Quad 3090 using Alphacool?

ASNielsen

New member
Current setup: Asrock TRX40 Creator + AMD 3970x + 2x Inno3D 3090 iChill X3 with stock air-cooler.

I use the machine for ML, not for gaming.

I want to upgrade with additional 2x 3090 GPU's, but due to the size of the stock cooler, and the spacial constraints of the motherboard, there is not enough space for 4 air-cooled GPUs, so i'm looking at watercooling.

The Alphacool Eisblock 3090/3080 for reference design 3090 seems like a good waterblock option.

But is it possible to connect 4 of them? Should i use this Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Terminal ?

There is only a 1 slot gap between each PCIe 4.0 on the motherboard, so the cards will be quite close to one another.

Note, i have no experience building custom loop water-cooling, the CPU is currently watercooled, but AIO.
 

Eddy

Iceman
Staff member
The terminal is very helpful, yes. But if you want to use 4 graphics cards, I would plan the circuit well. That is, after the first two graphics cards, I would first go into a radiator with the water and then into the next two graphics cards. That's not absolutely necessary, but it makes for slightly better temperatures. In the server, we always go into a radiator only after 4 cards... but with 2080TIs. The 3090 has an extremely high amount of waste heat under full load.
But you will need a lot of radiator space if noise is an argument.
 

ASNielsen

New member
Yea these cards run hot :D their standard TDP is 370w, but i run them at a 270w power limit. This only reduces the performance by 8-10%, but substantially lowers both the temperature and the noise with the stock air-cooler.

There is space for one 2x140mm and one 4x120mm radiator in the case, which seems sufficient to cool 4x 270w + 280w from the AMD 3970x? I am not looking to make an ultra super quiet system or do any overclocking.

Can the Alphacool PGX SLI QUAD be used to connect the four cards if also using the Alphacool Eisblock Aurora Terminal on each card?

Would using the dual D5 pump reservoir be advisable, or is using a single D5 pump sufficient?
 

Eddy

Iceman
Staff member
That SLI adapter is not compatible with the new Eisblock Aurora cooler, sorry. You can only use 90° angle fittings to connect everything. Not so easy to make, but the new SLI adapters will be available late this year. Because SLI is not very important anymore since it makes no sense for gamers. And our Enterprise Customers are using every card with Quick disconnects, so a SLI adapter is not needed for them. But mainly in 4U Racks not in normal cases.
But i personally like to work with 90° fittings more than with an SLI adapter. Feels saver for me because everything is well connected.
 

ASNielsen

New member
Thanks! I will go with the Alphacool Eisblock Terminal and some 90° fittings.

How about the pump, any benefit of using two D5 pumps for this system?
 

Eddy

Iceman
Staff member
For 4 GPUs and CPU cooler.... one D5 should be enough. Or a DDC-1T or 1T Plus. But the water flow will be low, enough for cooling but i would recommend two pumps for this setup. If you use 2 pumps, than i would go for 2x D5. Because you can regulate them more easily and you don't have to run both pumps at maximum when you have two. Then you can make the whole thing a bit quieter.
 

Tived

Member
Nielsen,

what are you cooling your CPU with? And much load are you applying?

I have the 3960x and have 2x 280 extreme and that is still not enough to keep it cool during prolonged periods of running at full tilt 90-100%
 

Eddy

Iceman
Staff member
@Tived
Wich temps and wich cooler? We are cooling different Threadripper with only 240mm radiators without any problems.
 

ASNielsen

New member
@Tived

Currently i'm only using a single 280mm radiator, Corsair H115 PRO XT, but i am planning to switch to alphacool as part of the GPU cooling loop. The 280mm seems to be sufficient. It gets very warm, with PBO and under full sustained load, it's peaking at around 80C with 20C room temperature, but not seeing any thermal throttling when running benchmarks..
 
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