New
#1
PCI intake fans and cooling advice.
After a little high graphics gaming last night I've finally lost my temper with the fan on my Sapphire Radeon HD4870. Over time it has, as is normal with fans, gotten louder and less effective. Currently it is louder than either my airconditioner, the traffic with the window open, the aircraft overhead, and louder than my speaker volume! I don't quite believe that my card reached 105C like HWMonitor suggested, but I do believe it was hot, and I'm inclined to believe that the ambient temperature near the graphics card did hit 55.
My airflow around the graphics card is a problem. in my bitfenix Survivor case I've put a 200mm intake fan on the front (sadly weakened by the hard disk bay in front of it, but I've removed the top bay to give it some hope) and a 200mm outlet on top. I'm a little concerned about the effectiveness of the top outlet not being as high as I'd like. I have my new CPU heatsink blowing upward to, and to its credit it kept the PCU at 50C running max on all core in a very warm case. I suspect there is a deadspot below the graphics card, caused by the card being a big windblock in my case. It doesnt help that this card only has a 40mm radial fan for it's second slot heatsink and duct, and that it's a two way duct that blows half the air back into the case! My PSU is fine since it faces down and draws outside air through a bottom grill. Not quite as good an air supply, but it is at least uneffected by the ambient
What I'm looking for is the following:
a new 40mm fan for the card that is decent and quiet
OR a new 3rd party heatsink for the card, preferably one that will make it a triple slot so it can get a decent sized heatsink.
AND a PCI inlet fan, double slot if need me since all my slots are empty and I have lots of them. I'm half thinking about ducting that onto the graphics card fan to make sure it's only using cool outside air for the card, since it is doing so much to radiate heat into my case.
As you can guess with 2 200mm fans and a 92mm cpu fan I have a very quiet case: with the exception of the graphics card. I'd rather avoid adding more dinky little loud fans, but I don't really want to put too much of a crazy array of things in there.
I'm also considering putting one of my spare 120mm fans into the back, and I'm considering as an intake. Yes my exhaust is at the top but with I dont want to make it suck all the air in my case away from my card. As I have no problems with the cpu I'd rather make the case positive pressure and encourage it all to go out of the intended slots only. Sadly, no one ever thought to put an air filter on the back grill in spite of having filters on the top outlet. I've been wondering for a while: can you buy suitable filters, 120x120, with screw holes that let you just stick it on the back of a fan?