Case fan instead of GPU fan

One of my case ideas involves the GPU taking air direct from outside and will be on the back of the mobo. It would be nice if I could use 120mm or 140mm fans intaking directly onto the GPU, possibly as close as the original heatsink fans were on the GPU.

Would there be any problems with this?

Never taken a cooler off, does it use a different or nonstandard fan connector (from fans to card)?

Purpose made fanless GPUs are too old or too physically large.

Every situation is different, you'd just have to try it out and monitor load temps for awhile and see how it goes...

Most GPU fan connectors are tiny 3 or 4 pin miniature molex connections that will unlplug easily enough.

You could take the shroud and fans off the heatsink, then use zip-ties and adapters such as these to connect the fan to the graphics card http://www.frozencpu.com/products/19933/cab-1521/Mini_4-Pin_GPU_to_2_x_4-Pin_PWM_Fan_Adapter.html

Just be careful with the power draw of the fans you use. You will also have to set a new fan speed curve since the fans will no longer be stock.

You have to consider the diameter of the rotational motor in the fan. It might be less efficient, as a good portion of the video card will not have air flowing over it, unless, you offset the fan.

The issue with doing this is that most GPUs take in air from the case, blow them onto the PCB, then redirect them out of the case via the back of the card (where the connectors are located). Replacing the fan with something bigger might mess with the airflow considering most cards feature fans small enough to keep the airflow inside of the GPUs casing. Placing larger fans might result in the air flowing towards the CPU, and in a worse-case scenario, would involve hot air from the GPU blasting the CPU heatsink and raising its temps. Your best bet would involve finding/making a custom wind tunnel that fits onto the fan and connects around the sides of the GPU casing similar to a square shaped funnel with a 4" wide opening. In fact, you could remove the current fans from your GPU then redirect the funnel into those fan holes. Below is a crappy diagram of optimal airflow for the card.


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Maybe try one of these.http://www.frozencpu.com/products/25598/slf-16/Gelid_Solutions_Slim_2x_120mm_PCI_Slot_Fan_-_UV_Blue_SL-PCI-02.html?tl=g40c18#blank It is on my wishlist, but haven't seen one in real life yet.

You'll have to funnel the air through the heatsink specifically as the pressure drop from the heatsink would otherwise be too high for airflow to actually go through it. I've zip tied case fans to GPUs when stock fans died before and it's tough to get the airflow to work correctly. You also have to be mindful of the static pressure; some fans handle this application better than others.

It may sound simple, but in actuality, not so much.

Jsalpha2 said:

Maybe try one of these.http://www.frozencpu.com/products/25598/slf-16/Gelid_Solutions_Slim_2x_120mm_PCI_Slot_Fan_-_UV_Blue_SL-PCI-02.html?tl=g40c18#blank It is on my wishlist, but haven't seen one in real life yet.

Click to expand...

^ Those are useless for GPUs. They won't cool anywhere near enough.

nostalgia.