Gadgetory

you guys have made it pretty clear over time that I've covered a lot of water-cooling topics however I have failed to actually provide you guys a video on how to properly and safely install your video card waterblock so that's exactly we're going to do here today with my GTX 780 now I know I've said it in other videos but it's very important to just go ahead and say this again anything worth doing is worth doing right and to do it right you have to have the right tools now of course we have our graphics card right here my 780 vanilla the GPU block we're gonna be using is e K FC 780 GTX water block we are going to be adding an optional back plate to that but there are some other things that you're going to need to make sure that you get the job done right you of course you're going to need some sort of thermal paste this thermal paste came with it this is their they call it ectotherm I've never actually used this can't wait to see how well it performs you're going to need some isopropyl alcohol to clean off the old thermal paste from the stock cooler and you are going to need some basic tools now in this here I'm just using a cheap little call to fix it tools it's just a cheap little tool kit that's got some of the most basic sizes you could possibly need for different types of you know tools I got some little pliers some cutters I've got my tools for removing you know cable plugs and things different size screwdrivers screwdriver head tips that sort of thing so it's got everything I could really kind of need for a job like this you need some sort of lint-free cloth I'm going to be using a microfiber in this case I've got a microfiber I use just for these thermal paste cleaning sessions now if there's any sort of specialty tool needed there usually will include it with the water block depending on the brand you go with now remember this is going to be your application may vary because every single brand kind of does things their own way so in this case DK it provides you with the various tools that you need the big giant allen key because you have to plug off the holes that you're not using the thermal pads for your memory and your VRMs and your installation manual very important to read this read the manual because you want to make sure that there's nothing that you're missing here and they show you pretty much exactly how to take apart your water block and put it together specific for your water block at least ek is really good about those instructions so here's a water block that we're going to be using right here the acetal and I don't know if it's going to make it out before this video or not but I did do an unboxing and overview this graphics card waterblock so don't know more about it go and check that out may or may not get before this video I honestly just don't know so we want to get our artwork area nice and prepped you're going to be dealing with some small screws so I recommend getting a little Bowl or a jar or something I'm just going to kind of set mine off to the side over here off camera I have a little space there where I have my got would be worried about anything bump in it but get everything nice and laid out so you know where everything is you're not fumbling around with trying to find things you just want to have a nice tidy workspace now in my case I am using this CM Storm rx power rx mousepad because it's kind of rubbery and it gives me a good surface to work on it's anti-static and so it's not going to scratch my desk or damage the card now again like I said read the manual before actually taking apart the card so I'm gonna do now is I'm going to read the manual get a little bit familiar with what to expect when doing this card and I'm going to read them again and then we'll go ahead and get started okay so step one is going to go ahead and be to remove the stock cooler now the first thing you want to do is become familiar with your cooler identify where all the screws are the type of screws that you're dealing with here find those ones that may be hidden like the two that are on the front right here on the the actual exhaust grill and make sure that you get all of these screws removed and then once you do that you want to gently twist it off to remove it you don't want to pull it or pry it because you could bend the card you'll gently twist it but when we get to that point we'll discuss the best way to take off the actual stock cooler and one thing you can do that I recommend is just to take the old screws and screw them back into the stock cooler that way you never lose them you don't have to worry about work try to remember where you stuck them they're always easily accessible all right once you have your stock water cooler removed this is where you want to take your lint-free cloth in your isopropyl alcohol and just kind of pour it all over your graphics card no no please don't do that you want to clean off all the old thermal paste on here now a lot of people like to use unused coffee filters which is really cheap and I don't happen to have any so I'm not using any but don't use paper towels or toilet paper because those are fibrous clogs that will leave fibers on the actual die and you don't want to do that because it can create issues when it comes to your cooling so just pour a little bit of isopropyl alcohol here on your lint-free cloth and then just kind of gently go to town on there and get out all of that old thermal paste off it's very important to have a perfectly clean surface that way you're not dealing with any contaminants on there now the next thing to do here on your graphics card installation is to figure out where your thermal pads are going to go these thermal bed pads are what cool your vrm as well as the chokes and the RAM modules on your graphics card so make sure that you refer to the manual that comes with your GPU block to make sure that you're doing it properly all right we've got all of our thermal pads here installed on our GTX 780 now one of the things I really like about ek is they're sure to give you plenty of thermal pads in case you happen to make a mistake so you're not kind of ass out of luck you can see I've got all of the RAM chips here with thermal pads we've got the vrm so we've got the chokes we've got pretty much everything here nice and thermal padded up and we've got plenty of spares so good job there now one thing to keep in mind with thermal pads is there are two sides to it you do have this white backing here which you take off when you stick it down and then there is a clear film on top you need to make sure you take that off if you don't you're going to have thermal problems now that we're done with that the next thing to do is actually put on the thermal paste and start to apply or install our block like so now thermal paste applications one of those things there's a lot of debate on right way and wrong way to do it I am going to be following Ek zone instructions as you can see right here they kind of recommend a star pattern you know what it's their block I'm going to go ahead and do it their way and then we'll start to get everything mounted down all right we're getting to the end now we've got a thermal paste in store put on there it's kind of as pretty as I'd like it to be but then again the opening that comes on their little tube is a little bit fat so it lets a lot come out so make sure you get that installed properly now what you want to do is you want to take your block and you want to line it up with the screw holes and the actual dye on there it's only going to line up really one way I mean you can see that you got this little cutout here for these capacitors so it pretty much is a good point at determining where to line it up feel it making contact with everything there just kind of push it down gently and we're going to hold her together with our thumb and our index finger we're going to flip it over and we're going to line up all of the holes now I'm going to go ahead and put in the four screws that you can see are marked out here for the GPU itself and then what we're going to do is I have to do things a little bit differently in this tutorial because remember we are doing a backplate on this so there's a specific screw order that we have to deal with so go ahead and take out your hardware and then get out the screws that are specifically labeled for your GPU for the actual seat or the GPU holder or the bracket is right here make sure you use your washers and then we'll come back and show you what's next I guess it's kind of how these whole these tutorial things work only we show you how something is done and we do it together there's a big old happy family okay now you want to do the four as I mentioned that surround the GPU first and you want to tighten these down in a star pattern it's most important when you're installing these blocks that you tighten down from the GPU and work your way out it's most important that you have proper connection here at the GPU die because that is the most important part of the cooling that we're doing here with this and everything else is kind of secondary as you can see I'm sort of moving around in a star pattern now one of the things I really like about the ek blocks is their tolerances are perfect so the screw holes are only screwed as deep as the screw is meant to go so one it keeps you from crushing your die and two it keeps you from stripping out your threads so this is how the block looks on the front side as you can see it is a full cover from front to back makes it a little bit heavy but you know that's really not too much of an issue because it does have a backplate that's going to help support the rigidity of the card so I'm going to do now is I'm going to go ahead and pull out my backplate instructions and I'm going to reference those to see which screws can be installed after we get the GPU block on because like I mentioned there is a specific order that this has to go now it also includes in this with this backplate here some thermal pads if we were installing on a Titan which we are not so I don't need to worry about that now according to the instructions here for the backplate it says that I can go ahead and basically install these four and I'll make it match the picture here I know you guys can't really see the picture but bear with me it says that I can install these four screws which I already did these two outer screws this screw and the corner screw and then I can do the back place well go ahead and do that and then we'll pretty much be done at that point okay now if you were only installing the front block or the main block and you weren't doing a back plate you would do all of your screws according to your manual and you'd pretty much be done at that point now since we are installing the optional back plate we're going to just go ahead and show you how that works so I went ahead and installed the screws that the manual said was okay to pre install with the block this lays right over the backside just like so and then you take the included screws and you just basically screw it down and sandwiches it together with the card and you're pretty much done well there she is guys my brand-new liquid-cooled GTX 780 here with the ek full cover water block we have also got on there the back plate which is extremely slick literally it looks awesome this has got to be one of the nicest video card setups I've had personally not just because it's the 780 but just everything aesthetically on it is really really badass so there you go guys if you follow this tutorial and the instructions that come with your equipment you now would have a fully liquid-cooled graphics card as I do here I hope this tutorial has helped you guys out make sure you check out my other videos I have lots of tutorials on overclocking how to do water cooling both basic and advanced overclocks I'll link those somewhere around here maybe in the outro but guys as always if this stuff helped you give that video a thumbs up if you hated it give it a thumbs down and comment and tell me what you guys think about what this setup looks like can't wait to get it in the system and do some benchmarking and overclocking and seeing just how much power I can pull out of this GTX 780 now that it is fully veined up it's got blood right into it guys I'm gonna get on out of here as always I'll see you in my next video