Water Cooling Question

Greetings,

I have a thread going in the Desktop Computers forum about a rig I'm putting together, or rather trying to put together, anyway the card I have chosen is the MSI NX8800Ultra-T2D768E-HD-OC GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB. Unfortunately many people in the reviews are saying that the card is too powerful for its own good and actually needs to be under-clocked to get stable performance out of it.

I have a Danger Den water cooling kit for use with the new rig but it does not include a VGA block and I am thinking I'll need to invest in one for this card. My first choice would be the Danger Den DD-8800GTX, they say it is designed for both the GTX and Ultra, but they are out of stock. The Swiftech' Stealth VGA block reviews well but I am afraid it will bottleneck the coolant flow because the system I have uses 1/2" tubing and equipment and the Swiftech' Stealth only has 1/4" ports ,though it comes with 1/2" adapters.

This is my first WC build so any constructive input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: If the bottleneck would be a problem could I not get some 1/4" tubing and split the 1/2" into two 1/4" lines? I could then send one line into the VGA block and bypass it with the other, then merge the two lines back into one 1/2". This would keep the coolant flow from being restricted and the hotter coolant from the card line would be mixed with the cooler liquid from the bypass line which would help keep the overall coolant temps down. What do you think?

The Swiftech Apogee GT looks like a good waterblock. It supports 1/2" tubing. All the tubing should be the same diameter.

Thanks for the reply but that is a CPU water block not a VGA water block, It may also work to cool the GPU chip but I would like a block that also covers the RAM, Voltage Regulators, and I/O Chip.

OOPS...sorry.

Not a problem, I'm just thankful that you are will to take the time to try and help me out.

Swiftech Stealth or an EK FC8800

How big is your rad??? Where are you shopping??? What kind of pump/kit do you have??? What is your block made of???

Swiftech and EK make some of the best blocks out there

I bought the Danger Den power kit.

http://www.dangerden.com/store/produ...&cat=65&page=1

I'm not sure but I think the EK-FC8800 8800GTX also has 1/4" ports which can be adapted to 1/2" tubing if needed rather than 1/2" ports. Would the smaller ports reduce coolant flow or would it simply increase the psi? If it will increase the psi will the 12v pump my kit came with (see link above) be strong enough to handle it?

I would go for the Swiftech Stealth.