# Cooling a hot GPU



## enkianderos (Mar 7, 2009)

Hello,

I recently purchased a geforce 9800 gx2 and from what I understand the card can run pretty hot a full load.

I have not installed it into my system yet because A. It barely fits into my tower and B. There are wires that are laying across the card.

I do not want the card to damage any of the components or itself if it reaches the high temps I have seen reported (90 c)

So first I started delving into the idea of mounting the entire rig into a mini fridge. After going over it and seeing what others have done I decided the overall cooling was not worth the trouble for the end results.

So I continued thinking about what I can do with it, at this point I have already spent a good deal of money getting everything together for the upgrade (new power, new ram, new card etc) So I dont really have enough to spend on a whole new cooling system (water cooled systems made for the gx2 run around $300, which is mind boggling to me)

So I was thinking of trying to go for an open case design with 2 box fans for intake and outflow of the air. I am just gonna run the idea by you guys and lemme know what you think. Just looking for input and constructive criticism on this one....

I want to take both panels off of my computer and fit a box fan to both sides, one functioning as intake, one functioning as outflow. I will be mounting a large hepa filter over the external portion of the intake fan to stop dust and debris from getting sucked in with the air it will be putting across the board.

If you haven't already guessed it will probably be loud, but I have a decent speaker system on my cpu so when I am gaming I wont be listening to the fans, I will be listening to the bullets. Just curious if you think this would be enough to keep the whole deal cool.

I did a test with my old components and a smaller fan. I have a 7800gt in there now.

I ran the cpu for about 4 hours and the internal temp on the GPU got up to 50c. I removed the panel on one side and ran a fan on it for 5 minutes, within that period of the the temp of the GPU dropped about 6 degrees c. I imagine with larger fans and an outflow fan I could probably get significant cooling.

Thanks for your input.



ACPI x86 based PC
Vista Ultimate Service Pack 2 Beta
Direct X 10.1

Dual Core AMD Athalon 64 X2 3.0ghz
MOBO- ASUS M2N-SLI
MOBO CHIPSET- nVIDIA nforce 560 sli, AMD Hammer
RAM- 4gb DDR2 (2x 2gb corsair)
Video- NVIDIA GF 7900 GT/GTO (soon to be NVIDIA GF 9800 GX2)
Power- Antec 500w (Soon to be Corsair 850w)


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## enkianderos (Mar 7, 2009)

If this is in the wrong place I apologize, just didn't know where else to put it...


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

just run the system with the side cover off and a house fan blowing into it works very well ............. once a month ........ blow the dust out


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

or get a new case with a 250mm side fan


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103011


then there is a super gaming case 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043&Tpk=antec 1200


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## enkianderos (Mar 7, 2009)

Thanks for the tips linderman.

I am running 2 $20 box fans I picked up at Ace Hardware. 

It is performing beautifully right now, it is idling at 43 and 44 on GPU 1&2. I haven't run it on full load yet but the standard idle on the GX2 from my initial tests in my system is around 55c so it is a 10c drop.

Finally I can get back in the game! We had spoken before about my failing 7800 and it was the card, once I got the new one in all the artifacts went away and the blue screens are gone. Setting up the drivers was a hassle but everything seems to be in order now. 

I have the internal fans running at 80% at everything is good. One of these days I will get a second gx2 in there, at which point I will probably seek something a little more powerful for cooling but for now this seems to have been the right choice. :beerchug:


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## enkianderos (Mar 7, 2009)

BTW the windtunnel case looks awesome!


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

enjoy ...............looks like you will be doing some heavy duty gaming !


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