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What is involved in water cooling a GPU?

Radium_Angel
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(Note: never done water cooling before, hence the dumb questions below)

 

I have a new video card, an AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100, and while I can adjust the fan curve through the AMD software, it'll still zip up from idle 46C to 90C even on modest games.

I have considered changing the thermal paste and possibly adding new thermal pads to it, but I ran across this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32909923961.html

 

And started to think about the potential to water cool, but space is somewhat constrained mainly because it's a workstation system (Dell Precision T7610) and wasn't ever designed for this but there is some space at the base of the case that could be used, provided not much more is needed beyond the link I listed.

 

So, what else is needed? Advice appreciated

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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Custom loop water cooling is a bit of an undertaking. For a custom loop to cool the GPU, you'll need:

  • The GPU block
  • Thermal paste and pads
  • Some kind of tubing (soft or hard)
  • Fittings
  • A pump and reservoir (or a pump/reservoir combo unit)
  • A radiator 
  • Fans

Just looking at images of the Dell case online, I can see that there's probably some space for a vertical reservoir and pump or reservoir/pump combo at the bottom of the case, but the obvious issue to me is that there's no place to mount a radiator. You'd have to cut a custom grill into the top, and fit your own mounting. 

Main PC:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X • Noctua NH-D15 • MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk • 2x8GB G.skill Trident Z Neo 3600MHz CL16 • MSI VENTUS 3X GeForce RTX 3070 OC • Samsung 970 Evo 1TB • Samsung 860 Evo 1TB • Cosair iCUE 465X RGB • Corsair RMx 750W (White)

 

Peripherals/Other:

ASUS VG27AQ • G PRO K/DA • G502 Hero K/DA • G733 K/DA • G840 K/DA • Oculus Quest 2 • Nintendo Switch (Rev. 2)

 

Laptop (Dell XPS 13):

Intel Core i7-1195G7 • Intel Iris Xe Graphics • 16GB LPDDR4x 4267MHz • 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD • 13.4" OLED 3.5K InfinityEdge Display (3456x2160, 400nit, touch). 

 

Got any questions about my system or peripherals? Feel free to tag me (@bellabichon) and I'll be happy to give you my two cents. 

 

PSA: Posting a PCPartPicker list with no explanation isn't helpful for first-time builders :)

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11 hours ago, bellabichon said:

no place to mount a radiator.

That was my main concern. I'm currently running without the side panel for airflow. At the back there is a mesh panel that allows waste heat from the dual CPUs to escape, but it's not very large, nor deep. Are shallow radiators available?

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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6 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

That was my main concern. I'm currently running without the side panel for airflow. At the back there is a mesh panel that allows waste heat from the dual CPUs to escape, but it's not very large, nor deep. Are shallow radiators available?

There are slim radiators, but they don't perform as well. Are you taking about the little mesh exhaust that's designed for a single 120mm fan? I'm not sure a slim 120 radiator would be sufficient. 

Main PC:

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X • Noctua NH-D15 • MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk • 2x8GB G.skill Trident Z Neo 3600MHz CL16 • MSI VENTUS 3X GeForce RTX 3070 OC • Samsung 970 Evo 1TB • Samsung 860 Evo 1TB • Cosair iCUE 465X RGB • Corsair RMx 750W (White)

 

Peripherals/Other:

ASUS VG27AQ • G PRO K/DA • G502 Hero K/DA • G733 K/DA • G840 K/DA • Oculus Quest 2 • Nintendo Switch (Rev. 2)

 

Laptop (Dell XPS 13):

Intel Core i7-1195G7 • Intel Iris Xe Graphics • 16GB LPDDR4x 4267MHz • 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD • 13.4" OLED 3.5K InfinityEdge Display (3456x2160, 400nit, touch). 

 

Got any questions about my system or peripherals? Feel free to tag me (@bellabichon) and I'll be happy to give you my two cents. 

 

PSA: Posting a PCPartPicker list with no explanation isn't helpful for first-time builders :)

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-> Moved to Custom Loop and Exotic Cooling

^^^^ That's my post ^^^^
<-- This is me --- That's your scrollbar -->
vvvv Who's there? vvvv

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