Modifying DD R9700 block

[pelikan]

I'm considering milling out the copper in the middle of the block so that its just an open chamber. Then I would drill some holes, rotor style, to make turbulence.
I think this would increase the flowrate and cooling ability of the block. But without a guide in there to control the flow, water may slow down and heat up in the corner away from the barbs.
Opinions? Suggestions?
Thanks.

[|kbn|]

How thick is the bottom of the base?
The channel is directly above the core, and would be the main part of that block disipating the heat as it is the main flow restriction. if you were to alter it, you might get good results. you could try a sideways type jet-impingment, take the top barb off, so you can drill though the hole and into the side of the channel.. im know nearly nothing about jet impingment so you should maybe ask one of the experts on the subject. you could use rotor style holes around the rest of the base aswell to improve it.

another suggestion would be to make a new lid for it after removing the channel. If it had an indent to squash the flow into a smaller area, it would then move faster and spread out more. I only htink the bit diectly over the core should be removed/altered if any.. and any indent in the lid should only be over the core and on the left side, after the core, the flow shouldnt be reduced as it wont help it cool any better

What card is that btw? as it looks very differnt to my 9700, and i see it uses further apart mounting holes, so a ti4x00 of some kind?

[pelikan]

Thanks for the reply. The pic is from Danger Den's site. It's a GF4 of some kind. My card is a 9800 pro.

I think the base is pretty thick so there is room to drill some holes or something to create turbulence. My main goal is to increase the flow rate so I don't think I'm going to try any impingment, as tempting as the idea sounds.

[MMZ_TimeLord]

My personal take on this is to leave it pretty much alone aside from rounding off this corner... should help your flow rate some... also... ream out the barbs so they are slightly larger and taper their openings to the inside of the block.

[pelikan]

Originally Posted by MMZ_TimeLord

My personal take on this is to leave it pretty much alone aside from rounding off this corner... should help your flow rate some... also... ream out the barbs so they are slightly larger and taper their openings to the inside of the block.

I like the idea of reaming out the barbs. I'm also going to see if I can fit straight barbs instead of the ones with 45's.

I still want to get rid of the copper in the middle of the block but maybe that's a bad idea for flow?

Here's a rough rendering of what I'm thinking for the block. The black dots are holes drilled to a depth that leaves maybe two or three mm of base thickness:

[|kbn|]

removing the middle channel will make the block a lot less restrictive and you will get higher flow rates from the other blocks in your sytem, but i dont think it will perform any better atall as the water will go over the holes and not be forced into them.

i still think removing the top barb, and drilling a few holes down into the middle channel would be the best way to increase performance, though i dont think it would be particually easy to do..

[pelikan]

Your and MMZ_TimeLord's ideas are probably better for performance than mine. I should clarify as to what my goals are here and why.
My water is 10-15C so it keeps my video card very cool regardless of what block is on there. That's why my main area of concern is reducing the restriction of this block. The other block in the system is a Cascade.

[|kbn|]

now I know what you are trying to achive I have tryed to draw my idea of what might be good. Pic attached.

The black dots represent holes for turbulence. This drawing was done very quickly, so just ignore them, use the holes as in your pic.
I think leaving this much of the channel there will divide the inlet and outlet, leaving no dead areas. the blue bit would represent a 1 or 2 mm thick clear plastic which could be glued/attached to the lid in some way. this will give the outer area less flow restriction and give a more spread out flow. it wouldnt affect the overall restiction of the waterblock much as it is only 1 or 2mm while the block is about 8mm deep?

[pelikan]

Hey, now we're talkin'. That looks good. I could cut off the channel at the edge of where the base comes into contact with the gpu core. That way the channel still distributes the water flow, but it isn't sitting on top of the core.