XFX R9 390 DD modded with 2 x 120mm fans

[lehtv]

I'm going to detail how I modded an XFX R9 390 DD graphics card cooler with standard 120mm PWM fans. I chose BeQuiet Pure Wings 120mm PWM, which was an easy choice to make: my previous experience with their fans has been positive, and the price I paid per fan was just a bit over 7 euros. The Pure Wings fan uses a relatively durable rifle bearing (improved sleeve bearing), and the black color fits in perfectly with the graphics card's backplate as well as other components in my PC.

The goal of doing this is pretty obvious - to improve GPU cooling performance, especially the noise to temperature ratio. An additional goal was to improve the cooler's noise profile: a 120mm fan is just nicer to listen to than the high pitched whine of a 92mm fan. I didn't do a detailed before/after comparison, but I can say that the noise level is much lower with no penalty to temperatures. There's a crappy video at the end of the second post that might give you an idea of the noise level.

I suppose this is a kind of a ghetto mod, since I'm going to be attaching nonstandard components with cable ties and not really caring about fitting everything perfectly, and the cost is low as well. I'd already broken the warranty earlier when I reseated the original cooler with new thermal paste, so there was nothing in the way more comprehensive modding.

Parts and accessories

• XFX R9 390 DD graphics card
• Two BeQuiet Pure Wings 2 120mm PWM fans
• VGA PWM 4-pin adapter cable (Gelid AT81122)
• 4-pin PWM Y-cable (Akasa AK-CBFA04-15)
• thermal paste
• thermal paste removal liquid, e.g. IPA
• a clean cloth (e.g. lens cleaning microfiber)
• Q-tips
• cable ties
• PH1 and PH0 size screw drivers (preferably magnetic)
• scissors

In addition, I used a 5-way PWM splitter cable (Akasa AK-CBFA03-45) which I used to attach PWM case fans to the same connector with the graphics card fans. This allowed me to have the entire case breathe according to GPU temperature.

XFX DD cooler detaching and disassembly

XFX R9 390 DD:

I left my Bitfenix cable extensions attached to the PCIe plugs.

Comparison between old and new fans - BeQuiet 120mm vs XFX 92mm:

The cooler came off easily by removing four screws from the back plate side:

Original fan cable, still connected to the mini PWM header on the PCB:

At this point, I cleaned off the previous thermal paste from both the GPU and the heatsink contact surface.

The plastic shroud came off easily as well, just remove a bunch of screws from the metallic frame:

The original fan wires were tightly tied to the frame with two cable ties which I sawed off with a scissor blade.

A couple more screws to untighten and we're done here:

Attaching BeQuiet 120mm fans to the heat sink

Perhaps the most significant reason to use these fans in particular is the frame that has openings in it. They work great as spots where to use cable ties. A standard solid frame (not counting screw holes) might not work for this purpose at all.

Orienting the fans correctly took some figuring out. I wanted to have cable ties and wires as much out of sight as possible, in order for the cooler to look nice in a windowed case. I ended up tying the cable ties underneath the fans (opposite the PCB side) because I'm practically never going to see graphics card from below. The fan wires I routed right next to the PCIe slot.

Securing in the fans was quite easy. I put the cable ties through the opening in the fan frame, then around the metal frame of the heat sink, and back through the screw holes:

Each fan is attached only from three corners which is enough to keep them very tightly in place:

Of course, four spots for cable ties would've been even better but the fourth corner didn't have a suitable part of the heat sink frame for tying a cable tie to. Instead, I would've had to push it through the sheets in the heat sink. The sheets could bend and get damaged when tightening the cable tie, so I decided to leave it at that. The corner with no cable tie:

Using that corner could've also tilted the fan since the adjacent corner of the fan rested a little higher due to the shape of the metal frame.

 

[lehtv]

The fan wires stay tightly secured when routed through the cable ties used above:

Remaining cable tie bits cut off:

Aaaand we're done here.

Reattaching the cooler

First I put the 4-pin PWM adapter on the mini PWM header:

At this point, things got somewhat interesting... I had to be extra careful here because I decided to use Coollaboratory Liquid Pro on the GPU. This really isn't necessary and I don't recommend using it on the GPU, since the improvement doesn't seem to be more than one or two degrees. But here we go...

Since Liquid Pro is a liquid metal and therefore electrically conductive, the components around the GPU need to be protected from spills. I used a good thick layer of Arctic MX-4 around the GPU, then wiped the GPU clean with IPA-immersed q-tips:

A little (too much) Liquid Pro applied:

Used a q-tip to spread it evenly, very carefully so as not to get any of the surrounding thermal paste on it:

Here's the cleaned base of the cooler (there are some stains there from a previous Liquid Pro use):

Lowering the card onto the cooler, I had to be extremely careful. The GPU and the contact surface needed to meet perfectly on the first try so that no liquid metal goes anywhere it isn't meant to go, and that none of the surrounding thermal paste accidentally brushes the liquid metal layer.

All good. Then I just drilled in the final screws:

Result

Now all I needed to do was to connect the 120mm fans to a PWM Y-cable, connect the Y-cable along with four case fans to a 5-way PWM splitter, and connect the splitter to the GPU fan header.

Here it is, sitting happily inside my modded Core V21:

The cooler takes just under three expansion slots, allowing for the fourth expansion slot of a MicroATX board to still be used for a WLAN card (for instance).

I can now adjust the fan profile of the graphics card and case fans directly with MSI Afterburner. Of course, the great advantage here is that case fans will be adjusted according to GPU temperature and synchronized with the GPU fans, which means the case fans are actually doing useful work by cooling the one component that uses by far the most watts.

Here's a quick video of the setup, hopefully you'll be able to tell how quiet it is. There's static noise inherent to the crappy smartphone microphone, it's the only thing you hear in the beginning, please pay no attention to that. After the first 25 seconds of idling, the the fans will slowly spin up as GPU temperature rises while running Unigine Valley. You may have to turn up your speakers a bit to hear the fans.

XFX R9 390 modded cooler noise test (Youtube)

The most prominent fan noise comes from the front fans since their dust filters amplify noise. The rear, top and GPU fans are a little quieter. Temperature settles at about 76°C in a few minutes, with fans running at 73%. According to the GPU-Z sensor, the GPU fans are running at 1000 RPM (the maximum RPM of BeQuiet 120mm seems to be about 1400). The 140mm case fans have a maximum of 1000 RPM, and here they're running at about 700 RPM.

And that's the length of that project. The whole thing took me only a few hours, and I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result!

 

[ClockHound]

Congrats on a great job, lehtv! A well-documented write-up of the process. Hope it encourages others to create their own quieter and cooler gpu cooling mod.

I performed a similar upgrade on a used 280x with noisy stock fans. But I wasn't clever enough to take pics of the process. Only after. In my undocumented defence, it was a rush build for a family member just before Xmas....

Since the card was a Giga tri-cooler 280x without PWM, I used 3 Scythe 92mm 2500rpm S-Flex 3pin fans. Created my own fan mount with a piece of 1/4" brass tubing covered in leftover green sleeving material. (It was a green theme build in a modified for airflow Bitfenix Ghost).

The tubing mounted to a hole in the case at the back and a recycled slot cover at the front which was secured to a drive cage. Fans were mounted to the tube using cable clamps and at the bottom recycled nylon strips acted as joining plates to screw the fans together.

The benefit of this fan mounting mod is that it put no stress on the GPU pcb (or the cheap, thin ASrock MB) and actually supported the card, reducing sag. The bottom of the fans are supported by a modded slot cover at the rear and a nylon clamp at the front attached to the drive cage.

Spliced the fan cables together to work from the GPU header. A bottom case 140mm intake fan is also controlled by the GPU.

Replaced the VRM pads with FujiPoly and used Kryonaut on the GPU. Replaced the memory thermal pads as well because, well...why not.

Pre-mod, max GPU temps were around 80c, VRMs were in the solar furnace range.

After the mod, GPU temps peaked at 58-60c, VRMs in the mid 70s. Post mod, could actually touch the VRM backplate without getting a 3rd degree burn.

The Scythe GPU fans are inaudible over the 140mm intake fans at load and never spin over 1800rpm. The CPU PWM header was split to control two 140mm PWM intakes. At idle the system is whisper quiet.

Total cost for the cooler mod was less than $30.00 (3x 92mm S-Flex fans $5/ea on a closeout deal, $10 worth of Fujipoly pads and $5 misc bits)

Not saying most stock GPU fans are horrible (even if they are), but they have little static pressure and make too much noise for the so-so temps they deliver.

Highly recommended mod for those who want a quiet, cool gpu. Just follow lehtv's process, not mine. Unless you're in a ghetto improv mood. ;-)

 

[lehtv]

Congrats on a great job, lehtv! A well-documented write-up of the process. Hope it encourages others to create their own quieter and cooler gpu cooling mod.

Thanks!

I performed a similar upgrade on a used 280x with noisy stock fans.

*snip*

That's an awesome looking mod, and a pretty clever mounting mechanism too. I never considered using 92mm fans myself, I figured they would be too noisy just like the stock fans. But in hindsight it would probably be possible to fit three 92mm fans along the XFX heatsink, the last fan might tip a little over the edge. It should still be possible to mount them using cable ties similar to how these 120mm fans are mounted.

 

[ClockHound]

Thanks! Your is cleaner. And ziptie screws are awesome!

There are some reasonably quiet 92mm fans available, like the BeQs, Nocs, TRs.

I initially tried a couple of 120mm scythe S-FLEX Fs. But with voltage control from the GPU header, they wouldn't spin over 900rpm and the temps were worse than with the 3 S-FLEX 92mm. Also startup voltage was an issue with the 120s. Not a problem with PWM fans, but when swapping 3pin fans it can be.

Funny enough the 92mm models were quieter than 120s with this cooler. Altho, the S-FLEX 92mm and 92mm GTs still have one of the best flow-to-noise ratio. Too bad they're no longer in production.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Nice mod. How did it affect power consumption for the card, if at all?

 

[lehtv]

Nice mod. How did it affect power consumption for the card, if at all?

Thanks! It didn't affect the power consumption since all the fans get their power from the PSU.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Wellll technically it does, since um hmm.

Okay how did it affect total system power consumption? I am thinking quieter fans are probably using less power than noisy ones. Probably.

 

[Rvenger]

Did you scuff the die with 2000 grit for better adhesion? I noticed the scratches.

 

[thesmokingman]

Very nice. I love mods. I also know a trick with liquid TIMs like CL. You can use masking tape to tape around the core. Then you can brush on your CLP or CLU. Then pull off the tape. When you go to remove the CLP, put masking tape back on. Now you can use your cleaning solution to wipe it off. With CLU I used baby wipes which was just like wiping a ba... oh you get the idea. It wipes off easily with moisture. The tape trick is the only way I apply and remove CLU.

 

[lehtv]

Wellll technically it does, since um hmm.

Okay how did it affect total system power consumption? I am thinking quieter fans are probably using less power than noisy ones. Probably.

No effect, I have the same number of fans as before, the only difference is that instead of 2x92mm I have 2x120mm on the graphics card. Fans use a negligible amount of power anyway.

 

[lehtv]

Did you scuff the die with 2000 grit for better adhesion? I noticed the scratches.

Nah, I just scratched off the previous Liquid Pro with the supplied Coollab grinding pad.

Very nice. I love mods. I also know a trick with liquid TIMs like CL. You can use masking tape to tape around the core. Then you can brush on your CLP or CLU. Then pull off the tape. When you go to remove the CLP, put masking tape back on. Now you can use your cleaning solution to wipe it off. With CLU I used baby wipes which was just like wiping a ba... oh you get the idea. It wipes off easily with moisture. The tape trick is the only way I apply and remove CLU.

Thanks! Hey that's a good idea, why didn't I think of that. Will try that next time I service the card

 

[thesmokingman]

:thumbsup:


Oh also, sometimes you will find CLU will harden over time, and that can be a problem for removal. In that situation I use a credit card which scrapes and pops the hardened CLU off the die w/o having to use the abrasive pad. It works most of the time but is slow.

 

[Mucky]

Great mod lehtv , and thanks for the detailed instructions.

I have the exact same card and I want to do the same thing. With this card I find it's either an oven or like listening to a vacuum. I've tried various fan setups and profiles, with Noc fans in my case, and my GPU still runs at 80 C, or > 80 + C under prolonged load

I have a couple NF - F12 PWM 120mm Noc fans that I'm going to use with your mod method. I have a Fractal Design R4 case without a window so I don't care about looks at all. I mainly bought the case for the sound dampening. I'm also running an i7 4790 with a 212 EVO rad that has a Noc SP fan on it. I have six fans in the case, but two are drive cage mounted and dedicated for blowing across a stack of WD black drives. I've ghetto'd my rig out but I don't really care. After I close the lid the R4 case looks great

But I'm not quite clear on the fan connections on your setup. You said:

First I put the 4-pin PWM adapter on the mini PWM header:

I follow that and then it's unclear to me what you'e connecting where, and what's split or daisychained, if anything.

Are you running both of the new GPU cooling fans and 4 case fans (all connected via splitters to one common split) off of the GPU fan header?

And if so, then that is all controlled by one fan profile dependent on GPU temp?

If so that sounds pretty reasonable, I just never considered a setup like that. I'm happy with my CPU and drive temps, it's just the GPU I need to tame.

Thanks

 

[lehtv]

@Mucky

Are you running both of the new GPU cooling fans and 4 case fans (all connected via splitters to one common split) off of the GPU fan header?

Yes.

And if so, then that is all controlled by one fan profile dependent on GPU temp?

Yes.

If so that sounds pretty reasonable, I just never considered a setup like that. I'm happy with my CPU and drive temps, it's just the GPU I need to tame.

It's probably not necessary to run case fans off of the GPU header - as long as there's a moderate amount of airflow in the case, regardless of how it's regulated, the GPU will receive cool air and the heat it dissipates will get exhausted. So, the simplest setup is:

GPU fan header on the PCB -> adapter to normal PWM -> PWM Y-cable or other splitter cable -> 2x NF-F12.

With a simple Y-cable, I'm not sure whether you'll get enough juice from the GPU header for both 120mm fans, so you may want to play it safe and use a splitter cable that gets power directly from the PSU.

Attaching the NF-F12 securely with zip ties will probably be tricky, if it is even possible. Unlike the BeQuiet fans I used, NF-F12 has a solid frame (not counting the screw holes) - so you can't loop the zip ties directly through the heatsink. Instead, you'll have to loop them outside of the frame, but there's nothing there to tie it to, so I'm not sure how that's even going to work.

 

[Mucky]

With a simple Y-cable, I'm not sure whether you'll get enough juice from the GPU header for both 120mm fans, so you may want to play it safe and use a splitter cable that gets power directly from the PSU.

I'm curious why you'd suspect that the GPU may not supply enough juice for a splitter to the two NF-F12's, but yet your setup with more fans works? I did wonder about that but thought if yours worked, mine would probably not be too much of a draw. You think it might be?

I propose using the same GELID 4 pin adapter

available form Newegg
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ...775.96346398.1497118674-1858712900.1496516169

and then a Noctua NA YC1 splitter that came with the NF-F12 fans.

Another possibility is to run the GPU fan's splitter off of the R4's case voltage switch. It steps 5V to 7V to 12V. I previously ran a splitter from that switch to two Noc NF-A14 140 mm case fans without issue. It works at the 7 V and 12 V settings; 5V doesn't provide enough juice to spin them up. So that kind of setup would give me a low and high setting option for the two GPU fans. Those Noc fans also include the low voltage adapters so that also provides another variable. Those fans max at 1500 rpm, but the LVA steps them down to I think about 1200, which I've tried and it's pretty quiet for those fans. Especially in this R4 case.

Attaching the NF-F12 securely with zip ties will probably be tricky, if it is even possible. Unlike the BeQuiet fans I used, NF-F12 has a solid frame (not counting the screw holes) - so you can't loop the zip ties directly through the heatsink. Instead, you'll have to loop them outside of the frame, but there's nothing there to tie it to, so I'm not sure how that's even going to work.

The NF-F12's already have two extra small holes on each side of the mounting screw holes; it's to accommodate the nibs for the anti vibration pads. So with those pads removed there's a possibility those holes will line up. If not, I'd have no qualms about drilling a small pilot hole in that exterior plastic to make it line up if needed.

Barring all that, the other option is to buy a couple of the Be Quiet fans. I'm in Canada, so I'm not sure where I'd have to order them from if needed.

 

[lehtv]

I'm curious why you'd suspect that the GPU may not supply enough juice for a splitter to the two NF-F12's, but yet your setup with more fans works? I did wonder about that but thought if yours worked, mine would probably not be too much of a draw. You think it might be?

The 5-way splitter in my setup drew power directly from the PSU. The GPU just provided the PWM signal.

Another possibility is to run the GPU fan's splitter off of the R4's case voltage switch. It steps 5V to 7V to 12V. I previously ran a splitter from that switch to two Noc NF-A14 140 mm case fans without issue. It works at the 7 V and 12 V settings; 5V doesn't provide enough juice to spin them up. So that kind of setup would give me a low and high setting option for the two GPU fans. Those Noc fans also include the low voltage adapters so that also provides another variable. Those fans max at 1500 rpm, but the LVA steps them down to I think about 1200, which I've tried and it's pretty quiet for those fans. Especially in this R4 case.

Sure, whatever gets the fans spinning. Personally, I'd find it tedious to have to manually switch between low and high.

The NF-F12's already have two extra small holes on each side of the mounting screw holes; it's to accommodate the nibs for the anti vibration pads. So with those pads removed there's a possibility those holes will line up. If not, I'd have no qualms about drilling a small pilot hole in that exterior plastic to make it line up if needed.

Good. (Where's the good ol' :thumbsup emoji when you need it!?)

Barring all that, the other option is to buy a couple of the Be Quiet fans. I'm in Canada, so I'm not sure where I'd have to order them from if needed.

I'd probably just upgrade the graphics card to something quieter than buy new fans.

Lastly - I posted this mod also to a Finnish forum, someone there attempted it and didn't get nearly as good results as I did. I don't know why his results were worse, so YMMV. It could've been poor case airflow - the stock fans have more oomph at max RPM than the BeQuiet fans (and the Noctuas), so while you get better cooling-to-noise ratio, you get less cooling capacity.

 

[Mucky]

The 5-way splitter in my setup drew power directly from the PSU. The GPU just provided the PWM signal.

I just went back to your OP and only now just figured it out. Somehow I missed the inclusion of the 5-way PWM splitter cable (Akasa AK-CBFA03-45). That provides PSU power via molex. Duh! Now it all makes sense.
When I set mine up I'll initially monitor it really closely at start to see If it provides the cooling \ quiet ratio I'm after. If not, I'll just go back to the original setup. Nothing lost. I have a few other ideas now as well.

Thank you again for the post and the help. And the caveats - I understand MMMV. It'll probably be next weekend when I tackle this, but I'll post back with the setup I went with and the results.

 

[Mucky]

Well this didn't go quite as planned.

I had a failure and a success. Modding with the Nocuta NF-F12's was a fail. But I did manage to reduce the temps by about 10 C by making several other changes. That subsequently lowered noise levels. I'll describe that in a follow up post.

My original plan of attaching the Noctua NF-F12's to the R9 390 proved to be more difficult than I'd anticipated. I can now see why the BeQuiet Pure Wings fans are a better choice, as you rightly pointed out, with their open area around the 120mm mounting points.

Also the R9 390 rad grill had a kind of raised ridge in the middle on one side, and then a couple of raised tab-like things protruding on the opposite edge, that made it really difficult to seat the fans. I tried to accommodate that on one side by notching the NF-F12 fan to fit

and initially I was thinking big win, as it also lined up holes perfectly on the other side.

But it resulted in the fans overhanging on the PCIe side of the rad grill. The fans were fairly centered on the grill, and I thought I'd left enough clearance on the PCIe side, but the fans were overhanging too far on that side.

My motherboard is an Asus Z87 Plus. It has PCI legacy slots under the PCIe slots. PCI slots are raised by about maybe half a centimeter higher than the PCIe slots. So my fans would have had to be flush with the rad fin's edge on that PCIes side of the card in order to still fit into the 'recessed' PCIe slot on the mobo. But I wasn't even close. With my new fan placements on the card I didn't even contact the PCIe slot. I was out by at least a full cm. Big disappointment. I should have paid attention to where the stock XFX 390 fan shroud lines up on the PCIe side of the card. It is only as far as the rad edge, leaving plenty of room for the card to slot in.

It was just an oversight on my part and a big fail. It was a combo of both the fan choice, my layout and the mobo layout. I decided after spending a few hours just getting to this point that trying any further to re-align the Nf - F12's was a headache I didn't want. Maybe someone else would have gone further with it, but at that point I decided it just wasn't worth it with the NF-F12's.

But when I look at your layout picture it makes me think that even if I'd used the 120mm BeQuiet Pure Wings I still might not have cleared that PCI slot on my mobo. So in this case the mobo may be limiting the fan choice to a 92mm or lower.

For the record, here's what it looked like from the side of the card where the 9\6 pin power is. You can see I just didn't have room to go out another cm or further with the fans and make up the difference that I needed on the other side where the PCIe tab is.

So I pulled the fans off and put the stock fans back in.

One thing I wanted to point out is the terrible stock thermal paste application. Wow! This thing was wearing a sweater.

Cleaned up

I'll do a follow up post here shortly to show before and after case pics and explain what I ended up doing to reduce the temps by 10 - 13C. I need to save this, disconnect and then take pics of the new case setup now that I've run several benches to confirm the reduced temps.

 

[Mucky]

To reduce the temps I did several things:
- changed the thermal paste on the card
- removed the bottom drive cage, and changed the orientation of the top cage.
- removed two fans that were redundant, generally disrupting air flow and creating turbulence
- changed the position and type of some fans
- removed the fan shroud on the R9 390

and one of the most immediate and significant was to undervolt the card.

Here is a pic of the old case layout before attempting the R9 390 fan mod. And yes, I know it's a cluster***k Macgyvered looking mess. The most glaring problem was having a vertical fan off of the bottom drive cage blowing directly into the path of a horizontal intake fan that was blowing air into up to the card. My reasoning on keeping the two drive cages was to try and separate the drives (WD Blacks) that were getting in the upper 30's. I realize now that the reason was the cage orientation and layout, overall poor case setup, and poor circulation. The insulated white wires coming off the top of the card and going out the back of the case were just temporary open junction thermacouple sensors taped to the backplate while I measured temps. I used an Amprobe HVAC probe. (btw those on screen temps of 26.0 and 26.5 are with PC off)

And here is the new case layout. A much cleaner layout with better overall circulation.

You can see I ended up taking the 390's fan shroud off

I read an article at Tom's about performance gains on an R9 Fury by undervolting. So I used Afterburner to undervolt the card. I managed to get it stable at a -81mV offset.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-afterburner-undervolt-radeon-r9-fury,4425.html

The odd thing is that Heaven bench scores are the same. Even very slight improvements on some runs. Plus, as the article points out, there is significantly less wattage draw.

So the sum:

With my previous case layout and no changes, I was hitting 83C with the accompanying 390's loud fan noise to boot. The undervolt alone dropped that to mid \ high 70's. After changing the thermal paste, removing the bottom drive cage, re-arranging the fan type and placements, I was in the mid \ low 70's. After I pulled off the fan shroud I had a Heaven Bench run with temp highs fluctuating between 69 - 70 C.The HDD's in the top cage are now also running at about 33 \ 34C max. CPU max temps dropped by about 4C.

So my max highs now under prolonged load tend to settle around the low 70's. This of course means the 390's fans aren't ramping nearly as high on the stock fan profile.

So in the end, while the fan mod failed it resulted in me making changes that got me some of the positive results I wanted - ie) a cooler quieter system. So I'm gonna call it a fail that resulted in a win, inspired by your mod

 

[lehtv]

@Mucky Holy cow, that stock paste application is the worst I've ever seen. Nice job on the cleanup. What did you do to get all the paste out of those little nooks and crannies around the GPU?

Overall, nicely done on making all those small changes towards a significant change in temps and noise level. Especially the new case layout is pretty interesting. Normally the GPU is in the first PCIe slot and the upper drive cage is removed, but I can see how pushing air to the card from below is probably going to be more effective.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I had a reference 290 with worse paste application. The stuff was caked on, with loads of cracks in the paste surface. It was pretty sad.

 

[Mucky]

Holy cow, that stock paste application is the worst I've ever seen. Nice job on the cleanup. What did you do to get all the paste out of those little nooks and crannies around the GPU?[

I just ran it under the tap at full blast ... just kiddin I removed the bulk just wiping it with paper towel dampened with 99% isopropyl. Then I used a really soft bristle toothbrush dampened with the isopropyl to get in between everywhere. I did the last passes with a microfiber cloth dampened with isopropyl. I actually went through two microfiber cloths just getting that chip clean.

Normally the GPU is in the first PCIe slot and the upper drive cage is removed, but I can see how pushing air to the card from below is probably going to be more effective.[

Yah, I've had the drive cages in different positions and orientations, spinning them 90 degrees like in the first case layout, a single cage in the top or bottom position, combined with the card placed in either slot previously; so all manner of permutations of the layout. I find the best overall setup is a one cage layout that keeps the most separation between the card and the drives.

ex) In the cage layout I have now, if I moved the card to the upper PCIe slot you can see it would straddle the two drives. I tried that previously (albeit it was before the other changes) and the cards proximity to the drives raised their temp significantly - at least too much for my liking. The card also blocks one possible drive slot so limits how I could otherwise stagger the drives. That also restricts airflow to the card.

I did try a setup with the cage on the bottom and the card up top, but that was before changing thermal paste, undervolting, and the new fan setup. The card temps were still high. And no matter the bottom cage orientation it still exhausted warm air into the path of that bottom intake fan that pushes air up towards the card.

I may still experiment with a side exhaust, rather than the traditional side as intake. With the shroud off I feel even more warm air blowing off the side of the card, which lines up pretty much in the path of a side case fan placement to exhaust that air. Also that EVGA PSU never even gets warm. It runs very cool.

I bought a 5.25" drive adapter to hold my one SSD - an 850 EVO

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produ...=ICY_DOCK_Dual_2.5_SSD-_-17-994-163-_-Product

It's for the lower of the two 5.25" drive bays. Above that is a DVD drive (old school I know, I still haven't cut the DVD cord yet) The adapter can hold two SSD's and one HDD and I've tired it with an HDD, but drive temps rise with the drive 'sealed' in that adapter, with no fans there in the upper part of the case.

I haven't got much motivation to change anything right now because all temps are finally good. The most dramatic temp drop came with undervolting, with zero impact on performance. Everything else has been gravy