Help with propper barbs and rad?

[Jack Rabbit]

I am looking for a quiet(er) gaming PC so, for a first step, I am looking to water cool my BFG 8800GT to get rid of the tiny little noisy fan on it. I know this is probably backwards but I am not worried about cooling the CPU yet. The big Zalman on that does just fine, is reasonably quiet, and I do not have to worry about the power regulators on the board as the Zalman blows on them too.

NCIX has the "Swiftech Stealth REV.2 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GPU/MEMORY Water Block 1/2IN G1/4 Barb Fittings" on sale now. This is one of those that cools both the GPU and the RAM and it is a lot cheaper than the Danger Den one. I understand the GPU only ones work better but you need to have good airflow in the case to cool the RAM and I am looking for a quieter system, not a OC monster; less fans is better.

I will probably upgrade to SLI and maybe the CPU and associated cruft later so I want parts that I can likely grow in to.

I will get a Micro-Res, a MCP350 Pump, some anti-fungal juice, and maybe a T-line for easy fill and drain (thanks to whoever posted about that here).

So I have a couple questions. The first is what radiator should I look at. I probably want a 3x120mm one so the obvious first thing is the MCR320-QP. This is a brass radiator and the waterblock is aluminium. Is this a problem or will the coating on the waterblock and the proper additives eliminate corrosion? Also, I want one I can use with slow quiet fans. Anyone got one of these set up like that and is it working well?

Second, I really do not understand the whole barb sizing thing. I think I will probably go with 3/8" ID tubing because that is what the SwifTech pump has unless someone can provide me a good reason not to. What kind of barbs do I need to hook this block and radiator to 3/8"ID tubing?

I am open to any and all suggestions including scrapping all this for other gear if you have some recommendations on better stuff to spare my ears from whining fans.

Thank you in advance - JR

[MpG]

You won't have any corrosion issues with the Stealth block, but you WILL have fitting issues. The GT (and new GTS, IIRC) use a different mounting pattern, so the waterblock won't install properly.

There are a few aftermarket heatsinks out there that will install on the 8800GT. Haven't tried it myself, but I've been hearing some great things about Thermalright's HR-03 GT. Just make sure you get the one for the GT, not the regular one. Stock can be hard to find though, because you're not the only person out there trying to shut that card up.

[3.0charlie]

Don't water-cool yet if you're not ready for the whole loop. You want to get rid of that noisy GT fan? Go for the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 with 2 low-RPM Scythe fans. That's what I did on my GT (even though my CPU is water-cooled - check out my sig, rig #3) and it's the best 50$ I ever spent on hardware.

John

[Jack Rabbit]

MpG, Ooops... my bad. My card is a GTS not a GT. BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640MB. The spec says "Stealth is compatible with the 8800 GTS, GTX and Ultra models" so at should be fine, no?

3.0Charlie... I hear ya about bang for buck but I want to play with water cooling for the geek value. Whatever I do I want to start out small; not try to do the whole system at once. Plus water cooling would free up the 3rd PCIx slot in the middle of my board for a secondary video card.

Thanks guys.

[Vinnie]

I just finished doing an installation with the same idea as you have.
Water =cool the GPU, and not the CPU.

Here is the link:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...tercooled.html

[||Console||]

You will get much more gains out of water cooling your GFX card vs your cpu . You card will love you when it is loading @ 40deg vs 80

[Jack Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Vinnie

I just finished doing an installation with the same idea as you have.

Thanks for the link; I will check it out. Can anyone point me to the right barbs for the Stealth and 3/8" ID tubing?

Thanks!