recommendations on new video card and liquid cooling?

[InterlinkModule]

I currently have an Nvidia Geforce 7900 GTX with 512 megs of ram. I want to get a smaller model probably from ATI (which only uses one slot). What does everyone recommend that will have the same performance? I was looking at a Radoen X1950 Pro PCI-e with 512 megs. I also want to liquid cool the video card and my CPU but don't want to spend a lot. What is recommended? I saw some a nice Cooler Master Aquagate Viva P Liquid Cooling System for the video card and a Cooler Master Aquagate R80 for the CPU. How does that sound? Any advice or opinions are welcome! Thanks!

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[wahnula]

Usually the reason for water-cooling is overclocking; if you plan to overclock your GPU and want to stick in the ATI camp you owe it to yourself to get a DX-10 compliant card, their HD-2000 series. While the HD2400 supports DX10, they're barely one step ahead of on-board GFX and quite weak. Then there's the HD2900xt series, but all are double-slot.

Chances are your GPU-waterblock will make a single-slot X1950PRO a double-slot card in effect, so I would look at it like this: Water-cooling kits add complexity to a system, and are only really beneficial to serious overclockers. A stock-clocked single-slot X1950PRO's engine clock is ~500mHz, with water-cooling you might get a stable 575-600 Mhz.

Meanwhile a double-slot HD2900XT is stock-clocked at 740 mHz and supports DX10 with air-cooling.

Water-cooling looks cool but it is for serious overclockers only; there is no joy in a kinked hose or a leaky block, and little if any benefit for standard to mild clock tweaks.

All this and it still won't keep up with an 8800 GTS.

Mind you the ATI X1950 is a decent card but I don't think the expense and hassle of a water-cooling rig is justified by the potential of the card; if it's performance and you're an ATI fan, put the money from a water-cooling kit toward a HD2900XT.

Tony

 

[pmonett]

I have to agree with Tony. I will only add that the 8800 GTS I purchased has a cooling fan setup that is one of the most silent beasts I have ever witnessed.

The days of the renowned Dustbuster are well and truly gone, and that is a good thing for everyone.

Plus, the cooling setup on high-end cards like the 8600 most often vents the hot air out of the case directly - which has the side effect of not increasing the temperature inside the case - good for keeping the chipset as cool as possible.

I used to watercool my video card. Apart from the hassle I encountered at every upgrade (had to change the waterblock - never the same format), the advantage was actually not all that impressive when you take into account the costs involved (a waterblock carries a fair price - and a delivery delay).

So, between the very good performance of today's cooling solutions and the fact that I no longer overclock much anything (I prefer to wait a year and upgrade), I have all but abandoned watercooling.

When I started, I was looking less at performance than at silent operation (the Thunderbird was a great CPU, but my was it a noisy one !). Today, conventional solutions give me enough audible comfort that I do not feel the need to go watercooling again.

But, although I am a rabid gamer, I am not an overclocking freak, so this explains that I guess.

Pascal.


I've got nothing to hide, and I'd very much like to keep that away from prying eyes.

 

[ATLMatt]

Keep your videocard, just get a bigger case and/or motherboard if you need more space/expansion slots. If you want a new card, I've been very happy with my 8800 gts, best deal for the money currently, or wait for the new line of ATI cards if you want to switch to ATI.

Water cooling can be a major headache, and unless you want to do a massive overclock just to say you did it, isn't worth the time/money. If you run apps that need massive MHZ, consider upgrading to a Core 2 Duo based CPU. I've got mine overclocked by about 1ghz, and it runs arround 90F under load with a $40 heatsink/fan combo.

If you are going for a quiet machine, you can get passive cooling, or bigger quieter fans, and still not have the water cooling headache.