XG7 3080FE or HC 3080 or Asus 3080 EK?

Alot of good info out there. Edited November 30, 2020 by kikkoman

Both Corsair and EVGA use the same type of cooling : flow passing through the whole length of the fins. EK uses a jet plate with flow coming from the center of the fins and spreading left and right before exiting.

 

I am personally not a fan of microfins on custom loop. Way too restrictive, not very efficient. It's usually better suited for AIOs where there's very little flow from a tiny pump. Now, i have not seen a single test of a 3080 Hydro-X block so, that's just my thoughts eh :)

 

That said, i wonder if the 3080 hydroX still uses a separate skived cold plate screwed into the main cooling block plate as it was with the 2080... another inconvenient of microfins for large blocks.

 

That story about the manifold leaking was indeed a weak design, but it has been remedied already on the latest blocks for 2000 series. so you can put that aside :)

 

The EVGA seems to have larger fins? hard to see through this Premium sputter coated acrylic :p Basically means they applied a fancy metalized design on top.

You got to really love diffused RGB, because you can't really see well the cooling block beneath, like on the Corsair and EK blocks.

 

I'll make no secret i prefer EK to Corsair just to be honest. If you were looking just for the best cooling period, that's what i'd recommend hands down along with the Heatkiller blocks. Their cooling engine just works really well.

That said :

Electrolytic copper. Yes they are but i doubt using 99.99% copper vs 99% copper makes it cool better alone.

Full cover water block : yes, they all are actually. The only ones that aren't are generic waterblocks that only cool the GPU die. Those are more rare.

 

Now, with what you already have, there's a few things that may dictate what kind of block you'd want to use.

If you want to do a parallel loop, it's always better to match restrictions between blocks.

Since you have a Corsair CPU block, the HydroX GPU block would usually be better indicated for that use. It will ensure one block doesn't deprive the other of water flow.

If you do the usual serial loop, anything goes.

 

Also.. a single 360mm radiator may be a taaaad too small for a 10700k and a 3080.

If you don't overclock the CPU, it should work.. warmly.. if you unlock power limits, you may run into problems.. at least very hot water temps.

You can still try and see how it goes. At worst, it's easy to add a 240mm rad up top into the loop. I'd highly recommend you add that to your budget because you're looking at 500+ watts to dissipate here. Very general rule of thumb is about 300W for a 360mm rad.

Thanks for your advice. I will definitely take all of it into consideration. I read it 3 times.

 

I am planning on doing a serial loop. I was going by the general rule of thumb 120mm per cooling item, so I thought I was overcooled :P

 

I am overclocked everywhere. I just game so the CPU doesnt produce too much heat. Idle is 37c/100F, gaming around 49c/120f. Operating temperature for Corsair kit is 60C/140F.

 

I also got a nifty 20% discount card for the gpu block that came with the XH305i. But getting my hands on a 3080FE is proving to be a task that I am not eager enough to chase after, just casual checking now. But now that the Hydro copper is out, it is quite tempting, but it doesnt look as good as the Asus or Corsair. Asus 3080 EK is not even out yet, and who knows how long till it comes out. Im excited to get something in there.

the operating temperature is a general guideline never to exceed 60°C on water temperature ^^' that's more or less the temperature PETG hard tubing starts to soften and deform, hence leak. but on soft tubing or acrylic it's less of a concern.

 

Your first worry at that point would be thermal runaway and shutdown really.

A 360 for just the 10700K is plenty, that's why you have such low temps.

But the 3080 stock dissipates a lot more than that CPU.

 

Apart from that i'm in the same boat.. waiting patiently for 2021 to get my hand on one of those, gladly passing on overpriced cards for the impatient ones :p

Ahh okay, thanks for the info about operating temperature, makes more sense now. Like a car radiator.

 

I would have to change over to soft tubing to get everything to work if I drop another radiator in there. Its pretty tight in there with 6 fans.

 

Do you think another 120mm Rad on exhaust fan would be fine (fine fit) or should I go for 240mm at the top (extremely questionable and tight fit, would require soft tubing)?

 

I was reading 240x120 per component if it's overclocked. So many a 120 radiator on the exhaust fan would be okay.

 

Coolant temp around 33C/95F Always

Edited November 17, 2020 by kikkoman

Depends what you're after.

If you just want to have lower temps than air cooling, would be sufficient i imagine.

If you want a silent build, then as many rads as you can spare :p

lots of rads = slower fan speeds for the same result.

 

Just an example, i am in the process of replacing all my fans. While waiting for delivery i have only one 360mm radiator with fans (the build has two 360 and one 240mm radiators).

under heavy load (cinebench looped + Unigine Valley on 10900K unlocked + 2080 ~400W total) water stays at 34°.

With one 360 rad, fans run at 1800 RPM

With the whole shebang, they are just under 1100 rpm for the same temperature. whisper quiet.

When gaming, they rarely even get to 1000 rpm

 

So, the 360 alone could work, and sound like a turbine.

the more you add rads, the quieter your build will be.

Maybe not strictly necesary, but would be a matter of comfort.

 

The ideal setup will vary, with what fans you use, what case, the ambient temperature in your room, and how cold you want the water to stay, so it's hard togive a definitive answer. Most likely, you'll have to experiment yourself.

That's the fun of it. Fine tuning your rig to your exact needs :)

Yes, I read that about the more rads, more quiet and I do like more quiet. Thanks for that info. Are you using soft tubing or hard tubing for your setup?

soft tubing, but since i use cross flow radiators i only have 4 very short runs. Didn't feel the need to go hard tubing to show off so few pipes.