expansion slot fans

[dwb122]

I got back from Best Buy last night with an Antec Cyclone Blower expansion-slot fan to help cool my ATi Radeon 9800 for OCing. Should I return it and get a better one online? I've heard they crap out kinda easily, and it's not long enough to reach the heatsink area of the Radeon. Suggestions? Something like this, which is a lot longer?

 

[beatle]

I had one but I found it didn't do much for my temperatures. Might as well install the one you bought and see if it makes a difference. I kinda doubt that the length would make a huge difference.

 

[dwb122]

Originally posted by: beatle
I had one but I found it didn't do much for my temperatures. Might as well install the one you bought and see if it makes a difference. I kinda doubt that the length would make a huge difference.

It didn't do much for your overall system temperature? I couldn't imagine that some internal fan wouldn't be nearly as effective as a regular case fan, but I am primarily interested in helping to cool my Radeon, which is why I was thinking of getting a longer one to reach the spots of my card that need to be cooled more.

 

[Cerb]

If you need cooling there, get an 80mm fan and have it hanging near the card. The slot blowers are crap. The Zalman heatpipe coolers could be an option.
Also, forget Tiger...Newegg or SVC.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: dwb122

Originally posted by: beatle
I had one but I found it didn't do much for my temperatures. Might as well install the one you bought and see if it makes a difference. I kinda doubt that the length would make a huge difference.

It didn't do much for your overall system temperature? I couldn't imagine that some internal fan wouldn't be nearly as effective as a regular case fan,

Look at how little room it has to blow out...and feel it. Even a quiet 80mm fan @5v will push more air. The 40 and 42CFM ratings they all have are complete BS. More like 4 and 4.2.

but I am primarily interested in helping to cool my Radeon, which is why I was thinking of getting a longer one to reach the spots of my card that need to be cooled more.

Maybe get the thermaltake (or similar) memory heat spreader kit and use the heatsinks on the memory. If your Radeon has RAMsinks already, then an fan down there will be enough...just ghetto-rig a real fan instead of a slot blower.

 

[EeyoreX]

My experience with these is that they really are good...


... at making a lot of noise.

And another thing I noticed with all of them I ever worked with (mostly in other peoples machines, I learned after one) was that they are all situated to be under the card you are trying to cool. Now, if heat rises, why would a card below the heat help remove the heat...? I agree with above posts. Get a nice 80mm fan and a Zalman/Zalman-like fan holder dealie. Or else try some of the quiet GPU coolers that are available. You'll be quieter and probably cooler in the end.

\Dan

 

[Bluefront]

Ah.....mis-information continues around here. As in everything else, some slot fans are better than others. Not all are noisy, some actually work as intended.

JustCooler slot fan modified to cool a Radeon 7500...it works.