New fanless coolers for my 9800GTs

[d_stilgar]

I have two 9800GT video cards that I run in SLI. The fans, for whatever reason never seem to go over 50%, even though they idle at ~70C (holy crap). I decided that this wasn't good and that I wanted something quiet (or silent) that kept my temps down.

I got two of these coolers (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016&cm_re=arctic_cooling-_-35-186-016-_-Product) and this thermal compound (http://www.innovationcooling.com/overview.htm).

Because the coolers are so big you need a 12cm ribbon SLI cable. Mine is in the mail somewhere, so I decided to install one of the coolers so I could compare the temps.

After install I load up EVGA precision, a real time overclocking tool that monitors the cards. What's the difference? How about 14 degrees Celsius? The card with stock cooling and a fan at 50% is at 74C and the fanless cooler is at 60C. Nice!

I'll post pics once everything is finished. I just did a complete rebuild with some half decent cable management.

[SXRguyinMA]

I just got one of those for an older ati card I have that the fan crapped out on, should be here monday :up:

now if I could only find a pair of a/m coolers for my 3870x2s.......

[Spawn-Inc]

those were great coolers for me, they even let my volt mod my 8600GT's!

i dropped i think 20C on load for one of the cards but i used fans with them. the reason i have my TT amour + is because each card took up about 3 slots or more and the amour + has 10 slots. not of course i'm doing water so it's useless to me.

as for the SLI issue, i cut into the heatsink :)

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo304/Spawn-Inc/IMG_2221.jpg

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo304/Spawn-Inc/IMG_2206.jpg

[d_stilgar]

Cutting a hole. That's a good solution.

Yeah those coolers are crazy if you add a fan. Three slots! I think I would mount a 120mm on the end of the coolers to blow down them and out the back instead of getting the fan kit.

Seriously though if that SLI ribbon connector comes today I'll get it installed and post some pics. The new cable management is pretty nice and my CPU and GPU coolers will make some of you laugh. They're huge!

[Twigsoffury]

thats a crazy quad CCFL in there towards the front.

These 5000 series ATi cards run hilariously coolm wasn't nothing for my 8800GTX to get 170F playing left 4 dead

5770 playing l4d (overclocked to) with fan at 80%? 137F

idles the same temp as my processor, low 90's.

the saddest part is theres a actual difference in how warm my room gets with the new card in there. but it probably helps the 5770 uses almost half the power of the 8800 : |


I'd really like to see some pictures of them up and going, my buddies got Sli 9800's and was looking towards some new coolers.

will these mount up to the power efficent 9800GT's? (kind w/o a power connection, also shorter)

[Axis Machine]

How could you put up with the fan's noise at 80% I sure couldn't.

[Twigsoffury]

How could you put up with the fan's noise at 80% I sure couldn't.

Man you'd hate my computer.

[d_stilgar]

I found out that the ribbon connector was sent to my parent's place. I hate that about paypal! I swear I pay for something with paypal, set the shipping address to where I am now, but because the billing address is still my parent's the item get shipped there every time. I hate you ebay!

That said here are some pics.
http://modsandends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_1856_800x600.jpg

http://modsandends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_1855_800x600.jpg

http://modsandends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/img_1854_800x600.jpg

[Spawn-Inc]

last shot looks the best :)

did you take off the stickers or did they stop putting them on?

[d_stilgar]

I took them off. I'm really going for a quiet PC. After some testing though, the first GPU had an idle temp of 72C and the second had an idle at 61C. I didn't really like this and worried that in game the heat might build up so I ordered two thin 120mm fans to attach to the coolers. In the mean time I positioned a 120mm fan right in front of both coolers and the idle temps dropped to 40 and 36C. Crazy! The bad thing is that it is just sitting there not mounted, otherwise I would just stick with it.