Multi GPU Cooling Solutions

[deliciouspork]

What's the most cost-effective (aka, cheap) way to keep an SLI setup cool?

I was thinking about mounting a fan perpendicular to the cards, but would that disrupt the case's airflow? And with no source of cold air, would it even be effective?

 

[Kaldskryke]

What's the most cost-effective (aka, cheap) way to keep an SLI setup cool?

I was thinking about mounting a fan perpendicular to the cards, but would that disrupt the case's airflow? And with no source of cold air, would it even be effective?

Depending on the card, some people have had a lot of success by simply re-mounting the stock heatsinks with AS5, which sounds like a pretty cheap solution to me.

I'mproving the case airflow to those cards could also help. Just putting fans there won't help a huge amount but fans are cheap. If your case doesn't have suitable ventilation near the cards you could always dremel a hole in the side panel.

Also: mmm pork.

 

[odin30]

i agree with the last post, most important thing is to have good airflow to the cards, i have a case with a side window and a fan that brings frsh air directly to the cards from the side, it helps alot.
Blowing air onto the cards doesnt help much cause the cards are all covered by the cooler housing but supplying the stock coolers with fresh cool air helps a ton.

 

[KennyT]

I have found that when you have a card mounted up tight to a cooler (same thing as SLI) the best way to cool it off is to have a fan at the edge of the motherboard blowing cool air over the card. With say 8800's that will force the air to the sidepanel, where hopefully it will be drawn out by a fan, or up into the cpu area and out.