custom cooling solution for gtx295

currently trying to replace the not so quiet stock fan on a gtx295 by a 120mm fan and a custom duct/shroud.

this involves removing the stock fan to open up the back of the card and let a 120mm fan blow through the back opening of the card directly at the stock cooler to push air from the back of the card through the cooler and out at the front and top exhausts.

my first attempt miserably failed! you won't imagine how efficient this little stock fan is.

from looking at the specs of the stock fan its rated at about 25cfm at 3200rpm!

so my assumption was one of my sflex-e could easy do the job. unfortunately not! even an sflex-f is not able to keep temps in the same range as the stock cooler. as desperate as i was i throw an old delta i had at hand at this, but even this delta was not able to achieve the same result as the stock fan.

it seems that just a fraction of the airflow is actually pushed towards the stock cooler as supposed. putting my hand at the back of the fan, the side where the fan is actually sucking in air, i could feeel a noticable amout of airflow coming back out!

may be the fan simply is not delivering enough static pressure?

redesigning my shroud improved things but still not to the point i expected.

the delta is now able to outperform the stock fan, but as it is as loud as the stock fan its no valid option here.

what fan would you recommend for this situation. guess static pressure is the key here? i'm prepared to get a fan which may be a bit loud, but as long as it is quieter than the 3200rpm stock fan i'm fine.

can there anything be done to get more of the airflow pushed into the cooler and less flow pressed back?

any recommendations? i personally would give a sflex-g a try. any other fan better suited for this appliation?

vapor?

Have never really found it that noisy...little noisy at idle, just use rivatuner to lower the idle fan speed.

Only real way I could see would be WC.

Hvae you tried adding a 80 mm fan sucking from the exhaust, may help slightly?

I would think a better quality heatsink would help much more than a new fan setup. I don't have a 295, but I know on the 260s both the 65nm and the 55nm versions they used some sort of Aluminum alloy that is of lower grade. Read it's recycled aluminum, and poorly casted. A solid billet piece, or forged piece at the least would be an improvement. I would fabricate a coopper heatsink if I had the equipment needed, but alas, I do not.

You have to consider two thing's with this project of your's. The stock heatsink was designed for with a certain pattern of airflow in mind, so simply blowing air on it will not work. That little fan also had to be pretty powerful to make up for the low grade materials they used to make the heatsink. Good fans are cheaper than good metals.

Do you have any pics of this shroud you fabbed up?

You don't have to fabricate anything, the GTX 295 already has an aftermarket cooler. You can turn two Thermalright HR-03 (any derivative) opposite to each other and they will fit, this was done on the 9800GX2 and the size is supposedly almost identical, though I haven't seen anyone with a GTX 295 setup like this yet:

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/7669/24684034kf0.jpg

The weight would be insane, so if you did it you would definitely want to add some type of support for the card and remove it when traveling.

410g x 2 (w/out fan or including card) = 820g for just heat sinks alone (almost two pounds of metal).

^^That is bad ass

I must try this!!

be sure to post pictures if anyone does run this setup, I already have one Thermalright HR-03 Rev A so I'd only have to buy one more if I ran it. I'm just concerned about weight/space.

That's seriously badass, nice job.

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Originally Posted by LedHed

You don't have to fabricate anything, the GTX 295 already has an aftermarket cooler. You can turn two Thermalright HR-03 (any derivative) opposite to each other and they will fit, this was done on the 9800GX2 and the size is supposedly almost identical, though I haven't seen anyone with a GTX 295 setup like this yet:

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/7669/24684034kf0.jpg

The weight would be insane, so if you did it you would definitely want to add some type of support for the card and remove it when traveling.

410g x 2 (w/out fan or including card) = 820g for just heat sinks alone (almost two pounds of metal).

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835199010

add three of those some how and this thing is 4 slot cooler and three fans lol

oh wow, but how do you mount it?

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Originally Posted by lkiller123

oh wow, but how do you mount it?

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well you see, its a PCI-e GPU, so you put it in the PCI-E slot :rofl:

just messing with you

I like this slot cooler better, I think I'm going to get two of these for my GTX 295, it sucks and blows in one slot cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835114024

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIma...114-024-01.jpg

the dual thermalright solution looks awesome. some kind ofmetal bracket would need to run along the top edge of each card (from front to back) to support the extra weight.

Or just run it in a horizontal case/on a box on your desk :up:

fgw:
Can you post some pictures of your setup? I was thinking of doing something similar. The 120x38mm fans tend to deliver better static pressure than 120x25mm. I wanted to connect the fan to some sort of duct to create a wind tunnel through the card. If we can set up a duct with a good seal and relatively unobstructed airflow, I think it's possible to have 100+ CFM pushing over the stock heatsink. From the looks of it, the location of the power connectors may make things a little tricky.

unless they redid the dual thermalright on a GTX295, the pic above is of a 9800GX2, it was posted up a while back. I would think that the design of the car is the same though, so it is feasible, but would cost a pretty penny

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LedHed

I like this slot cooler better, I think I'm going to get two of these for my GTX 295, it sucks and blows in one slot cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835114024

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggIma...114-024-01.jpg

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Dont' buy it, is cheap and plastic air blower. Works only if you have one or two inch distance between the card and the blower.

I already try with a normal single cooler slot fan, and didnt work. You need some distance if you dont have it the fan blows nothing, he just rotate ( and make noise ) without blowing any hot air out of the case from the pcb.

Like this works fine. :yepp:

This is my setup and what i did for keep cool my GTX295 with stock fan.

- i cut the rear of the motherboard tray for extra ventilation ( Original CM Stacker 830 dont have extra ventilation holes ) so i use the Dremel and i make myself.
- keep two slot free open
- set the fan at 50 %


idle temps 47-45 degrees, load ( while im gaming ) 72-75 degrees. :up:

I dont understand why the 295 has a lot of its vents exhausting hot air inside the case, can we just tape up the sides ( not on the fins ) to force all the hot air to the rear exhaust instead of the sides??

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Originally Posted by Demo

I dont understand why the 295 has a lot of its vents exhausting hot air inside the case, can we just tape up the sides ( not on the fins ) to force all the hot air to the rear exhaust instead of the sides??

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Because the faster the air blows across the heatsink the more heat will get disapated to the surounding air.

Well you must change the directions of the fins and guide them towards the rear.

I do not think it is a good solution because the warm air has to move away quickly from the heatsink, this is why nivida has make the vents at the sides.

I guess you mean if the air has a shorter exposure time to the heatsink more cooler air can be used to cool the already warm heatsink.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Demo

I guess you mean if the air has a shorter exposure time to the heatsink more cooler air can be used to cool the already warm heatsink.

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Exactly :yepp:and this is what really works:up: