Cooling my 1080Ti with a 240mm AIO

[Maxxtraxx]

Assassin's Creed Origins... great game, loads of fun, very pretty with all the makeup on(maxed out graphics settings) and the first AC game that I have played. But I've noticed it's not afraid to work my PC pretty hard(6700K @ 4.6Ghz with H100v2, 1080Ti founders with 120mm EVGA AIO installed, 1440p @ 75hz) and will run my 1080Ti at 90%-100% load at all times. My poor little 120mm AIO is working overtime to keep 250watts(likely more with the overclock) as cool as possible... it pushes some incredible heat out of that radiator, at full saturation the card tends to run at ~ 66C and of course it will clock down from 2000 Mhz into the 1960's as it warms(first world problems here).

 

I've been toying with the idea of getting an EK MLC Phoenix 240mm for just the GPU (see here). But... I'm a bit of second hand(aka used) craigslist shopper who enjoys buying and swapping cards on a regular basis and I have used my current EVGA Hybrid AIO on several different cards, all founders/reference models... I guess they tend to be cheapest and first available in the used market so they drop into my lap first... come to think of it, I haven't bought a new GPU since my GTX970 and I've likely had 10 - 12 cards pass through my hands since then. But... the price, that's a lot of money to spend on a setup that doesn't have the ability to be used on multiple cards... all just to get that upgrade to a 240mm radiator.

 

So, myself being willing to do things that seem to be logical and frugal but also fun and idiotic at once... I decided to try my hand at transforming my 120mm AIO into a 240mm AIO.

 

The first idea that entered my mind and that I toyed with for a week or so involved purchasing a 240mm rad, getting g1/4 to 1/4 barbs, cutting the tubes and reattaching them to the 240 rad while using some extra tube and a barbed 1/4 tee fitting to bleed the system before resealing it. I wasn't a big fan of it... it would have worked(I think) but I do enjoy achieving a setup that doesn't look barbarously hacked together when possible.

 

Then I came across these three pieces:

1: HardwareNexus's teardown of an EVGA Hybrid AIO HERE

2: EVGA forum post showing a user who swapped the EVGA pump for a Corsair pump due to noise HERE 

3: Thermaltake Water 3.0 240mm AIO HERE

 

These gave me the idea for how to proceed and solve some of the problems.

 

A normal AIO cooler will not work with a founders/reference card without stripping the card to the bare pcb due to the cast aluminum plate that covers the card and provides cooling for the memory and power delivery as the plate sits at a higher Z height than the GPU silicon.

Also a normal AIO cooler does not have the proper predrilled mounting holes for the retention bracket

Also only certain gen Asetek pumps have a pump body that has exterior X and Y axis dimensions that do not cover the mounting holes, many new Asetek pumps have a square body that would cover the mounting holes.

 

This picture of GTX1080 below provided as an example of the cooling plate height and hole spacing problems.

 

To overcome this problem means sticking with an AIO cooler with a 240mm rad and the same generation (3rd gen) Asetek pump as the EVGA pump.

Thats where the Thermaltake Water 3.0 240mm AIO comes in, unlike some of the new Corsair and EVGA AIO's like the H115i Pro and CLC 240, the Water 3.0 is an old, Gen 3 pump that matches perfectly with the EVGA Hybrid pump.

As can be seen in the pictures below, the EVGA on the Left and the Water 3.0 on the Right have the same pump body made by Asetek but have different cold plates (and an extra mounting bracket for the EVGA)

The primary things we're after are:

1: the raised center of the EVGA coldplate that allows it to drop down into silicon hole provided in the VRM/Mem chip cooling plate on the reference card.

2: the square mounting bracket that is held in by the pump body screws to allow for the factory cooler retention springy screws to be used to install the pump.

 

The pump screws come out easily with a properly sized philips screwdriver and a high level of downward pressure.

First, I found that by squeezing the back of the pump and coldplate together in my hand as I removed the pump body screws I was able to swap the pump mounting bracket from the EVGA to the Water 3.0 without any coolant loss(FYI be sure to use the screws from the EVGA pump when installing the pump mounting bracket to the new pump as they are longer to compensate for the change in depth required to retain the pump bracket)

 

Second I removed the screws for the cold plate on the EVGA pump and removed the coldplate. (examples below, not from me, found online)

The cold plate for the Gen 3 pumps is round and has 3 indentations to key the plate properly to the pump body, so you would have to try really hard to do it wrong,

I found that by simply keeping the new pump level and at the highest point in the loop the coldplate from the EVGA pump was able to be swapped onto the Water 3.0 pump with only a few drops of total coolant loss, the underside of the plate and the sealing gasket, were all visibly identical from one pump to the other.

 

Finally, it was all put back in the PC(after plugging the pump in for a leak check outside of the PC chassis).

 

I can say that...

 - It was a lot easier than I was expecting

 - The new pump is quieter... for some reason than the EVGA pump

 - The fans that came with the Water 3.0 are pretty garbage, aka Loud and do not appear to be SP optimized(I can feel a large amount of air blowback around the circumferential edge of the fan blades) like my Fractal HP-12s or the Noctua F-F12's (I have some Noctua NF-F12's on the way now to replace them)

- It is currently running 10C cooler(55-56C at full saturation and load) with the new AIO in place, the fans however are turned down to a maximum of 50% because I can't stand the noise above that, the old AIO would ramp the fan up to 60%-70% when at full load, I'm hoping the Noctua's will remove another 1-2C(might be a little hopeful there) and do so more quietly.

 - I had fun doing the entire process, I'm pretty excited that it worked.

 

Expected responses to my escapade:

1: You're dummy for opening an AIO... risking destroying it and the $80 that brought it here along with the old(previously working) AIO

2: Neat... but kinda pointless for a 10C drop

3: Glad you had fun... ya hack

 

[Jurrunio]

66C is perfectly fine by me... I would even turn down the fan speed to lower the noise. I mean, many air cooled cards run hotter than that.

[Maxxtraxx]

5 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

66C is perfectly fine by me... I would even turn down the fan speed to lower the noise. I mean, many air cooled cards run hotter than that.

100% agreed, 66C is fine.

 

I'm more interested in, the challenge of doing something like a bigger rad with a universal GPU mount for my second hand proclivity, the enjoyment from a desired result being achieved in an unconventional way and at a price that makes it even more worthwhile, and then sharing my unconventional choices to reach a goal and hopefully help someone else to do the same if it fits their budget, goals and desire and then also to give some a good laugh... That's primarily why i'm sharing.

[Amaranth]

11 hours ago, Maxxtraxx said:

 It is currently running 10C cooler(55-56C at full saturation and load) with the new AIO in place

Huh, that is interesting because both of my hybrid cards with the stock 120mm radiators stay below that. I would have expected the upgrade to 240mm to have a much larger impact. My guess is that fans are a limiting factor though since I'm currently running ML Pro 120 fans in push-pull with both cards.

 

At some point I'm going to go custom loop but haven't had the time to work on that and have only gotten as far as planning out the loop.

 

10 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

66C is perfectly fine by me...

 

5 hours ago, Maxxtraxx said:

100% agreed, 66C is fine..

 

if you're hoping to maximize your overclock/Boost 3.0 than 66c is too high and you're going to be seeing some minor throttling of your maximum boost clockspeed. This wont have any real world impact but if you're going to be benchmarking then that could be an issue.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

My EVGA FTW3 runs at between 70 and 78 at 1900MhZ core clock. 66C is perfectly acceptable

[Amaranth]

1 minute ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

My EVGA FTW3 runs at between 70 and 78 at 1900MhZ core clock. 66C is perfectly acceptable

Sure, those are fine unless you want to really push the card and then you'd need to get the thermals lower. That's the reason that Pascal loves liquid cooling so much when it comes to overclocking.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Just now, Amaranth said:

Sure, those are fine unless you want to really push the card and then you'd need to get the thermals lower. That's the reason that Pascal loves liquid cooling so much when it comes to overclocking.

True but then you get a Kingpin or some shit, not a Founders

[Amaranth]

Just now, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

True but then you get a Kingpin or some shit, not a Founders

Actually Founders Edition cards are great for custom loops because they have the widest range of waterblocks. Custom cards usually only get one or two, if they're lucky, and while they usually have some nice features you're not going to get a gimped chip if you get a reference board and free it from the stock cooler.

 

The K|NGP|N is meant for LN2 and extreme overclocking and is overkill for most people even if they're going to be going with a custom loop and pushing their card in a more 'mundane' manner. And while overclocking doesn't usually result in better gaming performance you can sometimes notice the difference and it's a nice option to have.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

9 minutes ago, Amaranth said:

Actually Founders Edition cards are great for custom loops because they have the widest range of waterblocks. Custom cards usually only get one or two, if they're lucky, and while they usually have some nice features you're not going to get a gimped chip if you get a reference board and free it from the stock cooler.

 

The K|NGP|N is meant for LN2 and extreme overclocking and is overkill for most people even if they're going to be going with a custom loop and pushing their card in a more 'mundane' manner. And while overclocking doesn't usually result in better gaming performance you can sometimes notice the difference and it's a nice option to have.

Ehh true, but not worth losing your warranty IMO.

[Amaranth]

19 minutes ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

Ehh true, but not worth losing your warranty IMO.

Why would it void your warranty? Because that's not always the case.

 

If you buy from EVGA you don't void your warranty by swapping coolers, some other companies aren't as forgiving but recently more have started to support different aftermarket coolers. But, for instance, you could swap the air cooler on your FTW3 for a waterblock and EVGA wouldn't care and it wouldn't make any difference to your warranty as long as you didn't physically damage the card in the process (and if it's an EVGA block that might even be covered).