dwee Posted April 17, 2011 Posted April 17, 2011 (edited) Hi Guys, 1st post here and probably need some or lots of advice from experts here. To keep it short, I'll go straight to the point. See all the images (some will probably love it or hate it)... Newly acquired - Asus Rampage III Black edition but no mobo water block for this yet. Bummer... Nothing new here coz everyone might have already read and seen it. Original project motherboard was EVGA Classified 3 with EK mobo water block but sadly to say EVGA quality control wasn't great. After removal of the mobo heatsink, one of the capacitor below the heatsink didn't even got soldered! Luckily manage to spot it! So sent it back for warranty and hopefully will get replaced. Will use it for another WC project later. Asus Rampage III Black Edition with ThunderBolt GPU - EVGA Geforce GTX580 FTW Hydro Copper 2. Waited so long to get this unit and more units.. While waiting, decided to play with Gigabyte Geforce GTX590 x 2. Unfortunately, one of them didn't work well the second day. Sent it back for replacement and the worst scenario is that none of these cards are even overclocked! All running at original stock speed! So now, need expert advice here... Option 1 - Parallel setup Option 2 - Serial setup I know there are a lot of posting in various forums. Some say Parallel is better and others say Serial. Anyone tried both setup before? Which options should I implement for this? My plan is to setup as single flow of WC. Components for the WC Project 1 (no call sign for this project yet): - Intel i7 980X - Asus Rampage III Black Edition - Corsair Dominator GT (Total 24GB) with AirFlow Pro - EVGA Geforce GTX580 FTW Hydro Copper 2 (3 Way SLI) - WD 2TB HDD x 2 - Corsair SSD Force Series 240GB x 2 - Corsair Obsidian 800D Case - Corsair AX1200 - LG BluRay Burner Water Cooling components: - Koolance CPU-360 (CPU) Rev 1.2 - EK-supreme HF Nickel-Acetal (Option 2) - XSPC RX120 Extreme Performance Radiator - XSPC RX360 Extreme Performance Radiator - IandH StealthRes Deluxe Tube Multi-Option 175 Reservoir - Koolance RP-452X2 Dual 5.25" Reservoir - Koolance PMP-450 x 2 - Koolance CTR-SPD10 12V Pump & Fan Speed Controller - Koolance Tubing Splitter/Manifold, 5-Way Swiveling - aquaero 5 XT USB fan controller, graphic LCD, touch control, IR remote control - aquacomputer Temperature sensor inline G1/4 for aquaero, aquastream XT and aquaduct - Various Bitspower & Koolance compression fittings (lots of them) - Tygon B-44-4X (ID 3/8" OD 5/8") - Distilled water Thanks. Dave Edited April 18, 2011 by dwee Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoody_s13 Posted April 17, 2011 Posted April 17, 2011 Nice rig Dave, you've really opted for the best of the best. With that sort of coin... Maybe you could buy me another 580 for sli??? Sorry no answer on which way to run the loop, but love the build, like too see the finished product! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigball1 Posted April 17, 2011 Posted April 17, 2011 Crazy setup for playing tetris on For your setup l would run parallel as your pumps will have enough flow through to keep the water moving in the 3 blocks. If you run serial on these cards you feeding hot water from card to card vs the same temp to all the cards at the same time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwee Posted April 17, 2011 Posted April 17, 2011 Yeah, I guess it's best to go on Parallel setup. Now have to decide with flow should I setup. Option 1 - Single flow with dual pump would be Pump & Res 1 > CPU > RAM > Rad (1) > Pump & Res 2 > GPUs (Parallel) > Rad (3) > Back to Pump & Res 1. OR Option 2 - Single flow with single pump Pump & Res > CPU > RAM > Rad (1) > GPU (Parallel) > Rad (3) > Back to Pump & Res. Dave Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedway Posted April 18, 2011 Posted April 18, 2011 All I know is that your i7 is going to be producing the most heat for the WC loop to dissipate, especially if you plan on OCing that bad boy If it were me, I would want my biggest rad in front of the component that is going to producing the most heat ( the i7) Now granted your loop will reach an equillibrium point no matter what config you run the loop, but coming out of the 360 rad that water temp will be slightly lower! Personally, I would want that water hitting my 980x 1st Unless you don't plan on OCing the i7 very heavy, but who the heck would build a rig like this and not be OCing like a mad man Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercuryDoun Posted April 18, 2011 Posted April 18, 2011 Yeah, I guess it's best to go on Parallel setup. Now have to decide with flow should I setup. Option 1 - Single flow with dual pump would be Pump & Res 1 > CPU > RAM > Rad (1) > Pump & Res 2 > GPUs (Parallel) > Rad (3) > Back to Pump & Res 1. OR Option 2 - Single flow with single pump Pump & Res > CPU > RAM > Rad (1) > GPU (Parallel) > Rad (3) > Back to Pump & Res. Dave Option 1 seems like the smartest route, as this puts the coolest water on your CPU. Just like speedway suggests, this seems like the best idea. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwee Posted April 18, 2011 Posted April 18, 2011 Point noted guys. To be honest, I might not want to do any OC. Just want to keep my setup cool and quiet as possible. The GPU always seems to hit close to 85 degrees Celsius when I run games like Crysis2, Homefront, etc. So decided to do a WC project on this. GTX580 isn't that cool and runs quite hot. If any OC is running, will probably let the Asus ROG decides if I need more juice on the CPU. Besides, my CPU rarely hit above 60 degrees Celsius according to HWMonitor as I don't do OC or get it to run at full load. Haven't done any 3D renderings (which uses CPU loads) for the last 7 years since I switch jobs. However, I might try it for fun but will need to do some research on how to fully test it. The 360 rad is actually to cool the 3 GPUs more rather than the CPU. The XSPC RX120 Extreme Performance Radiator should provide enough cooling for the CPU and RAM, but if it fail to do so, will add the additional rad for them. I'm trying to keep all components within the case as much as I can without compromising too much heat internally. If it does, then will get the rad out of the Corsair Obsidian 800D Case. I don't have much experience in custom casing or have any guys to do customize layout, so will stick to what is available out there. If I get right this phase on WC Project 1, will work on the 2nd project with newer components. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercuryDoun Posted April 19, 2011 Posted April 19, 2011 Id say give overclocking a shot! Its super easy to overclock that 980x, and you should see big improvements in FPS. The issue your going to have is with 3x 580's your probably gonna run into a CPU bottleneck if you dont overclock that cpu! Something in the area of 4.0-4.2Ghz ought to really help the bottleneck. Gotta remember the GPU's do all the actual work, but the CPU has to tell the GPU's what to do, if the CPU cant send information do the video cards fast enough it drops your FPS significantly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwee Posted April 21, 2011 Posted April 21, 2011 Id say give overclocking a shot! Its super easy to overclock that 980x, and you should see big improvements in FPS. The issue your going to have is with 3x 580's your probably gonna run into a CPU bottleneck if you dont overclock that cpu! Something in the area of 4.0-4.2Ghz ought to really help the bottleneck. Gotta remember the GPU's do all the actual work, but the CPU has to tell the GPU's what to do, if the CPU cant send information do the video cards fast enough it drops your FPS significantly. Cool. Will try that. Now that the i7 980X with EK-supreme HF installed to R3BE, next will start the rad & fans positioning. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwee Posted April 21, 2011 Posted April 21, 2011 Id say give overclocking a shot! Its super easy to overclock that 980x, and you should see big improvements in FPS. The issue your going to have is with 3x 580's your probably gonna run into a CPU bottleneck if you dont overclock that cpu! Something in the area of 4.0-4.2Ghz ought to really help the bottleneck. Gotta remember the GPU's do all the actual work, but the CPU has to tell the GPU's what to do, if the CPU cant send information do the video cards fast enough it drops your FPS significantly. Cool. Will try that. Now that the i7 980X with EK-supreme HF installed to R3BE, next will start the rad & fans positioning. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
airman Posted April 21, 2011 Posted April 21, 2011 If the CPU cant send information do the video cards fast enough it drops your FPS significantly. I wouldn't say it would cause them to drop, it would just limit them with a "wall" type feeling Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercuryDoun Posted April 21, 2011 Posted April 21, 2011 I wouldn't say it would cause them to drop, it would just limit them with a "wall" type feeling Lol Same difference! FPS would be less than optimal, lol. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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