Overclocking 2900xts on water

[binormalkilla]

I have the new BIOS editor and I couldn't get too great of an OC because I need better cooling....so I bought some water cooling equipment. I have the following:

4 x Swiftech MC14 VGA Forged Copper BGA Ramsinks $67.80
1 x Swiftech MCW60 A2900 adapter kit for ATI 2900XT $6.95
14 x Tygon 3603 1/2" ID (3/4" OD) Clear Tubing $41.86
1 x Alphacool Water Additive Tec-Protect - Clear 0.5 liter $7.95
2 x Swiftech MCW60™ Graphics Card Liquid Cooler - Retail
- Retention Hardware: Stock Retention Hardware $93.90
1 x Swiftech MCP655™ 12 VDC Pump
- Water Pump: With a speed controller (part # MCP655) $94.95
4 x EK High Flow Fitting G 1/4 Thread - 1/2" Barb $9.00
1 x Delrin/Acetal "T" Fitting
- 3/8" Barb Fitting: No Fittings
- 1/2" Barb Fitting: Add (2) standard fittings $13.28
1 x EK-Multioption RES 250 Rev 2
- Fitting Size: 1/2" Barb for 1/2" ID tube
- Reservoir Accessory: Add No Accessory $44.95
4 x Yate Loon 120mm Medium Speed Silent UV Blue Case Fan with Blue LED - D12SM-124UB - Sleeved
- Cable: Convert to 3-Pin only (Sleeved) & include 3-Pin to 4-Pin Adapter
- Sleeve Color: Blue
- Heatshrink Color: Black $43.80
1 x UV Water Dye-Lite - UV Blue $8.99

Anyone running a similar setup? I'm expecting to be able to hit 900+MHz stable 24/7, and hoping to be able to do 950+ stable with some more voltage....
I know another guy here had some EK full coverage blocks that yielded some good results.
I can bench these cards at 850 for 3dmark, but they weren't stable in Crysis. I have the PCI-E at 115 MHz as well.

 

[binormalkilla]

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Here is my diagram for my loop:

EDIT:
I meant to put the drain valve on the top of the res......oops.

 

[binormalkilla]

Anyone????? No suggestions either?

 

[sneekypeet]

Seems to be a very straight forward design. The flow is simple and short...only thing I see wrong, altho its just a sample pic, You may want more fans on the radiator! Altho you may also want to cool the top card first then the bottom one. My 7600"s in SLI the top ran a bit warmer on air as it was warmed by the card below it. So when I water cooled em i went top then bottom. I believed if you cool the top one first it may even the temps between the two a bit better!

 

[FR@NK]

I've been using a DD Maze5 GPU block paired with the stock ram/vreg cooler. It looks good and is pretty cheap. I'll flash my card with the higher volts sometime later this week and see what my max oc will be.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=31121

 

[binormalkilla]

Seems to be a very straight forward design. The flow is simple and short...only thing I see wrong, altho its just a sample pic, You may want more fans on the radiator! Altho you may also want to cool the top card first then the bottom one. My 7600"s in SLI the top ran a bit warmer on air as it was warmed by the card below it. So when I water cooled em i went top then bottom. I believed if you cool the top one first it may even the temps between the two a bit better!

Actually I have 8 120mm Yate Loons on it
That squad represents the mounting bracket! I bought the ~80 CFM LED fans. BTW my PCIE2 runs faster than PCIE1, but I think it's due to the case airflow. Keep in mind that Crossfire is different (more balanced) than SLI, so both cards are probably more evenly stressed.
Man I can't wait for this setup to arrive!

Looking good FR@NK!
I forgot to mention that I'm running BGA RAMsinks and VRM sinks for Swiftech, and I'll have a 120mm high CFM fan in front of the cards to cool the PCB components and memory.

 

[mandelore]

hay, same case

 

[binormalkilla]

Sweet. I love the case. I have a silver though.
Mandelor have you tried upping the voltage using the BIOS editor from here:
http://www.quantum-force.net/download/QF HD2900 BIOS_Editor.zip
http://www.overclock.net/software-news/264324-quantum-2900xt-pro-bios-edit-available.html

 

[mandelore]

Sweet. I love the case. I have a silver though.
Mandelor have you tried upping the voltage using the BIOS editor from here:
http://www.quantum-force.net/download/QF HD2900 BIOS_Editor.zip
http://www.overclock.net/software-news/264324-quantum-2900xt-pro-bios-edit-available.html

hehehe I was the one who first posted the bios editor on tpu

I was talking with Shamino about getting voltage included and he went and did it

 

[binormalkilla]

hehehe I was the one who first posted the bios editor on tpu

I was talking with Shamino about getting voltage included and he went and did it

So what sort of clocks have you reached on water? What voltage are you running?

 

[mandelore]

So what sort of clocks have you reached on water? What voltage are you running?

945 core 3dmark stable, need more voltage then 1.35 tho for higher, and it remains a pleasant 62C at that clock speed and 1.35 volts under heavy load for an hour

I had also been manually hexing the bios files b4 this program, but its nice not to have to open up meh hexy tool

 

[binormalkilla]

945 core 3dmark stable, need more voltage then 1.35 tho for higher, and it remains a pleasant 62C at that clock speed and 1.35 volts under heavy load for an hour

I had also been manually hexing the bios files b4 this program, but its nice not to have to open up meh hexy tool

Wow......that's awesome. I can't wait to have mine up and running with water.
I got the majority of my parts today, and I'm about %75 done with cleaning them. I'm going to take a break to eat some Wendy's!
Anyhow, the geniuses at performance pcs forgot to add my VRM sinks, so I have to wait on those too.

 

[binormalkilla]

Well I installed it an my second card in the loop and it's overheating like CRAZY. LM64 is reading 80C+....thermal shutdown kicked in around 5 minutes.....the other card is idling at 25C though. I checked and it seems that the water is flowing well, so I reseated. It was even worse, and shutdown kicked in during Vista boot screen.

 

[binormalkilla]

Well I never updated my thread...I sorted out the heat issue. The second block wasn't seated well.

I am able to OC 24/7 stable to 950 on the core using 1.35V. My load temps are ~46C, idle at 27-31 depending on ambient (17-22C)

 

[phanbuey]

you should OC further if your only going to 46C no? maybe time for more voltage?

 

[binormalkilla]

you should OC further if your only going to 46C no? maybe time for more voltage?

Yea I will if I can get some more voltage.....I am at the max of my BIOS editor.......I don't know if ATI Tool supports the 1Gb card yet for voltage changes.

 

[mandelore]

you can use it in windows xp, but u have to use the atitool for clock changes also, which is a bugger because it dont go in increments of 1mhz

i got over 955 core easy with just 1.47v, havent tried more yet, but i know its all 3dmark stable

 

[binormalkilla]

Hmm.....I don't want to have to OC using software. I'm running Crossfire, so the best bet is to OC with a BIOS flash. I guess I could mess with some higher clocks if I can get the voltage only, then flash the BIOS accordingly. It will be stable in 2d mode until ATI Tool increases the voltage....