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How cheaply can I watercool my Graphics card?

Apocolypse007

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Right now I am just entertaining the idea. I have no air conditioning at my place and during the summer it can get up near 100*F. This means deadly ambient temps for gaming.

What I will most likely do to keep my 4890 alive for the next few years is get a replacement air cooler such as this one:
ZALMAN VF3000A Enter VGA Cooler

*update* i'm liking this cooler: ZEROtherm CoolMaxx 3000 Dual Fan VGA Cooler

I was wondering if anyone knew any cheap (yet reliable) watercooling kits that I could use to just cool the card (the cpu is on a seperate [and closed] loop).

The cooler on mine now is the reference cooler and idles around 60*C and loads around 85* and upward with auto fanspeed. When the fan spins up it can get annoying and can quickly become the loudest component in my rig.

What do you guys think? Keep current setup? Get decent air cooler? Get watercooling kit (of which I cannot find at a reasonable price)?
 
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Wile E

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Right now I am just entertaining the idea. I have no air conditioning at my place and during the summer it can get up near 100*F. This means deadly ambient temps for gaming.

What I will most likely do to keep my 4890 alive for the next few years is get a replacement air cooler such as this one:
ZALMAN VF3000A Enter VGA Cooler

*update* i'm liking this cooler: ZEROtherm CoolMaxx 3000 Dual Fan VGA Cooler

I was wondering if anyone knew any cheap (yet reliable) watercooling kits that I could use to just cool the card (the cpu is on a seperate [and closed] loop).

The cooler on mine now is the reference cooler and idles around 60*C and loads around 85* and upward with auto fanspeed. When the fan spins up it can get annoying and can quickly become the loudest component in my rig.

What do you guys think? Keep current setup? Get decent air cooler? Get watercooling kit (of which I cannot find at a reasonable price)?
A simple single 120mm rad is enough to keep that card cool. An all Swiftech setup should be decently priced. Probably dig up a few nice deals on an MCW-60 water block, as the 80's just came out. Biggest cost will be the pump, but you don't need a DDC or D5 for a simple loop like that.

EDIT: lol. You live like 10 minutes away from me. I'm in New Brighton. lol
 
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What would be a reasonable price for the W/C loop?
 

Apocolypse007

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614 (0.09/day)
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New Sewickley, PA
System Name six pack
Processor Phenom II X6 1090T BE
Motherboard ASRock 890FX Deluxe3
Cooling Cool-it ECO ALC Water cooler
Memory 4GB G-Skill Flares CL7
Video Card(s) 1GB HIS HD4890 930core / 1025mem 4100mhz effective
Storage 320Gb Seagate Barracuda (w/perpendiular recording) and 750GB Western Digital Caviar Black
Display(s) Acer B273HU 2048 x 1152 native resolution
Case Xoxide X-Sentric Professional Series w/250mm Fan
Audio Device(s) SB Audigy 2 Value
Power Supply 750 Watt Apevia Warlock
Software Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit (w/dreamscene patch)/Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Benchmark Scores 3DMark06:10,516 3Dmark Vantage: P8537
What would be a reasonable price for the W/C loop?

I know its a stretch, but I just spent $650 on my thuban platform upgrade, so I can only spend about 75 max to cool my card.

I think anything more than $75 to cool a $200 card (when I bought it thats what I paid), is just overkill. I am leaning towards just getting a good air cooler, but wanted to see if watercooling was even an option to consider if it can be done cheaply.
 

Wile E

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24,318 (3.81/day)
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Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 BIOS F12
Cooling MCR-320, DDC-1 pump w/Bitspower res top (1/2" fittings), Koolance CPU-360
Memory 3x2GB Mushkin Redlines 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 1T
Video Card(s) Evga GTX 580
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Power Supply ENERMAX Galaxy EVO EGX1250EWT 1250W
Software Win7 Ultimate N x64, OSX 10.8.4
I know its a stretch, but I just spent $650 on my thuban platform upgrade, so I can only spend about 75 max to cool my card.

I think anything more than $75 to cool a $200 card (when I bought it thats what I paid), is just overkill. I am leaning towards just getting a good air cooler, but wanted to see if watercooling was even an option to consider if it can be done cheaply.

For $75, go air, unless you can find what you need to WC used and cheap.
 
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