Graphic card solution passage review (suggestions welcome)
 

Okay, here's the deal...

I have an Ati All-in-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro card (purchased second hand for $200 :D ) and I've devised a water cooling solution for it.

I would like to hear opinion on the water passage route I have chosen. (See the attached picture for the initial route chosen.)

Is it fairly optimal? Can it be improved? Can it be simplified? SHOULD it be simplified?

BladeRunner? Cathar? #Rotor? (yep, incorporated your design) and anyone else with experience with water cooling passage routing.

Thanks in advance to everyone... :dome:

as it is right now you have ALOT of material still left in those blocks that makes them VERY heavy.

what i would do is make a channel that goes like this:

FRONT: top left ram chip down to the bottom left corner of the gpu
then from bottom left of the gpu to the bottom right ram chip
then up to the top right ram chip
then to the top right corner of the gpu
then back up the the top ramchip and to the other side

let see here kinda like this?

i belive thats how morphling1 used to do his blocks

dima y,

I'm actually trying NOT to split the flow. :dome:

Taking out extra material is a no brainer after it's done... just drill holes like you do in structural aluminum on racing cars.

Weight is not really an issue. A fluid path with heavy turbulance at the GPU core is the primary goal.

I can always lighten and purdy it up later. :p

looks good to me, but i have never done one that complex before.

when do you think production wil begin? what will you be using to make it?

ozzy7750,

Probably next week when the copper comes in... got a nice design for a 4 drive RAID rack made of copper too (water cooled of course :D ).

I'm going to machine it on my mill... nothing fancy... just basic and manual. :p

I'll make sure and log everything with pictures and a worklog. :cool:

nice. looking foward to seeing progres.

i will be doing my whole computer soon as well. i only have a drill press at home, which means i am basically limited to doing #rotor style patterns everywhere. but at uni there is a $1,000,000+ CNC machining centre about 10m away from where i am doing my 4th year project. I am talking nicely to the operator, hopefully he will lets me use it! Not crossing my fingers though.

Make sure you ask that the operator do it for you as you want to LEARN how... that way you will have better knowledge later and can just bring him the CNC file and the raw materials.

Most operators (Especially in a school) are happy to teach you. :dome:

You could try and get a job at the shop. I recently got one at my school's shop. That way, he would be more inclined to spend time teaching you, and you get more privileges and freedom if you actually work there.

Plus its a wicked ass job to have :D

Just a quick question:
Is there enough room on the back of the gpu to wc it?
Could those mosfets not use wc or will u gain noting for it?

Also, wc your ram any good as the water itself will prolly be higer then 30°
To say it in a other way, is it really that much better then a old hs cut up?

Looks to me where the water loops from front to rear, that little overhang there will interfere with many motherboard's DIMM slots.

Tum-0r,

There is a 12mm x 12mm square area directly on the back of the center of the GPU location. It can be used to cool the card too... I saw a post somewhere else with a picture of an ASUS card that had a heat sink in that spot.

As for the RAM on the card, it should be just fine as anything less than 40°C is probably better than the original HS/Fan combo.

Cathar,

Good call on that Cathar... I forgot to check that myself, I'll verify the clearance on my board before I begin construction. If nothing else, I can trim the lower area to clear the RAM modules.

Cathar,

I did the measurements and you are correct... the RAM modules will definitely hit the block in the above design.

Soooo... I redesigned that crossover passage on the end... moved it up. Like so... :D

What about moving it up further, and removing some bends, like this?

Arcturius,

Thanks... been banging my head on the wall trying to figger what else I missed... thanks! :D

I'll look at it again... when my head clears... (really tired right now... 2 hours sleep :eek: )

any update on this? I am going to be doing something similar to this but with my 9800xt
I decided to go with a slightly more open-flow design as I'm going to be making my blocks out of 2 3/8" copper pieces with 1/16" plate covers. I plan on joining the 2 blocks with a short length of Clearflex60 1/2"ID, 1/8" Wall tubing that I will soak in boiling water multiple times to achieve the 180° bend between the 2 blocks.
http://www.ghengis-khan.com/Images/wbfront.jpg
http://www.ghengis-khan.com/Images/wbback.jpg

I've modified my design some since theghengiskhan, mostly minor stuff. The last modification, in post #13, has been done and I'm about ready to mill the blocks.

You can check out the whole project worklog here.

Go for it, I can't wait to see it working :D


...anyway a sidenote - the agp slot release lever - are you sure you can grab it with the finger to be able, after all, remove the card with installed waterblock on it from the AGP slot? ;)

Just make sure or create there some space to avoid this problem... :D

I once (2years ago) glued heatsink on my oldie FX5200 rams:
http://ax2.old-cans.com/show.php?p=w...0&c=8&d=1&v=v2
...and quess what! From this time I have hard time to remove the card from slot :rolleyes: ...luckily, the DFI Lanparty B mobo got a bit special side-removing thing on the AGP:
http://ax2.old-cans.com/show.php?p=w...1&c=8&d=1&v=v2
...but it's still a big dangerous there :D