Custom waterloop GPU

[krusha03]

I have the Zotac 3070 Twin Edge and I am not very happy with the noise the cooler makes. I made a custom fan curve but it's still not great. Given the current price-hike of GPUs I think trying to get a better custom cooler GPU will cost me more or less the same as getting this card water cooled plus the benefit with a watercooling is that in the future I can re-use it and just get a new block. I have a CPU AIO which I don't plan to change but I do want to make the set-up future proof with the ability to add another radiator and a CPU block.

I am a noob at this so want to make sure I get all right. Anyone has any good guides to recommend? I am looking at alphacool and EK, are there any other recommended companies? Also any drawbacks at getting pump / reservoir combo?

Looking at alphacool I am thinking:

• Radiator: Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 280mm radiator V.2
• Pump Alphacool Eisstation VPP reservoir incl. VPP755 or Alphacool Eisstation DDC reservoir incl.DDC310
  • What is the difference between the 2 pumps? Which one is recommended
• Waterblock: Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Acryl GPX-N RTX 3070
• Hoses: I want flexible hoses. What kind of diameter do I need?
• Fittins: What kind of fittings should I use
• Coolant: Is there any difference between the cheaper and more expensive in terms of performance or is it only looks? My case has no window so looks is not important

EK seems more expensive especially in the pump / reservoir combo and they only have aluminum waterblock for my card. What would you recommend?

 

[dgianstefani]

It's pointless for a 3070. It's an upper mid tier card and the watercooling hardware will cost the same as the difference in price between a 3070 and a 3080. The only cards worth watercooling are higher tier 3080s and 3090s.

Alphacool is good quality mid tier WC hardware. They don't make top tier stuff, but it's cheap and decent.

You'll be better deshrouding the heatsink and slapping a couple of Noctua NF-A12x25 120mm fans on. Same result for cheaper and 0 chance of catastropic failure.

Or Arctic P12/14 fans are a almost as good budget alternative.

 

[krusha03]

The heatsink you suggested it seems not to be compatible with 3070 but only older generation cards.... Normally I would agree with you but since the prices are crazy and everything is out of stock at the moment I was thinking go with watercooling...

 

[FireFox]

Alphacool is good quality mid tier WC hardware. They don't make top tier stuff, but it's cheap and decent.

In your opinion which manufacturer makes top tier stuff?

 

[dgianstefani]

For GPUs, Asus TUF/Strix, EVGA XC3/Ultra/FTW, some MSI is OK, Founders editions are good, GALAX HOF entire lineup good, Sapphire is OK, Zotac is unreliable, but their AMP extreme models are built well.

Optimus watercooling is top tier GPU cooling, TECHN too, Bitspower, hardwarelabs, EK (overpriced, but their pure copper stuff is good).

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

In your opinion which manufacturer makes top tier stuff?

Heatkiller, AquaCommputer and Bitspower are very good. EK used to be my go to, but they have just gotten needlessly expensive.

 

[dgianstefani]

Aquacomputer is good in general but they have some hit and miss products. Once again, I'd strongly recommend against custom waterlooping a xx70 card.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

I disagree with that statement. Cooling is just one side of the coin. Noise and Aesthetics are both good reasons as well. Plus it also cools better.

 

[dgianstefani]

It's objectively a waste of money to spend $250+ to custom loop a $499 dollar card, you will receive no additional performance past a couple % points, when you can achieve the same results in performance and noise with a thermal paste reapplication and a couple of case fans on the deshrouded card. That or just sell the card and buy actual performance with that $250+ with a 3080.

It's like buying a $10k hot hatch then spending $5k on fancy exhaust and rims, when you could have just spent $15k on a better car in the first place.

 

[ZenZimZaliben]

But then you have a custom loop ready for future hardware.

 

[dgianstefani]

The block is unique to the card.

 

[jaggerwild]

Oh the thread crapper doesn't know water cooling, the rest of the system is re-useable..............

 

[dgianstefani]

Read my specs lmao.

Op would be better off spending 15 minutes replacing the thermal paste with some high quality stuff like kryonaut or nt-h2, typically see a 5c improvement from the crap they use at the factory for low end cards.

Lower temps mean slower fans.

 

[thesmokingman]

I have the Zotac 3070 Twin Edge and I am not very happy with the noise the cooler makes. I made a custom fan curve but it's still not great. Given the current price-hike of GPUs I think trying to get a better custom cooler GPU will cost me more or less the same as getting this card water cooled plus the benefit with a watercooling is that in the future I can re-use it and just get a new block. I have a CPU AIO which I don't plan to change but I do want to make the set-up future proof with the ability to add another radiator and a CPU block.

I am a noob at this so want to make sure I get all right. Anyone has any good guides to recommend? I am looking at alphacool and EK, are there any other recommended companies? Also any drawbacks at getting pump / reservoir combo?

Looking at alphacool I am thinking:

• Radiator: Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 280mm radiator V.2
• Pump Alphacool Eisstation VPP reservoir incl. VPP755 or Alphacool Eisstation DDC reservoir incl.DDC310
  • What is the difference between the 2 pumps? Which one is recommended
• Waterblock: Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Acryl GPX-N RTX 3070
• Hoses: I want flexible hoses. What kind of diameter do I need?
• Fittins: What kind of fittings should I use
• Coolant: Is there any difference between the cheaper and more expensive in terms of performance or is it only looks? My case has no window so looks is not important

EK seems more expensive especially in the pump / reservoir combo and they only have aluminum waterblock for my card. What would you recommend?

1. those rads suck and they're not very cheap, acool is all name. hardwarelabs make the absolute best thin rads.

2. both those pumps would be my last choices. the 755 have reliable issues and the ddc310 is a bottom barrel ddc 1 without pwm control. Stick to D5 or DDC pwm pumps.

3. I hate acool blocks, especially their aesthetic lol. gpu blocks are more about aesthetics then performance since no one does any real testing on them anymore. that said a real waterblock is better than aircoolibg at any rate whatever your preference it's better than air.

4. I've been using primochill advanced lrt for a decade now.

5. fittings, been using bitpowers rotaries and xspc compressions again for a decade, continue to use them. Also use qdc in key places.

That said, watercooling is not about costs so if you're truly invested in it get the best individual parts like hwl rads, swiftech pumps, etc as that will be components you keep for life or a really freaking long-time. I've built up enough bits over the years to tackle any build and can put together extra loops in a day. It's like a hobby so keep that in mind as you piece together your parts. And btw i use a lot of ek parts...
For liquid i use distilled with additives, ie. anticorrosion and anti biological. I don't buy premixed coolant, it's a huge upcharge so make your own.

Phanteks 719 build version 2.0

My main rig is already running in a Phanteks 719. However I never took any pics of the build. As luck would have it I'm building a second 719. I'm going to make some changes with this 719 like the use of Barrow's Boxfish res and HWL's regular Nemesis GTS rads instead of the Nemesis L series low...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[krusha03]

It's objectively a waste of money to spend $200+ to a $499 dollar card, you will receive no additional performance past a couple % points, when you can achieve the same results in performance and noise with a $50 aftermarket heatsink and a couple of case fans. That or just sell the card and buy actual performance with that $200+ with a 3080.

It's like buying a $10k hot hatch then spending $5k on fancy exhaust and rims, when you could have just spent $15k on a better car in the first place.

I am willing to give you 600$ for that 500$ 3070, easy $100 for you, deal? I didn't buy the Twin edge because I wanted it, but because it was the only thing I could get and it was €620 back in December. Now its 700+ and any decent 3070 is 800-900 here if you manage to get one. 3080s are 1000+ already

So my options are: spend 300e extra on getting a better 3070 or invest in a decent water cooling kit for the GPU that I can re-use later for the next card with a new water block (or use headphones while gaming ). I dont need top of the line and I don't care about esthetics. My case is closed, has no RGB nor windows. I do care about noise and temp. I already have my 280 AIO as intake + 2 top slow rotating fans as intake + 2 exhaust fans so not sure what more I can do in terms of case cooling. Open case did not help much in temps either. The Zotac just has a small cooler which is loud. TPU's review said the same. So help me mod my hatch for 2.5k instead and get best bung for the back. I dont need the rims

1. those rads suck and they're not very cheap, acool is all name. hardwarelabs make the absolute best thin rads.

2. both those pumps would be my last choices. the 755 have reliable issues and the ddc310 is a bottom barrel ddc 1 without pwm control. Stick to D5 or DDC pwm pumps.

3. I hate acool blocks, especially their aesthetic lol. gpu blocks are more about aesthetics then performance since no one does any real testing on them anymore. that said a real waterblock is better than aircoolibg at any rate whatever your preference it's better than air.

4. I've been using primochill advanced lrt for a decade now.

5. fittings, been using bitpowers rotaries and xspc compressions again for a decade, continue to use them. Also use qdc in key places.

That said, watercooling is not about costs so if you're truly invested in it get the best individual parts like hwl rads, swiftech pumps, etc as that will be components you keep for life or a really freaking long-time. I've built up enough bits over the years to tackle any build and can put together extra loops in a day. It's like a hobby so keep that in mind as you piece together your parts. And btw i use a lot of ek parts...
For liquid i use distilled with additives, ie. anticorrosion and anti biological. I don't buy premixed coolant, it's a huge upcharge so make your own.

Phanteks 719 build version 2.0

My main rig is already running in a Phanteks 719. However I never took any pics of the build. As luck would have it I'm building a second 719. I'm going to make some changes with this 719 like the use of Barrow's Boxfish res and HWL's regular Nemesis GTS rads instead of the Nemesis L series low...

www.techpowerup.com

Thanks for the input. Couple of follow-up questions:

1. I assume there should be no issues with mix and matching manufacturers as long as all is copper. I dont need a thin rad, I think i have plenty of space on the top of my case but it has to be a 280 and not 360mm
2. Can you recommend a decently priced pump/res combo? Is going from 70 to 170 worth it? the VPP should have PWM afaik
3. Aesthetics are not important for me, I just dont want a jet engine in my case
4. What is the diameter of the hose dictated by?

My goal is not to have the best of the best but a good price / performance ratio and try something that I have never done before

 

[fullinfusion]

I have the Zotac 3070 Twin Edge and I am not very happy with the noise the cooler makes. I made a custom fan curve but it's still not great. Given the current price-hike of GPUs I think trying to get a better custom cooler GPU will cost me more or less the same as getting this card water cooled plus the benefit with a watercooling is that in the future I can re-use it and just get a new block. I have a CPU AIO which I don't plan to change but I do want to make the set-up future proof with the ability to add another radiator and a CPU block.

I am a noob at this so want to make sure I get all right. Anyone has any good guides to recommend? I am looking at alphacool and EK, are there any other recommended companies? Also any drawbacks at getting pump / reservoir combo?

Looking at alphacool I am thinking:

• Radiator: Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 280mm radiator V.2
• Pump Alphacool Eisstation VPP reservoir incl. VPP755 or Alphacool Eisstation DDC reservoir incl.DDC310
  • What is the difference between the 2 pumps? Which one is recommended
• Waterblock: Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Acryl GPX-N RTX 3070
• Hoses: I want flexible hoses. What kind of diameter do I need?
• Fittins: What kind of fittings should I use
• Coolant: Is there any difference between the cheaper and more expensive in terms of performance or is it only looks? My case has no window so looks is not important

EK seems more expensive especially in the pump / reservoir combo and they only have aluminum waterblock for my card. What would you recommend?

Buy yourself a good set of ANC headphones and don't waste any more money on them cards for now.. If it really bothers you, cap the ear spuds, and don't worry about it for now...

 

[dgianstefani]

I am willing to give you 600$ for that 500$ 3070, easy $100 for you, deal? I didn't buy the Twin edge because I wanted it, but because it was the only thing I could get and it was €620 back in December. Now its 700+ and any decent 3070 is 800-900 here if you manage to get one. 3080s are 1000+ already

So my options are: spend 300e extra on getting a better 3070 or invest in a decent water cooling kit for the GPU that I can re-use later for the next card with a new water block (or use headphones while gaming ). I dont need top of the line and I don't care about esthetics. My case is closed, has no RGB nor windows. I do care about noise and temp. I already have my 280 AIO as intake + 2 top slow rotating fans as intake + 2 exhaust fans so not sure what more I can do in terms of case cooling. Open case did not help much in temps either. The Zotac just has a small cooler which is loud. TPU's review said the same. So help me mod my hatch for 2.5k instead and get best bung for the back. I dont need the rims

Thanks for the input. Couple of follow-up questions:

1. I assume there should be no issues with mix and matching manufacturers as long as all is copper. I dont need a thin rad, I think i have plenty of space on the top of my case but it has to be a 280 and not 360mm
2. Can you recommend a decently priced pump/res combo? Is going from 70 to 170 worth it? the VPP should have PWM afaik
3. Aesthetics are not important for me, I just dont want a jet engine in my case
4. What is the diameter of the hose dictated by?

My goal is not to have the best of the best but a good price / performance ratio and try something that I have never done before

If you don't care about aesthetics in a closed off case, don't waste $300 on watercooling the card, get the improvement in temps and noise with simply deshrouding the card and using aftermarket fans, with a thermal paste upgrade for a few extra degrees. You could upgrade every case fan in your build, plus two additional 120mm NF-A12x25/artic P14 for the gpu for cheaper, and get better overall noise.

If you insist on spending the money to custom loop a 3070 then go with a D5 pump/res combo as stated by thesmokingman, who is right about watercooling costs, the Sata powered ones are nicer than molex but harder to find. I use aqua computer ULTITUBE D5 150 expansion tank with D5 PWM, which is molex, but it's quiet and has a metal/glass reservoir which is nicer than the plex/plastic most use.

Plenty of people deshroud as a way to improve temperatures and use bigger, slower, quieter fans. Example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/j4kfp1

 

[jaggerwild]

Read my specs lmao.

Op would be better off spending 15 minutes replacing the thermal paste with some high quality stuff like kryonaut or nt-h2, typically see a 5c improvement from the crap they use at the factory for low end cards.

Lower temps mean slower fans.

I got 5 of them (you didn't read my sig) , I also have a $1000 Phase Change(and Three Pots) makes me way more Qualified then you................................I still don't thread Crap

 

[dgianstefani]

https://gelidstore.com/collections/thermal-pad/products/gp-ultimate-thermal-pad-a 15w/mk rating, while you're upgrading the thermal paste (I'd recommend kryonaut or kryonaut extreme) grab some of these for improving your memory and vrm temperatures.

I got 5 of them (you didn't read my sig) , I also have a $1000 Phase Change(and Three Pots) makes me way more Qualified then you................................I still don't thread Crap

Lol. So saying watercooling is the wrong choice in a certain situation and offering a better, cheaper solution is "threadcrapping" and your edong is bigger since you spent more money on subambient cooling somehow makes your opinion more valid...

 

[krusha03]

So then the cheapest combo I can find with a D5 pump in stock is 180 euros: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-tbe-200-d5-pwm-d-rgb-acetal?___store=default

Is the 2.5 x price increase worth it?

 

[dgianstefani]

So then the cheapest combo I can find with a D5 pump in stock is 180 euros: https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-kinetic-tbe-200-d5-pwm-d-rgb-acetal?___store=default

Is the 2.5 x price increase worth it?

None of the watercooling options are worth it for price. And since you don't care about aesthetics it removes the other benefit to watercooling.

Lots of people see 10c+ improvement in temps just with a fan swap on deshrouded card. Let alone thermal pads and paste upgrade. Check out reddit or sff network for examples.

That EK pump/res is fine and should perform well.

 

[FireFox]

hardwarelabs make the absolute best thin rads.

Agree on that.
I have been using Black Ice Nemesis Radiator GTX 360/420 for a long time

I've been using primochill advanced lrt for a decade now.

Me too, sadly they are not selling it anymore in EU.

Pump + reservoir
Alphacool Eisbecher D5 250mm VPP655

 

[krusha03]

Agree on that.
I have been using Black Ice Nemesis Radiator GTX 360/420 for a long time

Me too, sadly they are not selling it anymore in EU.

Pump + reservoir
Alphacool Eisbecher D5 250mm VPP655

At least from the site it seems that they dont have the VPP655 and got replaced with VPP755

 

[FireFox]

At least from the site it seems that they dont have the VPP655 and got replaced with VPP755

Alphacool Pumpen

Jede Wasserkühlung benötigt eine passende Pumpe. - D5 VPP655/755/855 Eispumpe, DDC310 oder DC-LT - Hier findest sie alle!

www.alphacool.com

 

[dgianstefani]

If you insist on going custom you may as well replace your aio for the cpu and just loop the entire system, would make more sense than just the gpu.

I'd recommend optimus waterblock and fittings or techn waterblock and bitspower fittings, along with any decent D5 PWM pump/res combo with at least 250mL capacity. Tubing doesn't really matter but the ek ZMT or mayhems ultraclear are both good options.

Mayhems make good X1 coolant premix, but there's a new kid on the block with graphene for supposedly better than gold standard water/glycol based coolant https://www.gochiller.com/the-secret-sauce/.

Hardwarelabs are absolutely the best radiators. All copper/copper nickel also best.

To make it clear, I still don't think this is a better option than keeping your already good aio and just deshrouding/upgrading tim.

The money saved would pay for another nvme ssd or a nice 118gb Optane boot drive or some rgb, mouse upgrade or whatever. Actual things you'd notice.