Video Card and Cooling inputs?

[CaptainHaplo]

Ok - I am considering looking at another video card. I have used both Nvidia and ATI cards, though my last 3 cards have been ATI based. Therein lies the problem - all 3 have exhibited the same problem after a while - heatsink fan failure. Right now my 1650 pro is locking up - and I have already replaced the fan on it once. Did the same think with my last card - ended up replacing the cooling fan on that one as well. I know its not an issue of dust mainly because I keep my box clean, but also because none of the other fans in the box have had a problem.

At this point I am either going to go with a liquid cooling system, or swapping to an Nvidia card (I never had problems with them staying cool). If I go with an Nvidia card, whats the best bang for the buck in the 100-200 $ price range? Or should I go liquid cooling now (and thus making my 1650 last awhile longer) and then move that to a future rig when I build my next box?

If I go water cooling (which is where I am really leaning), the only thing I have seen fairly reasonably priced is a ThermalTake system. Anyone have a liquid cooled rig? Inputs welcome here. I figure this would be the way to go since, long term, I can move it to whatever hw I go to in the future provided I clean the copper sinks good and get a good match on the next cpu/gpu/bridge chip when I move. Any issues here that I should know about?
Thanks in advance!

[Kloef]

8800GT 1GB is an incredible bargain,if your pc can support it..

[CaptainHaplo]

Should I look into the 9600 series of Nvidia - or stick with the 8800? How about the 9800 - or on the ATI side - a HD series. I am really tempted to go with watercooling regardless of another card or not....

[Brenjen]

I've been using a water cooled eVGA 7950 GX2 nvidia card for a couple years now (might be a year & a half) & that thing has shredded every game I've thrown at it including a WW-2 combat MMORG called Aces High. It's over clocked as far as it will go & has been the entire time I've owned it using Riva tuner. It's in a loop with my FX-60 dual core CPU (also over clocked to 3 GHZ) w/ an internally mounted radiator as well & my house gets 90F, sometimes over that & I've never had a single cooling issue.

EDIT: I'd recommend Danger Den for water cooling over thermaltake, buy your hose & water blocks from them & use a junkyard heater core from a car as the radiator; once you get it all hooked up use a 120mm fan to cool the radiator & use distilled water with a mix of water wetter in it. My temps as I edit this are 36C on one CPU core & 37C on the other & my GPU cores are both 44C

[StandingCow]

I think water cooling might be overkill, and you can easily achieve cool temps without it, as long as you arent doing crazy overclocking.. or do you just want to give it a shot because you have never done it?

You can also buy aftermarket heatsinks/fans for your graphics cards, so you don't need to replace the entire card if the fan fails.

As far as graphics cards go, the HD4850 and 4870s are a great price/performance option.

[Systemlord]

Water cooling isn't the answer, a better airflowing computer case is. The second most costly component during my new computer build last June 07 was the computer case, $330 dollars for a computer case does seem like alot. When you get the same temperatures inside a case as you do outside the case with a bunch of fans, thats awesome! I'm running an 8800GTX and these are supposed to run HOT, it idles at 52C and never go's above 68C max load. What case do you own? Mid size PC case are not enough for todays gaming systems in my opinion!

[Seminole]

I was thinking about water cooling for my new rig. After I checked a lot of sources I was told that with water cooling one could only expect around a 5 degree difference. Not that much.

So, I went with fan cooling and so far so good. Nvida cards.

[Brenjen]

Originally Posted by Systemlord

Water cooling isn't the answer, a better airflowing computer case is. The second most costly component during my new computer build last June 07 was the computer case, $330 dollars for a computer case does seem like alot. When you get the same temperatures inside a case as you do outside the case with a bunch of fans, thats awesome! I'm running an 8800GTX and these are supposed to run HOT, it idles at 52C and never go's above 68C max load. What case do you own? Mid size PC case are not enough for todays gaming systems in my opinion!

To each his own. I wouldn't trade my water cooling for a $330 case....especially with a bunch of fans

Your card runs Idle where mine runs max load heavily overclocked with four OC'd cores pouring heat into the loop. As far as what cools more efficiently; it's water cooling over fans all day long. As far as cost per centigrade of cooling, it's far cheaper to go with noisy fans usually unless you hodge podge a water cooling system together. You can get deals on the water blocks if you search around & a junkyard heater core will run somewhere in the area of $5 so really; it's possible to get water cooling on BOTH a CPU & a GPU for under $330 As the saying goes; You gotta' shop around.

EDIT: But I will agree with standing cow; unless you're over clocking, water cooling really isn't neccesary.

[Kloef]

A junkyard heater core?

In a pc system,well talking about safety and leaving your pc on during the day....

Watercooling is nice for overclockers and for looks and a quiet system,but buy a good pc case,add some quiet coolers and you have an effective way of cooling your pc,all that hassle for 5 degrees,i think you notice more then the pc does..

I never liked the idea of having water run around my componenents,condensation,erodation etc...

But thats just my 2 cents.....:p i would buy the 8800GT,alot of my clanmembers have one(or two)and i allways hear great things about them..and you can allways jump to watercooling when you feel like

[Quillan]

The fan on my ti4200 failed; I replaced that card with a 9800 Pro.
The fan on my 9800 Pro failed; I put an aftermarket cooler on that card.
The fan on the aftermarket cooler started going out, but by that time I upgraded to a 6800 Ultra (it was actually a 6800 GS, but was factory overclocked and I was able to unlock the extra 4 pipelines, which made it identical in shaders and speed to a 6800 Ultra).

The 6800 GS I bought was from eVGA, and that fan never had a hiccup. When I built the new computer, I went with an 8800GT from eVGA, also factory overclocked. I'd say I haven't had a problem with it either, but it's only 4 months old right now.

[Brenjen]

Originally Posted by Kloef

A junkyard heater core?

In a pc system,well talking about safety and leaving your pc on during the day....

Watercooling is nice for overclockers and for looks and a quiet system,but buy a good pc case,add some quiet coolers and you have an effective way of cooling your pc,all that hassle for 5 degrees,i think you notice more then the pc does..

I never liked the idea of having water run around my componenents,condensation,erodation etc...

But thats just my 2 cents.....:p i would buy the 8800GT,alot of my clanmembers have one(or two)and i allways hear great things about them..and you can allways jump to watercooling when you feel like

Well you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Yes; a junkyard heater core. A heater core is a tiny radiator, no more - no less. But a heck of a lot cheaper & thousands of water cooling users around the globe are running them as we speak. If you're twitchy or lack the ability to pressure test it with a water hose then go to an auto parts store & buy a NEW one....still cheaper than a purpose built one for a P/C.

The reason you use distilled water is because it doesn't conduct electricity like regular water will & it's not nearly as corrosive - the water wetter I suggested is to negate galvanic corrosion.

Five degrees of cooling is just an arbitrary number btw; I get much more than that.

As far as water cooling for looks? I think you have water cooling mixed up with all those fans, mine is totally 100% contained in the case! No fancy windows or spinning led's.

Edit: BTW my P/C's been water cooled as I mentioned for two years now without a hiccup, without a leak, without a change of coolant. Not sure why everyone is scared of what they don't understand but I'm living proof it's easy, it's reliable, it's the best performing cooling solution there is & it can be done affordably with a little leg work.

i have an 8800GT 512mb card with the arctic cooling acelero s-1 mounted to it as a totally passive cooling device (no fan) and it stays no more than warm. its also a slim design for sli set ups

i have a q6600 quad core processor and use a coolermaster centurian 5 case

its quiet and everything runs cool.


as for the question, why do the fans keep crapping out?

well they are cheap light weight and overworked its just the size is so small they can only do so much to beef them up so if they push too much air for the size motor it goes bad sooner, its just the nature of size vs weight vs airflow.

try this mod if you have the room:

remove the video card to your desk.

remove the cover plate over your fan and heatsink but do not seperate the heatsink from your video card. (be carefull the screws can be very small)

now install a case fan (usually 60mm or 70mm size) as big or slightly bigger than the hole size on the outside of the coverplate and mark where the screws go to drill screw holes. mount the fan so it will blow air into the card and mount with flush mounting screws, preferably the ones that came with the fan. reinstall the coverplate and test to be sure the stock fan blades still spin freely. for power you will plug the 4pin fan plug directly into your wiring harness. now replace the cover plate but first make sure the old fan is unplugged but you may need to tuck the plug and wire out of the way, even if it still works you do not want to have both running at the same time, it screws up the airflow.

the way this works is the case fan blows a lot more air into the card than that puny flat piece of crap stock fan and the stock fan you left in place will spin as the air goes by causing it to rotate backwards and direct airflow as needed accross the entire heatsink. i tried this without leaving the old fan in place but it cools better with it, it helps the air change direction from vertical to horizontal i think.

now if for some reason yours doesnt cool well try flipping the case fan over and reversing the airflow direction

[Kloef]

Well you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Yes; a junkyard heater core. A heater core is a tiny radiator, no more - no less. But a heck of a lot cheaper & thousands of water cooling users around the globe are running them as we speak. If you're twitchy or lack the ability to pressure test it with a water hose then go to an auto parts store & buy a NEW one....still cheaper than a purpose built one for a P/C.

The reason you use distilled water is because it doesn't conduct electricity like regular water will & it's not nearly as corrosive - the water wetter I suggested is to negate galvanic corrosion.

Five degrees of cooling is just an arbitrary number btw; I get much more than that.

As far as water cooling for looks? I think you have water cooling mixed up with all those fans, mine is totally 100% contained in the case! No fancy windows or spinning led's.

Edit: BTW my P/C's been water cooled as I mentioned for two years now without a hiccup, without a leak, without a change of coolant. Not sure why everyone is scared of what they don't understand but I'm living proof it's easy, it's reliable, it's the best performing cooling solution there is & it can be done affordably with a little leg work.

I know what a heater core is,but i mean i wouldnt put some cheap,trow-away part in my pc,i'd rather spend some more and get the good stuff,hey but thats me...in the end most watercooled systems have a radiator thats cooled with........fans..:rotfl:

And yes there are people that buy it for looks,just as with cooling fans,just a matter of taste and what you like i guess..

Then i was going to write something about the cow and the scared of what they dont uderstand stuff,but i use to own a watercooled pc,so i leave it at that...keeping Webster's quote in mind

[Systemlord]

Originally Posted by Brenjen

To each his own. I wouldn't trade my water cooling for a $330 case....especially with a bunch of fans

Your card runs Idle where mine runs max load heavily overclocked with four OC'd cores pouring heat into the loop. As far as what cools more efficiently; it's water cooling over fans all day long. As far as cost per centigrade of cooling, it's far cheaper to go with noisy fans usually unless you hodge podge a water cooling system together. You can get deals on the water blocks if you search around & a junkyard heater core will run somewhere in the area of $5 so really; it's possible to get water cooling on BOTH a CPU & a GPU for under $330 As the saying goes; You gotta' shop around.

EDIT: But I will agree with standing cow; unless you're over clocking, water cooling really isn't neccesary.

I'm sorry I forgot to mention my 8800GTX idles at 52C and loads at 68C with a GPU core clock of 663MHz, Shader at 1525MHz and memory at 2100MHz. Not bad for an older gen chip thats was known for massive heat, all four case fans are very quiet being Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm. My E6600 is at 3.6GHz using an Tuniq Tower 120, temps are cool for air cooling! A lot of my friends use the case I have using water cooling, whats your GPU and CPU running at?



By systemlord, shot with FinePix E550 at 2007-12-17


By systemlord, shot with DMC-FZ20 at 2008-01-17

[Brenjen]

Originally Posted by Kloef

I know what a heater core is,but i mean i wouldnt put some cheap,trow-away part in my pc,i'd rather spend some more and get the good stuff,hey but thats me...in the end most watercooled systems have a radiator thats cooled with........fans..:rotfl:

And yes there are people that buy it for looks,just as with cooling fans,just a matter of taste and what you like i guess..

Then i was going to write something about the cow and the scared of what they dont uderstand stuff,but i use to own a watercooled pc,so i leave it at that...keeping Webster's quote in mind

My point stands you aren't accurately describing watercooling or it's parts & implementation & are giving out information from a "scared of liquid in my P/C" viewpoint. Especially stuff like this......

....fans..:rotfl:

Air cooled systems need more than the one or two fans needed by a watercooled system; which by the way can be set on low RPM by a fan controller where air cooled systems can't without suffering heat soak. If you were speaking from a neutral viewpoint you'd mention facts like the four or even more fans that water cooling negates etc. I've read plenty of fear mongering about water cooling & the truth is it can be affordable & can't be beaten by any air cooling option out there. You fail to give any logic for the fear you're imparting, heater core....not some "cheap throw-away part" but rather identical in form & function to the P/C radiators & at 1/15th the cost. Water inside a P/C, corrosion, cost etc. are all stock, off the shelf bullet points for people who fear water cooling. Would I say it's over-kill to put water cooling on an average system? I'd say yes without hesitation; but that's not the question & I'll leave it at that.