Clovis559

 
https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Mobile-Cooling-Copper-Circulation/dp/B08RYYLRY9/ref=sr_1_34?dchild=1&keywords=DIY+80+waterblock&qid=1613616540&sr=8-34
 
Don't tell me you wouldn't try it if it was free :P Though the coverage of where the water flows is suck, maybe not then...
 
Depending if they come out with active cooled waterblock or not, I may jerry rig a memory block into a backplate.

 
 HeatKiller IV Pro for Threadripper would fit too.

There is already a block for this exact purpose 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Clovis559

Lord Winchester

Clovis559

 
https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Mobile-Cooling-Copper-Circulation/dp/B08RYYLRY9/ref=sr_1_34?dchild=1&keywords=DIY+80+waterblock&qid=1613616540&sr=8-34
 
Don't tell me you wouldn't try it if it was free :P Though the coverage of where the water flows is suck, maybe not then...
 
Depending if they come out with active cooled waterblock or not, I may jerry rig a memory block into a backplate.

 
 HeatKiller IV Pro for Threadripper would fit too.

There is already a block for this exact purpose 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I’ve seen that but always good to have options. The block is relatively tiny at 14mm, though huge surface area 154x 70. The mounting system is rather ghetto, rubber bands to the edge of the card. If your card is horizontal I guess that works? but if your card is vertical, and you attach 1/4“ .. good luck with keeping that contact flat.
 
See good to have options. I think it would be sick to mount a thread ripper block to the back 🤔 On my motherboard it would squeezeeeeeze in there,  but work. Of course the wait game is real for the water blocks... maybe they already have an active cooling solution? 

Sure, having options would be great. I really wanted to have the Aquacomputer GPU Block with the Active Backplate. But they keep delaying it. That's why I bought a Bykski Block and the Mp5works Backplatecooler. Still waiting for both to show up. 
 
I just found a Video series of Frame Chasers where he tested the block.
 
But I feel like, if I keep posting the link to Mp5works products and tests, people get the impression I work for them.
Spoiler warning: I don't 🤣
 
I'm just absolutely hyped to finally get the noise and heat levels of my Computer down again.
 
Case temp goes up to 50°c because the freaking gpu pumps so much heat. 

As you can see on the backplate, they have clear indications of where to put stuff for the Die & vRAM, which is nice:
 
 
& the default pads, the die one is too small imo: 

Phase 1 of after (which I ended up doing some additonals) :

And you can see, the pads that stuck to the backplate (I redid the two that aren't stuck to it because they weren't covering ALL of the chips, thought that was the problem, it was not) :

 
So I'm pretty stumped as to why the temps are better on the VRMs but worse/the same on other stuff.
 
I think I'm going to do 1 (.5mm) step thinner on the Die, and maybe try 1.5mm on the VRAM too, but it really does seem like the 2mm contact is good and not cause pressure issues.
 
The only thing I can think of is the the back of the Die being kinda thick resulting in uneven pressure on the chips?  It doesn't look like it though - Or, maybe the thermal tape on the heatsinks is doing less good now that I have better pads, but that seems like it's impossible.  I suppose I could go full r-tard & put 1mm pads between the heatsinks & the backplate, remove all the tape... I just don't wanna "waste" all of my 1mm stuff if doesn't help, so I'm saving that as a last step to try & optimize things.
 
I did thinner pads on the VRMs in the areas with the boxes (1.5mm), slightly thicker (2mm) on the lil' capacitor areas. 
 
The VRMs are happy, it's just the VRAM that's odd.
 
Here's the before & after for PR Stress Test:
 

 
It just doesn't make sense to me that temps are not... better by more I guess.  Like, GPU Die/2 is down 3.7C, Mem1 & Mem2 are down - but Mem3 is the same... granted, Mem3 could be face-side, BUT that should still be better with less PCB heatsoak, shouldn't it?
Same for the Memory Junction Temp, how is it not lower when I'm lowering the PCB's heatsoak, or at least I should be.
VRMs obviously have a huge improvement especially considering they're already pretty low, I'm happy with that.
 
Just the VRAM oddities... I'm going to test some stuff I guess :-D
 
Thermal Pads don't have any "cure time" right?

I know the Kingpin is a different PCB then the normal 3090. However if it helps at all on the installation instructions for my Alphacool block that came with a backplate and pads for both the 3080 and 3090. For 3090 for the VRM's it shows 3mm pads and for all the memory and the back of the GPU it shows to use 2mm pads. Not sure if this will help you at all but it might give some insight into what thickness of pads you need to start off with.

Dabadger84

mikejefferson
I know the Kingpin is a different PCB then the normal 3090. However if it helps at all on the installation instructions for my Alphacool block that came with a backplate and pads for both the 3080 and 3090. For 3090 for the VRM's it shows 3mm pads and for all the memory and the back of the GPU it shows to use 2mm pads. Not sure if this will help you at all but it might give some insight into what thickness of pads you need to start off with.

From what I can tell, I chose the right sizes afterall - 2mm on most of it, 1.5mm on some of the thicker components (the backside VRM boxes-things).
 
Results of the rerun with fans at gaming speed the entire test (cuz otherwise they vary due to the core going between 47-51C throughout the test and my trigger point for the next step up/step down in fan speed is 50C) :
 

The Mem Junct Temp was at 68C almost every time I looked at it while working on something else during the stress test.  Mem2 was in the 59.1-59.6C range almost all the time as well, only peaked at 60.1C a few times.  I wish the stress test would run the actual clocks I set, but no matter what I do, I can't get it to run & stay at 2160MHz - this particular run, I had the VF curve in Afterburner set to 2175, still didn't go to 2160 at any point.
Oh and the "middle" are idle temps I let it get down to before starting the test.
Ambient was as controlled as I could get it, in the 70.5-70.9F range.

Do you use stock fans or is it recommended Noctuas A12x25?

Yeah my vram is definitely on warmer side. Its on 70 to 74 when gaming ie cyberpunk. I have the lian li ox11 xl case. Will try some heat sinks on top of back plate.

vulcZ
 
I think those results are fantastic! I took your advice and ended up ordering an additional thermal pad that is 1.5mm thick, which I intend on using on the backside of my KP card. I know you said you used 1.5mm in some areas, and 2mm in others, but do you think I can get away with using 1.5mm everywhere on the back? Also, did you change anything on the GPU said in terms of re-applying thermal pads?
 
The 3mm pad I bought I will probably use on my son's 3080 FTW3, since that card doesn't have any memory ICs on the back, so it probably needs a thicker pad. Since that card's back plate doesn't touch the PCB at all, my goal is to use thicker pads to provide contact to the hotter areas, and then apply some of those little black heatsinks (plus a fan) to help cool down the back of the card since it currently gets blistering hot without even making contact! On that card, memory junction temp goes above 95*C in very heavy loads. Ouch!

Given the pressure indents on the pads for the vRAM on the back of the card to the backplate, I would say 1.5mm may be too thin for them.  Keep in mind, this was with 2mm:
 

 
1.5 will be fine for the back of the GPU die, and the bigger parts of the backside of the VRM though, believe these are the areas I'm using 1.5 in:
 

 
 

After redoing just the VRAM areas with thermal pads between the backplate & the heatsinks, I can say it definitely works better to do that than do thermal tape, at least the kind mine came with preinstalled.
 
Memory temps before in Cyberpunk with LOWER power draw (dunno why bit it was) and lower ambient were
54.5, 63.1 & 49.2 - temps just now, despite ambient being higher (71.4-71.7F) and power draw being higher (peaking in the 475W range) were
56.1, 60.7 & 49.1 - so the warmest of the 3 was a good bit lower, one was higher.
VRM temps were once again, even better, and I haven't even done the VRM backplate heatsinks with thermal pads yet, I'm going to wait for the .5mm to arrive before I do that I think. 
But before temps were 49.8, 44.6, 53.1, 36 & 36.1
just now they were 49.2, 41.9, 50.7, 35.2 & 35.3 - that I think has more to do with PCB heatsoak being lessened.
 
I want to redo the entirety of the backplate heatsinks with pads now that I know how garb the heat transfer is on that thermal tape, despite the fact that the heatsinks don't seem to particular want to stick to the pads, I do think it's more form fitting of the ridges the backplate has in it, since what I've done so far I'm using 1mm thickness.
 
Other than the 1 memory readout being higher & Memory Junction Temp being 2C higher (probably because of the warmer ambient), so far it looks to be positive effects vs just having the heatsinks on there with the original thermal tape on them.
 
I'll have to retest when ambient is down in the 69-70F again for like-to-like comparisons to the previous Cyberpunk results.  I'm still not satisfied though.  Maybe I'm expecting too much :-D

Dabadger84
On a side note, today was a day for uh... other things:
 

How it started vs:

How it's going.
 
Leak testing in progress (and yes I put the CPU block upright after the pic lol)
 

 
Definitely some tiny bubbles that need to get worked out, but I got most of the big ones out without powering it on at all.

That's so lit! Not that I'm stalking, but is 1hr ago when you started this voyage?

 
Positive side, got the radiator mounted with push/pull fans installed... negative side?  I went a lil' heavy on the red and now it's very orange. lol  May not translate well over the camera/internet, but it is... deep orange? :-D
 
I definitely made the two tubes involving the reservoir/pump combo too long.  If I had an easy way to drain it, I'd empty it out and shorten them, but I really don't want to unmount the radiator, drain it in to something I can use to refill it again, shorten the tubes, then reassemble it & start the leak test all over again.
 
I'll probably order another coolant concentrate & do that at some point in the future... unsure if I can get the res in to the computer with how "too long" the radiator to res tube is.  We'll see.  For now it's back to leak testing, but so far, zero indications of any leaks.
 
Edit: Accidentally deleted the picture on the host so I had to re-up it.

Dabadger84
After redoing just the VRAM areas with thermal pads between the backplate & the heatsinks, I can say it definitely works better to do that than do thermal tape, at least the kind mine came with preinstalled.
 
Memory temps before in Cyberpunk with LOWER power draw (dunno why bit it was) and lower ambient were
54.5, 63.1 & 49.2 - temps just now, despite ambient being higher (71.4-71.7F) and power draw being higher (peaking in the 475W range) were
56.1, 60.7 & 49.1 - so the warmest of the 3 was a good bit lower, one was higher.
VRM temps were once again, even better, and I haven't even done the VRM backplate heatsinks with thermal pads yet, I'm going to wait for the .5mm to arrive before I do that I think. 
But before temps were 49.8, 44.6, 53.1, 36 & 36.1
just now they were 49.2, 41.9, 50.7, 35.2 & 35.3 - that I think has more to do with PCB heatsoak being lessened.
 
I want to redo the entirety of the backplate heatsinks with pads now that I know how garb the heat transfer is on that thermal tape, despite the fact that the heatsinks don't seem to particular want to stick to the pads, I do think it's more form fitting of the ridges the backplate has in it, since what I've done so far I'm using 1mm thickness.
 
Other than the 1 memory readout being higher & Memory Junction Temp being 2C higher (probably because of the warmer ambient), so far it looks to be positive effects vs just having the heatsinks on there with the original thermal tape on them.
 
I'll have to retest when ambient is down in the 69-70F again for like-to-like comparisons to the previous Cyberpunk results.  I'm still not satisfied though.  Maybe I'm expecting too much :-D

Awesome, thank you for doing all of these tests! I bought large thermal pads in 1.5mm size and 3mm size, and now I just ordered a 2mm once based on your previous post and suggestion. However I noticed those pads are only sticky on one side, which I think is perfect for the backplate and/or re-applying thermal pads on the GPU side of the card. However it sounds like I'm going to need to buy the double-sided sticky thermal pads to use between the little heatsinks and the backplate, since it seems like the tape that came pre-applied on the little heatsinks are junk. So I just placed an additional order for .5mm double-sided adhesive thermal pads LOL. Following your story has been so informative and fun, and as you can see, influential :)

Nice results Dabadger84.
 
Here's what I have done. Lots of heatsinks and two Noctua A9x14 fans. Full album: 

https://imgur.com/a/K6JOYYd

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Temps during a torture test:
 
Stock:
GPU Temp: 50°C
Rear Memory Modules: 89°C/85°C
Front Memory Modules: 73.3°C
Memory Junction Temp: 104°C
Heatsink Mod:
GPU Temp: 47°C (3°C drop)
Rear Memory Modules: 74°C/72°C (15°C/13°C drop)
Front Memory Modules: 58.5°C (14.8°C drop)
Memory Junction Temp: 86°C (18°C drop)

If I get the time I might try doing a AIO sandwich like Clovis559

Just realized I forgot to post the pictures...  tubes are still a bit long, but they're long enough that I can maneuver them around & get at the GPU easily if need be... so meh:
 

Dabadger84
I think the white fans on the radiator there are a nice accent piece.
 


CPU block being dark makes me sad though :(

I barely got caught up on all this! You must be really happy with your recent purchase! Have you checked the temps/benched yet?

Dabadger84

Clovis559
 
I barely got caught up on all this! You must be really happy with your recent purchase! Have you checked the temps/benched yet?

Not as impressive as I was sort of expecting, but then again the 9900K is always a hot box.  The load temps basically dropped 10-12C, and that's under CPU-FPU-Cache load in AIDA64, so very heavy AVX2-style load.  And that was at stock, with a 162W load, which dropped to 158W with the new cooler, so apparently my CPU had 4W of "heat bleed" or whatever you wanna call it, on the old cooler. 
Temps with the Thermaltake AIO at 100% pump speed & fans at 100% speed on the radiator (which I normally don't run that high, so temps would actually be worse normally) were in the 81-87C range, with one core being down at 79C.
With the new loop, and again, pretty sure I have a bad mount as far as paste goes, because it popped off before I could start actually bolting it down, so I imagine whenever I take it off there's no going to be great coverage... and I also just used a blob when it's Thermal Grizzly, which you're supposed to "pre-spread" - I've found that my IHS is very not flat, and is kind of like a dome, so doing a blob usually works just fine - Temps were 71C on 2 cores, then the other cores ranged from 72C up to 76C.   
So they're more even, and lower, in general.  That test was done with the pump at full speed & the CPU radiator fans at around 80%, which is about what they'll go up to while gaming.
Oh, the test was ran for over 40 minutes each time to ensure steady state was reached, and the ambient was warmer on the new loop test (72F) than the Thermaltake AIO test (70F) - so that does factor in to the temps a bit.
 
Still makes meh sad every time I look in there & see a dark CPU block :(
 
Did a minor rearrange, set up other fans, got the 200mm out of there and put the Res on top of something because it kinda looks neat having it just "chilling" on an active fan.  I also moved the RAM fan to on top of the video card & took the Noctua eye sore out.
 
I'll have to do some updated pictures for here & my ModRigs page.

That’s a great start! And you’ll have this now for any CPU you upgrade to. I use Thermal Grizzly too!