The Neophyte's Custom Liquid Cooling Guide: How To, Why To, What To Expect
by Dustin Sklavos on September 30, 2013 12:01 AM ESTOf course the big reason to go through this trouble was to hopefully get an improved gaming experience out of the bargain. Slightly more stable boost clocks on the pair of GeForce GTX 780s in SLI should give them at least a leg up, and now that we're getting past the era of the shoddy console port, CPU performance is starting to become more relevant. Mutli-GPU configurations only increase CPU overhead.
Again, per the previous page:
At stock, our system ran its Intel Core i7-4770K at 3.7GHz on all four cores (3.9GHz on a single core) and the pair of GTX 780s at reference clocks.
The air overclock ran its i7-4770K at 4.3GHz on all four cores and the pair of GTX 780s with a +125 offset on the GPUs and 7.1GHz on the GDDR5.
The liquid overclock ran its i7-4770K at 4.4GHz on all four cores and the pair of GTX 780s with a +135 offset, with a stable boost at 1160MHz, and 7.1GHz on the GDDR5.
1080p tends to be more CPU limited, but let's see if there are some conclusions we can draw. I've included minimum frame rates as these are the ones we really want to boost. The initial overclock generally gives us a healthy performance jump across the board, but StarCraft II actually does worse for some reason. The modest increase in clocks going to liquid just doesn't seem to do a whole lot, but remember that the cards are spending more time at their boost clocks than they did under air. We could just be CPU limited, and the 100MHz increase on the i7-4770K may be too modest to let the cards stretch their legs.
Obviously, we need to jump to the surround resolution of 5760x1080.
Most games continue to see only a mild increase in performance, but BioShock Infinite and Skyrim both start stretching their legs a bit more. The performance difference isn't tremendous, but it's measurable. BioShock Infinite in particular gets a really nice bump to its bottom line.
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bojaka - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
And right about THERE I lost my interest in water cooling - Thanks :) I actually believed water cooling would be a viable solution to make my computer silent, but apparently not. Thanks for a great article!!utnorris - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
You can make a near dead silent water cooled system that allows you to overclock. Unfortunately, the fans you are using in the article, while good, are not the best, regardless what marketing says. I have built probably 40 to 50 systems over the last 5 years using water cooling and noise was never an issue. If you are not overclocking then a full blown water cooling setup is not worth it, but for the added performance, it's well worth it. Also, there is no need for additives like the Hydrx, distilled water with a silver coil or some anti algae drops from your local pet store is all you need and would be less toxic. Last, as already mentioned, delidding would have seen about 10c drop on the processor and if you are going to water cool, you might as well delid your chip.Aikouka - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
You REALLY shouldn't take a SINGLE article on water cooling as the end all, be all on whether water cooling can provide a silent build. Dustin was NOT pushing for a silent build, but rather just a build with whatever parts he was provided. I have a custom loop with an i7-4770k and two GTX 680s, and it isn't noisy at all. It is going to be a bit noisier at idle because of having significantly more fans (I have 7 120mm fans just on the radiators), but it doesn't get any noisier at load! I also use a fan controller that lets me set the fans to the speed -- and consequently, the noise level -- that I find acceptable.piroroadkill - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Yeah, some people think this, but since you're shifting water at the same time as pushing air, there are simply more moving parts involved. Just get a giant tower heatsink and run those fans sloooowly, and choose a GPU with a really good factory heatsink.tim851 - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Depends. There are much better, i.e. quieter, pumps available. The best one imo is the Aquastream by AquaComputer. Even then, a single Cpu-single Gpu system is quieter on air. A Thermalright HR-02 and an Accelero Xtreme will take care of it. Once you go SLI, however, you're running into space and heat evacuation problems. Watercooling is your only chance of acceptable noise at load now.piroroadkill - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Yeah, multi-GPU rigs are a different beast. At that point a custom water loop is probably your best bet.But for single CPU/single GPU rigs, water is basically a vanity project, not one that will actually give you lower noise.
piklar - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Great article Dustin! It just so happens I have been considering a watercooling project this summer (new Zealand time) using the Corsair Air540 with 4770K and SLI GTX 780s. Ironicly it appears The Raven RV03 is doing just as good if not better job of the cooling with Corsair H80 and reference card cooling. You have shown how luck of the draw Haswell can be since the 4770Ks Ive come across all do 4.6ghz on 2.8- 3.0v no probs. Still your article was very useful and much appreciated.Death666Angel - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
2.8V to 3.0V? That's not right. :PRazorbak86 - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
LOL. My thought exactly. I'm sure he meant 1.28-1.30V. ;-Ppiklar - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
soz was half asleep, thanks for clarifying that I meant meant 1.280 - 1.30V for 4.6ghz with 4770K with H80.