Thermaltake Tide Water

[W1zzard]

[Page=Introduction & Packaging]
Introduction

From the manufacturer Thermaltake (http://www.thermaltake.com):

<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th scope="row">Model</th>
<td scope="row">CL-W0052</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="2" scope="row">VGA Waterblock</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Thickness:</th>
<td scope="row">8mm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th scope="row">Compatible to: </th>
<td scope="row">ATI and NVIDIA GPUs </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Maximum heat output: </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">120W</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Material:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Brazed copper</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="2" valign="top" scope="row">Radiator</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Material:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Pure copper</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="2" valign="top" scope="row">Cooling System </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Fan speed:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">1700 / 3000 RPM </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Noise level: </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row"><p>17 / 19 dbA <br>
Fan controller included </p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="2" valign="top" scope="row">Pump</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Voltage:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">DC 12V </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Dimensions:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">45(L) x 38(W) x 25(H) mm</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Pump Speed: </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">72 l/hr, 3400 RPM </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Life expectancy: </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">40,000 hours(~4.5 years) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th colspan="2" valign="top" scope="row">Coolant</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Special properties: </th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">Anti freeze, Anti rusting </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Cooling maintenance free:</th>
<td valign="top" scope="row">10,000 hours (~1.14 years) </td>
</tr>
</table>
Packaging

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/package2.jpg)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/wrapped_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/wrapped.jpg)
Thermaltake wraps the whole unit safely, so that nothing could crack and leak water during transport.

Box contents:

VGA cooler with waterblock and radiator
Screw package
Instruction manual


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/contents_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/contents.jpg)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/surface1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/surface1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/surface2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/surface2.jpg)
The contact surface of the Tide Water is very flat but has some minor milling marks and scratches, nothing to worry about.

[page=The Cooler]
The Cooler

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/back_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/back.jpg)
A metal backside helps make the Tide Water sturdy.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/fittings_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/fittings.jpg)
The fittings are attached using these clamps which make the connection VERY secure. I tried to pull them out, but no go.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/pump_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/pump.jpg)
This small black thing in the middle is the pump. It is very quiet - you can not hear it when the fan is running. Also it does not create any form of vibration.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/radiator1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/radiator1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/radiator2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/radiator2.jpg)
Heat from the water is transferred to the air via this tiny radiator. It uses a full-copper design and seems to be custom-made for this application. I'm tempted to rip this unit apart and use it as a silent CPU cooler for my Media PC...

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/refill_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/refill.jpg)
Here you can see the fill level indicator and to the left of it the fill cap. In case your water level goes low, you can add additional water here. This will most probably not be needed in the first year of operation. The Tide Water comes prefilled with a maintenance-free coolant which includes anti-rust and anti-freeze additives.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/reservoir_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/reservoir.jpg)
The green reservoir is well sized and has only a tiny bubble of air in it. Its design makes it very hard for air bubbles to remain in the loop - nothing is more annoying than the sound of air bubbles in your watercooling setup.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/switch_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/switch.jpg)
With this switch, located on the top of the Tide Water, you can switch between two fan speeds. Once you close your case this switch is not reachable. It would have made sense to add another switch near the back exhaust, or at least add a two-pin header where you could attach you own switch to.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/fanout_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/fanout.jpg)
Hot air is exhausted out of the case via an opening, which is two PCI slots wide.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/fan_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/fan.jpg)
The cooling fan sucks air in from the case and blows it out via the exhaust on the back.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/power.jpg)
To supply power to the pump and the fan, you have to connect this plug to an unused 5.25" power connector.

[pagE=Installation]
Installation

For watercooling, this installation is extremely easy. First time installers should bring about 20 minutes of their time. If you read and follow the manual, there is nothing you could do wrong.

Make sure you really tighten down the screws (pic 2-5) which go through the video card. If they are not tight, you may have difficulties in the last steps, when screwing down the waterblock on the core because the nut it screws into is turning.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation4_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation6_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation6.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation7_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation7.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation9_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation9.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation10_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation10.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation11_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/installation11.jpg)

One big advantage over regular watercooling is that the Thermaltake Tide Water is highly portable. Yesterday someone complained to me how much work it would be to move his watercooled graphics card to another PC. With the Thermaltake Tide Water you just remove the card and the cooling assembly. The waterblock can stay in place and you won't have to refill the system.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/threading_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/threading.jpg)
A small issue I spotted with the screws is that one nut did not have a threading. However, these were for the "screws for small mounting holes", I used the bigger screws anyway.

[PAGE=Performance]
Performance

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/contact1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/contact1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/contact2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/contact2.jpg)

After the initial installation the heatsink was immediately removed and the contact area was inspected. The contact is excellent, you can actually see the ATI logo shine through on both the waterblock and the core. Near the edges some thermal paste has been sucked in because of the suction force when removing the waterblock.

[hr]

For the overclocking tests I used my ATITool overclocking utility version 0.25 Beta 8. ATITool has the unique ability to detect artifacts, or flaws, in a rendered image. As defined by ATITool, the maximum stable overclock on a card is the speed at which it is able to consistently (15 minutes in this test) produce no errors, or artifacts. ATITool detects ANY artifacts, even ones which will not be visible in game. Using the human eye to detect artifacts introduces subjectivity into the test, so despite the fact that an ATITool tested overclock will be characteristically lower than a human one, I will use this.

Temperature was measured with one case side open by reading the on-die thermal diode of our X800 Pro PCI-Express. Idle temperature was measured after letting Windows sit one hour at the desktop. Load temperature was measured after running 3DMark2003 looped for one hour. Both at the card's default clock of 507 / 520 Mhz.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/stock1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/stock1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/stock2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/stock2.jpg)
We will be comparing the Thermaltake Tide Water against this stock cooler of the X850 Pro. As you can see, the stock cooler has a copper base, is big and has memory cooling as well. Its cooling performance is comparable to an Arctic Cooling Silencer (just much more louder). The fan speed is varied based on temperature. For all temperatures below 65°C it is 54%. To have another value to compare to, I used ATITool to force the stock fan to always run at 100%.

Arctic Silver Lumière was used as thermal interface material for the GPU core in all installations. Lumière is a specially engineered testing compound - it needs no settle in time to reach its maximum performance, but it's not designed for permanent use.

<table class="resulttable" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Radeon X800 Pro PCI-E</th>
<td>Maximum Core Clock</td>
<td>Sound level</td>
<td>Temperature Load</td>
<td>Temperature Idle</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Stock cooler - dynamic fan</th>
<td>579 Mhz</td>
<td>48 dbA</td>
<td>58°C</td>
<td>32°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Stock cooler - fan 100%</th>
<td>582 Mhz</td>
<td>62 dbA</td>
<td>52°C</td>
<td>31°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Tidewater Low</th>
<td>584 Mhz</td>
<td>49 dbA</td>
<td>47°C</td>
<td>32°C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="top" scope="row">Tidewater High</th>
<td>591 Mhz</td>
<td>62 dbA</td>
<td>42°C</td>
<td>30°C</td>
</tr>
</table>

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/graph1.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/graph2.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/graph3.gif

At both settings the Thermaltake Tide Water performs great. The load temperatures are far ahead of the competition. Overclocking gains are there, but are very slim. This is mostly because the other coolers are doing quite a good job already. However, many video cards are shipping with much worse stock coolers, so you can expect bigger gains there.

Given the low temperatures of the Tide Water, a voltmod to increase the GPU voltage sounds well possible to me. This will further increase your overclock.

I tried running the Tide Water completely passive with the fan disconnected and saw load temperatures in the 80° range. Talented modders could sure take the unit apart, put a very slow running, super-silent fan in front of the radiator and drop the cooling noise even further.

[page=Fan Noise, Value & Conclusion]
Fan Noise
In order to give a measurement of how loud the fan is, we used an IEC651 Type II sound level meter on the dbA slow setting.

The distance between fan and sound level meter was 10cm. Please note that this is very little, compared to the "standard" measurements, which are made at 1m distance. We had to do this, to get proper readings with our sound level meter, because we obviously can't spend thousands of dollars on audio measuring equipment.

All tested fans were connected to an external 12V lab PSU. 12V is the maximum rated fan speed. Some motherboards/video cards use slower fan speeds and slowly ramp them up with temperatures. This is also the reason, why the X800 series seems to have such a "loud" fan. During normal usage its fan is usually running at 33% to 66%. That is why we also tested the video card fans at 50% (6 V).

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Thermaltake/TideWater/images/graph4.gif

The fan noise of the Thermaltake Tide Water is well comparable to that of the stock cooler, but at greatly reduced temperatures.

Value and Conclusion

<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
Thermaltake is selling the Tide Water for $75, quite a step up from the air coolers, but watercooling has its price. However, this is still a lot less than the price of a regular watercooling kit which you can expect to go in the $200 range.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Great performance
Easy to install
Portable
Maintenance-free
Fairly quiet on the slow setting
Wide compatibility
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Does not cool memory
Takes up a lot of space
</td></tr>
<tr><th>8.9</th>
<td>If you are looking to overclock your NVIDIA or ATI videocard some more, this highly innovative cooler is a great solution, especially if you have problems finding the Artic Cooling Silencers in stores. People who have been scared of putting watercooling into their PC can now safely do it. The whole cooler is built very rugged - I see no way of how a leak could happen, except if you intentionally cut the tubing or drill holes in the tank.<br />
The Tide Water's performance is good, better than all other air coolers on the market.
Just to clarify, this cooler can not reach the performance of highly sophisticated water cooling, costing hundreds of dollars (their pumps move about 20x as much water as the Tide Water's pump). However, just reducing temperature may not always give you a considerably higher overclock. If you already have a good cooler like an Arctic Cooling Silencer, you may want to spend this money elsewhere.</td></tr><tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/recommended.gif</td></tr>
</table>

[MadMigMR2]

Hi!

I have an Asus x800 Pro AGP with the BIOS of x800 XT PE
It is running ok, but the temperatures are a bit high (i think)
48º idle (working on windows) and above 70º when playing games ( most of the time above 75º)

Could this mod be a good solution?

[spectre440]

it could definantly lower your temps and give you loads of overclocking headroom without worrying about temps.

but those temps are perfectly normal for a stock cooling solution on a card running at stock speeds, nothing to worry about.

this is definantly a good cooling solution to consider if you're looking into overclocking the card. or just getting it to run cooler and quieter.

[Nixit]

What if I bought an Arctic Cooling ATI VGA Silencer 5 for the X850 series Card and then bought the Tide Water?
Would that make the performance even greater?

NEVERMIND: I realized that you can't do both!
I was thinking that either the WaterBlock and the Fan were on opposite sides of the card allowing you to do both, but that is not the case.

Thanks.

[Nixit]

After installation, and for the very first time that I ran the Overclocking Benchmark on my Sapphire X850XT PCIE using the ATI Tool, the Core Clock actually reached upwards of 650-680!!
But, this was only the first time!!
I have not been able to clock it that high again, It's almost as if something said "hey, you are not supposed to be getting these high speeds w/this card, you need to buy an x1800 or x1900", lol :laugh:

I am able to clock the Core / Mem around 600 / 585 which is still pretty good I guess but it just seems like it should be able to run higher.

[gamer7911]

quick question. does this thing need thermal paste.
i ask because i am planning on getting the 500/1500 clocked 7900 GT from newegg and needed to know what i need for installation before i order everything.

[SHSU_RANGER]

gamer7911 wrote the following:

*****
quick question. does this thing need thermal paste.
i ask because i am planning on getting the 500/1500 clocked 7900 GT from newegg and needed to know what i need for installation before i order everything.
*****

Here is what I have to say:

Yes you do, buddy!

The unit comes with silicone paste, but I recommend using GC Electronics heat sink paste, part no. 10-8118. It is way cheaper than those "silver" compounds and is used for far more advanced applications--like military grade components and high-temp apps like high current power IC units in audio amplifiers. I am pleased with the way this entire unit works and is set up. The video card I am running it on is a Leadtek A400 GT TDH Geforce 6800 GT 256 MB DDR3 AGP 8X.

The stock specs for this card (from the manufacturer) are:
core clock speed: 350 MHz
Mem clock speed: 1000 MHz
Idle temp: 55 deg C
Load temp(after 40 minutes in BF2 all settings high with 4xAA 1024x768): 65 deg C

Overclocked specs are:
+0.1V AGP voltage in BIOS for mainboard
core clock speed: 425 MHz
mem clock speed: 1150MHz
idle temp: 48 deg C
load temp(after 40 minutes in BF2 all settings high with 4xAA 1024x768): 52 deg C

I am sure that these numbers are not what everyone would get, but they speak for themselves. After dogging the crap out of the card this unit has proven to be exactly what the doctor ordered: good product that requires no mods, out of the box readiness-no need to fill reservoirs-pre loaded with anti freeze-anti rust, good tubing that I need not worry about leaks, AND PERFORMANCE WAY BEYOND WHAT AN AIR COOLING SYSTEM IS CAPABLE OF!!!!!!!!:eek:

[gamer7911]

alright thanks. just wasnt sure if i should've got some arctic silver 5 that almost everyone else suggested for this thing or if it even needd paste at all for application.

[SHSU_RANGER]

alright thanks. just wasnt sure if i should've got some arctic silver 5 that almost everyone else suggested for this thing or if it even needd paste at all for application.

Just put a light coat directly on the CLEAN CORE of your card. Make sure you get the core clean first before putting any more compound on. Happy modding!!!!!

[SHSU_RANGER]

HOLY CRAP THIS IS CRAZY O/C W/ NOT A SINGLE RIP IN VIDEO QUALITY!!!!!!!

Got my card even further overclocked and 0 probs so far :)

factory settings for 6800 GT AGP 8X
core clock: 350 MHz
Mem Clock: 1000 MHZ

New overclocked settings:
Core Clock: 444 MHz
Mem Clock: 1190 MHZ

Factory temps that I monitored:
Idle: avg. around 57 Deg C
Under Load(after 40 minutes of BF2 1280x1024 all settings high 4x AA): 68 Deg C

New Temps I am monitoring:
Idle: avg. around 48-49 Deg C
Under Load(after 40 minutes of BF2 1280x1024 all settings high 4x AA): 53 Deg C

[Willspcs]

I have the ATI X1800XL PCI Express All in Wonder. Nice card but runs to hot for my tastes.

I saw this Thermaltake CL-W0052 VGA Water block....I have seen it mounted to several units viewed via the web but have not been able to find any thing related to my card specifically...

Can anyone tell me if this card will have problems matching up to the water block? Please note that my card is a full 10 inches in length.

Thanks to all...

I'm waiting on a response from some one that is "in the know" before I make my purchase.

"Where there is a "Will" there is a way!

Will

[SHSU_RANGER]

The length of that card alone is really not the primary factor in determining the usage of the TIDE WATER cooling system. The reason I say this because all you really need to know is if there are any holes next to the chipset on the PCB because that is where the mount securing studs go. There are two different holes, one on each opposing corner diagonally, that you will place a mounting stud. These studs are almost like brass riser screws you would use to mount a new mobo into a case, the only dif is that they are silver. You would then use the screws that go into those studs to secure the bracket that is attached to the water block. When I looked at the directions, the pix in the book were pretty self explanatory. There were both ATI instructions as well as NVIDIA instructions with rather detailed pix. I dont think that you will have any probs with this card, AS LONG AS you have enough room at the bottom two PCI slot to put this monster cooling setup in your case.

ONE POINTER TO YOU HOWEVER WILL----THE ALL IN WONDER HAS A TV TUNER, right? look at the tuner pack, and determine if there is at least 1/2 inch of space between it and the holes on the card, you will need that space for the water block. I read somewhere that a user had the all in wonder and coudlnt use this unit, but did not say if spacing was the issue. GET THIS THING FROM A RETAILER, maybe Frys or Good Guys, since they have a return policy--you may pay more up front, but will at least get your money back.


***ONE MORE POINTER TO ADD TO THE WHOLE POST ABOUT THE TIDE WATER SYSTEM***
The main unit will not exactly match up to every case out there as far as how it exhausts out the rear of the case. In defense of Thermaltake, I am sure that they built this in a uniform configuration so that it would fit but not conform to every case out there. The top mounting hole will most typically work to hold, but the bottom didnt match up to the last hole in my case. I DO HAVE A NORMAL CASE--- ANTEC SX 1040 Black 10-bay server tower, not some no-name heap of flea market junk. The back plate on the main unit is pre drilled, so if you want-or can- you can take a file or a drill and make the hole just big enough to secure the last screw hole on the case. If you are gonna haul this around in your LANBOY then you will definitely want both screws mounted firmly. I didnt do this since the one top screw was secure enough(kinda hard to lug a 60 pound case around to the local LAN parties :banghead: ). So dont get upset that the bottom mount hole doesnt match up with your case, or the exhaust doesnt match completely up to the last two expansion portholes on your case.

[Willspcs]

To SHSU_RANGER:

First, thank you so kindly for your help.:) That was a pretty good "look out" and hintful information. However, I've already bought the device...

While most of the information you shared I had already taken into consideration the ONE thing I had not was the TV Tuner and space needed for the water block in that area...I'm going to have to break the case down and see about that... I just KNEW when I clicked "submit order" that there was SOMETHING I was forgetting or not doing :ohwell: ...now I know thanks to you. As soon as I get the card out I'll take a look. I would be curioius though about needing a full half inch aroud the GPU area---is this an exact measurement or a rough guess? As soon as I get the card out and look at it I will reply with specifics in inches NOT meters.

I'll be back with a reply before the day is out. What ever my findings they should be of use to others with the same type setup.

Again...Thanks
Will

"Where there is a "WILL" there is a way!"

[WhiteWolf]

I've heard people talking about turning the TideWater into a cpu cooler. It got me thinking, and after awhile of debating it with myself, I decided, worth a shot. Bought the tidewater, a Swiftech CPU water block, and a Swiftech Northbridge water block. Cut the video card water block off the thing, added 1/4 hose connectors, (The tide waters tubing fits very very snuggly with 1/4 fittings, had to take it back off once, took me 20 minutes to get the tube to let go) Added 1/4 tubing to extend the reach, daisy chained from the TideWater, to the northbridge, to the cpu. Keeps my cpu (2.8 ghz) running at about 40-44 C under full load and overclocked to 3.6 ghz. (Ran the cooling system outside the case using a power adapter to check for leaking for 30 hours, I would probably suggest longer, but I have that kid in me saying now now now.) As I said, this thing cools my cpu above and beyond what I thought it would. Figured I would have had to put an extra radiator in the loop, but so far it's not needed. Cheers, it worked!! :toast: