000 — Thermaltake Core P5

 

PC 1.1: Pinky (Mom Edition) Here's the build

i7-5960X — 64GB G.Skill Ripjaws 4 @2400Mhz — MSi X99A Godlike Gaming — GTX 980Ti SLI (2-WAY) — Hardline Loop — Sabrent Rocket 3 1TB — Samsung Q 870 Evo 4TB — Corsair HX850i — InWin S-Frame #190

 

PC 2: Red Box/Scarlet Overkill (Dual Xeon)

Xeon E5-2687W x2 — 96GB Kingston DDR3 ECC REG @1333Mhz — EVGA Classified SR-X Dual CPU — GTX 1070 SLI (2-WAY) —Hardline Loop — Samsung 750 EVO 256GB — Seagate 2TB 2.5" HDD x3 — Self-Built Case

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