EK-FC4870x2 - Watercooling my GFX :)

Well after getting sick of watching my idle GFX temps hover around 60 and the sheer volume of the fan on 100% I decided to do something about it and but my GFX Card a pressie:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/890/dsc01918mq4.jpg

Opening the box the full cover block is rather nice ;)

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4476/dsc01919eu3.jpg

After removing the stock fan and heat sinks there was a lot of gunk and residue

So a quick wipe over with some nail varnish remover later:

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6089/dsc01922ca4.jpg


The hardest part (so far) was the cutting of the heat pads - It doesn't help when the instructions have the wrong sizes and they dont give you an awful lot of extra incase you feck it up :S

Pads on:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/7104/dsc01923rv7.jpg

So the first side of the cover slips on:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/9268/dsc01924ny3.jpg

And then the other:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4176/dsc01925tg9.jpg

Those screws, even at only just "tight" bend the card like a disfigured banana - they just need to catch and take up the slack (one its been on and tested for a few days ill try tightening them up a tad more).

Once that was done, plumbed the bugger in and flicked the power switch ...................



PC booted, but the monitor instantly drops to "power saving mode" - undid everything, resteated everything, lossened the screws off and - same thing :(

Rinse repeat for at least 10 times - and now really nit impressed.

I tried a different lead, a different monitor, a VGA lead instead of a DVI-D - same problem and was now seriously thinking I had goosed my GFX card.

I could tell that the PC was booting into windows, but I just wasnt getting any signal.

After some furious googling I tried a CMOS / BIOS reset and thankfully that appears to have worked- all fired up now:


http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/6089/dsc01927nf7.jpg

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4026/dsc01928te0.jpg

It has rasied my CPU temps by a few degrees (but still OK @ 3.6GHz) but the GPU temps have over halved (to mid 30s) and the card used to regularly hit 100 after a good session and now tops out at 60 :) so all in all im impressed.

As I say ill give it a day or two and see if slowly tightening the back screws helps with the temps before the card bends too much ;)

looking sweet mate :up:

If your having issues there is supposed to one screw left out (IIRC) as it shorts the GFX card. i'll see if i can find the thread bbs...

EDIT: Here's the link....

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ghlight=4870X2 Hope it helps

Thanks :)

I have removed the screw (between the barbs) on the 6th pic - there was no nylon washer for it :S

The issues appear (cross fingers) to have gone - It looks like some GFX / Mobo combinations don't like overclocking and changing components, but how it knows ive added a waterblock to my GFX i don't know :S

The CMOS / BIOS reset appears to have worked ;)

Told you he would be up to something.....nice tb.... really nice. You gonna go for another 3dmark 06 run? :up2:

lol ya left the stickers on the mobo :P

Also what tuinb u usin as it looks SWEET

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spud

lol ya left the stickers on the mobo :P

Also what tuinb u usin as it looks SWEET

---

Thanks !

lol i dont think they're stickers - theyre metal !

The tubing is 8/10 mm XSPC tubing linky