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Unread 09-21-2005, 08:28 AM   #90
Cathar
Thermophile
 
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 2,538
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The non-standard nature of GPU's means making blocks for them is difficult, especially so since one often has to buy a $500 card to figure out whether or not the waterblock is going to fit.

It would be nice if ATI and nVidia started acting a bit more like AMD and Intel, and released technical white-papers that documented the clearance zones and mounting points and mechanisms for their video cards, but they don't. Quite often its a case of make a block and hope it fits. GPU-only blocks are easy enough to do but almost all mounting mechanisms are fiddly and require a significant amount of setup overhead to start stamping out the customised plates and pieces required for mounting.

This has been the real reason why I've held back on GPU blocks for so long. Got no problem making a very high performance low-profile block, I just know that unless I throw a few thousand dollars at the mounting issue for each card type that people are always going to complain that the blocks suck for purposes of mounting, and mounting inconsistency is the place where everything can go pear-shaped.

Making GPU waterblocks, seem to me, to be less about the actual performance and more about getting the mounting right, and the problem is with the non-standard nature of various cards and component clearances, even on so-called reference cards between different models even though the mount holes may remain in the same place, and it quickly becomes a rather expensive exercise for the contracting hobbyist.

Have a number of GPU prototypes here, but the stumbling block has always been with the mounting consistency. I'll spend some more time on that issue soon though, but so far its been enough to put a GPU block release on the back-burner indefinitely.
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