VGA SLI Cooling ideas

[Kilroy238]

I am getting the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I am planning on either 2 6800 Ultra's or GT's.

I know this would pretty much be a best guess since I doubt many if any people have this board yet.

I want to get rid of the stock HSF. Anyone have any good ideas as to what might fit. I was thinking a couple of zalman vga heatpipes but I don't think there would be enough room.

Who has some ideas for me?

TIA

 

[Operandi]

There won't be enough room for the Zalman heatpipes.... Zalman just realsed a active VGA cooler though. It looks kinda like the 7000 series CPU coolers only smaller. That might fit assuming its compatibale with your cards, check it out.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I wonder if the nV Silence 5 would be compatible with the PCI-Express versions of the cards? If so, then putting a couple of those on would be about the best, as they exhaust the air out of the system (with 2 graphics cards this would be a very good thing). Also, it should help make your system fairly quiet versus stock.

The overall layout of the PCI Express versions seem to be very similar, so maybe they do fit.

 

[nRollo]

You could:
a. watercool
b. Arctic if they'll fit
c. leave stock HSFs and get a case with a ton of fans

Why do you want to Zalman of all things? They're not really know for cooling unless you put the optional fan on?

 

[Kilroy238]

I had someone tell me they had good luck with zalman vga coolers on his system. I don't care right now who puts it out. I want QUIET and cool...😉

I was thinking of watercooling but again not sure if I can get WC to fit either. Don't have a lot of room inbetween the 2 cards. I won't be able to order my system until the end of the week. Gettin a fast settlement. Was thinking of having endpcnoise.com make my system. With this basic set up.

Case Nexus Breeze or your most favored since this case comes with a PS
PS quietest highest wattage available
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Mobo
AMD FX-55 with BEST HSF avail.
2 GeForce 6800 Ultra in sli w/
the best quiet cooling you can come up with in the space allowed.
Artic Silver 5 of course.

2 WD Raptor 74 gig 10,000 rpm HDs in raid 0
1 WD Raptor 74 as a gaming only drive

Best HD enclosure for quiet and cooling that you recommend for all 3 drives.

Samsung combo DVD-CD Drive

Extra case fans and insulation as you see fit.

 

[res0n0xg]

all i can say is jesus that must be a big settlement!!! that pc is like ten thousand dollars....

 

[Kilroy238]

More like 5-6k. However I am also getting a 23" widescreen lcd so that will add about another 2k...😉

 

[Operandi]

Water cooling should fit so I'd do that and get the Lian-LI V1100B with a Tagan 480 or Seaonic's most powerful PSU.

 

[Kilroy238]

Thanks for the info guys I think I am going to stick with the nV silencers for my vid cards. I am not sure I want to try watercooling just yet. I have butterfingers...😉

I do like the Lian-LI V1100B so I am going to go with that. How quiet are those psu you mentioned?

Thanks

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Kilroy238
Thanks for the info guys I think I am going to stick with the nV silencers for my vid cards. I am not sure I want to try watercooling just yet. I have butterfingers...😉

I do like the Lian-LI V1100B so I am going to go with that. How quiet are those psu you mentioned?

Thanks

Sounds good, have you checked out Zalman's new active cooler though? It's worth a look.

Both the Seasonic and Tagan will be very quiet, mid/low 20dBA range.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I use both the Zalman ZM80-series heatpipe coolers and the Arctic Cooling Silencer. I have it on good authority and personal experience that the Zalman is marginally better, but there are reasons for picking the Silencer because its second-place performance is only a couple degrees F hotter than the Zalman.

In the case of dual cards under SLI, I'd investigate the options already suggested. Barring that, consider keeping the stock heatsink-fans and straddling those cards with a 92mm or 120mm bracket fan.