Cooling a 6800 Ultra

[GigaHurtz]

OK, built my dream machine, worked out all the kinks, and I love it. Hell of a jump from an old Intel 733 from HP (yuck)

I haven't replaced the stock fans that come with my lian li case yet, so it gets a bit toasty inside. Vid card temp monitor says ambient is at 44 C, and vid card idles at 60 C. The poor ultra gets really hot after long Doom3 sessions.

So, heres my plan: I'm going to get one of those cheapo slot fans, and basicly build some ducting out of thin acrylic plastic that takes all of the exiting air from the vid card and feeds it directly to the blower on the slot fan. Has anyone done anything like this? You guys think it will make much difference in the first place? I know temps will get a lot better when i get the ambient down, but I'd rather not stop at that.

Anyways, I'll probably end up doing it regardless, but if you guys have any tips or comments feel free.

 

[Manzelle]

Sounds like a waste of time...those temps are fine for that vidcard...

 

[TripperJoe]

My gpu is rated for 128oC and runs at 55oC idle fwiw (geforce3). 44oC does seem like a balmy ambient case temp though...

 

[Manzelle]

Yeah, that case temp sucks...mine never goes above 22C but maybe that is because I have the following fans in the Cooler Master Praetorian:

120mm x 1 (Side)
80mm x 4 (Front x 2, Rear x 1, Top x 1)
92mm x 1 (CPU Fan w/ Thermalright SP-97)
120mm x 1 (NeoPower)

My Gainward GS 6800GT also has two fans (undoubtedly the loudest) and the NF7-S has the NB fan...the first six fans are all Panaflo...very quiet...

 

[caz67]

Your temps arent that bad..

 

[GigaHurtz]

Yeah, I know my case temp sucks, but like I said, it will be going down soon when I get my new case fans.

Many 6800's that people are running may be at this temp, but its still too hot for my liking. Damn thing runs hotter than my FX-53, which is ridiculous. At the very least I want to get all the hot air this thing is blowing IN to my case OUT.

Any suggestions for material to use for the ducting and where to get ahold of it? On second thought I'd rather not use the acrylic, cause I'd have a hell of a time getting stuff thin enough. I'd like something that can be hand formed (not heat formed). I guess if push comes to shove I'll mold a ducting out of fibergalss or carbon fiber... but thats a lot more work than I'd like to put into something like this.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

It'll be a tough idea to implement. Most coolers don't have a specific exhaust. Keep in mind that the VGA silencer does about as good as the ultra cooler so that doesn't seem like a good alternative either. PCI blowers are really loud btw. I stuck one in the bottom of my case so air would betterly be pulled across my raptor that's mounted to the bottom of my case with a zalman cooler (I was bored). The noise from that (enermax brand) overpowers all other parts. I don't care about noise so it doesn't bother me though.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I wouldn't worry about those temps, a 4-5C drop in you case's ambient my surprise you by the vid cards delta, besides unless you plan on OC'ing that vid card (and even then) those temps are fine (even for a mild OC)

 

[miketheidiot]

slot fan it couldn't hurt. I did it with my 9800 oc'ed and it was a bit cooler.

 

[Degrador]

Why not just get an arctic cooler nvidia silencer?

 

[GigaHurtz]

Originally posted by: Degrador
Why not just get an arctic cooler nvidia silencer?

Because it's meant for the single slot solutions, and my Ultra is dual slot. The Silencer would end up venting into solid metal, and I'm not about to wip out the Dremel on my nice new $500+ card and void my warranty so that it will vent properly.

 

[GigaHurtz]

Actually, you got me thinking Degrador (not sure if that's a good thing... )

That Silencer has a bit of "extra" plastic on it for the vent that I could Dremel off and replace with a duct that would take up a third slot below the vid card.

Which method do you guys think would cool better? Having a slot fan sucking more air thorugh the stock sink and out the case, or just having the modded Silencer do both?

I'm guessing that the Silencer is better at cooling more from its copper sink than anything else, and eVGA did release a copper sink... either way it would cost me 30 bucks, so its all about which would perform better at this point.

 

[MDE]

The ambient temp that the video card is reporting is only the temp around the card. The thing is throwing off a ton of heat and will give you a higher ambient temp around the card than what the rest of your case is. I'd leave the card alone and enjoy the warranty for now, or at the most get the copper heatsink from eVGA.

 

[Degrador]

The idea behind the silencer is that you take off the stock heatsink and add it on. It vents heat out through the next pci slot (already taken up by the stock heatsink). I don't understand why you need to mod anything (other than taking the stock off). Also, the arctic silencers are aluminium, not copper.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Degrador
The idea behind the silencer is that you take off the stock heatsink and add it on. It vents heat out through the next pci slot (already taken up by the stock heatsink). I don't understand why you need to mod anything (other than taking the stock off). Also, the arctic silencers are aluminium, not copper.

You'd have to mod the backplate on an Ultra because it covers two slots, one of which the Silencer is supposed to exhaust out of. The new Silencers have copper base plates and aluminum fins. Google is your friend.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: MDE
The ambient temp that the video card is reporting is only the temp around the card. The thing is throwing off a ton of heat and will give you a higher ambient temp around the card than what the rest of your case is. I'd leave the card alone and enjoy the warranty for now, or at the most get the copper heatsink from eVGA.

 

[HardWarrior]

Video cards, especially contemporary ones like yours are designed to be able to take high temps. Just make sure you don't have a thermal runaway situation forming by making sure your case in well vented. If you want to spend some money in exchange for peace of mind look at what Zalman and VGA Silencer have available. Nice rig BTW. :thumbsup: