My first watercool custom loop !

  • Thread starter Deleted member 6987
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Deleted member 6987

Guest
Hello,

I made my PCs for 25 years now and I was always in aircooling (Noctua for CPUs and quality AIB brands for graphic cards). I was pleased till my latest upgrade when I realised that my new Ryzen 3600X runs out of the box at slightly higher temps compared to my previous i5-7600k (peak at 70 degrees).

When I finally get my Gigabyte Aorus Master RTX 3080 in December 2020, I was amazed by the cooler efficiency on the nvidia chip (not more than 60-65 degres in the games I play @1440p 100Hz) but shocked by the GDDR6X temps (the "famous" GPU Memory Junction Temperature in HWiNFO went from 80 to 105 degrees depending on games). The fans were so noisy, even in my Lian Li O11d XL case with good airflow (6 fans).

In March, I was sick of these "issues", my room was getting warm after long gaming sessions, it was time to jump into watercool custom loop to solve and the noise issue and reduce the temps !

I ordered the parts from EKWB and Alphacool.
Unfortunately, I had to wait 2 months for the GPU waterblock to get shipped from Alphacool (2 delays due to lot of demand and global supply chain problems). It finally arrived this week :)

Let me share with you some pics and feedback. As it was the first time for me, I went to soft tube (easier and safer for beginners).


01-naked.JPG02-clean and no cooler.JPG03-pads on PCB.JPG04-pads on back PCB.JPG05-front mounted.JPG06-back mounted.JPG07-in the case 1.JPG08-in the case 2.JPG09-in the case 3.JPG

My only little concern is that the PCB of the graphic card is not enough supported. I have to gently plug in the two pcie connectors in order to not bend the PCB. But not a big story on this, just be cautious.

So how are the temps now (pump D5 at 3000 rpm and 2 radiators with 3 fans at 1000rpm) ? :)

The CPU (with EK Velocity wb, sorry Alphacool it is aesthetically nicer) runs now at average 45-50 degrees in gaming sessions (compared to 60-65 degrees average) with auto settings (autoOC and PBO enabled). Fine for me.

Now the GPU, I have to say that I was a little bit afraid that the thermal pads were not efficient enough (see Corsair v EKWB v Alphacool - who wins? - YouTube ) but I carefully check if proper contact was ok when mounting the wb and backplate and I had spare thermal pads if this was not the case. But mounting was fine, no need to replace thermal pads.
After 2 hours of PUBG or Dirt Rally 2.0, the GPU runs at 45-50 degrees and the GPU Memory Junction Temperature at 60-70 degrees ! That's an amazing improvements. No longer thermal throttling, yahoo !
At 1000 rpm, my 8 Noctua fans are just a little bit noisy (especially the 2 140mm mounted at top). I will try to make adjustments to fan curves in the near future.

Anyway thank you, Alphacool !
Approved Experience with your products !
 
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Thomas_S

... the nice marketing guy next door
Staff member
Hi, thank you for your positive feedback. It's nice to hear that we were able to make another user happy.
 

wheelbeer

New member
because i'm thinking of a mixed custom loop and the description of the material are not often the same. So i was wondering if your two blocks have the same material.
Is it not a problem to have copper and nickel copper ?
 
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Deleted member 6987

Guest
I went for a distroplate :cool:

Distroplate.jpgCase Side Look.jpg
 
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