tl;dr Gaming/Mining rig: Should I
- a) watercool 2 x Gigabyte 7970 Ghz WF, and apply heatsinks to the VRM/RAM; or
- b) swap for reference Diamond 7970 with full waterblocks?
Have updated my gaming rig to include 2 x Gigabyte 7970 Ghz edition cards - figured if I could get them mining, I may pay off the card cost within a few months (or at least get a few coins in my wallet).
Have a serious issue with cooling these.
They are in an Antec 900 case, with the following fans:
- 2 x 120mm inlet fans on the front
- 1 x 120mm inlet on the side (almost directly onto the GPU)
- 1 x 120mm exhaust out the back
- 1 x 200mm exhaust on top
Was running them in cgminer with the "-150" memdiff setting, until I discovered MSI AB could clock the memory right down (mining BTC).
At 1175/380 I can get one card by itself sitting nicely at around 72c, with the case side on, all case fans full.
When both cards are running, the temps will keep climbing until cgminer starts throttling. With cgminer throttling off, I'd be above 90c.
I can stabilise them to around 80c with the case side off, and a Honeywell desk fan blowing directly onto the cards. (Ambient temps are pretty warm in the study now though)
Since this is a general work/gaming PC as well, I'd rather not have the noise of the desk fan (plus, guest room is next door - very low WAF with the noise).
Have been contemplating a watercooled setup, but am cautious of using a generic GPU block for these while mining. Have heard that mining can put some serious load onto the VRM's, and without active cooling they'd get pretty hot.
The v2.1 Gigabyte cards do not have temp sensors on the VRM's, so I'd have no idea if the general case airflow is enough to cool these down while mining.
Has anyone had any experience watercooling these cards? Will I need to install fans over the VRM heatsinks (I'd install aftermarket heatsinks)?
I've contemplated swapping these out for some reference 7970's, and I'd get a full cover waterblock. My only hesitation would be if there is anything I'd be giving up by replacing the Gigabytes - would assume that the updated GB PCB's would be more stable than the reference PCB's, and generally easier to get sitting at the high clock speeds I want. Is this correct?
(Ignore the cost inefficiencies with water cooling - its not a dedicated miner, and I'm okay with spending a bit on reducing the noise)
Thanks.