My Crazy 3 way SLI GPU/CPU Water Cooled Gaming PC Build - 3 GTX 780 (FINISHED page 4,5) (more Benchmarks pg 10)

[STEvil]

Given the liquidity of the paste used, its not really an issue. I'm just glad it wasnt a silver based paste.. lol

WHOA!!!!

Wait a person that actually understands that all TIMs are not the same viscosity, and some of them that come with some brand coolers are actually very runny, and are normally non conductive paste.

While others like artic silver or mx, or ic diamond is conductive to name a few and causes a huge problem if it oozes off the chip.

No matter how many people reply saying its not an issue with how it is applied, and actually know the differences between different types of thermal pastes like us, Im sure people will continue to reply saying "YOU DID IT WRONG"!

lol

i'm not a mod at xtremesystems.org for nothing ; )

Edited December 16, 2013 by STEvil

[Guest]

Also, I'm sure this is the last thing Steve wants to see, but despite the manual claiming that pattern was the way to go from the pictures it does look like you put way too much paste on (but maybe that's just how ti looks in pictures, and is deceiving me). Applying thermal paste in arbitrary patterns will decrease effectiveness because it will be thicker in some places than others, which makes the cold plate contact less reliable.

so i should ignore the manual and go with "jeremy, from the internet's" advice instead?

and just know this, the 2nd and 3rd cards, i went out of my way to make those "lines" in the pattern as thin as possible so i wouldn't have to listen to the know-it-all's again. Guess what happened? it self leveled again, spreading out on the chip on it's own, and started too look like too much AGAIN. But i know it isn't too much. As for the pattern itself, most of the bulk of it gathers at the center, where all the lines criss-cross making most of the blob in the middle. Also, guess what else? the temps are great, no problems at all. Honestly, 1/10th of 1000% of the people on my forum, facebook, twitter and youtube have never pulled apart a perfectly good video card and replaced the heat sync with a water block......so i am not sure where all the experts are coming from. I would say the usual "you read too much and don't DO enough"....except for if you READ, it tells you, i did it right.

I'm not saying you should ignore the manual, I'm just going by experience from actually playing around with different methods of applying thermal paste. I personally would have tried both methods and see which worked better just out of curiosity. And yes, I said that it LOOKS THICK but is probably deceiving me, maybe you should read things. Speaking of reading things, being a senior IT field technician for an IT firm in DC, and doing federal government contracting ..you're absolutely right, I don't do enough.

And obviously it spreads evenly across the middle, however because of the pattern *repeats self* "Applying thermal paste in arbitrary patterns will decrease effectiveness because it will be thicker in some places than others, which makes the cold plate contact less reliable."

I mean, even if it was too much paste I wasn't saying you were going to damage anything..the entire point of thermal paste is that it's thermal based, and non conductive..

All in all I imagine the difference would really only be a couple degrees so obviously you're not going to have any problems as you stated you don't have any, but what do I know, I'm just Jeremy from the internet.

PS: Wasn't trying to start a flame war

By the way, liquid cooling is so 10 years ago. Get with the times, Steve..it's all about Kingpin cooling.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Guest

[STEvil]

You mean LN2/Dry Ice. Kingpin wasnt the first and he isnt the only guy doing it.. and we've been doing that a lot longer than 10 years as well. You probably halved whatever credibility you might have given yourself earlier with that snarky comment.

[n8ball2013]

Govt contracting. Cheapest bid wins. And you arent doing snything like this in your actual work. You know it I know it so using that as your argument is void.

Pc building the only thing peopke get more butt hurt about than car audio

[Hikato]

Also, I'm sure this is the last thing Steve wants to see, but despite the manual claiming that pattern was the way to go from the pictures it does look like you put way too much paste on (but maybe that's just how ti looks in pictures, and is deceiving me). Applying thermal paste in arbitrary patterns will decrease effectiveness because it will be thicker in some places than others, which makes the cold plate contact less reliable.

so i should ignore the manual and go with "jeremy, from the internet's" advice instead?

and just know this, the 2nd and 3rd cards, i went out of my way to make those "lines" in the pattern as thin as possible so i wouldn't have to listen to the know-it-all's again. Guess what happened? it self leveled again, spreading out on the chip on it's own, and started too look like too much AGAIN. But i know it isn't too much. As for the pattern itself, most of the bulk of it gathers at the center, where all the lines criss-cross making most of the blob in the middle. Also, guess what else? the temps are great, no problems at all. Honestly, 1/10th of 1000% of the people on my forum, facebook, twitter and youtube have never pulled apart a perfectly good video card and replaced the heat sync with a water block......so i am not sure where all the experts are coming from. I would say the usual "you read too much and don't DO enough"....except for if you READ, it tells you, i did it right.

I'm not saying you should ignore the manual, I'm just going by experience from actually playing around with different methods of applying thermal paste. I personally would have tried both methods and see which worked better just out of curiosity. And yes, I said that it LOOKS THICK but is probably deceiving me, maybe you should read things. Speaking of reading things, being a senior IT field technician for an IT firm in DC, and doing federal government contracting ..you're absolutely right, I don't do enough.

I mean, you started your post with "I'm sure this is the last thing Steve wants to hear". Too much is better than not enough. I can understand too much being a problem if the paste was conductive, or even too much to the point it was all over the entire board, but I'm fairly sure that manual was well thought out given the complexity of watercooling. They're going to ensure the most accurate directions as a simple mistake can ruin all that equipment.

I saw every single picture and watched the video that was posted and I saw no problem with any part of the build. It is exactly what I always see from any of Meade's builds: well thought out, carefully done and completely top notch.

Great build, bro! I'm all jelly.

[audiofanaticz]

See, I knew this thermal paste issue would continue.

[RooTxBeeR]

I just realized now, what this thing is really capable of. You really need to get on that 1440 status LOL. I bet that setup can run 7680x1440 flawlessy and look so damn amazing while doing it. I am interested at what monitors you pick, been looking at buildinging something to run that type of monitor set up.

[ramdisknet]

Sorry Steve.. Get a refund for them GTX 780's! http://www.maximumpc.com/amd_r9_290x_will_be_much_faster_titan_battlefield_4

Edited December 16, 2013 by ramdisknet

[n8ball2013]

Isnt amd the same one that said their bulldozer cpu would eat the i7s for breakfast? Oh yeah wait.......

[audiofanaticz]

I just realized something here and I think its kind of funny.

Anytime someone tries to prove their knowledge in the computer world they pull out the "Im an IT for such and such company".

Ok, your job is working with computers, more so the errors from the idiots at said companies using them or messing with settings they have no idea what they do.

Your pro, I rate you slightly above a MECP Certified Best Buy car audio installer!, Why because those installers took a dumb'ed down version of a MECP test for the job, further more they have no actual experience most the time, and they became certified by answering multiple choice questions with no hands on experience, or even teaching. Walk into a Best Buy car audio department with a small chunk of true 1/0 gauge cable and tell him you need ring terminals, have your camera ready for the look he will give you!

But back to the IT guys claim of fame...

Your job is mostly dealing with keeping the companies network running and running smoothly from what I gather. I use to be interested in this field.

How many of those machines are running a high end graphics card?

How many of those machines are water cooled?

How many of those machines are actually built by the IT guys?
Oh thats right they all say dell on the side of the tower, use onboard intel graphics, and some crazy contraption of plastic shrouds and a gimped piece of metal to keep them "cool"......

I have a buddy that lost his high paying factory job, and went into this field 7ish years ago, he works for US Bank and is the only IT guy at this branch.

The best part is every time he gets a new pc built guess who he calls to go over the parts before ordering and who is putting it together???

But I will give him credit, because when it came to networks, mine in specific he got my 4 Linksys routers that are all slightly different models all to wireless synced to boost my wifi range around my house.

Ill admit I failed on it, and even flashed them all to the newest software, and no matter what I did it just wouldnt work but he got it going for me and it only took a matter of minutes. But hey thats what his job consists off, not building high end computers...