holla, I got a XFX8800 GTS 320, I installed the card and noticed that the card was running pretty hot, at least for my taste 55-58C idle 65-70C load.

I didn't have enough money to buy an aftermarket heat sink, and even if I did I didn't want to remove the stock heat sink go through all the trouble and redo everything.

I wanted lower temps without having to buy a new heat sink, so in the end I decided to simply fix 2x120mm (silent) fans under the card to cool them better.

This mod is pretty easy and can be done by almost anyone

Things you need Before you start.

2X 120mm fans
4x Zip ties
oh yeah and 1x 8800 GTS or GTX bah how could you forget this huh ?

Step 1
Preparing the card.

The Card as is.


All right lets start off now,

You need to remove the heat sink cover and disconnect the fan on the video card heatsink.



to remove the heatsink cover simply unscrew the 4 screws marked below.


Once these screws are removed the heatsink cover will come off.
Heatsink cover taken off.




Step 2
The Fans

This is the easy part

Attach the 120mm fans together using the zip ties. I choose the Scythe 63Cfm fans because they are silent and provide plenty of air flow. If you feel these fans aren't fast enough then you can use higher cfm fans.


Scythe fans


Step 3
Fixing the fans and the card back into the case.

ok now here is the tricky part, where do these fans sit? it would be ideal if these fans sit on the second PCie slot or a spare PCI slot. And the SB.


Use the zip ties here again to make sure the fan sits there tightly. I used 2 zip ties here,better pic.




now we fix back the card.

The Card and Fans. Note don't forget to connect the 120mm fans or else your card will be toast



All right everything looks good now. Lets power up and see the results.

As you can see the Idle temps dropped more than 10C. the core was Idling at 44-45C with the new fans



LOAD TEMPS

I decided to run 3Dmark 2006 and check the load temps. During this the highest the temp went was upto 56C and didn't go more than that.

I can say that this is a cheap way to cool your video card if you don't want to spend on a aftermarket heatsink
These fans are soo quite that you can hardly hear them. Much quiter than the stock fan on the card.
This Mod worked great on a 8800 GTS, I dont know if you will get similar results on a GTX.


Edit:-- I did not remove the heatsink of the card and apply some thermal paste "Artic silver", as I felt this wasn't necessary for me.
All tests were done at stock speeds on the video card.

Special thanks to Tina and Shawn for helping me on this