Crossfire card cooling kits/shrouds/fan options?

boostdemon

boostdemon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2004
Messages
147
I have a pair of sapphire 7950-OC's that turn into a jet engine when pushed. The top card in the pair gets up to 67C. Obviously i've got some air flow/supply issues to address.

Is there a better option than installing a large intake fan on the door panel - or is the next step to add a GPU liquid setup.

old pic of case setup (currently has an H100i for the CPU)
 
67C with Xfired 7950 it's actually pretty cool.. great temps in fact. you can just try to replace the thermal paste, probably just fix the cable management problem and add more intake fans in the front and bottom of the case, with aftermarket cooled cards like that the best would be just to use the side panel fan as exhaust with a high airflow intake from front and bottom.
 
Yup, 67c is really good in CF. With those cards a side panel can would be your best coarse of action IMO. It would exhaust hot air quicker and probably reduce the card fans rpm and noise.
 
Add 2 riser cables. Mod the case. Turn cards 90 degrees to pull air directly from outside the case
 
Yakk said:
Yup, 67c is really good in CF. With those cards a side panel can would be your best coarse of action IMO. It would exhaust hot air quicker and probably reduce the card fans rpm and noise.
Click to expand...

wait... so the fans on the cards are exhausting to the inside of the case? ok that makes a lot more sense... so i just need to exhaust/vent on top of them and it will help them suck in outside air from the slots in the back panel?
 
Yes. Can't tell exactly the card model, but those heat pipes tell me the fins direct the air towards the case side panel and the motherboard.

"Blower" fans exhaust the hot air outside the case, at the cost of more noise. These aftermarket card coolers pretty much all exhaust the hot air inside the case. Not so much a big deal with only one card, but adding a second card starts to build up quite a bit of extra heat. Your case becomes a little oven. Best bet is to pull that hot air straight out the side. You can test Gaming without the side panel to see the difference a side panel fan would make.
 
Best bet is a fan exhausting out the side panel, sucking the hot air from the GPU fans directly out of your case.
 
Yeah the Sapphire 7950OC has a shroud around the whole thing and slots in the bracket but not a lot of air flow out the back of the case.

i will try with a 200mm fan through the side panel in either direction and see which is more efficient ... pulling hot air out, or putting cool air in.

I have 2x120mm intake in front, 2x120mm intake in bottom, 2x120mm intake through radiator on top, and 1x140mm exhaust in the top rear. I had tried with the radiator fans as exhaust (intending for front to back air flow) but it wasn't cooling well.
 
boostdemon said:
Yeah the Sapphire 7950OC has a shroud around the whole thing and slots in the bracket but not a lot of air flow out the back of the case.

i will try with a 200mm fan through the side panel in either direction and see which is more efficient ... pulling hot air out, or putting cool air in.

I have 2x120mm intake in front, 2x120mm intake in bottom, 2x120mm intake through radiator on top, and 1x140mm exhaust in the top rear. I had tried with the radiator fans as exhaust (intending for front to back air flow) but it wasn't cooling well.
Click to expand...

don't take this bad or offensive but you have a extreme crappy airflow in your case bud.. for optimal case airflow and overall cooling performance, set the fans this way:

2x 120mm intake in front (be sure to use high quality fans with enough static pressure and airflow, Cooler master Jetflo are great for that task). 2x 120mm intake bottom, 1x140mm exhaust rear, 2x120mm exhaust in top radiator (push preferable for better performance). yes, you will have lower cooling performance in the CPU but better overall system temp. in the way you have set your current fans you have a lot of turbulence in the middle of the case, increasing the temperature of RAM, motherboard and lower cooling performance of the GPUs.. with a front to rear/top airflow you create a more wind tunnel providing better cooling overall.. with that setup you can then try Intake/exhaust the side panel and see how the cards behave.
 
yeah i know, airflow in this case is terrible.

The way you describe (top rad as exhaust) is the initial way i had it set up and the CPU was hitting 65C... on an h100i GTX. I flipped the fans around to intake and it stays around 55C at max load. I had considered taking all fans and making them exhaust, and having a pair of 140mm's in the panel as intake.
 
yes but that's mostly due the excess of heat produced by the GPUs, and because you used reverted the rear fan, that way you had no other exhaust than the top increasing CPU temp badly, with the recommended setting you will exhaust the hot air faster from the GPUs providing better cooling overall...
 
Yeah a hole saw.

So this is the ideal setup - so i should actually make the panel an intake, and then flip my radiator fans back around to make the top an exhaust?
hafx_003.jpg
 
Last edited:
well its very expensive and hard to find hole saws for 140mm....lows and depot might not even carry them. 120mm or 4 inch can still easily run you 30 bucks or more and you need some masking tape and scrap plywood as well. When you consider the sale prices of new cases at times it almost makes the project not cost effective. I remember when i got my case for like half price from the egg it also came with like 6 120mm fans lol.....you get the idea

If you're really looking for something to do give your system Thorough cleaning and call it a day
 
boostdemon said:
Yeah a hole saw.

So this is the ideal setup - so i should actually make the panel an intake, and then flip my radiator fans back around to make the top an exhaust?
hafx_003.jpg
Click to expand...

that would be a ideal setup with a Single GPU configuration or with blower type GPUs, but since you are using dual Cards with a ton of heat pumping inside your case the best option would be to have the Side panel as Exhaust, However as said before you can try and find what works better, as your case have a very restricted front panel (due the configuration of HDD Bays) side panel as intake may work good, but the only way to know its testing. I always say it to every client or friend, we can recommend anything but best way to know its just test.
 
Also forgot to mention, Fan Choices are probably the most important thing to take into consideration at the moment of a fan setup. which fan models are you using right now?.
 
Ok i'll start with doing exhaust for the radiator, and try both intake and exhaust on side panel. those are easy fixes.

The fans are mismatched. The 2 in front and 1 in the bottom are from the case manufacturer. The added 120mm center/bottom fan and the rear 140mm fan are NZXT: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KJGYLMI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

The H100i radiator has the two 120mm corsair Advanced SP120L PWM fans: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181090

The 200mm that comes today for the side panel is Cooler Master: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JFU5IQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01
 
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