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Air Cooling SLI

H

hellscream

n00b
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
12
Alright, I know there are a lot of threads on cooling issues with 6800GT's in an SLI configuration. But in my case I don't know what to go with. I have 2 6800GT's on an MSI Neo4 SLI MoBo. The space between the PCIe slots is smaller than what's on an ASUS A8N SLI MoBo. What aftermarket cooling solution would be best for me? Most look too tall, and I don't want something that will come in contact with the second card. I've looked all over and I'm at a loss here so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
you could start by cutting a 120mm blowhole in your side panel and have a good fan blowing on your cards, if that works you may not need to change your card fans.
 
damn, guy above took my idea!

the cheapest and best thing to do would be to keep the stock cooler, and have a 120mm/92mm intake fan on the side of the case, with the edges of the fan being parallell with the graphics cards.
i have this, in conjunction with 2 arctic cooling nv5 (not much difference to stock cooler) (i have an a8n-sli) and my dual ultras are at 58 at max load.

however to further improve, in such as short space, thermalright have just brought out one that could work, as it is designed to work in small spaces. also, performs much better than nv5. look at this review http://www.systemcooling.com/thermalright_v1-01.html
this combined with an intake fan would give you fantastic performance.

hope that this helped
f
 
I'm testing my sig to see if it pops up, but it hasn't. I just bought a new Lian-Li v1000 with a blower sucking all the hot air off the cards. I really don't want to go cutting a whole in the side of this case. I'm just wondering if I should be considering water cooling instead of wasting all my money on fans and crap.
 
hellscream said:
I'm testing my sig to see if it pops up, but it hasn't.
Click to expand...
That's because you didn't have sigs enabled in your profile. I fixed it for ya. ;)

BTW, font/color tags don't work in sigs.
 
i have a lian li v-1000 too...
the sucker does not work.
and also, a nice led fan does look good in the side.
if you want more understated then you can cut the wires, and have it as a clear fan, or get a black one, and put a grill over it.
it is really the best way to do it, and everything else is just stopgaps.
f
 
I was feeling around in the case last night the only area that is hot is right around the video cards. Everything else is nice and cool. I may have to just take the plunge and go with water cooling.
 
seriously, there is no need.
get those thermalright things... they will fit right in, and there will be no need for water cooling. read the review.
with watercooling, you will have to drop quite alot of cash to be able to cool dual gt and proc well, and you will get comparable with the thermalright v-1.
i love watercooling, but it is pricey, and you can get comparable with the v-1...
f
 
I just ordered an Arctic NV Silencer 5 Rev. 2 to research this very thing. I'm going to see how well it fits behind my second GT. If it looks like it will work, I'll order another one. I'll post here when it arrives and let you know if it works. Seems like two of those would be cool, because they exhaust the heat out the back of the case.
 
The NV5's work well. I had one on my AGP 6800GT, works very good for getting the hot air out of the case. I may exchange my MoBo for the Asus A8N-SLI, and get a couple of the NV5's. I can't find the V-1's for sale anywhere. I really don't want to drop 500+ dollars for water cooling, I'm not really doing any overclocking and it seems that's what water cooling was really designed for.
 
Ok, got the cooler. First problem: My Abit board only had one slot between the X16 slots. The fan from the Arctic cooler rubbed on the back of the second video card. I went and picked up the ASUS A8N SLI, (which has two X1 slots between the X16s.) Now everything is fine. The Arctic NV5 Silencer Rev 2 seems to run 3 degrees hotter than stock cooling, but exhausting the hot case air is worth the 3 degrees to me. (Especially since my case has no place for an exhaust fan in the back.) I get my second NV5SR2 today, so perhaps with the added exhaust, the first card will cool down slightly (due to less heat in the case.) Overall, I'm quite happy with this setup. As long as you have two X1 slots between the X16s, this is an excellent solution. I can't believe Abit didn't think to make more room on their board for more cooling. Even a stock dual-slot cooler from an Ultra wouldn't work too well with only one slot between them.
 
I recently upgraded to the A8N SLI as well, and put NV5's on my Video Cards. GPU 1 went down 6 degrees and GPU 2 went down 9 degrees. My temps do not get as hot during gameplay, and the cards don't take as long to cool off now. I'm a much happier guy now.
 
That's how mine are too. One is 3 degrees cooler than the other. Also, my case is a LOT cooler. My CPU idles at 90F down from 102, and my MB is at 93-94F down from 105. I'm very happy with these coolers now that I have a board they fit on.
 
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