What's the best PCI slot cooler?

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miteethor

Junior Member
Feb 3, 2003
21
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I just built my new rig, and because of the Tuniq 120's enormous size I had to take out 2 side case fans that used to blow onto the PCI cards. I'm looking for something to exhaust the air out a PCI slot where all that video card heat is generated. My 8800GT's are blazing hot and have to be contributing to the overall heat in the case.

I looked on Newegg and there are a ton of coolers, but a lot of them get ripped on for either bad cooling, bad size, noisy, or breaks.

Can anyone recommend "the best" PCI cooler solution?
 
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Sheninat0r

Senior member
Jun 8, 2007
515
1
81
PCI slow blowers suck arse and do next to nothing, really. You could use some creative zip-tying to strap up a 120mm fan blowing from the front of your case over your video cards towards the rear, letting the air escape through open PCI slots with no covers. Or, you could try http://www.neoseeker.com/forum...ideo-card-cooling-mod/

Another thing I saw someone do was take an old, useless PCI card, cut out a space in the middle for a 120mm fan, and stick that under a hot video card. Get creative, bust out the dremel, zip-ties, and screwdriver and you'll have a solution soon enough.
 
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miteethor

Junior Member
Feb 3, 2003
21
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I'm tired of rigging things up. I had a home-made custom case before, I even carved "EVIL" into the top and shined a spotlight through it. Took days to dremel all of that through the cheap steel case. Then I cut a window in the side and never finished actually installing the acrylic because it all looked like crap. I chucked all of that and got a fatty Thermaltake Xaser III with tool-less drive mounts, cathode lights, etc, etc. I'm not going to rig a 120mm fan floating in the air with zip ties over my 8800GT's.

I just get worried because those 8800GT's are so friggin HOT, I need to get that air out of there. So I was hoping a PCI exhaust slot would help, especially since that's probably the worst area of circulation in my case. You read some of these reviews and the 8800GT's get up to 90C, sometimes over 100C!! That's hot enough to boil water!!

Anything I can do to supplement removing boiling hot air from my case I will do, short of zip ties.

 
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gorka

Senior member
Jul 12, 2001
205
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0
Sunbeam wherever rack + 120mm fan.

http://www.svc.com/wpr.html

If you can slant the 120mm fan somehwat and make some of the air blow out...you would be better of than with a slot cooler.

The PC&P BussCool was the only thing that vere worked for me. unfortunately they don't sell that thing anymore.

slot coolers in general are junk and not worth the noise and poor cooling IMO.
 
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Bluefront

Golden Member
Apr 20, 2002
1,466
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Here's the deal as I see it......if you just have a fan inside the case, blowing on the cards, their temperature will be reduced somewhat. But the heat is still inside the case, and everything else will be hotter.

Hotter than if you use a slot fan of some type to blow the heat directly out of the case. That's why most of the video cards have fans that blow out through a slot, sometimes two slots. These things are not "useless".....but they do have a limited exhaust area to deal with, so they are not as efficient as a standard exhaust fan. That's why you have to turn a higher rpm to get a useful amount of CFM. That of course makes more noise.

Then there's the quality of the things themselves.....usually poor, usually using sleeve bearings with a short life-span. I have made several high-quality slot fans using a standard fan, modded to blow outward through the edge of the fan. But since you are not into DIY.....good luck finding a good high-quality slot fan. Not very many around....
 
Elcs

Elcs

Diamond Member
Apr 27, 2002
6,278
6
81
Originally posted by: toadeater
Look at this:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2524056

Could probably get even better cooling with a more powerful fan.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, he did not show how to remove the cover and the fan as a real DIY tutorial.

I am sorely tempted to at least get one of the Sunbeam Wherever Racks and direct a low speed 120mm fan towards my 8800GT.

The cover made me stop and think that idea would be on the whole useless. I wouldnt be cooling off a heatsink, Id be blowing air at a piece of plastic. I have been searching rather loosely for a way to remove the cover easily and probably remove the fan.

Nice Post.
 
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jonmcc33

Banned
Feb 24, 2002
1,504
0
0
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: QuiksilverX1
Those are aftermarket heatsinks.
Click to expand...

wtf are those?? haha
the only one's i'd recommend are the hr03 and v1000
Click to expand...

Do you even know what you are looking at? Both of those have heatpipes, large aluminum heatsinks and large low RPM fans. They are also lighter than the HR-03 as well and look more stock. They are also far easier to install.

You have to buy a fan for the HR-03 so that just adds to the price. It's also a pain because of the size. If you mount it with the heatsink on the back of the GPU it will not work if you have a large CPU heatsink. If you mount it with the heatsink on the front of the GPU it takes up every single bit of space.

I hope you mean VF1000 because the V1000 is a Lian Li case. The VF1000 is pathetic. It's all copper, so when that oxidizes it looks like crap. There is no direction for the fan airflow. The fan blows straight down so the fins that the heatpipes go through do not get ANY cooling. I really can't stand any cooler that Zalman makes.
 
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LOUISSSSS

Diamond Member
Dec 5, 2005
8,771
58
91
Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: QuiksilverX1
Those are aftermarket heatsinks.
Click to expand...

wtf are those?? haha
the only one's i'd recommend are the hr03 and v1000
Click to expand...

Do you even know what you are looking at? Both of those have heatpipes, large aluminum heatsinks and large low RPM fans. They are also lighter than the HR-03 as well and look more stock. They are also far easier to install.

You have to buy a fan for the HR-03 so that just adds to the price. It's also a pain because of the size. If you mount it with the heatsink on the back of the GPU it will not work if you have a large CPU heatsink. If you mount it with the heatsink on the front of the GPU it takes up every single bit of space.

I hope you mean VF1000 because the V1000 is a Lian Li case. The VF1000 is pathetic. It's all copper, so when that oxidizes it looks like crap. There is no direction for the fan airflow. The fan blows straight down so the fins that the heatpipes go through do not get ANY cooling. I really can't stand any cooler that Zalman makes.
Click to expand...

wait who makes those again? maybe a reviewer should put them up against the Zalman, TR, and AC coolers.

yes, i really did mean vf1000. typo

and btw my vf900 was made of copper and never oxidized after 2.5 years of usage
 
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jonmcc33

Banned
Feb 24, 2002
1,504
0
0
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
wait who makes those again? maybe a reviewer should put them up against the Zalman, TR, and AC coolers.

yes, i really did mean vf1000. typo

and btw my vf900 was made of copper and never oxidized after 2.5 years of usage
Click to expand...

Who makes them? You can click on the links yourself and find out.

VF900 has never oxidized after 2.5 years of usage? That's funny because the VF900 is only a year and a half old...did you manage to get it a year before it was released to the public?

Everything copper I have ever had has oxidized over time. It's just something that copper does as a natural reaction to air. Have a fan blowing on it and that increases the oxidation. I'm rather confused @ your statement. :roll:

 
D

Deathawk

Member
Jun 1, 2007
47
0
0
I have the Cool Viva Pro and I have no complaints, it cools awesomely and is very quiet. I do not own the TMG ND5 but it is a very good heatsink, and is also both quiet and good at cooling.
 
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