8800 GTS 2x120mm Fans (MOD)

[GrimReaper]

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

[Start]

Very nice work. +1 for zipties

EDIT: Nvm, noticed you unplug the stock fan.

[GrimReaper]

hey thanks, yeah the stock fan was a bit noisy and this setup performs better

[Aerou]

worked well with other previous highend GeForce cards, and I can see that this time its a similar situation Great & cheap mod!

[regenade]

Excellent cheap mod....will try out on my 8800GTS. But one thing, I guess the stock 8800GTS fan can also be removed easily & it should give even betterresults ...or is it like the 2nd 120mm fan rests on the stock fan :P

[G.Foyle]

There is another mod involving one 90mm high cfm fan:

After removing the plastic cover you unplug the stock fan and attach a fan on top of the fin block (I used high speed Delta):



And installed in the case:


The fan is plugged as NB fan into motherboard, it works at half speed and I can't hear it. Of course you can plug it to 12v from PSU for maximum cooling efficiency. On my non-overclocked card temps dropped 2-3°C idle and 5-6°C load; I have not tested the fan at full speed but it willl be MUCH cooler while not being lot louder than stock fan.

[GrimReaper]

^^ nice !

what are the idle and load temps?

[G.Foyle]

here's some temps.

BEFORE
IDLE - 55

LOAD - 65 (look at the graph not the number)


AFTER MOD
IDLE - 55

LOAD - 64


Like I said it's silent, not much cooler. I will test OC and fulll rpm fan after weekend. Another issue is that fan speed is not adjusted by GPU load - I guess full rpm is the only way.

[hmetro24]

what if u use cpu heatskin on ur vga will it be cooler btw
who make more temp cpu or vga

[LordDagon]

what if u use cpu heatskin on ur vga will it be cooler btw
who make more temp cpu or vga

Answer: VGA

reason: the cpu temp are less than the vga , cos the cpu temp at idle is low and even if u overclock the u cant reach the temp of the stock vga temps.

[Martijn]

Answer: VGA

reason: the cpu temp are less than the vga , cos the cpu temp at idle is low and even if u overclock the u cant reach the temp of the stock vga temps.

No. CPU heatsinks are designed to move a lot of heat really quickly and generally have a lot more surface area than VGA sinks. Due to the larger surface area larger fans can be used as well, moving even more air. Trust me, I tried it with a CNPS-9500.

[GrimReaper]

here's some temps.

BEFORE
IDLE - 55

LOAD - 65 (look at the graph not the number)


AFTER MOD
IDLE - 55

LOAD - 64


Like I said it's silent, not much cooler. I will test OC and fulll rpm fan after weekend. Another issue is that fan speed is not adjusted by GPU load - I guess full rpm is the only way.

pretty nice temps but I think the core area isnt being cooled enough, with just 1 fan.

[Console]

I did pretty much the same thing a few months ago worked great

[Fraggle]

I did the same thing on a 9800xt a while back, it worked very nicely.

[xlink]

umm you might just have a bad fan on your card, mine is completely silent, quietest card i've ever had(aside from the passive ones)

my "silent" 1100-1200RPM scythe is louder than the fan on my 8800.

[JacKz5o]

Nice but what about the noise? Wouldn't it be louder because of the vibrations?

[..::ABSOLUT::..]

Thermaltake's fans are very silent.You should use one...

[SafeFire]

Haha I gotta get round to doing that dual 120mm stunt, Have a few stock stacker fans lying around.
Should get me some wicked temps, my current 8800gts (core 540, mem 792) stock is sitting @ 55C

[G.Foyle]

I think I cant get any lower than ~54C on air with that cooler - but OCed load temps should improve a lot.

[GrimReaper]

I think I cant get any lower than ~54C on air with that cooler - but OCed load temps should improve a lot.

try my mod it should go as low as 45C

[G.Foyle]

My case is very hot, but of course I willl try. I'll try to post some results after weekend.

[SaII]

:p I think the question here is has anyone tried this with an HD2900XT

[kemo]

are we comparing a stock GTS fan running @ 100% here or just leaving it on Auto

[Soulburner]

How much did your system and CPU temp increase after this?

That shroud ducts the air to the outside.

[GrimReaper]

How much did your system and CPU temp increase after this?

That shroud ducts the air to the outside.

To me? ?