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ATI 7990 All in one water cooler mod?


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So lately I have been trying to drop my 7990s temps down. They are both still air cooled on stock coolers and was looking into doing a water cool set up on them. $270 in water blocks alone! Not that it's too much but I've got a project car...So I was searching eBay and found a cooling rig for a Cointerra Terraminer 

 

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But I need some ones experience, I have a 9800 GX2 I can experiment this idea on before I strap it to a 7990. I can fabricate brackets and radiator mounts no issue. But does anyone know what the block is rated for as far as its cooling ability? I swear up and down I've seen it rebranded. So if anyone can point to the other kit that its on that would cement my faith in doing this.

 

Here is the bottom of the blocks

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I would agree with waco, while it doesn't directly match up to the usual CoolIT re-brands we usually see it's their stuff so reasonably good though it's never going to match what custom can do those mining rigs use stupid amounts of power (2000w) and I would expect that cooler/block setup to EASILY handle the GPU cores.  As long as you keep the VRMs and rest of the card cooled properly it's in my opinion worth it for cheap (I saw $60-70ish when I glanced at ebay so cheaper than two desktop CPU AIO coolers that would offer similar performance).

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I would agree with waco, while it doesn't directly match up to the usual CoolIT re-brands we usually see it's their stuff so reasonably good though it's never going to match what custom can do those mining rigs use stupid amounts of power (2000w) and I would expect that cooler/block setup to EASILY handle the GPU cores.  As long as you keep the VRMs and rest of the card cooled properly it's in my opinion worth it for cheap (I saw $60-70ish when I glanced at ebay so cheaper than two desktop CPU AIO coolers that would offer similar performance).

 

 

Thats what I was thinking, The mounting hardware that it comes with appears it really wont require me to make a backplate or bracket to mount it. Which means I can retain the stock backplate for it. This is going into my G5 Mod case so I have to make brackets for the radiator anyway. I'll order it and do a video of it if it bolts right up, as far as cooling the VRMs I haven't dissected the 7990 yet but from what I can tell.

 

b8d059e0_PCF280.w_rev1.naked_card-580-90

 

As long as I can keep the top card plate and mount a thin and decent 120MM above the card I really shouldn't have an issue with it.  

Edited by CAINuKe

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Okay, so I finally got my cooler in and the radiator is Gigantic. I mean its obscenely hugenormous.

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9op4v0X.jpg

 

The blocks corners are too large to mount on the card so I took one of them apart to see what my margin for error was if I were to start cutting on the corners....

 

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I took a look at the GPUs stock cooler and I need to fabricate a copper spacer (.5mm) for the water block to properly make contact with the cores. So waiting on that, I cut the blocks free from the radiator to allow me to more easily mount the radiator somewhere else in my case. I am considering asking for someone with a broken AIO water cooling kit so I can ditch the monster rad but if I cant find one then I will stick with it.

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So GIGABYTE in all their glory(Maybe, still up for debate) is sending me a R9 380x to replace my 7970 that I sent in a RMA. Since they didnt have any in stock to send back to me. Which totally messes with my Crossfire setup. So this mod will go from being on a 7990 to 3 380xs and not in a ghetto Zip Tie way.

 

I already modified the water blocks (Pics on the way) so that the retention bolts will fit around the cooler. Now I need to solve the VRAM and VRM cooling which souldnt be a huge issue. I contacted Bolt Depot directly for mounting hardware since I cant find threaded rod or screws that would fit through the mounting holes on my 4850 test card, which I assume is about the same diameter as other cards. 

 

I tested the blocks in series after I cut the hoses to drain and properly dispose of the Poly-Glycol coolant and replace it with Mayhem Eco-safe coolant. But to the good part. When one pump fails the other one produces enough pressure to push coolant through the other block so in the event of a total cooler failure there is still some redundancy keeping the other GPU cool enough to figure out that the block has failed. Flow suffers but that's obvious.

 

After just getting the balls I ordered on a guess because this information wasn't available anywhere 1/4-inch PVC tubing that has an outer diameter of 3/8ths. I really didn't want to do this mod in a ghetto fashion with zip ties and JB weld. But the hose is actually for a......automatic HAMSTER watering system. Who knew? 

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