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Liquid cooling can be a scary proposition if you've only ever played with air. When it's your first time diving into the depths of liquid cooling, you can't help but envision a worst case scenario, one in which you end up accidentally soaking your motherboard and other pricey components with H20. Such horrific scenarios are becoming less of a concern as companies launch all-in-one liquid cooling setups, such as what you'll find on PNY's new XLR8 Liquid Cooled Graphics series.
To get the LCS party started, PNY unveiled its XLR8 Liquid Cooled GeForce GTX 580 graphics card in two flavors, one with a CPU cooling block attached and one without. Both come equipped with an all-in-one LCS provided by none other than Asetek, the same company whose LCS footprint spans everywhere from OEM systems to rebadged CPU coolers.
"Designed to increase performance while reducing noise and temperature, PNY’s Liquid Cooled Graphics offers the fastest factory-overclocked card currently on the market at 857 MHz," said Nicholas Mauro (PDF), senior marketing manager, PC components for PNY. "The simple all-in-one design offers a powerful, yet easy to install and cost-effective gaming solution that’s backed by the PNY warranty. This highly anticipated graphics option will enable more enthusiast gamers to experience gaming in a whole new way."
If you were to put PNY's new LCS cards in the cage with a GTX 580 based on Nvidia's reference design, PNY says its model would wallop the reference card with 10 percent faster performance while running up to 30 percent cooler and quieter.
PNY's Liquid Cooled GTX 580 will set you back $580, or $650 for the model with a CPU block attached.
Image Credit: PNY
Comments are closed on this article
devin3627
August 18, 2011 at 8:17am
god damnit if i had a nvidia geforce nvidia geforce 8600gts overclocked 3500ghz (500% more powerful) on planet pluto with directx 10 and 256mb ram and shader 3.0 i would still be overrun by current technology a few years later. tripling your budget with a liquid cooling video card when you can sli is all show and enthuism. if you sli two nvidia geforce 460s, you'd be saving yourself $200. liquid cooling is expensive, end of story and not worth the performance unless you speaking CPUs which don't easycome with multiple processor ports. this videocard heating non-universal least to say, i did read a comment where the cooling system would be incompatible with your future videocards.
kiaghi7
August 18, 2011 at 2:38pm
Well... I understand where you're coming from, and for me, the cost likely wouldn't work out...
BUT...
Looking on newegg, I see the GTX 580's between 460-660 dollars, with the lower-end of the two options with the liquid cooling system, falling right in that span, of 580 (plus shipping), so yes it's more than the regular bottom line 580, but it comes with a far better and quieter cooling solution and a considerably higher over-clock than many of the top-notch 580's...
In fact, the one, and only, mass-market 580 in the list coming even close to the PNY versions mentioned here is the EVGA one with a water-block affixed to it, which costs by far the most at $660 and its sole benefit over the PNY alternative is that it is a single card slot design, which is arguably very useful particularly depending upon the space available to the builder and if they want an SLI rig for it.
From where I'm standing, if you're already looking to spend nearly $600 on a graphics card, why NOT get an all in one solution that is not only BETTER than anything else on the market in its class, but would be QUIETER to boot, and all for a nominal amount more than the average 580 already costs?
Again, I'm not in the market for one, so I'm not pitching it, but all in all it's not a bad idea, and frankly I see more cards going that route in the future since the dust-buster hurricane inside your case is often the noisiest component now that large 120mm and larger fans are common place, the much smaller and much faster fans whirring are often the culprit in noisy and vibration prone circumstances.
oihorse
August 18, 2011 at 12:23pm
Indeed you could all that.
Some, however, like the notion of the quietness of the liquid cooling, the convenience and easy instalation of it being a sealed system.
Options, they are awesome and important to have.
oihorse
August 17, 2011 at 12:43pm
So if you have a machine that already has an all-in-one like the H50, which takes up the rear exhaust fan port, where do you install the fan for this graphic card? Will it reach to the top of a Haf X case?
kiaghi7
August 17, 2011 at 2:58pm
You could also have a side-panel/window fan port, or preferably a case with dual rear 120mm ports...
I personally would, in the case of dual cards, and thus dual individual radiators since it's one for each card, have them both mounted to the twin blow-hole 120mm spots in the top of my current case; a Lian-Li A70F, GREAT case by the way, tons of space, awesome wiring cleanness, and dual power supply support, or dual rear fan support, and nearly infinite customize-ability on both personal and factory side...
And all for a price not far off a HAF-X, they can be had for sub-$200 if you shop around and/or buy when the time is right :D Additional customizing is of course individual and can likely add to the price, but that's above and beyond...
The cords of the dedicated cooler would likely reach the top of -most- cases, but if it's an E-ATX or some super-monstrosity, I'd begin to worry at that point. The folks at PNY know enthusiasts are going to be the buyer of such things, and likely need some more "leash" to reach where they are going. Add to that, radiators being commonly mounted to the top of a case to obviously keep the hot thing above the things you're keeping cool just makes sense thermodynamically. If they don't give plenty enough hose length to reach the top of cases to mount the radiator, then their product line is dead on arrival for the vast majority of those who would be interested in it.
oihorse
August 18, 2011 at 7:55am
Arg, the side panel fan. I should have thought of that. Good point!
Baer
August 17, 2011 at 10:25am
I think it is a good entry point for those that are still on air and are considering a new GPU anyway.
Keith E. Whisman
August 17, 2011 at 9:02am
I wonder if you can couple one of these $650 deals with the cpu water block with a couple EVGA GTX580s with their single slot water blocks. Probably turn the water into a superheated vapor. Would have to add a second radiator and a second reservoir and might as well throw in an extra pump to push things along and then you'll be asking yourself why I didn't just get the EVGA cards and build a custom setup. That is the outcome I come up with every time I consider purchasing pre built water cooling system like one of these. End up costing more in the end and when you upgrade that graphics card you need a new CPU cooler. Because everyone here upgrades their graphics cards more often than they do anything else.
Michael J
August 17, 2011 at 8:33am
I was afraid it wold cost some absurd amount but for that price point thats a pretty cool set up. Wouldn't be surprised to see other vendors do the same. Only problem I see for multi GPU users is how practically they can get two or three entire rad/fan assy. mounted with only x amount of hose to work with.
PCLinuxguy
August 17, 2011 at 9:16am
definitely, half of what I was expecting in terms of costs. While still expensive for some, it'd be great for gamers and overclockers to grab since they have the budget to afford these like it was nothing at all.
somethingelse
August 17, 2011 at 1:12pm
This is cool for a single card config...I'd go custom for an SLI set up though. I'd actually be strongly considering a 570 with this kind of set up. A vanilla 580 is a bit overkill for me, 570 is more in my budget...and I'd shell out some extra coin for CPU/GPU water cooler combo like this one.
P.S. sorry about that previous comment, it was in reply to Keith, not Linuxguy :)
somethingelse
August 17, 2011 at 1:08pm
no need for a blog in the comments section...we still don't get wtf your talking about :)
PCLinuxguy
August 26, 2011 at 7:44am
liquid nitrogen and liquid helium :D. I saw that a while back online, they were trying to get it as close to absolute Zero as possible while still doing some major loads. Pretty cool. no pun intended.
Keith E. Whisman
August 17, 2011 at 10:45am
It's hard to get people to understand. When it's something you love you fit it into your budget. You save up, you purchase a little at a time and soon enough you have a system that others would pay a systems building like Alienware $5000 dollars for. Surely you have a hobby or vice that you fit into your budget such as smoking. I don't smoke anymore but with all the money I spent on smokes every week I could have had an awesome computer each and every year. Once you have a system built up that you had to cut corners on, you start saving up for the better graphics card. That SSD, that high end IPS Panel, that $600 dollars and up graphics card. You save up, you buy slowly. I do this and people like you sit at the sidelines complaining about how I must be rich, or I must be selling drugs, or how you smuggly make statements like the one you just made you really haven't thought out your comment befor for you made it, a mistake that I make all the freaking time, so I'm not hating, I'm just sick of people that act like if you purchase expensive hardware you must be an idiot.
Keith E. Whisman
August 17, 2011 at 11:15am
Read PCLinuxGuys' statement.
All gamers do not have botomless budgets. I'm sick of hearing crap like that. This is MaximumPC after all. If you want budget anything, then perhaps you should turn your attention to ComputerShopper Magazine. That's what I'm talking about. Gamers are the only ones that can afford things like this? Really? I've got family and friends that constantly make statements like that to me yet they they other hobbies like car collections, gun collections, or even high end stereos but we must be rich in order to afford one $650 dollar graphics card. It's not like we are collecting the damn things, it's one card once every two years or so.
PCLinuxguy
August 26, 2011 at 7:42am
did I say ALL gamers? no.. but there is the segment of some that do have big budgets and Can if they so choose, spend $10,000 on a kickass beast of a rig that they can mod and enjoy for their lifetime and then some. Budget wise some choose to spend closer to $300-$400 on their GPU, and that depends on if they are going with a single or multiple setup And the "one card every 2 years or so" is not true. Some prefer to have higher performance with multiple cards.
My main point is this Mr "i've got to blog and bitch about people" comment: this kind of cash for a sealed liquid cooled GPU is alot cheaper than what some places might've started it out at. which is a boon for those in the market to grab one. For the rest of us an air cooled version works just fine, and those gamers that do have the ability to spend the big bucks can grab as many as they want/need for their awesome builds, to each their own and these won't fit everyone.
p309
August 17, 2011 at 1:14pm
In defense of Keith, it is hard to tell if Linuxguy is being serious or not. I took it as kind of a joke. I've been in the spot where family and friends tell me I spend too much on my computer gaming hobby, but they are always kind of half-@$$ serious, too.
Problem is, I have more than one hobby. Priorities, hmm. With all of the new games that I can still run on my old setup, I have no complaints or need to buy new hardware really. And they are good games too, loving this new games running on 4 yr old setup!
US_Ranger
August 17, 2011 at 11:38am
I think you're inventing a problem where there isn't one. Seriously, what the hell are you talking about?
pcwizmtl
August 18, 2011 at 8:23am
This, emotions should be kept in check when browsing the internet, raging just makes you look like a putz
