7970 + corsair H60 water cooler

[Pitty]

Can it be done ?






= WIN ?

[BababooeyHTJ]

You would need some sort of shim for the gpu, like the one that EK sells for their waterblocks.

[KAC]

How you cool memory?

[Pitty]

Originally Posted by KickAssCop

How you cool memory?

Those stick-on heatsinks.

This mod seems like it's been done before anyway with some good results.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1203636/o...ka-the-red-mod

[BababooeyHTJ]

Just don't neglect the vrms which can be a pita to sink.

[CurrentlyPissed]

I got the OK to remove my heatsinks via a MSI Supervisor for using different thermal compunt. This is very tempting.

[The PyroPath]

If you use the stick on heatsinks for RAM/VRM, see if you can fit a 12cm+ low RPM fan in the case at the head of the card so it blows some fresh air over these sinks. Pick the right one and you won't hear a thing unless the rest of your system is very very very quite/fanless.

My experience with RAM/VRM heatsinks is that especialy the latter can het REALLY hot without airflow, even to the point it will get in the "danger zone". I solved this as described above. I used some metal rods I had to make a "suspended in air" construction which was attached to my HDD case and blew partly over but mostly under the card length wise. Didn't make a noise louder than my PSU and worked a treat on temperatures. Using passive cooling on VRM's in most cases is road you should not take with modern graphics cards.

[KAC]

Those puny sinks not gonna work on a 7970.

[The PyroPath]

I don't know how it's done with these newer cards, but the previous cards had the VRM's cooled by the main heatsink but was connected with big fat ass stick on TIM-tape which wasn't worth a damn. If this is still the case sticking on a adequate heatsinks and having a goof airflow should get you there. Have done it (replacing the stock cooling which also meant I had to cool the VRM's/RAM a different way) numerous times on cards with a much higher TDP, so I can't see why a better power efficient card with lower TDP would be a problem . But maybe you know something I don't know. I don't have the cards, so please enlighten me.

By the looks of this:

not much has changed for RAM/VRM cooling, the standard cooling still is meh...

[KAC]

Don't think it is the tape that matters much. The stock sink pushes air directly on the sinks with a much larger surface area to dissipate heat which will be absent in case of a H60 setup.

[The PyroPath]

Originally Posted by KickAssCop

Don't think it is the tape that matters much. The stock sink pushes air directly on the sinks with a much larger surface area to dissipate heat which will be absent in case of a H60 setup.

That's why I say passive isn't enough and you do need adequate sinks, not the old small ones, but a little more exotic size/shape. Either way, passive isn't going to cut it and if you do the mod you have to monitor the VRM temps in the beginning to see if it's good enough. Also, be sure that the sinks are attached in a good way and not half-ass. Something which will void your waranty in most cases, but works very well is using normal cooling paste with a drop of epoxy glue or heat conductive glue. Please be aware of the waranty issues though and the fact that doing so is quite permanent...

Too bad I can't find the pictures anywhere, otherwise I could show you my mod of the 4870 back in the day. For that I cut up a CPU heatsink, polished the base and a custom made clamp to keep them in place. I had a quiet radial fan laying around (not the loud ass ones used on stock cooling, but a bigger and different version used in a small vent system of a heater which had a double liquid bearing. It looked something like this:

I had that blowing over the card and life was good Too bad the fan (beeing second hand) crapped out after a few years of usage. Haven't found anything like it since...(Most are large capacity, not silent, 220V monsters )

[Pitty]

lol wtf is that? haha industrial fan in pc :P

[The PyroPath]

Yup, I like to tinker around with stuff used in a way it isn't supposed to ;-) I've done some looney poop in my days. Had all the time of the world while I was still in school and having to make due with little money makes one creative in finding solutions. Too bad I didn't make many pictures back then and what I had was lost a few years ago because of a powersurge which fried 3 out of my 4 harddrives which shows you need a real off-site backup to be sure. Once I totally stripped the interior of a case and redid it they way I wanted. Made a complete compartmentilized duct system for CPU, GPU & PSU. Each had their own intake and outtake fan. It was a crazy amount of work, but it was fun to build and it worked very good. This was still in the day that GPU's blew the hot air right in the case and CPU fans where for the most part still top down blowing fans. God I sound like an old man

Anyway: one advantage of these kind of fans is/was that they are indeed industrial grade materials. They are often very good, don't make a lot of noise and blow a assload of air around. Wasn't exactly the one in the picture though but that type. The one I had wasn't 240V but was 24V with an adapter. It came from a car/truck heater which was to be used when the engine was off. The speed was adjustable by applying different voltages to it. It was quite loud when it switched on, a vibration like sound 50Hz buzz, but that was due to the electric motor trying to get the thing in motion. Once at RPM it was really quite and it's really a shame it crapped out Being it was a metal fan you didn't want to stick your fingers in it while it was on though