View Full Version : 8800GTX Black Pearl
EDIT: See HERE (http://forums.aria.co.uk/showthread.php?p=48686#post48686) for the pics of my Black Pearls conversion from water to air!
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+X800+Series/EVGA+e-GeForce+8800+GTX+768MB+PCI-E+Black+Pearl+WaterCooled+?productId=27931
Not sold by aria anymore, so I hope Im not treading on toes talking about the fact that I just bought one cheaply off fleabay.
It needs watercooling obviously, can someone recommend a good way of cooling this card?
Or maybe I can buy a fan for it and get rid of the watercooling. Thoughts?
thermalright do a good heatsink for them but you will need to get a fan as well.
ek and dangerden do full water blocks for them too.
It comes with a waterblock. Literally all I need is to plug it into a watercooling system. EDIT: So can you recommend something?
This card was mine for £100 [EDIT: £92 inc p&p], I'm pleased with myself :mrgreen:
Killer deal. Well played
One option is to setup a dedicated watercooling loop for the GPU (and maybe expand to the CPU later when funds allow). Perhaps a Thermalright PA120 rad, Tygon tubing a good pump and a reservoir. That on it's own however will be rather expensive.
My personal suggestion would be to opt for a Thermalright HR03 Plus and a 92mm fan of choice. It'll run quietly and allow for some serious overclocking, all without the hassle of a watercooling loop.
Sounds good to me, I just read a review of the Thermalright HR03 Plus and it looks like it can handle the temps the Black Pearl will dish out. Unless anyone has any better ideas I think this is what I'm going for...
PeterStoba
15-05-08, 20:44
Well, if you can hang on for a while and collect £120 - £130, Go for a Swiftech H20-220 if you want a kit, if not
D-TEK FuZion CPU block V2 - £40
ThermoChill PA120.3 WITH 1/2" barbs - £59
Laing 12V D5 Vario Pump - £61
5M of 3/8" hose - £12
1L of Feser Aqua - Ultra Pure Water - £5
3 Xilence Red Wing 1400RPM 120mm Fans - £16.50
Brass 1/2" T connector - £3
Zinc Plated Jubilee Wormdrive Clip 1/2" (10 Pack) - £4.30
Danger Den fill port - £10
Total : £212
That will be perfect for your CPU and even a new one, overclocked, and the GPU.
If you cool the NB/MOSFETS (unlikely) then i'd suggest another loop with a 120.1 rad. You could possibly cool the NB with this loop (splitting the hose before it reaches the cpu and re joining after so it gets cold water too).
This will definately do now though!
Cheers PS, I think I might go for the option of the heatsink fan just to get up and running, but then I might very well switch over to watercooling as you have suggested when I can save another couple of hundred.
Can you suggest a loop that would just cool the VGA? I don't need a block, just the pump, tank, pipe, and radiator.
Could that be more like £100 and then I can expand the system out to CPU etc?
EDIT: Cracking advice as usual btw guys :D
PeterStoba
15-05-08, 20:55
I will have to PM you the details, is that is ok?
just buy long tubing , one end connected to household tap > gfx card > back to sink .
turn tap on full then o/c to the max . true ghetto style :)
ps you could actually do this for a few hours if you want to test
just buy long tubing , one end connected to household tap > gfx card > back to sink .
turn tap on full then o/c to the max . true ghetto style :)
ps you could actually do this for a few hours if you want to test
:eek: That reminds me of the guy who water cooled using his fish tank! And I'm sure on these forums there's something about Oil cooling, where you submerge the whole system in oil!
wonderlust
15-05-08, 21:35
TomsHardware did it to!
http://www.tomshardware.com/oil-cooled-mod,video-267.html
:D
That's the exact video I was thinking of! I think Oil cooling is a little eccentric for my tastes.
Although with some serious overclocking I could combine the oil and fishtank cooling to open a fish & chip shop :mrgreen:
Well, if you can hang on for a while and collect £120 - £130, Go for a Swiftech H20-220 if you want a kit, if not
D-TEK FuZion CPU block V2 - £40
ThermoChill PA120.3 WITH 1/2" barbs - £59
Laing 12V D5 Vario Pump - £61
5M of 3/8" hose - £12
1L of Feser Aqua - Ultra Pure Water - £5
3 Xilence Red Wing 1400RPM 120mm Fans - £16.50
Brass 1/2" T connector - £3
Zinc Plated Jubilee Wormdrive Clip 1/2" (10 Pack) - £4.30
Danger Den fill port - £10
Total : £212
That will be perfect for your CPU and even a new one, overclocked, and the GPU.
If you cool the NB/MOSFETS (unlikely) then i'd suggest another loop with a 120.1 rad. You could possibly cool the NB with this loop (splitting the hose before it reaches the cpu and re joining after so it gets cold water too).
This will definately do now though!
That's a nice watercooling loop.
I'd just like to point out though that you must really have a need (and a large wallet to burn) to warrant it. The Thermalright HR03 Plus will do the job brilliantly with much less effort.
TomsHardware did it to!
http://www.tomshardware.com/oil-cooled-mod,video-267.html
:D
Liquid Ninjas did it first... :D ;)
http://liquidninjas.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=15&title=Goo+Cooling+For+Fun
Hehe.
Upon further perusal of the cards pictures I notice that the cooling block is not the same as a GTX but as an Ultra 8)
I have the Black Pearl in my sweaty palms right now, its taking quite a feat of willpower to stop me plugging it in without cooling =S I just need my heatsink and fan to hurry up!! Grrrr.
EDIT: Oh and I managed to somehow register it with EVGA, although I doubt if something goes wrong I will have a warranty, the card is blatantly 2nd hand.
Going by the serial numbers it is a GTX not an Ultra. Oh well, cant have it all eh?
Haha glad you've received it. Went for the HR03 Plus + Fan setup I gather?
Sure did, I have to wait until the end of the week for it though. This is torture.
Im tempted to take the waterblock off, just for something to do :P
If you want something to do, you could remove the waterblock and clean up the GPU core and NV I/O chip. Then maybe reseat it simply to keep the onboard chips safe.
Hmm, Im not sure I like the idea of putting the block on without thermal paste, I always thought it had a cushioning effect.
I have been taking vanity pictures though :P
http://alexnifty.co.uk/images/black_pearl03.jpg
http://alexnifty.co.uk/images/black_pearl06.jpg
http://alexnifty.co.uk/images/black_pearl08.jpg
Very nice. That's one steal of a card :D
Its a steal if it works! Can't test that bit until my Thermalright HR-03 Plus arrives later in the week.
The guy I bought this off did everything wrong in his listing, didn't even say Black Pearl in the title. :lol:
Damn, your one lucky guy ;)
Sim
sounds like he didnt know what he had, fool :)
I think he knew what he had, but didn't realise its value, especially if he had marketed it correctly.
I wonder how Aria admins would feel if we had a thread about good eBay selling practices. It's all very well buying kit from Aria, but then you have to sell it to buy more kit from Aria, win win :P
Just waiting on my Thermalright cooler, the Black Pearl is taunting me, I must use it!
I will be posting pictures and stuff of the whole install, I'm looking forward to this!
so, how long till the hr3 turns up?
Being shipped on Thursday, I regret not going for a faster delivery option!
Thing is theres a beer festival in town so by thursday evening I am going to be battered! Drunken installation fun...
dont do it, last time i did somthing like that i cracked the nb ic :( still worked tho :D
o you want mx2 for the gpu and some good thermal tape for the ram, you picked what fan your going to mount on it yet?
I'll do it in the morning before I am drunk!
I have arctic silver 5. I was going to use the thermal tape supplied with the heatsink, but now you mention it, what is a good tape?
The fan will be a Xilence Red wing 92mm which is not great and I intend to get something a bit blowier. Its 36 CFM, which should be ok from what I have read in reviews.
EDIT: Specifically this review (http://www.ocia.net/reviews/thermalrighthr03plus/page5.shtml)which shows a Coolink fan with 35.5 CFM doing a good job of cooling an overclocked GTX.
i read a review a while back saying the akasa tape was the best but i think it was only compared to zalman stuff they give you.
36 cfm is pretty weak tbh, i would be looking for somthing up near the 50cfm mark. that redwing is almost silent, now if thats what your after i guess its a winner but i would take a bit of wind noise for a cooler running card. dont forget these have a water block on them from evga for a reason and that even the stock clocked versions run pretty dam warm.
i would look for 1 of these
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=16&lng=en&set=1
good airflow, low noise and come with rubber mounts to reduse vibration.
your link is broke btw.
Fixd link.
That fan looks excellent! Buying one now.
Edit: And tape, its only cheap :)
great card great price, can it be run on air with a mod?
Thats what this whole thread is about...:P
We reckon it can, if not then I can underclock it and still have myself a cheap GTX.
LOL! I think my speed reading was a bit too speedy *cough* coiler clicked last page*cough*
I now have all the bits I need to start assembly!
Will report back later...
the hr 03 comes with self adhesive ram coolers btw
Hrmm, ive done the whole installation and plugged the card in. Boots to windows fine, but when I scan for artifacts -with ati tool- I hear a kind of whining noise come from my PC.
Is this my PSU being unhappy? Its a Xilence 700W Gaming Edition, 7 months onld.
How loud is the whining? light squealing from components on the 8800's PCB is fairly normal.
my gfx card did that when there wasn't enough power going to the card itself and the fan couldnt spin fast enough, the 4 pin molex additional power was loose reseated and it was all good
Yeah I would class this as squealing, so thats ok then. Just ran 3dMark06 fully and fur benchmark, and been running atiTool. Temps are yet to hit 60 degrees :mrgreen:
Got some pics to post soon... EDIT: Later when my housemate gets back because he pinched my cameras usb cable :( so just imagine lots of dissasembly and assembly shots for now!
wonderlust
23-05-08, 14:45
not got a card reader? :D
Buzzing noise turned out to be something to do with the soundcard, fiddling with the cables fixed it :P
My housemate is yet to return, I might break into his room and liberate my cable!
Heres the conversion from water to air for those who are interested in pictures!
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl05.jpg
The card with the water block.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl09.jpg
Heres what I went for to do the conversion.
Thermalright HR03 Plus, Noctua NF-B9 92mm Fan, Akasa thermal tape, ArctiClean 1+2 thermal compound remover, Artic Silver 5, Black Pearl.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl10.jpg
There were a lot of screws to undo and then there was a fight between me and the existing thermal goop about if the block should stay on or not. After a lot of wiggling I managed to remove it!
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl11.jpg
Removing the white goo was painstaking, especially around the tiny ram chips, patience and lots of ArtiClean was the key here!
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl12.jpg
All the RAM heatsinks are fitted, I originally planned to use Akasa thermal tape on all of them, but removing the existing thermal tape was really difficult. I only managed to use it on a couple of them.
Using a metal craft blade I carefully applied a thin even layer of Arctic Silver 5 to the core. The Thermalright heatsink came with a tube of compound, but I preferred to stick with my Artic Silver 5.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl13.jpg
The glorious shining heatsink is fitted! This was a bit fiddly due to the weight of the thing, and the thumbscrews were hard to access, but patience is whats needed.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl14.jpg
Fan is clipped on and its time to slot this baby in!
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl15.jpghttp://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q196/alexnifty/Black%20Pearl/blackpearl16.jpg
Idles at 45 degrees and sits at 60 under load in ATI Tool's stress test. Success! I reckon the Black Pearl watercooling is a gimmick, clearly air is just as good and much cheaper!
-Yes, I know my case is dusty.
If you left that card out and used the fan you could fly!
Hehe, I know what you mean.
My system isn't too noisy though and in fact going from stock cooled to a branded heatsink means I can use a bigger fan and subsiqently there is far less noise!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! Its Alex's PC :D :lol:
Actually if you switch all the fans up to High, then it sounds like a plane!
Good job and excellent choice of fan. The Noctua's are very good indeed.
Not going to be using any pci sots any time soon then i hope. ;)
Haha nope! Just using the one for my wireless card, although you can mount the heatsink round the other way so it wraps around the card. You can then move the card down and have the top pci slots free.
Don't think it cools so well like that though.
Wow that is one extreme heatsink! Reminds me of a mushroom cloud LOL
good work sir
are you going to Bay the watercool block?
Not sure what to do with the block. I will see how much they might go for on their own, I shouldn't think for much though because they are made of aluminium which has a reputation for corrosion on the black pearls.
buy a geforce 2 or something real cheap , stick the block on it and ebay .
ensure you say something like ' i have no idea what this card is , i know it works as i saw the bios screen , it was given to me by a friend but im clueless about pcs' helloo profit country
I could do that with my 8800GTS...
Profit Country lol i like that! :p
yeah get the gts waterblocked up and £££££
I could do that with my 8800GTS...
defo should lol
I am now selling this card :) Anyone interested?
An Asus stock speed 8800GTX with a Thermalright HR-03 Plus went for £100 on the bay the other week, didn't even have a good fan like mine and it was dusty looking.
It always amazes me how much weight the mobo mounting screws support with huge heatsinks, i wonder how much strain the gfx card takes off the board, by spreading the pressure onto the backplates?
It always amazes me how much weight the mobo mounting screws support with huge heatsinks, i wonder how much strain the gfx card takes off the board, by spreading the pressure onto the backplates?
Maybe I should start a new thread to sell this :p
I don't think the gfx card takes any strain from the mobo, if anything it adds some. Although I would say a lot of the weight of the gfx card is taken by the case where you screw it in.
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