3080 Waterblock

liamstears · 22 Jul 2021 at 23:56

I have been very fortunate lately as not only have I managed to get hold of the o11d XL case I wanted, an ek CPU block and G1 Distro but I also managed to grab a 3080 Founders Edition

So obviously I need to get a block for it lol

Reason for posting though is that there seems to be quite a few options and I don't know which to choose. I have ruled out the EK as 1 it's not the right color for my build and 2 it's just so expensive but any other block is a possibility.

Struggling to pick as there are no reviews out there on the Founders blocks, I know the reference design Alphacool block has bad memory temp but what about the founders block?

What 3080 FE block would you recommend and why? (Also if you have any temps/setups to share that would be great too)

wookiee87 · 23 Jul 2021 at 02:09

being a 3090 fe owner wont really help BUT have you had a look at bitspower, before i got my hands on a ek fe block i ran a 3090 block from bitspower and it did a pretty good job of cooling down my card, but as the backplate was free floating ie not connected to the front side the memory temps on the back did get a bit toasty if i really pushed the clocks, but at the time it was around £120 cheaper than ek's offering and in stock, pretty sure i still have it lying around tbh.

not had much experence with alphacool stuff, but i'm sure they would be upto the task of cooling down the fe card, if you do happen to get bad memeory thermals find out what the gap is and buy thicker pads to compinsate for the gap (1.5mm max on ram though as thicker may become a insulator of heat making the problem worse), as you say the fe model may have better tolorences vs the refrence design.

you could also lookup bykski 3080 fe block too, just be careful with backplate instalation, there have been instances of users not follwing the instructions and screwing the backplate directly to the pcb which causes a short and can kill the card, likley a plastic spacer is needed to fix that problem, might be included but if not they are easy to find.

i know the ek block isnt on your radar but hear me out, yes its super expensive but the block surrounds the whole card and ooses quality throughout, i was highly impressed with my 3090 block, super heavy which i though at the time crap thats gonna break my pci slot but when assembled and then installed into the case and board the card is rock solit and dosnt wobble around at all, best thing for me having got the 3090 is the backside memory temps are crazy low because the backplate contacts the front of the block which takes the heat away from the ram.

this wont be a issue with the 3080 as it has ram on one side of the pcb but that would be better as the block from ek does an amazing job of soaking up the heat from the card, plus its got the looks too

liamstears · 23 Jul 2021 at 17:45

Thanks for such an in depth reply

I understand your recommendation on the EK but it really is just out of the question because of price

As for the others the Bykski and Alphacool certainly are possibilities and I do also like the look of the bitspower but I haven't seen it for sale anywhere, do you know of anywhere?

Would be interested in any other thoughts from other people and posting GPU core and memory temps would be appreciated too

Hewligan · 23 Jul 2021 at 18:12

I have a reference board 3080 in an Alphacool water block. Backplate comes with it and is nice and thick and makes good contact with thermal pads supplied. Not sure about the FE version, but I love my block and I really like the multiple o-ring design of the Alphacool blocks, but it is a visual style that you either like or don’t like.

liamstears · 23 Jul 2021 at 18:13

Hewligan said:
I have a reference board 3080 in an Alphacool water block. Backplate comes with it and is nice and thick and makes good contact with thermal pads supplied. Not sure about the FE version, but I love my block and I really like the multiple o-ring design of the Alphacool blocks, but it is a visual style that you either like or don’t like.

What temps do you get under load on core and memory?

Hewligan · 23 Jul 2021 at 18:15

I have a huge external radiator (9 x 120mm fans, 45mm thick), and an open air case, so to be honest my temps are ludicrously low and almost certainly totally not relevant to your situation. But, I have written them down somewhere and will post them later. With msi graphics bench at 100% and CPU at 100%z

liamstears · 23 Jul 2021 at 18:17

Hewligan said:
I have a huge external radiator (9 x 120mm fans, 45mm thick), and an open air case, so to be honest my temps are ludicrously low and almost certainly totally not relevant to your situation. But, I have written them down somewhere and will post them later. With msi graphics bench at 100% and CPU at 100%z

Relevant to this situation? Certainly not, but now I really wanna know your temps with a setup like that, cpu too!??...

Hewligan · 23 Jul 2021 at 18:44

(And I was totally lying about writing them down, we all know I have a giant spreadsheet with all of this recorded in great detail, but to rule out any variables I did a fresh test just now for you):

i9 10900KF all cores at 5.1, RTX 3080, both on a soft tube custom loop with 9x120mm Alphacool NexXXos radiator with Arctic P12 fans.

Full CPU (CPU-Z) and GPU (Kombustor) stress test, fans at 40% and pump at 50% only (both silent). Core P3 case, no glass, but also a terrible Alienware motherboard with stupid VRMs. This is a transplant and I am probably going to swap motherboard as the Dell one is total junk.

15 minute test both running at the same time….

Starting water temps (at idle so also close to the ambient air temps) 24.2 degrees C.

GPU Avg: 56.2
GPU max: 57.9

GPU memory junction Avg:67.4
GPU memory junction max: 70.0

GPU hot spot Avg: 80.7
GPU hotspot Max: 82.8

CPU Avg: 74
CPU Max: 90

VRMs hit over 100. Stupid Dell!!! Always causes some CPU throttling in this test, but hey ho!

Max water temps: 30.2, so a 6 degree increase

This on a HOT day

liamstears · 23 Jul 2021 at 19:05

Hewligan said:
(And I was totally lying about writing them down, we all know I have a giant spreadsheet with all of this recorded in great detail, but to rule out any variables I did a fresh test just now for you):

i9 10900KF all cores at 5.1, RTX 3080, both on a soft tube custom loop with 9x120mm Alphacool NexXXos radiator with Arctic P12 fans.

Full CPU (CPU-Z) and GPU (Kombustor) stress test, fans at 40% and pump at 50% only (both silent). Core P3 case, no glass, but also a terrible Alienware motherboard with stupid VRMs. This is a transplant and I am probably going to swap motherboard as the Dell one is total junk.

15 minute test both running at the same time….

Starting water temps (at idle so also close to the ambient air temps) 24.2 degrees C.

GPU Avg: 56.2
GPU max: 57.9

GPU memory junction Avg:67.4
GPU memory junction max: 70.0

GPU hot spot Avg: 80.7
GPU hotspot Max: 82.8

CPU Avg: 74
CPU Max: 90

VRMs hit over 100. Stupid Dell!!! Always causes some CPU throttling in this test, but hey ho!

Max water temps: 30.2, so a 6 degree increase

This on a HOT day

That sounds pretty good to me

But yeh defo get rid of that mobo and treat yourself to something nice

Hewligan · 24 Jul 2021 at 18:40

liamstears said:
That sounds pretty good to me

But yeh defo get rid of that mobo and treat yourself to something nice

Err…. I may have taken your advice to heart. I have been watching a Aorus Xtreme Waterforce Z490 on a auction site for 25 days now, and the seller just ticked the price down to £500. This board sold for £1200 new. I thought about it for a long time, but I did my tax return today and while I don’t get any rebate, I don’t have the 4K hit I had last year (and had budgeted for this year), so BOOM…. Proud owner of a Z490 Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Waterforce motherboard.

About to hop online to find a good power supply for it. Thinking I may go crazy with a platinum model. I will also need a new Windows licence as my current one is tied to my Alienware motherboard.

My plan is to use the old Alienware motherboard and PSU in its old case, but with my spare Corsair XD5 pump/res and 240mm radiator (from a prior build). Then if I buy a 10600K and 16mb of ram, I will have a second gaming PC.

I have all the kit for the second PC other than the two items noted. I have spare fans, tubes, fittings, etc., and a 1660 Ti that is spare from an upgrade. Literally just need a CPU and 16GB of RAM. Even have a spare SSD to throw into it, although I may get a 256GB boot NVME because they cost peanuts.

That PC will go to my daughter, but she doesn’t know that and I won’t tell her until it is all built and working.

stooeh · 25 Jul 2021 at 12:52

I went for the Corsair block purely because the EK one is just too expensive. I don't think it is quite as good as the EK one but it does the job well enough and had the nice bonus of having thermal pads already pre placed on the block.

Hewligan · 25 Jul 2021 at 12:53

I think it looks nice. I think pretty much all water blocks look nice

stooeh · 25 Jul 2021 at 15:01

Some before/after temps in Days Gone with stock FE cooler vs Corsair block

Hewligan · 25 Jul 2021 at 15:05

That’s crazy, isn’t it. HUGE drops from throttling levels to pretty darn comfortable.

p.s. is Days Gone worth buying?

stooeh · 25 Jul 2021 at 15:14

Hmm its pretty cool so far if you like the whole zombie thing

liamstears · 25 Jul 2021 at 17:49

Hewligan said:
Err…. I may have taken your advice to heart. I have been watching a Aorus Xtreme Waterforce Z490 on a auction site for 25 days now, and the seller just ticked the price down to £500. This board sold for £1200 new. I thought about it for a long time, but I did my tax return today and while I don’t get any rebate, I don’t have the 4K hit I had last year (and had budgeted for this year), so BOOM…. Proud owner of a Z490 Gigabyte Aorus Xtreme Waterforce motherboard.

About to hop online to find a good power supply for it. Thinking I may go crazy with a platinum model. I will also need a new Windows licence as my current one is tied to my Alienware motherboard.

My plan is to use the old Alienware motherboard and PSU in its old case, but with my spare Corsair XD5 pump/res and 240mm radiator (from a prior build). Then if I buy a 10600K and 16mb of ram, I will have a second gaming PC.

I have all the kit for the second PC other than the two items noted. I have spare fans, tubes, fittings, etc., and a 1660 Ti that is spare from an upgrade. Literally just need a CPU and 16GB of RAM. Even have a spare SSD to throw into it, although I may get a 256GB boot NVME because they cost peanuts.

That PC will go to my daughter, but she doesn’t know that and I won’t tell her until it is all built and working.

Nice indeed, lucky man having all that spare stuff, I'm struggling at the moment as not working so although I have got my cpu block and distro plate I can't afford anything else at the moment lol, need to try and raise some more funds somehow

stooeh said:
I went for the Corsair block purely because the EK one is just too expensive. I don't think it is quite as good as the EK one but it does the job well enough and had the nice bonus of having thermal pads already pre placed on the block.

Yeh EK are charging too much for that block

Temps look good on that Corsair but for me I think it's just a bit too ugly and defo won't look right in my white build

So far I'm leaning towards the Alphacool block, looks like the Alphacool may be the block for me

Thanks for all the posts guys

Hewligan · 25 Jul 2021 at 21:46

Check the clearance section: They had a FE block at a reasonable discount earlier today and you can also email them an offer.

liamstears · 26 Jul 2021 at 01:21

Hewligan said:
Check the clearance section: They had a FE block at a reasonable discount earlier today and you can also email them an offer.

Don't worry my eyes are always open but at the moment I don't have a penny to my name