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GPU cooling questions

M

Megamilkz

n00b
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
47
So this will be the first time water cooling a graphics card for me, few questions
I have a GPU only block, no ram full coverage stuff for me, and basic heatsinks for the v-ram

First off what should i be most concerned with?

Second what should use to clean the ram with?

Lastly what all on my gtx 275 needs a heatsink on it anyways?

sorry i dont know much about graphics cards...
THANKS!
 
Well, if you cool the gpu core only the memory and the voltage regulators still produce heat, so you'll want to cool them somehow also.. the memory is easy, get some video ram sinks... the v-regs are pretty small, not sure what to use on those, maybe if you could trim some ram sinks?.... with these newer cards getting a full cover block is nice because it cools all of the heat producing parts of the card and you don't have to get too creative on the rest.. but some people like the creative challenge of making parts to suit their needs..

you can clean the mem and gpu with arctic clean (2-part) solution.. works very well.

edit:

evga_gtx275naked.jpg


all the spots with a red dash make heat and the stock cooler has a plate that meets them for cooling.. so you should think about sinking all of them unless you get a full cover block.
 
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revenant said:
all the spots with a red dash make heat and the stock cooler has a plate that meets them for cooling.. so you should think about sinking all of them unless you get a full cover block.
Click to expand...

Seems you've inadvertently marked the chokes rather than the MOSFETs, which are what you actually want to remove heat from. Here's the same pic showing the MOSFETs:

13FYs.jpg


Heatsinks should go on the MOSFETs.

You can read more about voltage regulator circuits and how to identify them/what the components do here.
 
yikes... /me crawls back under rock

well at least the question got answered.. it looked like to me no one was going to help the guy..
 
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Heh... well, we all make mistakes sometimes.

To clarify, it won't hurt anything to put sinks on the chokes, it's just that it's not at all necessary. On the other hand, pulling heat off the MOSFETs *is* pretty important, and something that you don't want to overlook.
 
right... I think seeing the thermal pads on that back row of them made me naturally think that's what needed the cooling.. *doink* oh dwell..

edit: I am glad this happened kind of.. I am about to put blocks on my GTX470s and it would have been tragic if I had thermal padded my chokes instead of the v-regs. :p
 
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I stick a slot cooler under the card the direct airflow over the entire card keeps everything nice and cool. The downside is the heat is in the case but decent case airflow takes care of that.

Damn things only last a couple of years tho. Something like this...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...004&cm_re=pci_fan_card-_-35-425-004-_-Product

1/2 speed is all I need in conjunction with the waterblock to keep the entire card cool even the stuff with no block or sink on it. The caps on a video card hate heat just as much as the ones on the motherboard do.
 
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