Cooling on 9800XT with side window fan...

R

RuchG

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
Messages
118
So ok, when my computer is running and the side panel is off I put my hand alongside my 9800XT I feel a bunch of hot air been thrown out. But I also have a side window fan that blows air in directly onto the video card. I'm wondering whether this would work against the video card by pushing the hot air back into it? Would it be better to make that an exhaust fan instead?
 
its easy to turn a fan around so try it both ways.
 
I like the side fan pushing air in, it moves the hot air away from the video card's cooling fan so it can fresh air where it's needed most. Having it exhaust doesn't seem to pull out enough air from the small pocket of hot air the video card fan is using. Right now, my fan on my video card died.. its being passively cooled using the side fan :)
 
rush your temps dropped 5c when u set the side fan as an intake or exhaust?

i currently have a side fan blowing onto my 9800, ill have to ry this out later.
 
I set it as an exhaust rather than an intake and the temps dropped. I think its because on the 9800XT's stock cooling it blows hot air out the side and I was previously blowing that hot air back into the card, now I am extracting it out.
 
I have 6 case fans, all 80mm. Two rear, two front, one blow hole, one side window fan. The CPU cooler is a Zalman 7000.

I actually just ran 3Dmark01 both ways, and I actually lost around 200 points with it as an exhaust rather than intake, which is a bit confusing. Anyways I'm gonna try it both ways for 3Dmark03 and report results lol.
 
Now to add to the confusion, the 3DMark03 scores were only 1 point off at 6664 as exhaust and 6665 as intake. So I dunno, I guess I'll keep it as an intake since it gets 200 points more on 3DMark01.
 
Run it a few times to make sure that's really the case, if it's got a lower temp it shouldn't be doing that.
 
Well I have been monitoring the temps and if I run both ways for a while at idle, the temp difference becomes only 1 degree in favor of the exhaust. So meh, I'm sick of switching the fan around constantly, and keep it as a intake with the feeling that having it as an Intake also helps the CPU...
 
my friend has 2 80mm's blowing on his leadtek 4200 which has a giant heatsink on the whole card, and having the fans there lowers his temps alot.
 
You could try keeping your side fan as an intake, but run a custom conduit from it directly onto the HSF of the video card. That way the card gets cool outside air (beware dust).
 
Idle temps does not matter for shit. What is load wth the fan switched?
 
No idea, dunno how to test...anyways I'm not too stressed about it, even if there is a difference, its too small to detect especially judging by the 3DMark03 scores.
 
My custom cooling solution for Radeon cards..

leave the damn side panel off at all times and clean dust every week.. works like a charm!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top