Gadgetory

everyone today we are going to be playing with the alpha cool ice wolf GPX Pro this was sent to us by one of our viewers and readers Eric so thank you Eric for sending this in for tests so this thing will go on the bench we're doing a thermal bench with it this is basically a liquid cooling mod for the GTX 1080 at least the one that we have there are different variants of this but that's what was sent to us so we're gonna be throwing that on to a founders edition GTX 1080 which I've got here already dismantled that will go on there in the next video and final videos only two parts will be testing the thermal so a couple things to look out there one will be the GPU core temperature hasn't gone down probably two is I'm gonna be looking at the mosfet temperatures so I've got thermocouples on the card that will be held by adhesive but before getting to the build this is brought to you by our patreon backers patreon.com slash gamers Nexus will bring you to our patreon page where you can help out with future videos it like this one so let's get into it the build basically a couple things to keep in mind here one is we've got the cooler to put on to I already ran this through a bunch of tests with an EVGA hybrid cooler so this is basically the same as what we did with our original 1080 hybrid build series but I did update it gone through some changes so this was thrown back on their run through the bench that'll be in the next video all that data and I did vlog this time the vrm temps for one of the MOSFETs in the center of the car that would be the third counting from the bottom up and then the PCB backplate temperature just like we did for the EVGA BRM thermals testing has been logged on with GP core all that stuff so after that we'll be testing this and we'll be testing the ek version which i've got prefilled water blocks for this ek predator over here and that you can't predator is a QDC system so it's got quick-release setup for the tubing which you can see here for the ice wolf as well and these you basically just plug them straight into whatever else is compatible so we actually don't have to do anything in terms of open-loop setup you don't need your own liquid so it's time to install this basically the process is pretty straightforward the ice wolf comes with a really well illustrated guide and it's got some templates in there for cutting thermal pads to size why they're not just already cut the size I don't know but some of them are some art and it's probably just a cost thing so we've got different thermal pads these come in a purple or pink bag and they're smaller these are 4 V Ram modules those come in this bag if you buy one of those yourself that's what you would use for vram and these also come with them in the same bag this is used for the rest of the vrm so that would be some of the FETs get those on them over on the right side of the card and the voltage converter power stages stuff like that so we'll be doing that in a moment and then the rest of the hardware couple of obviously allen keys some allen screws some larger allen screws three washers that are used for the securing the cooler to the card and larger screws so the hard part of this has already been done I've taken the old cooler off you're not sure how to do that you can check an article on our website just do a search for gamers Nexus 1080 teardown and it's pretty it's not necessarily easy it's not hard if you're doing it blind it's kind of hard though and you can damage things but if you know what you're doing and you have the steps in front of you it's pretty simple it's just a ton of screws to take out the 1080 is a bit more complex than the other cards so that's the original cooler you can see all the thermal pads on it it actually works pretty damn well the vrm thermals are not that hot on this thing which is a bit impressive but also it's not a complex be around so let's go ahead and get started on this our parts we've got other than all the hardware the back plate here you want to be careful not to get any contaminants on the back plate or on the cold plate for the card the back plate obviously goes on the back of the PCB and then we've also got the actual cooler which is this thing so of course you have to take this off and we'll just go ahead and do that now so it's not gonna need to be on there anymore a little bit of a couple scratches on the cold plate but there's your cold blade nickel plated copper cold plate I believe I've got the rest of the heatsink here huge fins and then you're gonna be pushing air through that just through your normal case cooling it should be basically aids silent cooling because this is a full water block so you've got full coverage with the water block right here the pump and then you're in and you're out valves so what happens is this will call all the vram and that's direct contact there's no question about that this touches we've what we have here we have a nun dr. cut out here so this is where the inductors or the chokes go if you prefer then we've got points for the capacitor bank here and for the vrm here and for other components vrm components PWM stuff like that over there so this thing is full coverage the only place that's not covered is the power header but who cares about that so that's what we've got to work with I have to first install the thermal pads for the vram and part of the vrm so to do this you get your Barre card clean it off as necessary first and in my case I'm mounting some probes to this but that's obviously not a step you'll normally do so we get rid of all the plastic let's put this on so my process here is basically take one of the pieces of plastic off and then put it down and then take the other one off and we're probably gonna have to reseal or reposition a bunch of these before the conclusion of putting the block on the card but that's okay okay so eight vram thermal pads that's done that's taken care of you're gonna want to recheck them all before closing the thing up maybe do a surgeon's check and count all the plastic - or just throw it out as you go rather than leave it on the table because you don't want to get stuck on here so the next part we have to cut these to size these larger ones and we're gonna be putting a good chunk of one of them right around here actually maybe just like that even that would be nice and then I've got captain tape here don't worry about it it's not conductive it's not really gonna be a thermal issue not going to impact the results and then the other one part of it will go here which of course this will all be smushed down by the actual block so it's it's not it's gonna be completely secured completely smashed down won't go anywhere and this even though it looks tall right now because it's sticking up this is a super thin thermocouple probe I've talked about this and the EVGA video it's not really going to impact the transfer of heat so don't worry about that but this pad the one that we're cutting we are going to be cutting into five parts it looks like total or at least cutting one of them into four and then the other one into the fifth part so they have a template in here this is actually really cool and I will praise alpha cool for doing this on the ice wolf you've got your template here we're gonna be cutting it into a looks like a 20 by 20 a 10 by 20 a 10 by 15 and a 5 by 10 those are our cuts for this thing and I do have digital calipers but because they've kind of got it marked I don't know that I'll really use them or need them and then the other one will cut to this five size so let's let's go ahead and start with the harder one so I am going to mark it here mark it here okay I think I need the box cutter instead box cutter works well for this sweet okay yeah there's our five okay those are ten by twenty an hour and then we've got a 20 by 20 right there so that'll cover most of our vrm we've got to cut one more piece where'd it go yeah there it is hey everyone this one is a 20 by 30 this one's pretty large which they have the guides on both sides of this thing so now we're covering the vrm components so number five was the large cut that one is going to be covering the top half of our MOSFETs and if you look at the diagram it basically comes up right in between these two inductors so that's where it'll be and that'll probably be a little annoying for me to hold in place while I get the rest of it on there but it should be fine for anyone who is not worried about thermocouples so that's part of it and then that will be the other part I want to make sure you're on top of the MOSFETs so these little black rectangle squares next to the inductors this is an inductor these are chokes those don't need to be covered with thermal pads they are just fine but make sure you cover those black squares next to them not these these are this that's the capacitor tank don't worry about that just yet we're covering those MOSFETs so that's where those go and then our cut number four which is the smallest one goes next to this tiny capacitor over here and that covers okay right there next to the capacitor and then number three and number one which one is larger number one is larger where one goes up here the V R the vram vrm and and this one will go over here next to the inductor then you want to leave breathing room for thats cruel cuz we're gonna use that later so that's where those will go I want to sit here and apply these for a minute and then we'll jump to the next part alright so at this point it's time to get the thermal paste on there this is the thermal compound they provide pretty big tube of it assuming it's actually full we've got our own I'm not sure what their thermal conductivity is ours may be better than alpha cools but we're gonna go ahead and use alpha cools for now okay GPUs by the way as I say all the time be a little generous with the thermal compound on them it's not the same as the CPU or too much it's gonna impact your your thermal contact there's no IHS here so you want it to cover the entirety of that surface with absolutely no missing spots at all so it's better to have a bit too much than I've been to any amount too little so this is going to go on just like this and on the backside these couples do complicate things a bit on the backside we're gonna be using three screws to hold it in and we also need to if you haven't already peel off the thing that covers this clean it if it's not clean if it's got fingerprints on it and then it's time to apply it I'm just gonna run my thermocouple out at the bottom so I want to make sure it's not crossing any inductors or anything like that okay they're just contact and kind of push it down to secure it in place and secure all of those thermal pads so that's what we end up with now we need to start sealing it okay so this part you need three of the shorter Allen screws and put the washer on them they've given us tools already not the greatest in the world but whatever so three one two and three it's gonna be the one right above the keen on the PCIe slot then you skip the next one and then the one in the middle of the card and then the one at the top on the opposite side okay that's gonna go okay contact with the GPU vram contact for sure one of the vram pads fell out that's obnoxious probably means I don't have to like reposition all those pads just give me a second only one of them moved it to moved okay okay fine those are fine please be magnetized damn it that was good it's okay backplate interesting I didn't have us use all the screws one can definitely go there okay alright call so we've got all four of our screws in finally and now we need to disperse the brown they're all pads or orange as they declare on their paper like one of these annoyingly has to be cut the size as well so VRAM VRAM VRAM VRAM VRAM VRAM VRAM gonna go one on the back of each of these we're going to put a blue dead center on the GPU which I suppose I'll do last and this for the record is really kind of unnecessary this level of adhesive but in theory it's gonna be one of the coolest cards we could possibly make so let's go ahead and go through with it these don't have to be perfect pretty low temperature part of the board next we got to cut one of these up again and there's our five okay large piece there's a large large piece of gun right where the thermocouple is so they want these on the backside of MOSFETs which makes sense and this top this large one will basically align with the top to vram thermal pads and it's gonna be next to just inside of the border of these two screws so you can kind of think about it then the next largest one is going and my orientation below that it's going to be towards the PCIe slot again really would be nice if I just did one larger thermal pad but it's for cost reasons so okay cool one more one more pad two more pads just kidding okay so this one goes right on the back of the GPU center of the GPU it's a bit stickier thankfully so it's easier to work with and then the very last one finally do is along with the memory VRM which is going to be up here there's our memory vrm pad okay final piece back plate we need to line up the four large screws with where we're securing the GPU a pump so this will go just like that I'm going to apply pressure to get everything kind of situated and so it doesn't move again okay so they've given us some extras here which I know normally sounds like you forgot a step but that is not the case here we're gonna end up with two extra I think two extra maybe one extra large screw and then it looks like one extra small screw so as with any screw the roof the roll here a hand tight not gorilla tight or if you prefer monkey tight like gorilla tight these do not need to be crazy tight just if it goes uneasily then great go until it stops don't apply a whole bunch of extra force because it's not necessary all right cool so now that we've got it closed up I'm gonna go ahead and look down everywhere and make sure that no thermal pads are loose in there and that they've actually stuck to the services and there's vram pads are all good every single one of them is on a module so nothing has moved there the back of the GP is good back of the vram is good cool so that's that's we call that a success so there you have it there's the alpha cool ice wall we're gonna put this an assistant out and test it connect these QT C's up as appropriate and I don't we good to go okay so that's our project that is the Alpha cool ice wolf we'll be testing this pretty soon it's normal for one to two drops and water to leak from this as it's connected to whatever solution you're using well that's open loop or otherwise and at that point it's time to test it so should have results for you in a couple of days and we'll be looking at this versus the hybrid version that we built versus the ekw B version for which I have a prefilled water block so as always links in the description below if you want to find a link to this device you can find it down there wait for the review maybe if you're going to buy it and as always pay traveling the postal video to us that directly subscribe for more thanks to Eric for loaning us the ice wolf I'll see you all next time you you