Side windows and GPU's

[Milkshake86]

Not to mention like CPU's GPU's do have a market for aftermarket cooling. Including air/heatsink combos and liquid cooling as previously stated. However like i said redo the thermal compound and put VGA heatsinks on it and then rerun your test's. Tho im pretty sure i seen twin 580's hitting 91c

[Xuvial]

It is in fact a newer revision of Sniper sold with side windows instead of side mesh + 200mm fan like the original. Does CoolerMaster ship to NZ? Because that particular side-mesh is impossible to obtain now, atleast that's what most of the local stores have told me. Unless I can get one from overseas I'll have to resort to finding a way to cut a whole in the window (it's made of acrylic, doesn't that crack/shatter easily?) or suffer substantially higher GPU temps forever! *dramatic music*

@Milkshake, I'm a bit cautious of taking card apart at the moment, it may void warranty (overclocking is covered under warranty by Asus :P). I've taken apart an 8800GT and HD5770 to clean & reapply some paste, but this thing cost me an arm and is a bit more complicated to take apart.
I will most definitely do it after another ~3-4 months (6-7 months old in total), that's when dust/etc could start clogging up the inside.

The easiest solution for now is simply removing the side panel and switching on the desk fan when I'm playing Crysis/2 or BF3 and hitting the maximum OC profile in Afterburner. Will need a few slight re-arrangements. Booyaa.

edit: Time to update my gaming setup pic in the gaming setup thread

[Milkshake86]

I cant say if it will or wont void warranty however if there's no sticker theres nothing stopping you. I mean VGA heatsinks arent needed so how would they know you put not crappy thermal compound on there?

[Deleted]

I cant say if it will or wont void warranty however if there's no sticker theres nothing stopping you. I mean VGA heatsinks arent needed so how would they know you put not crappy thermal compound on there?

If you were to break or bend anything when you disassemble it they will certainly notice you have tempered with it. Not to mention that if you RMA it and they decide to check it out they will most certainly take it apart and notice the changed paste. In my opinion, you should stay away from doing anything that voids the warranty unless you find it a necessity (say if you really want to change the paste and are aware of the implications that might follow).

[Cantii]

I use the HX750 and those cables are quite resistant to being bent. I also inverted my PSU so that the fan draws air out of the case instead. I managed to cream the cables behind/slightly above my bottom-mounted 120mm fan to where they don't obstruct airflow.

I'm at work right now, but I'll take pics and post them to give you an idea.

[Xuvial]

Alright sir, it's a done deal. Can't really find any Aerocool Sharks around here, so I went for a Prolimatech Blue Vortex 140mm, reviews say it's pretty decent.

Before anyone screams "ewww that doesn't look too good!", it looks totally fine when the PC is on and the blue LED's kick in from the other fans.



Pushed aside the PSU cables as hard as I could, they block only a tiny corner of the fan now
I'll increase the fan speed through BIOS and see how loud it gets.

[Cantii]

Sorry I didn't get those pics posted, I misjudged how hard I'd hit the books for finals coming up. Looks good, though, that should help out a lot with cooling that ridiculous thing you call a video card. Does that need a stick to hold it up? Geez... I want one.

What kind of fan is that on the rear exhaust? I'm looking for a replacement for my stock fan.

[Milkshake86]

If you were to break or bend anything when you disassemble it they will certainly notice you have tempered with it. Not to mention that if you RMA it and they decide to check it out they will most certainly take it apart and notice the changed paste. In my opinion, you should stay away from doing anything that voids the warranty unless you find it a necessity (say if you really want to change the paste and are aware of the implications that might follow).

Personally i open and put my own thermal paste on every GPU i buy but i havent had the pleasure of needing to send one back knock on wood

[Xuvial]

Does that need a stick to hold it up?

It doesn't *need* one, all cards hang a bit...but this thing is heavy and drops atleast 3-4mm on one end compared to the other, which could get worse if I left it like that.

What kind of fan is that on the rear exhaust? I'm looking for a replacement for my stock fan.

Just a CM Sickleflow (blue LED). Cheap, quiet and moves enough air...I've seen people running 8-10 of those in their cases :P I might replace my CPU's blademasters with sickleflows sometime later. Very soft LED's that don't blind you.

If you wanna get a comparison:



(odd they didn't include Noctuas in there, but where would we be without reviews?!)

[DeltrusDisc]

Lookin' good Xuvial! Be sure to get us your comparison of temperature results!

[Xuvial]

Like ~2-3c.
Nowhere near as effective as removing the window and having a desk fan blowing at it.

May resort to water for next build, the case can certainly fit some nice rads.

[Cantii]

2-3c difference? That's quite a bit, actually. Keep in mind, though, that that card will get very hot anyway. My 6870 routinely gets up to 80C while under heavy loads, so your card is doing quite good for a lack of a side fan. I've searched for side panels available in New Zealand to no avail I think modding your side panel is in order if you really want to do it. Or, maybe you can find someone nice enough to buy it from the States and ship it to you =V

Just for a comparison, I just got a couple CM Blade Master fans and did some re-arranging of the fans. One Blade Master does what two Noctuas did on my Hyper 212+, pretty crazy, IMO. I have it on a PWM user-defined profile in Fan XPert, it's sitting at ~900 RPM and is silent. Replaced stock rear exhaust with the second CM Blade Master fan and have it on the Turbo setting in Fan XPert, also running ~900 RPM. Found out one of my Noctua NF-P12s were leaking, which makes me sad, so I'm in the process of getting it RMA'd, and the other one is sitting there at the bottom as intake, in all of its cream colored glory!



And I made a little airflow diagram. All around, I've shaved a solid 5-10C from total temps on average (CPU, GPU, NB, SB, etc.)



I'll be getting a 4-in-3 5.25" HDD cage w/ 120mm fan (will replace it with a better fan, of course) soon to move those HDDs from the bottom there to open it up even more. It'll be grand

[Ghâzh]

Would actually look pretty neat I think if you added a home made side fan into that side window . Just need a decent drill. Find a picture of fan grill online or make one yourself, print it on a paper and use it to mark the spots for holes on the panel. Then just carefully drill the holes and screw in a fan of your choice.

[Xuvial]

Nice fan setup there Cantii. Blademasters are interesting little fans aren't they :P
You've got some pretty high positive pressure going with the inverted 200mm intake, the 120mm rear exhaust has a lot of work to do!
Quick question - which fans have you connected to the fan controller and which to the chassis connectors? My Sabertooth has 3 chassis connectors (1 top, 1 top-right, 1 bottom) and 1 CPU connector.
My setup:
Fan-controller: rear 120mm exhaust, top 200mm exhaust, front 200mm intake.
Chassis connectors: Bottom 140mm intake, 2nd blademaster on CPU (left side in pull).

I'm going swap things around a bit so I have better control on the fans with PWM.

[Lilfrier]

I think you need to redo this test without the desk fan. See JUST how the case is affecting temperatures when compared to leaving the door off and letting air naturally circulate.

My CPU temp was at about 51 C with my door on. It's an Antec Two Hundred case with a single rear fan. After taking the door off (I usually have it off, but left it on when I brought it home from a speech I gave while using it as an example), it dropped to 47 C almost immediately. Door-off, it's at 43 C right now.

It's not fair to compare door temp to doorless+ fan temp. Test it JUST without the door and see if it's a big deal.

[Sephiracle]

Cantii, why is your top fan an intake?

[Cantii]

Nice fan setup there Cantii. Blademasters are interesting little fans aren't they :P
You've got some pretty high positive pressure going with the inverted 200mm intake, the 120mm rear exhaust has a lot of work to do!
Quick question - which fans have you connected to the fan controller and which to the chassis connectors? My Sabertooth has 3 chassis connectors (1 top, 1 top-right, 1 bottom) and 1 CPU connector.
My setup:
Fan-controller: rear 120mm exhaust, top 200mm exhaust, front 200mm intake.
Chassis connectors: Bottom 140mm intake, 2nd blademaster on CPU (left side in pull).

I'm going swap things around a bit so I have better control on the fans with PWM.

Thanks. That 120mm rear exhaust is a Blade Master on the PWM chassis fan plug, so I'm controlling it via Fan Xpert and/or the BIOS. The thing moves a TON of air, so I don't think it'll be choked at all. Also, the PCI slots are slotted, so air can escape through there as well as the 140mm PSU fan exhausting out of the bottom. Since I've done it this way, I've actually had very little dust (intake on the bottom, PSU and top fan inverted, that is).

The only fans I have on the fan controller are the top, front and side 200mm fans. The rear exhaust and CPU fans are on their respective PWM pinouts. There are also three other 3-pin CHA_FAN pinouts on the motherboard, as well as a PWR_FAN pinout, which is useless to me. My bottom Noctua fan is on one of the 3-pins, since even at the max speed of 1300 RPM, it's silent (but moves so much air). I'm thinking about getting a third Blade Master for a pull fan, but seriously, one does the job of two of my Noctuas, and that's just crazy. At max speed, the single Blade Master cools it to 35C idle. Crazy. Also, as you can see, I have the X58 version of the Sabertooth It's such a nice board. Overclocks like a beast.

Cantii, why is your top fan an intake?

With the positioning of the top 200mm fan on the Storm Sniper, it actually does it justice to have it as intake as it blows air directly down and into the cooler (if it's a tower cooler positioned front-to-back). Doing so has decreased my CPU temps significantly (2-3C drop instantly). You could say, "Well, it's best to have it as exhaust because heat rises." To that I say, "I have a bunch of fans. Heat goes where I tell it to go." My case has plenty exhaust, and this case was meant for high positive pressure (the damn thing is steel mesh, ffs, it's one massive dust filter ), and with the right fans and right configuration, unconventional setups work wonders.

However, depending on your case, your mileage may vary. If you had, say, a HAF X with two top 200mm fans, flipping the front top to intake will benefit it greatly. If you had an Antec Nine Hundred Two, the position of that top fan is in such a place where flipping it to be intake is a bad idea. With that, I leave you with this thread to read over.