DIY VGA air cooling

[derelict]

Anyone here make their own shrouds for the gfx cards? I'm getting a new vid card (9600gt) that has a heatpipe heatsink + shroud & fan. Since I'm poor I've been thinking about pulling that shroud & fan and making my own - see if i can do a significantly better job.

This card is a 2 slot design so the second has slits to allow exhaust out. My idea was to make a taller shroud (I don't use the PCI slots below at all) to allow slightly rotating the fan(s). So instead of blow straight up they'd be angled to blow back toward the back of the case too. I believe the heatpipe is long enough that I could put 2 80mm fans on the shroud, both being angled. Ultimately my goals would be;

1) to push all my exhaust out the back through the exhaust slot (and maybe another slot)
2) get rid of the noisy stock cooler
3) drop temps on the card compared to the stock cooler.

I think getting all exhaust out the back this way would drop case temperatures overall. I have a VF-900 on my current gfx card and it does a good job for the gfx card, but it spreads all its exhaust into the case. Its kind of stupid if you ask me.

Anyway I'll try to draw a picture of my proposed shroud. Let me know if this topic is already covered elsewhere.

[derelict]

so the fans go on the slanted gray part of the shroud, and exhaust out the back only.

[ben333]

that seems like a pretty good idea. You could start by making one out of cardboard and then make one with some sheet metal if it works out. When I took the fan and shroud off my 8800GT and put two fans on the heatsink with no shroud my temps went down by 20C loaded

[derelict]

Nice, I should get this gfx card today or tomorrow, I'll see what I can about posting vga temps as well as system temps while running some benchmarks.

I have access to a rapid 3d proto-typer so I might try making a shroud using it (would be a heavy plastic)

[derelict]

My vid card got delivered today

[billbartuska]

Well, pics of the mod yet?

[derelict]

Nothing yet, last night all I did was run some test to compare gfx performance. I need to get an app that tracks GPU temps also - speedfan isn't showing my gpu. Guess I'll have to reinstall it.

[billbartuska]

Try NvTempLogger or Hardware Monitor.

[derelict]

Thanks. I got rivatuner and I don't see my vga temps going above 50c - I might not even bother. My stock fan isn't loud and it performs well. I played WoW for over an hour and my top temp was 49c. I idle around 39-40.

[billbartuska]

Then be happy!

[derelict]

Ok so my idle and load temps are a bit higher than 39-40, more like 5 more on idle and 10 more on load. But that is still really good so yeah I'm not in any rush to change it around. I'm going to overclock a bit and if stock is inadequate then I might try this idea out. Thanks.